Zamzows and The Idaho Humane Society: "We Grew up Together!"
by Art Gregory
Communications and Marketing Director - Zamzows Inc.
Zamzows Inc. has had a long standing relationship with the Idaho Humane Society that dates back early many years. As you may know, Zamzows was founded in 1933 by August and Carmalita Zamzow, who operated Zamzows Coal and Feed in rural Boise. The original store was located on the same corner where Zamzow's Fairview store is still located, at Fairview and Liberty in Boise.
Zamzows began making their own line of scientifically formulated animal and livestock feeds in 1933, but became a Purina feed dealer in the mid 1940s. When Purina Dog Chow was introduced in the early 1950s, Zamzows was one of the first stores to get on board. Both Bernie and Stanley Zamzow recommended the food to their customers and did massive displays in both stores to promote sales of the new product. It worked, and soon Zamzows was doing a brisk business in Purina Dog Chow. However, by the end of the 1960s Zamzows had returned to the practice of making our own feed and never went back to Purina. In the 1970s, Zamzows brought in Wayne, Blue Mountain Super Meat, Science Diet, Iams, and Eukanuba and pioneered the concept of "premium" dog food in the Treasure Valley. Along with being the regional distributor for the Iams Company, Zamzows also developed their own line of mid-line dog foods, and in the early 1990s, sold the Iams business and developed their own line of super-premium foods that were superior to anything on the market. In a nutshell, Zamzows was in the dog food business and knew more about dog food than anyone in Boise. The original Idaho Humane Society was formed in Boise in the late 1890s, and was active through the early decades of the last century. This group was an all volunteer organization. The current Idaho Humane Society was formed by Olga Rothchild, Mrs. Ben Mains, and Mrs. Earl Zimmerman. In 1945, the group was formerly incorporated as the Idaho Humane Society and the shelter was moved to an old army barracks at Gowen Field in 1949. In 1959, a new shelter was constructed at present day Dorman Street. Although conditions were much improved, this shelter was overcrowded from the beginning. Almost 30 years later, in the mid 1980s, the problem came to head. As a result, most of the current Board of Directors and the Director resigned during a giant controversy about the treatment of animals and how City, County, and Donated funds were being used. Olga Rothchild's daughter, Toni Bastita-Hicks took over as Board President. Her sister, Mady Rothchild had just moved back into the area with her husband Roger Schmidt. Since Roger had a great deal of management and administrative experience and needed a job, Toni persuaded Roger to take over the struggling shelter as Executive Director, for just 90 days. That 90 days ended up turning into 13 years, and Roger was very successful in turning the organization around. But in the beginning, he lacked knowledge about nutrition and needed funds to improve conditions at the shelter.
Enter Rick Zamzow and the Zamzows organization. Rick had just taken over the operation of Wholesale Pet, the Iams Distribution Company owned and operated by Zamzows. One of the first people he called on was Roger Schmidt. In fact in that very first visit, Rick Zamzow brought Roger $436.00 in cash that Zamzows had raised by putting out donation jars at the check-out counters of all Zamzows locations. Needless to say, Roger was impressed by Rick's visit and felt that Zamows and The Idaho Humane Society would be doing some great things together. "I said to myself, here is guy and a company with the same caring, values and beliefs about animals that we have as a shelter. I can see us having a long term relationship with Rick Zamzow and Zamzows, and that's exactly what happened!" Upon seeing the facilities and the condition of the animals, Rick was appalled. He made a vow to Roger to help and suggested the dogs be placed on better diet. The animals at the shelter were being fed a cheap low quality food, and it showed. It showed in how they looked, the amount of waste they left behind, and even in their dispositions. Plus, the dogs looked and smelled so bad, no one wanted to adopt them. At Rick's suggestion, Roger put all of the dogs on a consistent diet of Zamzows Dog Food, whereupon Roger noticed an immediate improvement in all areas. Plus, the savings in clean-up, being able to feed less, and the better health and adoptability of the dogs paid for the slight increase in food cost. The next thing Rick did was to start doing more fundraising for the shelter. Special sales were held where $1.00 of the cost of bag of dog food would be donated to shelter...yearly promotions were added like Santa Paws, The Halloween Costume Contest, Zamzows Frisbee Fest, and more. In 1996, the shelter approached Zamzows with a major request. The Idaho Humane Society was launching a capital campaign and needed to raise 3.8 million dollars from local philanthropists and businesses to pay for the construction of a new state-of-the-art 27,000 square foot facility. Of course, Zamzows said "yes" and pledged $50,000 to create The Zamzows Education Room, a special training and education hall designed so folks could bring their animals with them. Zamzows also raised thousands of dollars through by contributing $1.00 from the sale of each bag of Zamzows Professional dog food. In June of 1997 the new Shelter was dedicated and Zamzows was there see this dream become a reality. In the next 8 years, Zamzows has raised another $60,000 to help homeless and abused animals at The Idaho Humane Society, and whenever the organization needs help, Zamzows is. there.
Feed Frankies Friends is truly a magical story. Boise North-ender Christine Cragin adopted a small, female dachshund-mix from the Idaho Humane Society a few years ago. During the holiday season, Christine kept hearing ads for Holiday Food Drives for hungry people. She wondered who feeds hungry animals? Since she had just adopted Frankie (short for Frankfurter), who now had a good home, Christine reasoned that Frankies friends, who were still stuck at the shelter, could use some holiday food, too. So, Christine started a small holiday pet food drive and raised about three-hundred pounds of various types of dog and cat food which she took to the shelter. They thanked her very much and said theyd use the food for foster dogs since the shelter only fed Zamzows dog food which they got at a greatly reduced price. Plus, Zamzows delivered it to the shelter on convenient pallets at no extra charge. Christine then asked, Could I raise money to buy Zamzows brand food for you at that same reduced price? The shelter said they didn'tt see why not, so Christine contacted Zamzows who said, Of course! How can we help? The following year Christine raised over eighteen-hundred pounds. The next year over seven-thousand pounds and, in 2002, Christine raised enough money to purchase over twenty-four-thousand pounds of Zamzows dog and cat food! That was enough to feed every cat at the shelter for the entire year and enough dog food to feed the entire shelter dog population for ten months! Zamzows customers raised over a third of the money at the 8 Zamzows stores while Christine (and Frankie) raised the rest themselves, with help from ads and media coverage coordinated and paid for by Zamzows. The Idaho Humane Society was beside itself with gratitude to Christine. After September 11th, cash contributions to the Society had dropped-off drastically. Christines fund raiser had just saved the Humane Society over $12,000 theyd ordinarily have to spend to just feed the animals at the shelter. This was the economic shot-in-the-arm they needed to keep their staff intact and not have to lay-off any employees, curtail pet-adoption programs, or discontinue any education programs. Christine was invited to become an Idaho Humane Society Board Member and she accepted. In 2003, Christine and Zamzows again set out to raise enough money to feed every dog and cat at the shelter the following year, and has done so both in 2003 and 2004.
Recent fundraisers for Idaho Humane Society include raising over $10,000 for The Hurricane Katrina Pet Rescue fund, raising close to $8,000.00 during Zamzows Pet Expo at the Western Idaho Fairgrounds, helping to sponsor "See Spot Walk" the largest dog walk in the Pacific Northwest, and the 13th annual Frisbee Fest, where the Humane Society sells all the concessions and keeps 100% of the profits. The Idaho Humane Society currently handles approximately 15,000 animals per year and has one of the most successful adoption and fostering programs in the northwest. The current Idaho Humane Society has a staff of 50, hundreds of volunteers and is governed by an all volunteer 21 member board of directors.