Third-grader holds drive to feed pets of cash-strapped owners By Mary Beth Almond BIRMINGHAM — The nation’s struggling economy has forced many pet owners to surrender their animals to local shelters simply because they can no longer afford to feed them. When animal enthusiast Sophia Rotger, 9, heard a news story on the radio about just that, she immediately thought of her beloved golden retriever, Katie, her terrier-mix, Lucy, and her guinea pig, Sandy, and how hard it would be to have to give them up. “I looove animals, and I heard some people don’t have enough money to feed their pets and they end up going in pounds and the pounds can’t keep them for that much time ... so me and my mom got the idea to maybe do something,” she said. Rachel Rotger, Sophia’s mom, said the news story inspired her to teach her daughter how she could get involved and be empowered by negative news. “Sophia is a huge animal enthusiast. She is just nuts about animals, so she was remarking about that story saying ‘wow, that’s really sad,’ and as her mom, it was kind of an interesting opportunity for me. She’s 9, and kids that age are hearing a lot of news about people who are losing their houses, and losing their jobs, and how companies are going out of business, and I sometimes get curious, as her parent, about how she relates to that information, because it’s always so negative. For me, it sounded like a way to help her engage in that kind of news in a way that’s positive,” she said. After a trip with her Girl Scouts group to Gleaners Food Bank, the mother-daughter duo decided they would collect pet food donations from the community under the name the Birmingham Pet Pantry. All food will be donated to Gleaners’ Community Sharing pantry, which allows families to shop for pet food. “We’re making a one-time donation — which we hope will be annual — at the beginning of April,” Rachel Rotger said. Premier Pet Supply, 31215 Southfield Road in Beverly Hills, is serving as the collection point for all the donations. Those wishing to donate pet food can either deliver it to, or purchase it from, Premier Pet Supply until March 31. Premier Pet Supply owner Mike Palmer is offering a discount to anyone wishing to purchase the food donations at his store. Approximately 1,800 pounds of food have been collected so far. “What I’m impressed by is the fact that a 9-year-old would be forward-thinking enough to come up with an idea like this food drive to enable people to keep their pets. As opposed to trying to figure out how to find homes for more and more homeless pets, Sophie came up with a plan to prevent that from becoming an issue,” he said in a statement. For more information about Premier Pet Supply, or to donate, call (248) 647-4310. You can reach Staff Writer Mary Beth Almond at malmond@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1060.
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