Ready, Set, Strut Your Mutt to Raise Funds for LA Animal Welfare Groups
Best Friends Animal Society’s Strut Your Mutt® returns to Exposition Park in Los Angeles on October 20, bringing together passionate pet lovers raising money to save the lives of homeless pets.
Participants sign up in advance at www.strutyourmutt.org to start a fundraising page or join a team’s efforts. On the day of the event, everyone’s efforts are celebrated with the group dog walk, followed by a fun-filled festival where four- and two-legged participants of all ages can take part in activities like doggie yoga, pet portraits, music, contests and more. Sponsors for the event include Chem-Dry, BOBS from Skechers, Instinct by Nature’s Variety, and Modern Dog Magazine.
Los Angeles is one of 12 Strut Your Mutt events taking place across the country, with a fundraising goal of $425,00. This is the eighth year Angel City Pit Bulls, a member of Best Friends No Kill Los Angeles (NKLA) coalition, will participate at Strut Your Mutt. Their team of 30-plus participants have a goal to raise $20,000, as well as awareness.
“Strut Your Mutt has been an instrumental, integral component of our mission - which is to educate, advocate, and celebrate all things pit bull. At Strut Your Mutt, we are empowered to do all of these things at once,” said Eve Marie Kuntzman, fundraising coordinator for Angel City Pit Bulls. “We educate our community through demonstration of what family dogs pit bulls truly are. We advocate for the dogs we love most through our inclusion of foster dogs in the event itself, as well as the many pathways the event has created to finding new supporters, volunteers, and even adopters.”
Best Friends Animal Society, a national animal welfare organization dedicated to making the United States No-Kill by 2025, has been helping animal rescue groups and shelters across the country raise funds for their lifesaving work by hosting Strut Your Mutt events since 1996.
“Strut Your Mutt is a movement-wide benefit and a primary fundraising platform for hundreds of local rescue groups and shelters around the country – some groups even raise their entire operating budget off this one fundraiser,” said Julie Castle, CEO of Best Friends Animal Society.
Currently, more than 4,100 dogs and cats are killed every day in America’s shelters, simply because they don’t have safe places to call home.
“But if we work together, we can reduce that number to zero. Best Friends Strut Your Mutt is an important community event to help save animals’ lives,” Castle added.
For people interested in saving the lives of homeless pets that don’t live in a city that hosts a live event, there is Strut Your Mutt Day, on October 27, a virtual fundraiser that allows people to raise funds online for Best Friends Animal Society or a participating local animal welfare group in their area. Last year, more than 200 people raised more than $100,000 for lifesaving programs, such as spay and neuter services, adoption events and more.