1. No Purchase Necessary. Enter by completing all parts of the Official Entry Form online at www.hsus.org/sheltercontest. Submissions should feature positive interactions between a shelter and its community, and can be about anything your local shelter has done to improve the lives of animals and/or people inside its community, such as (but not limited to) adoptions, rescues, public education or outreach, coalition building, and volunteerism. Essays may be no longer than 500 words. Entries must contain the first name, last name, daytime telephone, email address, and street address of each contestant and name, address and contact person, if available, of the shelter depicted in the story. Contest begins on July 1, 2005 and all entries must be received no later than 4 p.m. (EDT) on July 29, 2005. You may enter more than one story but only may make one entry per story. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received. Void where prohibited and subject to all state, federal and local laws and regulations.
2. The Humane Society of the Unites States (HSUS) and Sponsors are not responsible for damaged, late, lost, illegible or misdirected entries, technical, hardware, software, electronic or telephone failures of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, fraudulent, incomplete, garbled or delayed computer transmissions (whether caused by the Sponsors, users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the promotion) or by a technical, human or other error which may occur in the processing of submission or downloading and which may limit, delay, or prevent a participants' ability to participate. You must be a legal U.S. resident, aged 18 years or older. Judges and employees of and independent contractors of The HSUS, Sponsors, or their affiliates or subsidiaries and any other individual or company involved in the development, promotion, or execution of the contest, and the immediate families and/or household members of each are not eligible.
3. A qualified panel of judges will review entries based upon originality, expression and story content and the top 20 finalists will be judged by Patrick McDonnell, creator of Muttscomics.com. Patrick McDonnell will select the winning story and will feature the story and the represented shelter in his comic strip during National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week. Grand prize will also include an autographed, framed original of this strip, a pair of round-trip tickets to anywhere in the U.S.* from Southwest Airlines, and a Basic Level Banfield Optimum Wellness Plan® from Banfield, The Pet Hospital®. Six runners-up will be selected and will receive Mutts® theme prizes, and all winners will receive Hills Science Diet® food. All 7 shelters featured will receive cash prizes provided by Hills Science Diet: the shelter featured in the top story shall receive $1500, and each of the shelters featured in the 6 runner-up stories shall receive $500. No substitutions of prizes or portions of prizes, and no cash equivalents or transfers allowed, except at the sole discretion of The HSUS.
4. The winners will be selected and notified by telephone on or about September 1st and announced on The HSUS website at www.hsus.org during National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week, November 6, 2005. To receive the list of winners by mail, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: Shelter Contest, c/o Animal Sheltering Issues, 2100 L St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20037 after November 6, 2005.
5. All taxes on the prizes are the responsibility of the winners. By participating, you agree to these rules and the decision of The HSUS and the Sponsors, which shall be final in all respects.
6. Winners must agree to be interviewed by The HSUS and/or Sponsors by telephone and must sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility and Publicity and Liability Release (where permitted) within 14 days of notification or prize will be forfeited and an alternative winner will be selected. By accepting the prize, the winner agrees, where lawful, that The HSUS and Sponsors and their agents and licensees can use winners' names, likenesses and entries for advertising, publicity and sales promotion purposes without limitation or additional consideration. By participating, you agree that The HSUS and Sponsors shall have no liability for injury or damage of any kind caused in whole or in part from acceptance, possession, use or misuse of a prize or participation in this contest. All entries, and all copyrights and other use and exploitation rights to those entries, shall become the exclusive property of The HSUS and of Hearst Holdings, Inc./King Features Syndicate, Inc., which may use, publish, edit, adapt and/or modify such entry, in any way, in commerce and in any and all media now known or hereafter invented worldwide, without limitation or compensation to the entrant, including but not limited to all intellectual property rights. Entries must be the original creation of the entrant, must not have been published previously, and must not infringe any third party rights. Discretion to use any entry is solely within The HSUS and Sponsors' discretion. Winning a prize in no way guarantees use of the entry.
7. This contest is intended for viewing in the United States only and shall be construed and evaluated according to United States law. Do not participate in this contest if you are not living in the United States. Sponsors reserve the right, in their sole discretion and without notice, to cancel or suspend this contest should a virus, unauthorized human intervention, malfunction, interruption, computer problem, phone line or network, hardware or software malfunction or other causes beyond the Sponsors' control materially affect the administration, intent, fairness, security, proper play or conduct of the contest. Sponsors are not liable for any injury or damages caused, whether directly or indirectly, in whole or part, from any downloading relating to this contest.
8. Sponsors: The Humane Society of the United States, 2100 L St. NW, Washington D.C. 20037; King Features Syndicate, a Unit of Hearst Holdings, Inc., 888 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019; Hills Science Diet®, P.O. Box 148, Topeka, KS 66601-0148; Banfield, The Pet Hospital®, 11815 N.E. Glen Widing Drive, Portland, OR 97220-9057; Southwest Airlines, P.O. Box 36647 - 1CR, Dallas, Texas 75235-1647.
*Tickets must be redeemed by March 18, 2006.
