TV star Katherine Heigl and Jeanine Pirro among celebrities at Big Dog Rescue Ranch fundraising weekend at Mar-a-Lago.
PALM BEACH — Television stars, fashion designers and photogenic rescue dogs helped Big Dog Ranch Rescue raise $5.5 million during three days of fundraising at Mar-a-Lago.
“It’s amazing to me how many people are so passionate about saving dogs’ lives that they come support us,” said Lauree Simmons, Big Dog’s founder. “We’re so grateful.”
The addition of an extra day at this year’s event, which ran from March 6-8, was not the only headline news.
The privately run Loxahatchee-based cage-free, no-kill shelter also offered up a rebranding of sorts by including “and small dogs” into its signage to promote its work saving smaller breeds at its 34-acre site. Simmons also noted that in addition to opening a shelter in Alabama, Big Dog is expanding into Texas next and is eyeing facilities in California and North Carolina.
And she spoke of a new federal “strike force,” which the fundraiser’s honorary co-chair Lara Trump — the president’s daughter-in-law, longtime animal advocate and Big Dog board member — helped create with the U.S. Justice and Agriculture departments.
Those efforts are aimed at cracking down on “bad actors” in the breeding industry and supporting those who follow best and humane practices, as well as targeting people engaged in dog fighting.
“We’re hitting it from every angle,” said Simmons, adding that Big Dog now has 1,800 dogs housed on its grounds.
Another MAGA-world figure, Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News show host now serving as the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., said Big Dog is an organization “you can count on.”
Pirro, who has four rescues, said the organization is “committed to making sure” dogs rescued from certain euthanasia at shelters get homes. But she also highlighted the group’s Veterans Service Dog Training Program, which has paired more than 200 service dogs with U.S. military veterans living with PTSD and other disabilities.
“You see concrete results,” Pirro said of Big Dog Ranch. “You see people adopting dogs. You see people giving money when there’s an emergency and a dog needs surgery. It’s real, it’s effective and it matters.”
Fundraising key at Big Dog Ranch event at Mar-a-Lago but also messaging
Grey’s Anatomy actress Katherine Heigl at Mar-a-Lago fundraiser
Actress Katherine Heigl of ABC TV show ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ attends Big Dog Ranch fundraising event at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.
The funds raised at the event are critical, Big Dog leaders said, but the messaging is equally critical.
The featured guest at the festivities on March 8, the actress Katherine Heigl of the ABC TV show “Grey’s Anatomy,” said she attended to support Big Dog, which has saved more than 88,000 dogs since 2008. Heigl said Big Dog’s work to “solve the pet overpopulation issue” is aligned with her family’s foundation, which she runs with her mother, Nancy.
“Our biggest goal right now really is to diminish the number of unwanted litters coming into this country, which is what is overcrowding our shelters,” she said.
“We hear the word ‘shelter,’ and we think these animals are safe there, and they are not. It’s not the shelter’s fault, and it’s not the fault of the shelters’ workers. It’s that our country is overrun with puppy-mill breeders.”
TV personality Cesar Millan, a dog rehabilitator and trainer, stressed that dogs end up in shelters because of human error or neglect. He encouraged the public to “be of service,” noting there are many ways to help.
“Everybody can cooperate,” he said. “You can adopt a rescued dog. You can foster a dog. You can volunteer to go walk a dog at the shelter, or clean a kennel. It’s a pack effort where everybody can help in some shape or form.”
Simmons agreed, saying she loves “the fact that there are so many animal lovers out there” wanting to support Big Dog’s efforts and programs.
“The biggest thing is we need to spread awareness, because 80% of America has no idea how many incredible, wonderful adoptable family dogs are dying in shelters simply because they are overwhelmed and overcrowded,” she said. “We can fix this problem.”
The solutions are wide-ranging, from adopting dogs from shelters to sterilization to legislation creating best practices for breeding to making veterinary care affordable
“We have to end this,” she said. “This is America. We’re a humane country. This shouldn’t be happening. The dogs shouldn’t be dying and suffering.”
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at [email protected]. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
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