My Nonprofit Reviews

Iowa Friends of Companion Animals is truly the brainchild of Mary Lahay, who founded this impressive organization back in 2013'ish once she learned that Iowa was leading the nation in terms of puppy mills. In just two sessions working with Iowa legislators, she led the charge to adopt changes and new laws protecting these unfortunate animals. Unfortunately, that woke up the puppy mill operators, so it has been a tough battle, but a righteous one, to stave off efforts to weaken the original protections. Mary started Iowa Friends of Companion Animals and its legislative/lobbying counterpart and almost singlehandedly raised thousands of dollars in funds, spoke to hundreds of groups to educate the animal lovers of Iowa as to what a puppy mill looks like. "Iowa Friends of Companion Animals" grew and flourished under her leadership. She continues to lobby, speak, seek funding, run the Iowa Friends board of directors, and otherwise advocate for the dog-mommies and daddies and the conditions in which they "live." The Des Moines Register, KCCI-TV and other statewide media have interviewed with Mary, which increased awareness of the huge problem this agricultural state has in terms of "puppy mills." Mary Lahay is an indefatigable standard-bearer for greater protection for these poor dogs. As a result, Iowa Friends of Companion Animals is one of the most worthy, efficient, and effective organizations in this state.

Mary, who founded this organization and has worked tirelessly for the dogs for over five years, has taken on the issue of puppy mills in Iowa with a determination I've never seen before in a non-profit leader. She created Iowa Friends after discovering on her own what damage irresponsible breeders can do to the dogs in their "care." Mary did her research, and when she first went to the state legislature, she wowed them with the facts. Since that first successful couple of years, the pushback from the Iowa Breeders Assn., Farm Bureau (yep!) and Big Ag has increased enormously. Fortunately, the numbers of animal/dog lovers who have discovered Iowa Friends has increased exponentially. It's hard to change laws. It's hard for a relatively small, unfunded organization to fight huge lobbying interests. It's disappointing that our legislators are more afraid of losing donations from Big Ag and farmers than they are in helping the poor dogs languishing in cages across Iowa. Oh, and the lies those breeders tell the legislators! We have a state full of Pinocchios! To Mary and all of the volunteers and board members of Iowa Friends of Companion Animals: Keep up the GREAT WORK! The dogs are counting on you all!