2020 has been rough all around for so many of us. Since March all of our educational events and in-person fundraisers have been cancelled, donations were way down and puppy sales across the country were way up.
Even with all of those set-backs, we had some truly wonderful ‘wins’ as we fought for the companion animals who are trapped in commercial mills across the country.
We released this year-end review as a bonus episode of our podcast “Truth, Lies and Puppy Mills” . If you would rather watch or listen you can get a small taste of our podcast while listening to Nicole, Ashly and Mindi discuss our 2020 review!
If you are able, please consider making a year-end donation in order to help us continue our important work in 2021 and beyond.
RESEARCH FOR THE WIN!
One of our proudest ‘wins’ of the year is that the Iowa Attorney General investigated and shut down two sham rescues that our research exposed. Hobo K9 Rescue and Rescue Pets Iowa were shell businesses for infamous puppy mill broker, JAKS Puppies, who was illegally laundering commercially bred puppies to pet stores in cities where that has been outlawed. Our research has been instrumental in holding these sham organizations accountable, as well as the pet stores who are breaking the law. Shortly after this ruling, the state of California passed a stronger statewide bill that good rid of the loophole which allowed pet stores to source from sham rescues.
Our research also uncovered a two-time horrible hundred puppy mill in Ohio that started their own sham rescue in order to skirt the law in Maryland, as well as selling their rescue puppies online. We filed complaints with the Attorney General’s office in various states in order to prompt an investigation.
Our research into Arizona pet stores also prompted a huge investigation after we exposed a prolific pet store chain for breaking the state law by selling puppies who came from puppy mills with violations. The pet stores “Animal Kingdom” and “Puppies N Love” have purchased hundreds of dogs from puppy mills cited for health problems and are breaking state and federal regulations.
Lastly, we also exposed dangerous transports that were happening during the height of the pandemic, as well as pet stores and puppy mills who received millions of dollars in federal PPP assistance.
31 HUMANE ORDINANCES PASSED!
Nationwide 31 humane ordinances were passed so far this year and our research and volunteers were instrumental in passing many of those. A few of the biggest ordinances passed were:
-Naperville, Illinois- this affected two puppy-selling stores who have to go humane or close by January 1, 2021.
-Whitewater, Wisconsin- this was the FIRST humane ordinance in the state of Wisconsin and our volunteer team lead the way for this win for the dogs.
-San Antonio, Texas , Kitsap County, Washington and Olympia, Washington were also huge wins that affected puppy-selling pet stores.
WORLD’S CUTEST RESCUE DOG!
People Magazine crowned Lamb Chop the puppy mill survivor as the “World’s Cutest Rescue Dog”. Lamb Chop is one of the ‘spokespups’ of our Wisconsin team and she is using her freedom to educate about this cruel industry! Her story traveled the world and educated millions of people about the puppy mill industry. Her mom, Christin, gave amazing interviews to countless news outlets and did a wonderful job educating about puppy mills and all that we do at Bailing Out Benji.
TRUTH, LIES AND PUPPY MILLS-
THE PODCAST!
We started a brand new podcast in order to continue our educational efforts virtually. This platform gives us the ability to extensively cover various facets of the puppy mill industry in a relatable way, while keeping it conversational and light hearted. With only 7 episodes released at the time of this article being written, we already have over 2,200 listeners!
Your hosts are Nicole Galvan (Arizona), Ashly Dale (Washington) and Mindi Callison (Iowa) and they release episodes each week where they lift the curtain on the secrets and hidden players within the puppy mill industry while sharing the knowledge we have gained on this industry over the last decade.
3.6 MILLION PEOPLE REACHED IN
NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER!
Last year we released theater ads and billboards nationwide to educate Holiday shoppers, but because most of the country is hunkered down we decided to pivot and do a huge educational push virtually.
We have released our 30 second commercial on Hulu and it is currently running in cities with pet stores that sell puppies. We also released ads on the Exactly Right Podcast network, which hosts one of the most popular true crime podcasts across the country “My Favorite Murder” , and we ran targeted online ads in cities that have stores that sell puppies.
Our targeted reach is over 3.6 million people across the country and we have already heard from many new advocates who saw or heard our ads, learned about our mission and wanted to get involved.
None of this would have been possible without our amazing team of more than 200 volunteers across the country. These amazing advocates are working tirelessly to create change for the animals in their own communities and states and we are so thankful to have their dedication and passion helping us move towards a future with no more puppy mills.
We are also eternally grateful to our supporters who have been able to still donate to our nonprofit even though this year has been tough. Your help and support during an extremely rough year has helped us with our research and educational efforts against the puppy mill industry.
We want to thank a few of the amazing businesses that have stepped up to support us in a huge way this year.
East Village Spa , Iowa Home Consulting , Wholesome Pet Essentials , Lillybug Designs by TJ , Pawparazzi Photography , Webber Designs , and Two Beers Brewing Company.
2020 was extremely hard on our nonprofit. Our events were cancelled, our fundraisers and annual gala were all cancelled and many of our recurring donors had to pause their help due to issues they were facing this year.
Please consider making a year-end donation to help us continue our important work fighting puppy mills across the country. We can’t do this without you.
