Bruised Not Broken was started by the husband and wife team of Dave Goldstein and Brooke Slater-Goldstein in 2009. Alarmed that the only pictures of dogs needing homes were low quality, or depicted the dogs in a state of emaciation or aggressivness, they aimed to do better.
And this shows in their website.
Each dog in their care has a full page dedicated to it, with high resolution photos, a full bio, and YouTube videos that capture the true essence of the dog. They are also dedicated to social media and the power it can bring to bear to help give more dogs a forever home.
This isn’t a traditional shelter by any means, but more of a marketing or public relations firm whose clients are dogs. Their efforts give them a better chance at adoption.
We asked David a few questions:
What kind of screening process do you have for people who want to adopt?
We are actually the liaison between the shelters and the
adopters/fosters. Thus, the shelter screens all of the potential
adopters/fosters. We are a “middle man” in this whole process, because
the #1 issue at the shelter is their inability to efficiently and
effectively promote deserving dogs on “Death Row”. A lot of awareness
needs to be generated in a very short window (typically, between 24-72
hours). That’s where Bruised Not Broken comes in.
How many dogs can you take care of at one time? What is the key limiting factor right now?
The nice thing about being the “middle man” and leveraging the
Internet/social media is that we can take on (promote) as many dogs as
we can possibly fit in our schedule. Lord knows, there’s no shortage of
dogs on the euthanasia list at the local shelter in New York City –
which means, we never sleep 🙂
The key limiting factor at the moment is
money, because a grassroots marketing effort can only go so far. With
money, we can properly (and effectively): 1) pull dogs from shelters and
place them in boarding facilities until a foster or adopter can take
them; 2) organize and promote adoption events in and around New York
City; 3) financially assist foster households while a permanent adopter
is found (which can often take many months); and 4) run paid advertising
campaigns on Facebook, flyer creation, etc.
Ideally, we’d love to open
a facility to safely and comfortably house rescued dogs until their
“forever homes” are found, however, this requires a great deal of
start-up capital, as well as, an even larger month-to-month expense.
What avenue or technique has provided your greatest rate of success?
At the moment, Facebook has afforded us great success, in part because
of the ability of our “Fans” to cross-post the dogs we represent. Word
spreads virally, and then moments later, an interested adopter/foster
emerges. Thus, we strongly encourage people to “Like” our Facebook page
(http://www.facebook.com/BruisedNotBrokenRescue).
Also, we’ve had some successes on Craigslist and on our own official
website. Hence, we’re a self-proclaimed “digital ad agency for dogs on
Death Row”, utilizing multiple digital platforms to spread the word
about individual dogs in need.
If you live in the area of New York City, and are looking to give a dog a home, check them out. 99% of the dogs they support are pit bulls or pit mixes.