April McElravy, a customer service representative at Farmers National Bank in Butler Township, hands donated pet food to Shelby Young, center, and Gloria Johnstone, volunteers from the Feed-a-Pet group, which is collecting pet food to donate to two county food cupboards. The volunteers are addressing the need some families might have in feeding their pets, hopefully leading to fewer abandoned animals.

When a dog on the road tried to get into Shelby Young's car last October, she suspected it was stray. Several days later she saw the dog in the same spot. This time it was dead.

"The whole road was stained (with blood)," said Young, 48, of Oakland Township.

"I really do think he was dumped. It broke my heart."

To help prevent similar scenarios, Young and her friend Gloria Johnstone decided to embark on a mission to help pets remain in their homes.

Forming a volunteer group called Feed-a-Pet, the women have begun collecting donated pet food with plans to distribute the food at two county food cupboards.

Through word-of-mouth and flyers, the women have collected more than 130 pounds of dog and cat food at a drop box in Farmers National Bank in Butler Township. An additional 186 pounds was donated from an advocacy group in Pittsburgh that runs a similar program.

Individuals also are stepping up, offering cash or pet food. The size and food variety varies — even a zip-lock bag of doggie treats was left recently at the bank.

"We've had a great response so far," said April McElravy, a customer service representative there, who expected the box to fill more slowly.

"Our customers have been very, very receptive."

Young initially began approaching retailers, hoping they would donate broken bags of food or products that had expired. With little success, she began searching for drop-off sites to collect donations from the public.

Citing SPCA statistics that say 50 percent of shelter dogs and 70 percent of cats never find homes, the women say their goal is to keep animals living with families.

"A sheltered life is better than being abandoned, but the shelters themselves want (pets) to be placed in homes," said Johnstone, 54, also of Oakland Township.

Employed by AK Steel, Johnstone has been rescuing about five cats each year from the grounds around her workplace, where feral animals breed or domestic ones are dropped off.

"That's why she got me involved too," said Johnstone, who vaccinates and cares for the cats, then finds them homes through the classifieds at her own expense.

When the women have collected a quantity of pet food, they will begin donating it to the cupboard run by Covenant United Presbyterian Church on East Jefferson Street and the Moniteau Food Cupboard at Concord Presbyterian Church in Concord Township.

Although neither food pantry has offered regular pet food distribution in the past, Covenant coordinator David Blewett said that pantry once distributed pet food donated by the Butler County Humane Society — and clients readily took the food.

The Rev. Bob Mathias, who runs the Moniteau pantry, tells a similar story.

"There has always been a need," Mathias said. "Anytime I have had canned cat food or dog food or even mention it, I've never been able to keep it on my shelves. A lot of folks (who need supplemental food) also have animals at home."

Although the women are pushing to collect as much food as possible during the holiday season, they hope to continue the program by amassing more volunteers as well as donation drop-off sites.

Needed items also include gallon-size zip-lock bags, large trash cans with lids and people to help bag food, since a goal is to divide much of the food into individual servings.

For more information about Feed-a-Pet, contact Young at 724-355-1617 or lemontea@zoominternet.net or Johnstone at 724-283-0167.