Boy forgoes birthday gifts, collects toys for dogs in shelters

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- It's a selfless act. Instead of receiving presents, Liam Faber, who turned 6 years old on August 22, gave gifts to shelter dogs.

"Giving them to the dogs so I can make them happy," he said.

His mother, Jennifer Faber, says he wanted to give 100 toys away to dogs at the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control shelter, so she asked her friends to help out.

"He's been collecting them for almost a month now, and friends and family have told friends and family who've told friends and family," she said.

"We asked a lot of people," Liam added.

The request spread like wildfire and they ended up getting hundreds of toys -- more than 400 items.

"People who have my address like our close friends, otherwise they sent them -- we have a P.O. box set -- they sent them to the P.O. box or some people even ordered them at local Petsmarts near our house," said Jennifer.

Officials say they now have more toys than dogs and that means every dog will get a toy and they'll keep the dogs for future dogs that come in to the shelter.

The shelter says this is the first time this many toys have been given to them by such a young dog lover, so they gave Liam something back in return to thank him.

"So thank you for coming here and helping all the little dogs that we have have a happy day, so we hope you have a happy birthday," said MCACC's Jose Santiago.