On Sunday, around 102 million people were glued to their screens for the Super Bowl, waiting for the next champions to claim their victory. Just after Kansas City Chiefs won, a wholesome post popped up on KC Pet Project’s Facebook wall. Apparently, Kansas City Chiefs’ defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi decided to celebrate the team’s victory by helping out shelter dogs. Nnadi paid the adoption fees of all of the dogs currently in the shelter. Thanks to him, more than 100 dogs are now free to adopt from the shelter in Missouri.

More info: Facebook | kcpetproject.org

Kansas City Chiefs’ defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi decided to celebrate the team’s victory by helping out shelter dogs

Image credits: dnnadi

The Super Bowl champion told CNN: “All my life, I always wanted a dog. Growing up, I didn’t have a pet, my parents didn’t really allow pets.”

Image credits: KCPetProject

Only in his senior year of college, Nnadi was able to adopt a four-legged buddy. Getting Rocky was an eye-opening experience. “When I first got [Rocky], he was very timid. It made me think of how other animals, whether they’re owned or in a shelter, are feeling scared and alone,” he said. It inspired Nnadi to help other animals in need.

Image credits:KCPetProject

“KC Pet Project is a nonprofit organization that operates the Kansas City, MO, animal shelter and we care for more than 10,000 pets a year. With an average of 30 new pets arriving at our open-admission, No-Kill shelter each day, partnerships like this with the Derrick Nnadi Foundation highlight the pets in our care that are looking for homes. We’re here for every animal that comes to us in need no matter what and we’re just so honored that Derrick chose our organization to partner with. We’ve had people stop in to our shelter over the past two days and say, “please tell Derrick thank you for doing this”. It’s so sweet,” Chief communications officer Tori Fugate told Bored Panda.

Fugate said that the shelter partnered up with Nnadi last season, after The Derrick Nnadi Foundation reached out to them. “He’s a huge animal lover and wanted to find a way to help dogs in Kansas City. We came up with the idea to sponsor a dog’s adoption fee for every Chiefs win during the 2019-20 season, and it’s been so successful. All of the dogs have found homes as a result of this promotion throughout the season. When the Chiefs won the AFC Championship, Derrick reached out wanting to sponsor the adoption fees of ALL of the available dogs at KC Pet Project if they won. When they did, we were so thrilled, not only for the Chiefs win and for our city, but Kansas City’s adopted pets who get to find homes as a result of their victory,” she added.

According to the KC Pet Project 106 dogs qualified for the sponsorship at the time of the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl. “We did 38 dog adoptions yesterday, and we have around 30 more to do today,” Fugate said.

Image credits: KCPetProject

The organization spends around  $400 per animal that comes to them and a typical adoption fee is $150 for dogs. “We have to pay more per dog than we receive for the adoption fee, but it is worth it to get them all homes.  KC Pet Project also receives, on average, around 4-5 injured or ill animals each day that need extensive medical treatment. So for Derrick to cover those adoption fees, that helps us free up necessary funds to provide medical care for those injured pets.”

Image credits: KCPetProject

When asked why dogs were chosen to be sponsored Fugate said: “Derrick Nnadi is a huge dog lover and wanted to help his local shelter pets throughout the season. At KC Pet Project, we’re very fortunate to have 13 locations in the metro area to adopt out cats, and we have a great success rate at finding them homes. For dogs, we only have three adoption centers, and we typically have more dogs than cats looking for homes. So this added exposure from people all over the country interested in adopting our dogs has been just wonderful.”

“Kansas City is just buzzing with excitement from the Chiefs Super Bowl win and this story has added such a heartwarming element to that victory. We’re so honored that the Derrick Nnadi Foundation chose to partner with us all season long to help pets find homes and bring awareness to adopting a shelter pet,” she added.

Image credits: KCPetProject

Helping animals find forever homes is not the only good deed Nnadi has done for the community. The athlete’s foundation has done extensive charity work to help “cultivate positive change in people’s lives, inspire children and families through meaningful interactions, and assist those in need,” according to the official site.

Image credits: KCPetProject

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