Over the weekend I attended the annual Broadway Barks animal adoption charity event in New York City. This event pairs Broadway stars and celebrities with local animal shelters and charities to help raise funds and promote adoptions. This year there were 27 shelters and charities involved. The event takes place outdoors, so there are lots of dogs, cats, people, and craziness. Handlers walk some of the dogs through the crowds to meet and greet with potential owners, while cats lounge in air conditioned transport vans waiting for potential owners to come to them. Each charity/shelter has a table where you can make a donation, purchase products for sale, and meet some of the adorable animals up for adoption.
If visiting the tables and meeting the volunteers and cuddly critters isn’t enough to draw you into the crowds, there is also the main event that takes place on a stage erected in the middle of Shubert’s Alley: the presentation of the animals. This year the event was hosted by Bernadette Peters (founder of Broadway Barks along with Mary Tyler Moore) and James Franco. A song from the cast of the musical Beautiful kicked off the presentation, complete with an appearance of an adorable puppy available for adoption. From there it was a steady stream of Broadway celebrities talking about adorable adoptable animals. It’s almost like a dating auction, with each celebrity describing the age, breed, gender, likes, dislikes, and history of the animal they are in charge of showing off.
Here are a few of the photos I took during the presentation. Keep in mind that it was really crowded and I’m really short; not a great combo for high quality photos.
The cast of Bullets Over Broadway.
Bebe Neuwirth advocates for cat adoptions while snuggling adoptable kitten Totes Adorbs.
The cast of Matilda plays with a dog up for adoption.
James Franco and Bernadette Peters laugh over the antics of the Rocky cast.
Karen Ziemba and her Bullets Over Broadway costar Trixie with dog trainer Bill Berloni.
Audra McDonald coos over an adorable puggle.
James Franco and Zach Braff bond with an adorable pup while Vincent Pastore hangs out with another adorable dog.
This was the 16th year of the Broadway Barks event. Because of last year’s event, over 200 cats and dogs found forever homes. Hopefully this year was even more successful and many of the amazing animals I met this weekend will soon be living in new homes. You can visit broadwaybarks.com and broadwaycares.com for more information about the event and charity.
This post is part of the Blog the Change for Animals quarterly blog hop.
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