July 19, 2024 By The Scituate Animal Shelter
Animals lovers: how would you like to help Massachusetts homeless pets simply by enjoying a nice meal at a favorite local restaurant? On August 14th, eight local South Shore restaurants are ensuring you can do just that.
Now in its 9th year, Dine Out for Dogs & Cats is a promotion by The Scituate Animal Shelter (SAS) together with some of the area’s best known—and best loved— restaurants. In total, eight restaurants in six South Shore towns are participating, including venues in Cohasset, Hingham, Hull, Norwell, Scituate and Weymouth.
To help needy animals, diners do not have to lay out additional cash above the cost of their meals. Instead, each of the participating restaurants has agreed to a sizable advance donation to SAS. In turn, the Scituate-based charity, which finds homes for an average of 550 Massachusetts pets each year, simply asks its friends and followers to “thank” the restaurants by dining with them on the evening of Wednesday, August 14th.
The best part? Dogs will be on hand to greet diners at each of the venues from 6pm to 7:30pm that night. The eight Canine Ambassadors, formerly homeless alums of SAS, were chosen for their friendly, extroverted temperaments. They include a tiny spaniel puppy, an elderly blind poodle, and a 125-pound mastiff. “All of these dogs love to meet new people, so this is kind of their dream job,” says Lisey Good, Communications and Marketing Coordinator for the organization, noting that one of the dogs, a pit bull mix named Nala, is currently studying to be a therapy dog. “She’ll love this. She greets every stranger like a long lost friend.”
Participating restaurants include: Bia Bistro and Corner Stop Eatery (Cohasset), Galley Kitchen (Scituate), Jake’s Seafood and The Parrot (Hull), Middle Ground Grill (Weymouth), The Tinker’s Son (Norwell) and Trident Galley & Raw Bar (Hingham). Complete information can be found at ScituateAnimalShelter.org/dine-out
SAS receives no town or state funding and must raise every dime it spends. Aside from its shelter, the charity runs initiatives to help pet owners in need, such as occasional low cost vaccination clinics for the community and pet food pantry services which donate 50,000+ lbs of pet food each year.