When people drink beer, rescuing a dog does not usually come to mind.
On Saturday, Dirty Dog Squad and enFuego Events brought the two concepts together.
Dirty Dog Squad, an independent rescue group based out of Venice Beach, adopts dogs from city and county shelters. After helping rehabilitate them, they set out to find them a proper home via an extensive application and home visits.
Normally selling t-shirts and all natural dog treats made out of spent grains from breweries to help pay for the rescue work, Dirty Dog Squad founder David Kaplowitz took his fundraising efforts to the next level with the Buy a Dog a Beer Festival.
With over 20 local craft breweries filling guests cups, Kaplowitz invited the Santa Clarita community out for an evening of fine beer drinking.
“We wanted to come up with a unique theme and an event that would help support our rescue group. We already had a fundraising campaign called ‘Buy a Dog a Beer’ so the name just naturally flowed,” said Kaplowitz.
He hopes the funds earned from the festival will help replenish the general fund.
“Everytime we take a dog out of the shelter it costs us a minimum of several hundred dollars and often several thousand dollars,” he said.
At the steering wheel of the event was Andres Nuño, the event coordinator who has two rescue dogs of his own. Nuño came from Santa Barbara County to help make the day happen.
“This is a really big deal for [Dirty Dog Squad]. The amount of money they are going to make today. Imagine how many t-shirts you would have to sell to make the amount [they will make today],” said Nuño.
“We appreciate what [Kaplowitz] is doing because there is a lot of shelters [in LA County] that are kill shelters and he’s actively finding those dogs and basically rescuing them… and then found new homes for them.”
