Behind the Brand: Exploring Tito's Handmade Vodka's Commitment to Canine Welfare with Beth Bellanti Pander

Behind the brand with Tito's Handmade Vodka:  Attentive drinkers may have noticed that Tito's brands itself as "Vodka for Dog People.” Well, the slogan is more than warm and fuzzy marketing. In this episode Beth Bellanti Pander joins me to discuss the Vodka for Dog People program, which supports thousands of pet-focused nonprofits a year through events and sponsorships ranging from pup-friendly Yappy Hours to transporting dogs in danger from crisis zones,  to safety, giving them a chance to find forever homes.

Helpful Links:
https://www.titosvodka.com/dogs
https://store.titosvodka.com/collections/dogs

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Dogs make the best companions for humans. This podcast aims to help make humans better companions for their dogs. Welcome to the Baroo Podcast, a modern lifestyle podcast for dogs and their people. I'm your host, charlotte Bain. I've been caring for other people's dogs for more than 15 years And, while I've learned a lot in my career, i definitely don't know at all. So I've collected an ever-evolving roster of amazing dog people And I learn new things from them all the time. Hi you guys. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Baroo Podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:50

In this episode, i jumped behind the brand of Tito's Handmade Vodka with a lovely chat with Beth Belanti-Pander, tito's director of its Vodka for Dog People program, which supports thousands of pet-focused nonprofits a year to help enhance their events, campaigns and their missions. If you're like me, you may have noticed they brand themselves as Vodka for Dog People, but I really had no idea of the great contributions that they make to animal welfare. So let's jump into the chat. Thank you so much for reaching out to me, because I'm so embarrassed to say that I didn't know all of the wonderful work that Tito's did. I'm a fan of Tito's vodka.

Speaker 1: 1:39

Whenever I'm by, that's my go-to choice, and originally it was because it's gluten-free and I'm gluten-free and it's vodka for dog people on it And obviously that was something that attracted me. But it's so much more than just good marketing. You guys do so much for animal welfare. Your whole vision is around dogs and it's such a dog-friendly culture in your brand. And before we jump into all the wonderful work that you guys do for animals, i want to first know a little bit about you and your journey with Tito's vodka and a little bit about the history behind the brand of Wyvodka. Wyvodka and Wyvodka and Dogs And where did it kind of come from?

Speaker 2: 2:28

Well, wyvodka would be. Tito has a degree in geology and geophysics, so he's kind of a science inventor, he's a type of guy. But he was working in a bunch of different careers with that and was flavoring other vodkas for holiday gifts And so people started calling him Vodka Guy and he kept saying no, geology Guy. So eventually he thought, well, why hasn't anyone gotten a permit in Texas to make vodka? And so he learned the code better than the state did, and eventually they had to give him the permit. So he was the first person to legally make spirits in Texas. So that's how vodka happened and why Dogs is.

Speaker 2: 3:21

Tito is a dog lover and I am a dog lover and the child of dog rescuers, and so where the distillery is out in Southeast Austin, we get a lot of stray and feral Dogs. Out there a lot of people just don't have fences and they're running around So there's an overpopulation of strays and they smell Tito's dogs food in the early days And Tito and that dog in the shack. The dogs would smell the food and come around and he would get them fixed up and find a home for them. And then when I got on board 20 years ago I was already doing that, volunteering at different rescues and projects, so I'm like, well, i'm just doing that at work now. I mean, it was natural. We never had a conversation about why dogs, but he loved his dog We call dog. Joe was his dog, then She's like the founder, because she started attracting the strays, and then we are up to 132 strays now. Oh my gosh, yes.

Speaker 1: 4:23

So you have like a sanctuary there.

Speaker 2: 4:25

No right, it's not a rescuer sanctuary, it's just the distillery is dog friendly. So we have several different dog yards and the employees bring some of their dogs to work. But we also have like a holding area for the strays, just so that they're safe and we can kind of get them treated and everything and not introduce them to other dogs at work. So what we do at this point you know internally, i can. Usually someone at work will fall in love with them and adopt them.

Speaker 2: 4:53

So they very much usually stay in the family. Yes, so that's how. Dogs. And then when we got offices, i was bringing my dog to work. When I traveled, i had my dog, and so we just always made sure, you know that whatever we were doing, we made it to be dog friendly. You know, if we were traveling in the car or we had a dog friendly hotel, or you know, once we got the office, i was alone there for a while and brought my dog with me. So, like I never asked permission, but you know, tito was never, you know, a dog person too. So right, that's how it evolved.

