Special Canine Christmas Delivery

In rural El Paso County, it seemed everyone was nestled in their homes for the holidays. But a few were spending their Christmas Eve doing some special work.

“People are called to do special jobs,” said Penny Sharkey.

Linda Hoover, the public relations director of St. Paws Thrift Shop, has created a “Santa’s workshop” for dogs in Peyton, Co.

She and several others spent part of their Friday and Saturday distributing unsellable dog food to rescue groups in southern Colorado.

She said the project started seven weeks ago when they got a call from a rescue group in California.

The group was looking for someone to help distribute unsellable dog food from Mars Corporation. So Hoover said they jumped at the opportunity.

“Until rescue banks started doing this, it went into a landfill,” said Hoover.

The food is kind of like buying clothes from an outlet store. It is perfectly safe for the dogs but doesn’t meet retail store standards.

The food is being sold at a small cost to rescue groups. It is 5 cents per pound.

This is their first shipment but they plan to continuing this on a monthly basis.

While the first shipment was only dog food, future shipments will contain a variety of pet food.