Lottery winners donate $10,000 to Virginia animal shelter

Lottery winners donated part of their prize to a local shelter.

Lottery winners donated $10,000 from their recent winnings to a local Virginia animal shelter around late December.

This news was previously reported by iHeartDogs in early January, and the lottery winners claimed $1 million in the Virginia Lottery. For understandable reasons, the couple prefers to remain anonymous.

The specific shelter aided by the lottery winners was the Montgomery County Animal Shelter, of which the couple have been loyal supporters for years, adopting three dogs there.

Our donations really help us go above and beyond, and that’s where something like this really impacts the community and help the animals in this community,” Montgomery County Animal Shelter Director Eileen Mahan told local TV station WSLS 10 News, an NBC affiliate.

This is the biggest single donation that the shelter have ever received, and will mostly be used for veterinary care, including surgeries, vaccines, medical supplies, and other needs that pop up.

Montgomery County is located in the south-central part of Virginia, with a total population of about 94,000, and the county seat is Christiansburg, which boasts around 21,000 people. Much more prominent in the national consciousness, however, is the college town of Blacksburg (population around 42,000), home of Virginia Tech.

As author and foster advocate Cara Sue Achterberg found out during a book promotion tour, there are a plethora of shelter dogs in need throughout the South, which she documented in her memoir One Hundred Dogs and Counting. (It’s well worth reading, but first check out our review!)

The impact of this donation could be incredible for the staff at Montgomery County Animal Shelter, and it’s an especially thoughtful way for the lottery winners to use some of their prize money.

Would you help out your local shelter or animal-related causes like these lottery winners if you had the chance?