Speaker 1: 5:30

And this was kind of before. Now it's, you know it's people are really starting to bring their dogs into the workplace and kind of becoming more part of our daily work life. For a lot of lucky folks, you know, office life there It's becoming more dog friendly. So this was before all of that. So when did you, when did, when did you come on board and what exactly?

Speaker 2: 5:52

Well, i started helping Tito out 20 years ago And in the beginning there were so few of us that we all just wore a lot of hats.

Speaker 2: 6:00

But my passion in life is marketing and branding And the philanthropy was just automatic because we went to a lot of nonprofit events and I would just bring vodka with me In the early days, tito would bring vodka with him, and that's kind of how you know. There was no marketing budget or anything. It was truly word of mouth, person by person trying it, and then we were also just showing up for nonprofits that we really were involved with and cared about, and so that was just how we operated. And now that things you know are going well it's still in our DNA We're just able to reach a lot more groups and people on animals, right. So I was in the bike, i did, i did a lot of things, i did marketing the whole time And eventually, you know, since vodka for dog people was my hobby, you know, putting these dogs that we, that we save and want to get adopted, i put them on on social media.

Speaker 2: 7:04

They start to get more likes than the vodka And so everyone's like Hey, you've got to, you know, bring the dogs to their own area at Tito's so that we could concentrate on the vodka part. So that's how we got vodka for dog peoplecom And we were already starting to brand leashes and things And we wanted to give back to the nonprofit that was helping us get all of these dogs beta neutered affordably, because we didn't have a budget for that either in the beginning. So we wanted to give back to them for helping us out. And that's a man's a pet and they're still a legacy partner where a lot of our sales of Tito's merch you can pick for them to be the beneficiary. And they're trying to bring that nonprofit model of affordable spay, neuter and vet care so that everyone can afford to have a pet in their family. So that is kind of how vodka for dog people was born.

Speaker 2: 7:54

And then our local team said, well, we want to do dog stuff in our town. And I was like Well, i'm too busy, i'm doing marketing and content and stuff. They're like Well, guess what? Now you're going to do vodka for dog people. Because there was a lot of dog friendly bars and restaurants also coming up And so we were able to have people and dogs, you know, having events, and some of the sales from Tito's will, you know, can go to the nonprofit that we have on site. So we work a lot kind of sponsoring those kinds of things too. And then the galas you see in really large scale events too. And we also do a lot in natural disaster response, like in transport, flying adoptable dogs out of areas that are going to be hit by hurricanes, and again like spay. Neuters are number one, you know, an affordability. That's like our real mission, because although we work with rescues, we want to not have to rescue as much So absolutely, and that's where spay and neutering becomes incredibly important.

Speaker 1: 9:05

I know, and it's even it's a huge problem here in even in the city of Los Angeles. But I know, when you get out into a bit more of a rural environment, that tends to be more, and I'm assuming the distillery is out a ways maybe And what can you talk a little bit more about? emancipate a bit, do you, and how that can, how we can support them and how they support the communities and how you support emancipate? Yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 2: 9:34

Yes, so we support them through supporting their events and through some of the proceeds from our retail and our web store going to them. Ok, they kind of started out around the same time we did, and they were small and they had some. You know, they're serving the city of Austin first, and then rural communities. They had a trailer that would go around and do surgeries, and so that was really helpful for us too. And then, you know, after a while, i got to know them and we were starting to donate vodka And we said, you know, this is such a gift and a treasure for Austin, you know, and the surrounding areas for everyone to be able to afford to take care of their animals.

Speaker 2: 10:15

Right, what would you do, you know, if you could expand this? And so I think they're up to more than 12 clinics now, and it is Texas and Philadelphia so far. They also have like a new school, they call it, where they can teach other nonprofits that want to offer those same services how it kind of works here, and so we just really believe in them and their philosophy and their solution based strategy. So we're just hoping that footprint can just go everywhere.

Speaker 1: 10:49

Right, because if we spay a new to our pets, right, it reduces the impact in the shelter system. It reduces that. You know the impact that people with unwanted litters of dogs.

Speaker 1: 11:03

You know what are they going to do with them And they're either going to let we're having a big, serious problem here in Los Angeles right now with the overpopulation in the shelter system, And what happens is they sadly will have to either just let them go on the street or turn into an overcrowded shelter. And we can prevent all of that by spaying and neutering our pets. It's really like the foundation of the overpopulation issue right now. So what work that they do. So thank you for supporting them and hoping out in so many wonderful ways. Do you want to touch a little bit more on? I know you have a lot of You guys. Do you have like a distillery dog, Archie?

Speaker 2: 11:46

I mean everything about your company is dogs.

