When Pa. native Taylor Swift was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year, the folks at the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were drawn to one particular aspect of the magazine cover: the cat she was posing with.
Now, her feline friend is at the center of what the PSPCA has decided to call the “Taylor Swift Challenge”: an online campaign to get people across the country to donate $13 (Swift’s lucky number) to their local animal shelter on the singer’s birthday, Dec. 13.
The Time cover led the nonprofit to do a bit of research into the Berks County-born singer’s furry friend, said Gillian Kocher, PSPCA director of public relations. In doing so, they found out the pop singer had adopted her ragdoll cat, Benjamin Button.
Benjamin was part of a program that, in Swift’s words, “tries to get cute kittens adopted by putting them in commercials and stuff.” Swift fell hard for him when he was featured in the 2019 music video for her song “ME!”
The story inspired the PSPCA to seize the moment.
“We thought what better opportunity … to do something in honor of rescue cats everywhere, than to issue a challenge to Swifties and non-Swifties alike to donate to animal shelters across the country for Taylor’s birthday?” Kocher told Billy Penn.
Although the PSPCA is leading the charge — with which Swift is not formally affiliated — the drive is being promoted by animal rescue and adoption organizations in Texas, Kansas, Massachusetts, and beyond. Some orgs are going even further than just asking for $13 donations, like hosting an Eras Tour screening with adoptable cats or pricing adoption fees at just $13.
Getting groups across the country involved was “really the whole point in the first place,” Kocher said, with the hope of benefiting animals nationwide.
It’s not the first time a pop culture figure has been at the center of a push for animal rescue support.
The nationwide #BettyWhiteChallenge — a huge push spearheaded in January 2022 after the “Golden Girls” actress and animal advocate’s death — resulted in $100,000 donated to the PSPCA alone, per Kocher. Across the country, it generated millions of dollars for animal shelters.
Kocher is hoping that the current campaign will help generate an outpouring of support during the holiday season, especially since animal shelters have been struggling in recent years nationwide.
Some donations to the PSPCA already started to trickle in prior to Swift’s birthday, Kocher told Billy Penn on Monday. The numbers haven’t exactly been an “onslaught,” she said, but it’s been cool to see the support tied to the Swift-related push.
“When they’re in the amount of $13, you know where they’re coming from,” Kocher said. “So we’re really hopeful that Wednesday will be a big day for us and for animals really everywhere.”
