A new local dog treat company is helping rescue dogs find their forever homes. Knick Knack Paddy Whack aims to stop the euthanasia of dogs in the San Diego area and beyond. The company, founded by Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey, works with local animal shelters to promote their dog treats. Then they donate the profits back to the shelters in order to help give every dog a home.
“I used to work for a large company so I have experience working in the private sector,” Bailey said. “Now having observed how difficult and time consuming it can be for nonprofits to raise funds to accomplish their mission, I started brainstorming ways to apply business concepts in the nonprofit sector. The idea of forming a for-profit business where the nonprofits are the beneficiaries and are treated as shareholders came to mind as a concept worth exploring.”
Mayor Bailey recently launched the company in mid-October, and says he’s happy with the progress they’ve made already.
“We haven’t done a lot to promote it quite yet, but so far we’ve generated over $3,000 in annualized profits that will be donated right back to the nonprofits and it’s only been up for a couple weeks,” said Bailey. “We’re pretty optimistic that we’ll be able to grow this pretty quickly.”
Bailey says so far, the response from the community has been positive.
“A lot of people have their preferred breed of dog that they like to own and still want to do their part to help animal shelters and rescue groups and this is one easy way to do that,” Bailey said.
The company has eight shelter partners so far, and Bailey anticipates they’ll be up to a dozen in a few weeks. One of the first shelters they approached was PAWS of Coronado. Operations manager Mikaela Boudreau says they were thrilled to partner with Knick Knack Paddy Whack.
“The PAWS vision is for every animal to have a safe and loving forever home, and KKPW is working to achieve that not only through assisting PAWS, but by providing essential resources to animals all over the San Diego area,” Boudreau said. “Not only is KKPW going to help PAWS find forever homes for animals in need, but it also provides a way to treat the pets already in their families to make their lives even brighter. Being able to help more animals, homed or looking for a home, was a no brainer for us.”
As a shelter partner, PAWS receives all of the profits from any subscription that lists PAWS of Coronado as the shelter of choice, and a percentage of the profits from anyone who elects to split their purchase amongst all of the shelter partners. Boudreau says PAWS plans to use the income to fund their medical and behavioral programs.
Over the summer, the medical team at PAWS treated cancer, rehabilitated dogs suffering from extreme starvation, and treated a severe burn all in the same month. Boudreau says intensive medical care like this requires significant volunteer support and fundraising. However, that has been a challenge during the coronavirus pandemic.
“In our environment where we work to provide care for even the most difficult of cases, this additional source of funding is essential,” Boudreau said.
Although the company is currently partnering with local animal shelters, Bailey says he hopes to eventually have rescue groups and shelters from across the nation as partners.
“The nice part about this mission is that the return on our investment is helping animals. Because the goals of our animal shelter partners are completely aligned with our mission, it makes it so that everything we bring in is just support for them.”
For more information about Knick Knack Paddy Whack, head to their website.
