This weekend, Twitch streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker tried to adopt a new dog. While visiting three animal shelters in Los Angeles, he decided to donate a total of $25,000 to cover adoption fees for other potential dog owners.
In March 2020, Piker lost his Pitbull Fish to liver cancer. “Fish was such an incredible dog that he single-handedly got everyone around me to rescue dogs for the first time in their lives,” he wrote on his Instagram Account. Fish was originally a rescue dog which Piker adopted in 2013. This time, the Twitch streamer is passing it on.
Piker visited Wags & Walks, an animal shelter with a $500 adoption fee. He offered them $15,000 to cover other people who wanted to take a dog home. His video editor Ostonox narrated my city via Twitter DMs, each given an additional $5,000 by Piker Best friends adoption center and the Animal Shelter West Los Angeles.
According to Ostonox, Wags & Walks decided not to use the money for fee waivers. The fees pose a barrier to low-income people wanting to own dogs, which was the very purpose of enforcing them. As anyone who has ever owned a furbaby knows, caring for a pet costs a lot of money. When the owner runs out of money, the animal often ends up abandoned or taken to an animal shelter.
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“We are honored that Hasan visited our adoption center and received such a powerful donation!” a Wags & Walks representative wrote my city via email. “Hasan’s donation goes directly to supporting the 120+ dogs in our care. On average, the grooming cost per dog saved is about $500. Hasan’s donation will support our rescue workers’ critical medical supplies, spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations, training and rehabilitation, humane education programs, and also help fund supplies such as dry food, potty liners, toys, beds, etc.” She mentioned that the operation of the Animal shelters cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and that the money is used to help dogs find “eternal families.”
Piker admitted the contradiction of his donation its stream. “The reason shelters exist at all is because they have a high adoption fee,” he said. “Animal shelters exist because people buy dogs, sometimes from breeders, and then realize they can’t take care of the dog.”
Piker’s donation will not be used to help offset the owner’s expenses, but he didn’t seem to care. “I don’t care what they use it for. I don’t care if they don’t waive the fees. I want them to have the money. Because I wanted to donate to them.”
Obviously, the biggest political commentator on Twitch doesn’t just give money out of sheer goodness of heart. He has turned the donation into content rather than something he does quietly. But as we have seen other content creatorsThere are far worse ways to approach charity than to donate voluntary funds to organizations that do good work locally. my city Ostonox asked if Piker found his forever friend during his shelter trips, and they said he’s “still looking.”
In the past, Piker has been criticized for how he spends his money, particularly for his public image as a socialist streamer after buying things like a house to live in. Some argued that Piker should do more for charity, to which he said at the time: “I donate, some publicly, most not.” But Piker has definitely used his platform for good causes, like recently participating in a winning Twitch fundraiser $700,000 for earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey.
