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A newlywed couple from Wisconsin have melted hearts on social media after using their special day to help a local shelter get funds to help pay for pets' medical bills.
In a post shared to Facebook on Sunday by the Neenah Animal Shelter, the couple is seen on their wedding day, along with pictures of some of the pets currently staying at the shelter and a QR code that people could use to contribute to the animals' medical expenses.
The couple also decided to switch one popular wedding tradition to help the pets even more. The Neenah Animal Shelter told Newsweek that what they did was have guests put money in a donation jar instead of clinking glasses to make them kiss.
The couple, Frankie and Mike, already have five rescue animals, and since they don't have any more space at home, they decided to help the shelter as a way to bless their special day. They ended up accumulating a couple of hundred dollars in donations, and one lucky cat even got adopted by one of the guests.
"I have always loved rescue. My husband and I have 5 pets and they are all rescue animals from various shelters and organizations so it's something really close to my heart. Although I love rescue, it's become clear I am not emotionally cut out for the heartbreaking, in-shelter part of it so I am always looking for different ways I can help," Frankie told Newsweek.
Frankie added: "The thing that pushed me to make this happen with the Neenah Animal Shelter specifically is that they recently took on a huge number of cats at one time and I know it was incredibly tough for their whole team to manage.
"I've volunteered there with her taking dogs out, feeding puppies, bottle feeding kittens and I wanted to take this opportunity to do something monetarily for them. I thought it could be a benefit for them to use whatever we raised in any way they wanted for their animals whether that was to add to their medical fund or grab some of the items sitting on their Amazon wishlist."
The couple said they are very grateful for their guests and all the donations they managed to put together for the shelter and couldn't be more happy about all the support received.
Each year, 6.3 million pets are surrendered to U.S. shelters, which is an average of 17,260 a day, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). The number of dogs and cats taken in by shelters hit 46,807 during January 2023, an increase of 1,744 compared with January 2022, the 24Petwatch 'Shelter Watch Report' found.
Meanwhile, around 920,000 surrendered animals are euthanized every year. Shelters are striving to minimize euthanasia rates by promoting adoption campaigns, spaying and neutering programs, and behavior rehabilitation.
The post quickly went viral all over social media, receiving over 1,000 likes and 55 comments on Facebook.
One user, Linda Young, commented: "Congrats ! U 2 are such kind people to include the animals on your special day!"
And Tina Partin wrote: "What a wonderful idea. I wish we could all participate in a vow renewal to raise some money for NAS. Much love and happiness. Thank you for thinking and helping NAS and their animals find a home."
About the writer
Maria Azzurra Volpe is a Newsweek Life & Trends reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is reporting on everyday ... Read more