OAKVILLE, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - June 25, 2013) - Pethealth Inc. (TSX:PTZ) ("Pethealth" or "the Company"), North America's leading provider of animal management software, microchip identification for companion animals, and pet health insurance, is pleased to announce that the total animals in the inventory of animal welfare organizations ("AWOs") utilizing the company's PetPoint data management system passed the 400,000 threshold on June 19, 2013. As a hosted application, the Company aggregates more data on both the animals in the care of AWOs as well as animals adopted to the public than any other company.
In surpassing the 400,000 plateau, the Company reported that it had 212,271 cats, 175,482 dogs and 12,257 other animals, including birds, rabbits, reptiles and other exotic animals in inventory. In 2012, total animals in inventory peaked at 373,012 on October 12, 2012. Animals in inventory of shelters generally peak in late 3rd quarter or early 4th quarter each year.
"To directly affect the lives of 400,000 animals is truly a remarkable achievement for PetPoint and we heartily congratulate them on this significant milestone," said Robert Ramin, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Washington Animal Rescue League in Washington, D.C. "The PetPoint system is a crucial tool for animal welfare organizations like ours, and we rely heavily on PetPoint to identify, care and adopt animals effectively and efficiently. The PetPoint application has been invaluable in streamlining our shelter operations and identifying our inventory, allowing us to focus more of our resources on increasing adoptions and place a record number of animals in forever homes the past two years. Simply stated, without PetPoint, we could not save as many lives as we do."
The Company's ability to aggregate data, including products purchased and used by AWOs in their day-to-day operations has allowed the Company to become a leading distributor for companion animal product manufacturers including Allflex USA Inc., Velcera, Inc. (now owned by Perrigo Company) and Mars Symbioscience.
The Company's position as the largest aggregator of shelter data has also made it the most trusted source within the Wall Street community for shelter data. On the third Monday of each month, the Company publishes its PetPoint Report which tracks all the significant trends in animal welfare. Reports can be viewed by visiting www.petpoint.com.
Increasingly banking analysts are focusing on trends in the animal welfare industry, including pet adoption, to better determine the valuations of those publicly traded companies they follow whose operations in whole or in part are focused on the companion animal marketplace. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, CL King & Associates, Robert W. Baird & Co., Nomura Equity Research, UBS Investment Research and Cleveland Research Company represent the growing number of financial institutions that now rely on the Company's monthly PetPoint Reports. It is estimated that 30% of new pet acquisitions are now completed via animal welfare organizations.
PetPoint also powers the Company's industry leading Petango.com network, including the only adoptable search website with live feeds of all animals posted as available for adoption. Updates to available animals and their profiles on Petango.com occur on average within 5 seconds of the change being effected in PetPoint. As a result of this unique capability the network has received an average of over 900,000 unique visitors per month in 2013, an increase of over 7% YoY. Petango.com was the second largest adoptable pet site in the world in terms of unique visitors in May 2013 according to comScore.
As the most accurate database of adoptable pets available, the site is trusted by many of North America's largest AWOs to power adoptable search on their own websites, including the Atlanta Humane Society, Kentucky Humane Society, the Washington Animal Rescue League, Sacramento SPCA and SPCA Serving Erie County, as well as over 900 other AWOs licensing the Company's PetPoint software. Licensed shelters therefore have the same live content on their own websites as found on Petango.com, thus making the search online for an adoptable dog or cat more robust and satisfying for visitors. No other adoptable search site provides the same degree of live content. Web traffic data compiled and transferred to PetPoint daily from these AWOs, for the period January 2013 to May 2013, totaled nearly 71M pages viewed, an increase of 52% YoY.
"This is yet another significant milestone in the expansion of our PetPoint and Petango.com network through animal welfare organizations," said Mark Warren, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pethealth Inc. "The growing use of our platform has been driven in large measure by our ability to make the adoptable search experience for potential new pet owners not only the most robust in the industry for visitors to our own website but also for our PetPoint licensed partners as well. As adoptable search becomes more local, our strategy will continue to be to support the online experience of visitors to our partners' websites in equal measure to our own Petango.com network."
PetPoint was first introduced in March 2005. As a cloud based application, PetPoint not only helps shelters to better organize and manage their daily operations, but also to reduce, if not eliminate, IT-related infrastructure costs. Equally important, the application enhances operational reporting, allowing AWOs to better understand and use their data to reduce euthanizations and increase adoptions in the communities they serve. The Company previously reported that it had surpassed the 2,000th licensed AWO. As of today's date, 2,004 AWOs had licensed its application.
The success of PetPoint has made Pethealth the largest aggregator of data on animals entering AWOs. In 2012, over 2.3-million intakes were recorded through the software and over 980,000 adoptions. As of today's date, over 12.2-million animal intakes and over 4.7-million adoptions have been completed via the application since the product was first launched in 2005.
About PetPoint
PetPoint, first introduced in 2005, is now licensed by over 2,000 animal welfare organizations in North America and has facilitated the adoption of over 4.7-million pets. As a cloud based application, animal welfare organizations can not only better organize and care for their homeless and abandoned animals, but can also reduce significantly, if not eliminate, their IT-related infrastructure costs. PetPoint is provided free to animal welfare organizations on the basis that these same organizations use the Company's 24PetWatch microchip and gift of insurance programs for all companion animals adopted, adoptable animals are then published on the Petango adoptable search platform. The 24PetWatch microchip program is the most widely used microchip and lost pet recovery service operating in both Canada and the United States.
About Pethealth Inc.
Pethealth is North America's second largest provider of medical insurance for dogs and cats to pet owners, operating in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. In addition, the Company is the leading provider of management software to North American animal welfare organizations through its SaaS-based application and is the leading provider of pet related database management services to the North American companion animal industry. Pethealth offers a unique range of products and services for veterinarians, shelters and pet owners through a number of wholly owned subsidiaries using a range of brand names including PetCare, 24PetWatch, Pet Protect, Petpals Direct, PetPoint, Petango.com and ThePetangoStore.com.
Pethealth is based in Oakville, Ontario. To find out more about Pethealth, visit the website at www.pethealthinc.com.
Contact Information:
Glen Tennison, Chief Financial Officer
Brad Grucelski, Vice President, PetPoint Solutions
Pethealth Inc. (905) 842-2615