SLIDELL, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

PetSmart, Inc. has partnered with the City of Slidell to bring a portable, pop-up dog park to Slidell. The dog park will provide more than 8,500 square feet of space for pet parents to bring their pets to play. The new park, the PetSmart P.U.P. at Fritchie Park, is located at 901 Howze Beach Rd. near the soccer fields.

"At PetSmart, we believe in enriching people's lives through the power of pets, and this is centered on giving back to the communities where we all live and work,” said David Lenhardt, president and CEO, PetSmart. “The PetSmart P.U.P. at Fritchie Park will provide the pet parents of Slidell with a much-needed place to let their pets run and play while improving the community by repurposing vacant space.”

PetSmart's P.U.P. is a shipping container that contains everything that can be deployed to create an interim dog park, including 340 feet of fencing, three Oops clean-up Stations, three moveable backless benches, lighting on and inside the container (powered by a solar panel on the roof of the container) and a storage closet. The shipping container serves as the park's point of entry and exit. PetSmart provided all of the equipment required to set up the park, and the City of Slidell will maintain the park.

”We're so pleased to be able to work with PetSmart on this innovative project,” said Freddy Drennan, Mayor of the City of Slidell. “The PetSmart P.U.P. at Fritchie Park is a great example of the city working together in a public-private partnership to give back to its citizens.”

The park officially opened to the public today at a community celebration and ribbon cutting attended by the Mayor, local elected officials, PetSmart leadership and Slidell pet parents. The effort to bring a dog park to Slidell originated as a community initiative by local business owner Amanda Hover and her classmates at Leadership Northshore. While fundraising continues for a permanent park, an agreement between PetSmart and the City of Slidell will allow the temporary P.U.P. park.

There are currently three other PetSmart P.U.P.s (Pop-Up Park) located in Phoenix, Detroit and Sacramento. PetSmart's P.U.P. is one of several national programs PetSmart runs under its community relations program, PetSmart Gives Back. PetSmart supports organizations that make communities a better place to call home and enrich people's lives through the power of pets. Its other programs include:

• PetSmart Promise – which supports homeless families in keeping their pets
• PetSmart Paws for Hope – which promotes healing through therapy dogs at hospitals
• PetSmart for Patriots – which is a joint endeavor between PetSmart and Canine Companions for Independence, in support of Canine Companions' Wounded Veterans Initiative to help partner assistance dogs with the military veterans who need them

About PetSmart

PetSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ: PETM) is the largest specialty pet retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets and is a leading online provider of pet supplies and pet care information (http://www.petsmart.com). The company employs approximately 54,000 associates and operates more than 1,314 pet stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, and over 196 in-store PetSmart^® PetsHotel^® dog and cat boarding facilities. PetSmart provides a broad range of competitively priced pet food and pet products; and offers dog training, pet grooming, pet boarding, PetSmart Doggie Day Camp ^SM day care services and pet adoption services. Through its in-store pet adoption partnership with PetSmart Charities®, PetSmart has helped save the lives of more than 5 million pets since 1994. PetSmart Charities, Inc. and PetSmart Charities of Canada, Inc. (“PetSmart Charities”) are independent, nonprofit organizations that save the lives of homeless pets and reduce shelter intake through spay/neuter efforts. In 2012, nearly 450,000 dogs and cats found homes through PetSmart Charities' adoption centers in all PetSmart stores and by sponsoring community adoption events. PetSmart Charities is the leader in granting money to help pets in need, with more than $28 million given in 2012 throughout North America.