Speaker 1: 11:51

Yes, so many things to talk about. I don't even know what angle to go for.

Speaker 2: 11:54

So there is so many. Yeah, yeah, there's so many angles to this. The distillery dog art show was an idea. We had to celebrate 20 or 25th anniversary last year OK, you can see the dog behind me is my co-workers. We did an amazing photo event for dogs and for dogs named Tito, which is another story, but we decided to pick 25 artists to interpret 25 of the 130 or so dogs that we've rescued, and so all original artwork and it's traveled around a bunch And we're going to we want to keep it going, so we have a lot of ideas on how that will evolve next as well, but it's beautiful and the artists just captured them without even knowing their complete story. Like so it was almost spooky, it was so cool, so that was very meaningful. Yes, very meaningful.

Speaker 1: 12:48

And then the proceeds and then do are these for sale or for? or they're just for the individual owners who? No, we're keeping them.

Speaker 2: 12:54

We're keeping them, but we're hoping that this will start inspire more of our teams and communities to have more live art of dog painting at events so that those kind of pieces can be auctioned off for nonprofits. Yeah, so that's kind of we want to see this move into a lot of different directions And then we need to keep adding dogs to it because, you know, we're older than 25 now.

Speaker 1: 13:21

And you have 130 dogs to choose from.

Speaker 2: 13:24

It could kill on forever Right.

Speaker 1: 13:26

Right.

Speaker 2: 13:27

And then also, you know, there's a vet shortage right now on top of everything else. Yes, so we're also, you know, trying to empower nonprofits to be able to hire vets, because there's a lot of competition with the big chains and whatnot, so it's hard for them to compete to pay them the same. So we kind of are always trying to, you know, stay on top of that. I would say. you know, vod for Dog people is, you know, working with our sales teams so that we can, somewhere Vod could have helped more animals. And, by the way, it's not just dogs. We do work with wildlife centers and you know we've done it alpaca rescue and donkey rescue The bats.

Speaker 2: 14:07

here in Austin We have a rehab help out and And we also, you know, work with these nonprofits trying to really dig in, like we're not the experts But we want to know how best we can support real change and solutions. So we're constantly trying to figure out, you know, what are the gaps that we can help fill in or get the word out about. So you know, another thing is when people can afford their pets, they're less likely to have to give them up over.

Speaker 2: 14:34

Absolutely that kind of thing. So that's really important too. So we just need to make sure that nonprofits have the vets that they need to offer the surfaces, the services that all the owners Need, so that they can afford, you know, to have a family member. Costs should not prevent a family from having a pet.

Speaker 1: 14:50

Absolutely, and there's a shortage of veterinarians because of, since the pandemic, essentially there was a high rate of burnout correct, and an influx of dog ownership, and so both of those. That's part of it. Yes, it's also there at a rather reason Yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:09

Yeah, it's the price of vet school, i think, and how many students they take at a time. Yeah, i think it is, and it's also you know. We just need more diversity and The veterinary field we need, which? more representation, and so we just need to support Anyone wanting to go to vet school. You know it's to be able to afford it and pay off their loans and go work where they want to work.

Speaker 1: 15:33

So how do veterinarians, do they contact you, or is it just yeah?

Speaker 2: 15:38

we just, we just work with nonprofits. We don't work in any kind of pet business. We're just trying to empower the nonprofits to get what they need. Got it.

Speaker 2: 15:47

That makes sense Do you have dogs of your own, i thought, so I couldn't really tell You sat today because my other Chihuahua is getting a dental right now. So I've she's very tiny and young and I'm Little nervous today, so she's getting her dental. She's one of my pandemic, she's my pandemic adoption. So she's not here, but she's a tiny red Chihuahua I rescued here in Texas and then I have one of.

Speaker 2: 16:17

I have one of the distillery dogs. I've had two so far in my 20 years and the first one lived to be 17 and she passed away. The one that I have now is Taki, and so Taki Was one of the feral dogs and was so wild that no one would adopt her, like She was just a little too much. So since the distillery, you know, was, people were there all the time working. We all kind of raised her as a village at the distillery and she loved being there, she loved her job, she loved golf carts, she loved working, she loved having all that attention. But she is getting up there in age So I have retired her to my house So that I can, you know, just watch over her a little more closely, and she's really good for me.

Speaker 2: 17:06

I know I don't I always have to have a big walking dog. Yeah, you know, i'm in love with these littles, which is shocking. I always had big dogs, but you know, it's just really great, you know, to finally have Taki with me every single day after taking care of her for 10 years. So yeah, i'm very, very grateful that I have her now here. Back to the visit, because everyone misses her a lot.

