Ellen DeGeneres’ Record-Breaking Oscar Selfie Scores $1.5 Million Donation for Animals

Even though the 86^th Academy Awards wrapped up Sunday night, the Oscar buzz is still very much in the air, thanks in part to Ellen DeGeneres.

Just last week, DeGeneres’ pet food company Halo, Purely for Pets made headlines when it announced a massive donation of 200,000 meals to shelter animals as a part of this year’s Oscar swag in partnership with Freekibble.com.

Then, on Oscar night, DeGeneres made Twitter history by taking a selfie with A-list stars like Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Spacey, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and Meryl Streep and tweeting it out, quickly becoming the most retweeted picture ever.

“In less than an hour, DeGeneres’ photo was already up to 871,000 retweets, with 210,000 favorites. She easily surpassed the previous record holder, President Barack Obama, with his election night victory photo of him hugging wife Michelle Obama, which was retweeted 777,000 times,” reports ABC News.

Today, DeGeneres’ photo stands at a whooping 3,294,364 retweets and 1,855,132 favorites.

To honor this historic Internet moment and to thank her for her use of the Galaxy Note 3, Samsung has stepped up to make a very generous $3 million donation to two of DeGeneres’ favorite charities – St Jude’s Children’s Hospital and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Each charity will receive $1.5 million each – that’s $1.5 million more to help animals, Green Monsters!

The HSUS plans to divide the donation to Support three of its major companion animal protection programs, Pets for Life, Shelter Pet Project, and Animal Rescue Team.

The most recent achievement out of this program group was a massive animal rescue operation conducted by the Animal Rescue Team just last week, saving 183 dogs suffering in filth at a puppy mill in Jefferson County, Ark., as Wayne Pacelle, HSUS CEO and president, reports in a blog post.

Samsung’s contribution will certainly go a long way in helping the HSUS continue its crucial animal protection work, so thank you, Samsung and great work, DeGeneres, for again playing a part in helping U.S. animals!

Image source: TheEllenShow / Twitter