Monday, March 26, 2012


Models Against Pet Shops and Puppy Mills.

What do you get when you combine glamorous professional models with cute rescue dogs, including a puppy mill survivor? The feel-good grass-roots (socially conscious) cause campaign of 2012!

Based on a collaboration between The Companion Animal Protection Society (CAPS) and professional model Kiley Wirtz Jennings, the campaign is titled “Models Against Pet Shops and Puppy Mills.” The integrated media campaign seeks to inform and educate the public about the atrocities in puppy mills and the risks to consumers associated with buying dogs at pet shops supplied by these commercial breeding facilities. It also encourages the public to save a life by adopting rescue and shelter animals. Campaign elements include a Public Service Announcement (PSA), print advertisements, public relations, and a huge social media push spearheaded by CAPS Spokesmodel Beatrice, a sassy Basset Hound puppy mill survivor rescued by CAPS, who is also an enthusiastic vegan advocate.

Kiley first learned about CAPS after seeing a shocking video documentary, “CAPS vs. Bauck, How a Small Nonprofit Brought Down a Large Nonprofit,” on Vimeo (from a link on Facebook). The documentary follows the undercover employment of a CAPS investigator, who compiled the evidence necessary for Kathy Bauck, one of the largest and most notorious USDA-licensed dog brokers, to be convicted of animal cruelty, the prosecution and conviction, and the termination of Bauck’s USDA license.

Kiley, who has two rescue dogs, was so moved by the Bauck documentary that she reached out to CAPS Founder and President Deborah Howard, offering to donate her time and those of professional models, photographers, videographer, make-up artists and clothes stylists. The project was shot in Fort Worth, Texas.

We believe this campaign has the power to sensitize consumers to the cruel connection between pet shop puppies and puppy mills while moving them to affect change and encourage pet stores to adopt a new model… a more humane model that offers only shelter and rescue animals for adoption.

But we need your help in reaching a larger audience of dog lovers.

Be a social media champion!
Help us go viral by sharing this page on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn by clicking the Orange share button above. Or, after watching the Models PSA video below, roll your mouse over the right side of the screen and click on the blue share button.

Help us target the media.
If you know of any media contacts, please contact us. To extend the campaign, we are currently pitching TV talk shows like The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Today, The Rachael Ray Show, Good Morning America, and Anderson, among others. In addition, we are sending press kits to Lifestyle and Fashion magazines including Cosmopolitan, Martha Stewart Living, ELLE, Allure, InStyle and many more.

Subscribe to our eNewsletter.
You’ll receive thoughtful and meaningful content through The CAPS Communicator and CAPS Action Alerts. And, we NEVER share your email.

Donate online.
Click on the Red DONATE NOW button. With options starting as low as $20, your online donations, for 2012, will go directly to help us buy media space for our Public Service Announcements and print advertisements.

Regardless of how you help, we hope you enjoy this multi-media campaign and thank you for visiting our website and supporting the CAPS mission. We'd also like to thank everybody who made this exciting project happen including our Hopes Angels models and everyone listed below:

Photo and Video credits: Hopes Angels Models: Hasmik Shaw, Nina Shaw, Maggie Parks, Kiley Wirtz Jennings, Brooke Tobolka, Anna Theunissen, Emily Williams, Natalie Quintanilla. Simon Lopez, Photographer and Retouch Artist; Zack McDowell, Videographer; Kimber Yanks, Head Clothing Stylist; Leah Peev, Clothing Stylist; Candace Henry, Clothing Stylist; Yvonne Coan, Makeup Artist; Nicole Webber, Makeup Artist; Lana Adams, Makeup Artist; Aaron Reeves, Dog Handler; Bryn Durham, Dog Handler; Ann Lopez, Set Crew Member; Levi Jennings, Kiley's Husband and Chief Caterer.

Rescue dogs courtesy of CAPS, Moka's Dog Rescue, and City Pet Rescue.

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