Annual Blizzard charity drive brought forward to help disaster relief

Shadow is a fox. He’s a cute fox. Not only can you own him, but you can own him early!

Blizzard release a new pet for World of Warcraft every year and profits from the sales go to charity. Normally that happens at BlizzCon, but this year the company have decided to bring the release of the pet forward to help relief efforts for recent disasters.

"Introducing the latest World of Warcraft companion up for adoption in the in-game Shop and the Blizzard Shop, an artful fox named Shadow," says the Blizzard website. "This new companion is bound to use its cunning to shift its way through Shadow and Light directly into your heart and home.

"Due to recent natural disasters around the world—and the great needs of those affected—we’ve decided not to wait for BlizzCon 2017 to release this year’s new charity pet. The immediacy of the events, including Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, flooding in South Asia, and countless other crises, have shown we need to act now."

When you adopt the pet, 100 per cent of the adoption fee ($10) will be split across the American Red Cross Disaster Relief, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Disaster relief fund. The funds will help with the relief efforts for those in the US affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and those affected by flooding in South Asia. The charity pet adoption will run until December 31st, 2017.

You can read more about the American Red Cross and IFRC here.