Community Corner

Teen Helps Monmouth County Animals with Freehold Petco Event

In connection with Rock & Rawhide, an area teen is helping animals in the Monmouth County SPCA with an item collection and adoption site at the Freehold Petco on April 27.

A Manalapan-Englishtown Middle school student is using his bar mitzvah as a way to help animals in need.

Brandon Block, 13, is an animal lover and owner of adopted pets. With his bar mitzvah coming up, Block realized that his mitzvah project could benefit local animals after his mother heard about an event on Z-100.

“I decided to do a mitzvah project because for your bar mitzvah you are supposed to do one act of kindness. I love animals, so I decided to mine on animals,” said Block. 

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After searching the Internet for ways to help local shelters, Block’s mother, Beth, found the perfect organization to use for a mitzvah project after listing to her favorite radio station.

“I listen to Z-100 every morning, Elivs Duran is on the Board of Directors for Rock & Rawhide. During the show, he [Duran] was talking about how they did an event at Petco in Union Square and I decided to make a donation,” explained Beth. “After looking at the Rock & Rawhide website, I showed Brandon, and we both thought that doing a similar event to the one in Union Square would be a great Mitzvah project.”

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Co-Founders, Sean-Patrick Hillman and Kylie Edmond, run Rock & Rawhide. The two work with numerous shelters to get animals items they need, like toys to keep them happy and distracted from their surroundings.

“Our primary mission is to help increase the level of adoptions of dogs and cats in shelters across the country by doing something called distraction therapy,” explained Hillman. “When you walk into a facility and you are confronted by a bunch of cages or pens that holds multiple animals in it, stress levels can be high, because the animals don’t understand why they are in a cage and they get stressed out. By providing the animals with items like blankets and toys that can distract them from their current situation, they become less stressed; research shows that if you can lower stress levels in shelter environments, adoption rates go up.”

Hillman further explained that animals are able to show their true personality when they are playing.

“If a dog isn’t barking and is playing, it can be itself and show it's true personality instead of it just sitting there barking it’s head off because it is stressed out. This makes the dog more likely to be adopted,” said Hillman.

To help Rock & Rawhide’s mission of getting animals adopted, Block has partnered with the organization and is bringing a ‘Give a Gift, Wag a Tail’ event to the Freehold Petco on Saturday, April 27.

The event will run from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. and will collect toys, blankets and treats for animals in the Monmouth County SPCA, who will also be on site with dogs and cats available for adoption.

“People don’t have to buy anything, they can bring their own old blankets and things to give to the animals too,” said Block. 

Beth further explained that most of the items they will be collecting at the event, cost between $4 or $5 and can be purchased at Petco.

“We realize Saturday is a busy day, but even if people stop by for 5 minutes and drop something off or buy something to donate, it will mean so much to the animals,” said Beth.

Block and his mother are hoping to fill two SUV’s with items for the Monmouth County SPCA. They will drop off the supplies to the shelter after the event.

To find out more about Rock & Rawhide, visit their website at www.rockandrawhide.org.


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