Speaker 2: 17:29

You're trying to find her an old golf cart, so that she can live that out too again, because I know she misses.

Speaker 1: 17:34

Yeah, what kind of dog is she? Did you?

Speaker 2: 17:37

see, she's a giant German Shepherd Doberman. She's okay. Yeah, yeah, i did embark on her and all of these prized Show dog Doberman, she's coming up and I'm like wow.

Speaker 1: 17:54

That's it.

Speaker 2: 17:55

Well, she's very lucky to have found you with well, yes, a lot of the dogs look just like her that we rescue, and so I'm gonna start doing DNA testing on all of them to see if they're all kind of coming from the same place, because they're like. There's a lot of yellow shepherd mixes. like I would say and I don't know if you can see, there's a picture over here I'm a shepherd mix. That was the one I had for seven, for a long time, so She's a distillery dog too.

Speaker 1: 18:21

So you think someone. So they just wander into the distillery. That's how it works. They just wander by the smell. They can just smell the other dog smell the food Yeah.

Speaker 2: 18:29

I think now, yes, perhaps I think it's just it's so rural and it's just the neighborhood. But as a company, everyone is really committed to when they see something, they let me know, And sometimes they have a chip and we get them back to where they came from. But that's probably happened twice, Not a lot of them, But everybody's really invested in this And so even if it's not around the distillery, if it's even near and we see a dog in danger or a dog wandering, we at least pick them up and get them checked out. So I've learned a lot about microchips.

Speaker 1: 19:05

Yeah, also very important. So if you're rescuing a new animal, please get the microchip. It's so important so they can find their way back to you if they should get lost. Such an important thing. Do you have any success stories of any of other than the distillery dogs that have come to stay with you, Any success stories of any of the dogs that you want to share with us that you off the top of your head? No pressure.

Speaker 2: 19:36

Outside of our distillery dogs, just getting into really great homes.

Speaker 1: 19:40

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:44

I don't know. We do some really amazing. We get to participate in some really incredible events, and we've got one in two weeks called the Surfing Dog Contest of Galveston, and so we'd like to go down there and see all the dogs surf, and we usually give out a spirit award to one that maybe didn't win but had something special about them. So that's one of my favorite things that we do all year. It's just so unique, it's so happy And it's very early in the morning, so it's cool enough out And it's just a spectacle. It's just beautiful to see these dogs. You wouldn't think, and I think even a cat showed up once. Really, yes, yes.

Speaker 1: 20:26

I feel like I did see a video once of a cat surfing And it could be completely wrong about this.

Speaker 2: 20:32

Yeah, and I think some of our successes in working out that dog culture in an office and then writing up policy and being able to share that with other companies, that's been really fulfilling. And also just meet the other companies Like I've gone to other companies and visited to see what they're doing, to see if we can incorporate anything So that's been really fulfilling too. And we missed it with the pandemic because we couldn't be together and our dogs couldn't be together, and so we're sort of coming back together again and hoping that there's another burst of inspiration for everyone, maybe to entice everyone to come back. More will go dog friendly.

Speaker 1: 21:14

Right Being. Come back to the workplace, you mean, or Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:19

Gotta think of a lot more perks now.

Speaker 1: 21:21

right, yeah, you gotta reel them in when they got used to being at home on their own. Yeah, for sure. I know you guys partnered with Bissell And they're also doing some good work in the pet space as well.

Speaker 2: 21:34

Yes, do you want to talk?

Speaker 1: 21:35

a bit about that, yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:36

I would love to. Ok, i'm such a fan of Kathy Bissell and her just the ingenuity of focusing on pet owners and us constantly having to clean Right. So it was my dream. It was my dream to work with her foundation And someone that I worked with from another group got hired at Kathy's and notified me And I was like hallelujah, maybe we can do this, we can do something. Well, it turns out that Kathy's philosophies on how to help line up exactly with ours, and it's just been so nice to have another person in there to collaborate with like that. So we've been working with her a few years now on doing emergency transports of dogs from overcrowding situations and different things in some Spaniard or clinics. But then we came up with this, basically a fanny pack, but it's for dog walking And it holds Tito's minis or anything small that you want to put in the loop.

Speaker 2: 22:41

It holds a cat And pet supplies And it's like a bandolier And we call it the walk tail pack And you can order it online And the proceeds go to Bissell Pet Foundation so that we can do more with them. And so a few weeks ago, she has these incredible events during the summer called Blocktail, and I finally got to go and meet her in person And it was such a big event. Yeah, it meant so much to me And those events were incredible. I can't wait to go to the next one. So that's been just so fulfilling to see this come to an actual item that will help us do more, but also just to finally be in person and working. So we are helping her with a Spaniard clinic in Puerto Rico in.

