Jon Stewart gave a heartfelt tribute to his dog, Dipper, on The Daily Show. This helped raise huge donations for a NYC animal shelter.
Jon Stewart from The Daily Show gave a tearful farewell to his dog, Dipper, and this helped raise a significant amount of money for an animal shelter in New York City.
Even a week after the episode’s transmission, donations to Animal Haven, a no-kill animal sanctuary in Manhattan, have kept pouring in.
According to Tiffany Lacey, executive director of Animal Haven, the organization had already gotten $50,000 in donations after four days of the airing of the episode.
Three more days later, by late Monday afternoon, they had received $60,000, as reported by CBS News.
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The shelter can house up to 100 dogs and cats at once and has an operational budget of roughly $3 million.
Additionally, Lacey told CBS News that since the donations were made in Dipper’s honor, they would go toward “vet care, training, treats, and food.”
In the television program, Stewart recounted the whole story of how Dipper joined his family around a decade and a half ago. His two children, ages six and seven, were attempting to sell cupcakes they had prepared in an effort to collect money for the shelter.
Stewart said, “They brought out this one-year-old brindle pit bull who was hit by a car in Brooklyn and lost his right leg,” at that point in the segment before he sobbed.
“They put the dog in my lap, and we left that day feeling really good that we’d helped this great organization, and we also left with this one-ish brindle pit bull that we called Dipper.”
“It was love at first sight, I think for both of them,” Lacey recalled, recalling that Stewart spent the whole time holding the puppy in his lap. Stewart’s dog, she said, was always swimming and jumping. “He didn’t need four legs.”
Stewart added, “In a world of good boys, he was the best,” and that Dipper went to work with him every day.
He laughed to lighten the mood, recalling how Dipper had scared the hell out of Malala Yousafzai, someone even the Taliban could not frighten.
The women’s rights crusader and Nobel Prize recipient took off when she saw the barking Dipper.
As he concluded the program, Stewart wished for his audience to discover the “best dog” for them as well.
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The Stewart family emphasizes adopting dogs over purchasing them because they have also adopted a large number of animals from Animal Haven.
Similar thoughts were expressed by Lacey, who underlined the need for additional dog adoptions given the current high rates of cat adoption. “Donate, adopt, volunteer — always adopt, don’t shop,” she added.
Dipper has truly been the best dog since even after his death many other animals would benefit at Animal Haven, thanks to the massive donations. Also, the message of preferring adopted dogs will inspire countless other prospective pet parents.
