San Diego Chargers Host “Dog Draft” For Shelter Pups Needing A Forever “Team”

In a truly unique approach to boosting local area adoptions, The San Diego Chargers and Second Chance Dog Rescue joined forces to host the first “Chargers Dog Draft,” presented by Petco, on Saturday, April 30th at Qualcomm Stadium.

Image source: San Diego Chargers / Petco

The Chargers Dog Draft took place in section O-1, near the main entrance to the 2016 DraftFest. Chargers fans and dog lovers had a unique opportunity to provide a forever home to a rescue dog and over 3,000 people showed up for the free event.

“I am a proud pet parent along with many of our players, coaches and staff, and there are many Chargers fans who are passionate about animals and dogs in particular, so we thought this was a great opportunity to allow Chargers fans to draft a new pet into their family at the same time we’ll be drafting new players into ours,” said John Spanos, President-Football Operations for the Chargers.

Second Chance Dog Rescue of San Diego brought a selected number of adoptable dog that were available to rescue on-site. In addition, rescue staff were there to answer questions from potential adopters and talk about other dogs that may be available in the future that were not present that day.

“We salute the San Diego Chargers organization for leveraging the popularity of the NFL Draft to create awareness for adoptable pets,” said David Hallisey, Vice President, Communications for Petco. “Just like the rookies that will be joining the team soon, we look forward to doing all we can to help support pet parents who step up and make their pick this weekend.”

The Charger Cheerleaders were there to spread team spirit and cheer on anyone adopting a dog.

They had human-dog “best friend” t-shirts as well as Charger jerseys for dogs. The dogs for adoption were decked out in them, too!

“The dog draft is an incredibly unique idea that supports our core values and purpose in the San Diego Community. We’ve been holding adoption events in San Diego since our inception in 2008 and each one helps to educate the public as well as find homes for the dogs in need. Thanks to the support from the Chargers and Petco, this event will help create more awareness that will no doubt make a difference in our community,” said Megan Knight, President for Second Chance Dog Rescue.