Speaker 1: 23:30

August.

Speaker 2: 23:31

And we're going to get 1,500 pets fixed, because the Spaniard are kind of stopped there too during the pandemic. So, we need to pick her back up.

Speaker 1: 23:40

Right, that's so great. Thank you so much for doing that.

Speaker 2: 23:45

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:47

I had a question for you And it just went right out in my brain, which happens. What was it? It was Well, what do you guys see for the future, like, are there any big plans for the future and where you guys want to go with all of the philanthropic work that you do, or just continue on in the great work that you do day by day?

Speaker 2: 24:09

We've kind of had day by day, although I feel I feel like some of the Partnerships and people we met really on zoom during the pandemic, like that was a time where we could really focus on big picture stuff, because we weren't In person, you know, with minutiae, and we didn't really couldn't do events. So I feel like The people I met, we're it's like the Kathy Bissell, like those things are starting to come together now and I just feel like we're strengthening numbers and we're sharing information and Brainstorming more solutions and people are still pivoting into things that need to be done. So I feel like it is the worst of times but it's also Becoming really great with the right people coming together. So I have great hope. But this is like you were saying about LA that's even Austin like we are really struggling now. Yeah, we're really. Things are so bad because things weren't getting done during the pandemic. Really It's just everything colliding at once.

Speaker 1: 25:14

So I Is that a huge part of the why we're having such an influence?

Speaker 2: 25:20

Well, one of the reasons, I believe, is that they didn't do a lot of spayneuter because they were saving the PPE for human beings. I think that was part of it and then some of it never would have occurred to me. Yeah, and I think some of it was also Possibly funding. I think that the funding dropped off and I think staff they had to lay people off. So again, it's just so many factors. And then also people getting evicted Yeah, i think it was all of those things. And then add the vet shortage.

Speaker 1: 25:56

It's just yeah and not enough that's the cost and the waiting list Spayneuter pet is like six hundred dollars or something like that in some place It's insane Yeah it is. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:08

Yeah, so, yeah, this is what happens when all of that falls apart, and I right, you know. So now we're all just scrambling to try and get all the funding to, to pay the doctors and get everybody scheduled right. Yeah Well, thank you So yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:24

I mean, we're just taking that into overdrive and hopefully we can see right Some kind of traction in the next few years and get back to better than before. But we can do is hope and spread the word about it. You know that that's, that's something that we all need to be conscious of.

Speaker 1: 26:40

Right and the ultimate vision is to have no more homeless pets. Is that the ultimate vision?

Speaker 2: 26:45

Yeah, yeah, exactly like I know. Rescue is always a sweet story, but it's like that will never end until we Get the population under control, right right.

Speaker 1: 27:00

Is there anything else you want our listeners to know about the work that you guys do in animal welfare?

Speaker 2: 27:05

Sure, sure Well, you can. so we sell a bunch of pet Tito's merch on the website and in our retail store and And whenever people send in pictures of their pets with any of those items, they have a chance to be featured on our Instagram, our Instagram is really just people celebrating their pets and Tito's.

Speaker 2: 27:27

So That's one really fun way to participate is to show us your animals and To just be on the lookout to see if there's ever events that you know dog-friendly Establishments, to see if we're involved there. That's another way to help and You know you can always check our Facebook. If there's something big that we're trying to do matching campaign for disaster or something It will be there as well. So that's some of the ways you can keep up with us. So much great, great, great work. Then I want to say too that you know, even though I, we, my department, handles the animal philanthropy, tito's itself, like all of us they're doing You know even more, much more on the human side, in the science side of things, and It's vast and Tito's, you know it's really passionate about like that, being the the core of our mission. We kind of call ourselves like a philanthropy company that sells vodka on the side Sometimes.

Speaker 1: 28:32

Yeah, i had no idea. When I was looking over everything, i was so impressed. Yeah, so yeah, anyone that goes on Tito's vodkacom.

Speaker 2: 28:39

Our philanthropy program is called love Tito's, and there will always be lots of stuff going on there for people to see.

Speaker 1: 28:46

Well, thank you, beth. This was a lovely chat. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Boru podcast. If you're enjoying the episodes, as always, please don't forget to rate and follow the Boru podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also follow us on Instagram at Boru podcast, and if you have a story of canine companionship that you want to share with me, or a question, or even a comment, i would love to hear from you. You can email me, charlotte, at the Borucom. All right, you guys, let's chat soon.