Meeting new pet lovers, and animal loving friends is just a click away! Get ready for www.paws4claws.com to pull you up by the scruff and raise your expawtations! paws4claws.com is the best way to connect with like-minded pet-loving people, dedicated to improving the lives of pets and the people who love them. Best of all, paws4claws gives back. A portion of net proceeds generated on the site go to fund charities that help pet rescue organizations and shelters and people charities and organizations in desperate need of funding.

paws4claws.com, the progressive social media environment pack leader for pet lovers launching today for social and business networking, education, job search, business and industry services and product resources with a unique twist on philanthropy that combines a boutique e-commerce shopping experience with a loyalty rewards membership program created exclusively for animal aficionados devoted to improving the lives of pets and the people who love them. The pet site connects long animal enthusiasts online to build a friendlier world … one byte at a time.

In celebration of its launch, paws4claws.com, kicks off with the PAWS ‘N’ DOODLES SHOW & TAIL CONTEST, a contest in search of the best pet paragraph accompanied by a doodle illustrating it; to benefit The American Humane’s Pets and Women’s Shelters (PAWS) Program. To learn about the contest and enter go to: http://www.wizehive.com/paws4claws.html. All net proceeds go to help build or convert women’s shelters to be accept battered women and children with pets; currently only 47 out of 2500 in the US have the capabilities to do so. As a result, one out of four women stay with their abuser because statistics prove that 75 to 85 percent of their pets will be maimed, tortured or killed if they flee.

At paws4claws, visitors will find information on everything they need to know about pets from well-referenced data from renowned vets, pet behaviorists and trainers, learn how to secure pet jobs, receive business and industry tips from human resources counselors and networking specialists in the pet industry, connect to the exclusive pet job engine search sites to enjoy live webinars and podcasts by nationally accredited animal experts active in the field. Visitors can even have some fun posting and viewing photos of their own pets and others through its paws4claws kibbleandbits blog.

According to paws4claws CEO Karen Barnett, “Pet owners are feeling lost when trying to negotiate traditional social networking sites to look for information on how to be a better pet parent, find great gifts with pet motifs for friends who love pets, or learn why their dog, cat, bird, horse or small pocket pet was not up to paws lately? With 71 million Americans owning pets and pet owners spending expected to spend 48 billion dollars on them this year, not being able to find places to adopt, rescue or donate to a favorite charity to help a pet in need is adding to shelter overcrowding and pet euthanasia. Particularly now, we even more pets being abandoned because of the oil crisis in the gulf.

“The downward economy has added to the desperate need for shelter funding due to home foreclosures forcing loving pet parents to abandon their pets. These pet owners are really not cruel, they don’t want their pets euthanized and may not live near a ‘no kill’ shelter so they pray and hope other pet lovers pick will pick them up from the side of the road. This is when my partner and husband, Wayne Barnett, knew we had to do something and created paws4claws,” she stated.

According to Mr. Barnett, “At the lowest point in down job economy, the number of home foreclosures hit a high of more than 8000 a day with more than 26,000 pets being abandoned daily. We are not that much lower than that today.” The pet aficionado community social site also offers a unique Home & Gift Collection in its paws4claws online store that features top-dog gifts and purr-fect accessories for pet lovers in pet-themed designed merchandise for home decor and furnishings, kitchen, barware and tabletop goods, apparel, sculpture, clocks, woodwork, giftware, garden and memorial, cause related jewelry, and accessories and much more.

The innovative petlanthropic website, offers a free and fee paid membership. The paid membership is called the paws4claws House Membership and has an annual $24.95 fee that gives you a 5% discount on anything you purchase in its online store with a portion of any purchase donated to people and pet charities. House Members also receive a T-shirt when joining, $15 retail value. Other House Member “bone”fits includes its 4 Paws Up! Book Club that offers book reviewers a logo gift pen as a thank you to its quick readers that write in a book review or to House Members who like to write and are chosen to become paws4claws pet editors.