Will Young first shot to fame after winning the first season of Pop Idol over 20 years ago – but in a major career U-turn, the singer is looking to help those less fortunate
Will Young has revealed his new dog food has raised £60,000 for rescue centres to keep dogs alive.
The singer co-founded Miraculous Meals made from natural food, which gives half its money to dog rescue homes and is now aiming to raise £4million in five years.
Talking about his dog meal business and his links with the Hope Rescue dog charity, Young said: “I came to Hope because I’m a co-founder of a dog food called Miraculous Meals and we give 50% of our profits to rescue homes.
“The problem is now at an epidemic level – it’s a real crisis because of cost of living, vet bills, there was a big boom in people getting dogs because of Covid. And there’s a lot of overbreeding.
“Both my dogs were an hour away from being put down in a kill shelter in LA, and we do have kill shelters here. We think between 50,000-80,000 dogs a year in the UK are put down.”
Young, who donates 50% of the profits from his dog meals, added: “We’ve already donated £60,000. It’s genuinely like a business model that really works. We’ve created a really good dog food and just by the simple act of buying it you’re changing these dogs’ lives.
“What we’re trying to do by raising the money is stopping these dogs being put down and giving them a second chance of life.”
Currently the meals are available online but Young said he plans to go into retail and expand into dry food.
Young also told how he is campaigning against animal testing. He said: “There’s a test called the LD50 test which has been going for 180 years and it’s basically a test where they increase the dosage of toxicity until they kill the animal.
“That’s the sort of purpose of the test. It’s done mostly on mice and rabbits. I don’t think it’s done on dogs but there are other tests done on dogs that are horrible.
“This one is such a Victorian hangover and it’s just not needed. A lot of the stuff about the animal testing is really to do with red tape and bureaucracy – people can’t be bothered to change.
“Cosmetics testing they stopped in Europe, but medicine, chemicals, household products. There’s some crazy things like every time they bring out a new bleach they have to do a whole round of testing again.
“The thing is now is there are non animal testing methods that are so advanced. Now we can, through growing organs on chips basically – science has moved so far – we can wholly replicate the human body.
“So it’s (animal testing) just so out of date. One of the biggest arguments for non animal testing methods is that it’s better for humanity because we’re going to find more solutions more quickly to medical problems.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
