Chris Godwin talks Shelter Draft 2023 and helping shelter pets find good homes

If you are a football (NFL) fan and especially a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, then you probably know who Chris Godwin is. On top of being a Wide Receiver for the team, he is also an animal advocate with his own foundation as well.

Knowing this, it probably comes as no surprise to learn that Godwin is using his fame and advocacy for Shelter Draft 2023. But what is Shelter Draft?

According to the press email we received on behalf of Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Shelter Draft 2023 is a fundraising initiative to help shelter animals find their new, forever homes. There are multiple ways to get involved, with the press email revealing that the two options are to not only donate money to help shelters with their resources, but also adopting said shelter pets. As part of this fundraising effort, “Hill’s Pet Nutrition will match all Shelter Draft 2023 donations up to $25,000. Donations will provide resources for animal welfare organizations to help shelter pets find homes.”

So what does this have to do with Chris Godwin? Well he is helping to raise awareness for shelter pets and the Shelter Draft 2023. And we had a chance to chat with him about this initiative and helping shelter pets finding new homes.

Chris Godwin talks to Dog O’Day about Shelter Draft 2023 and more

Dog O’Day: What inspired you to work with Hill’s on this fundraising initiative?

Chris Godwin: “I’m not sure how much you know or not, but my wife and I, we have a foundation called the Team Godwin Foundation and our goal or our mission really is to help at risk dogs really. Dogs like that are in shelters, homeless dogs we are trying to help them find homes. And you know, one of the primary ways that we do this is advocacy as well as like financial assistance. I think that’s really our passion. And we’ve had this foundation now since 2018. So for us it’s really just trying to find partners that are aligned with similar interests like us, but also want to do really good work. And that’s something that Hill’s has shown. We’ve worked with them a bit in the past before and so we’re just teaming up on this one.

To me, this has the ability to be something really, really special. It’s us, me as myself, Hill’s Nutrition and our Greater Good charities and we’re really just trying to promote the Shelter Draft 2023, which you know, obviously the NFL draft is coming up here. But, for us, we’re trying to spotlight the deserving cats and dogs that are in shelters across the country, that are really just looking for a new home. And so for me, that’s something that’s really cool for me to be a part of.”

DOD: So, you mentioned the Shelter Draft 2023, can you tell us a little bit more about the project and what’s going on this year?

CG: “We’re really just trying to help a bunch of these cats and dogs find new homes. And one thing that’s really important for us is a lot of the large amount of intakes that are coming into shelters are larger dogs. So, we’re really just trying to encourage people that when they’re going in and looking to adopt dogs to consider larger dogs because I feel like a lot of them kind of have like this stigma behind them that they’re highly hyper aggressive. But for me personally, me and my wife we adopted our Pitbull back in 2018. And she’s been the sweetest thing ever. They’re really just loyal dogs and they just really want to please their owner, like their parents. So, I think that’s kind of a thing that gets misconstrued out there. So for us, again, we’re just trying to encourage people to want to go out and adopt their pets, but also to consider adopting larger dogs.”

If you want to learn more about the Team Godwin Foundation and how Chris Godwin is doing his part to help shelter animals, check out the foundation page here.