Hilary Swank announces success of Iams 'Home 4 the Holidays' adoption drive

With one of her rescued parrots squawking in the background, Hilary Swank -- two-time Oscar-winning actress, animal lover and pet adoption advocate -- spoke by telephone with Pet News Examiner to share the results of Iams "Home 4 the Holidays" adoption drive. The campaign's ambitious goal was to find loving homes for 1.5 million homeless pets from October 1, 2009 to January 4, 2010. Swank was the campaign's ambassador.

So, what was the final number? 

"1.4 million animals were adopted," Swank tells Pet News Examiner. "Isn’t that fantastic? All those pets now have loving homes."

Swank is thrilled. "Especially during these difficult economic times, for people to bring another animal, another mouth that needs to be fed [into their home], it’s quite incredible that we can get that number," says Swank. "It just makes me so happy to know that these animals that were homeless -- they now have a chance at life in a loving home."

The enthusiasm is genuine. An animal lover her whole life, Swank "asked for a dog every Christmas," she says. When she turned 18 and began living on her own, she visited a Los Angeles animal shelter and adopted her first dog -- an eight-week old Labrador Retriever mix she named Lucky. "I brought that dog home," recalls Swank. "He was my Lucky. He just passed a year and a half ago."

These days, Swank lives with two dogs, Karoo and Rumi, and two parrots, Angel and Seuss-- all rescues -- and even takes them along when she goes on location for filming.

"My job entails me to travel a lot and I’m lucky enough to be able to bring them with me," Swank tells Pet News Examiner. "They’re my family members and I don’t want to go anywhere without them."

She's always tempted to adopt more pets, but realizes it's already challenging enough traveling with four animals.  "If I got any more, it would compromise [my pets'] quality of life," Swank explains. "So I just try to get out there with Iams to spread the word to help get the animals that I want to bring home adopted."