North Shore Animal League LEWYT Awards Luncheon is the Cat’s Meow
UPDATE: Cat Wisdom 101 will resume regular posting on Sunday. Look for our good news then! Other updates will be shared at our Facebook page and on G+ and Twitter.
I had the pleasure of attending the North Shore Animal League LEWYT Awards Luncheon yesterday on Long Island, N.Y. The NSAL is the worldest largest no-kill animal rescue and adoption organization and the net proceeds of the event will benefit Bianca’s Furry Friends Feline Adoption and Wellness Center. It’s the passion project of cat lovers Beth and Howard Stern who have have six cats and have fostered over 50 cats and kittens.pwhoroceeds will
Whenever animal lovers and advocates gather for a good cause it’s always fun. I was seated with fellow cat blogger friend Tamar Arslanian of I Have Cat and I think the best seat in the house belonged the famous Bocker the Labradoodle. Yes, I came home smelling of dog-licked face. Merlin was not amused but ce’st la vie.
Beth Stern hosted the event (and yes she is even more beautiful in person). The most popular item to bid on was a studio tour with her hubby Howard Stern. At the time of this post, 14 bidders were bidding on Ebay with the highest bid of $32,600.
There were lots of items available for the silent auction including entertainment memorabilia.
My favorite part of the event was a fashion show by couture designer Marc Bouwer, an animal lover and advocate for PETA has a 100% cruelty-free fashion line featuring no fur, leather or even wool. The dresses and gowns were spectacular, so much so I’ll be posting a special gallery on Google + of the collection behind the scenes and on the runway. I had a private chat after the event and found him lovely and a passionate pet parent who adopted a puppy mill dog and recently a cat.
The glamorous collection contained meowtastic animal prints and cat ears but the group of red gowns in sensuous textures rocked as did the turquoise sequins, clouds of pink and liquid silhouettes of molten bronze. While most or us aren’t model thin or tall, I found many of designs quite wearable for many body types.
Marc Bouwer making last second tweaks before the show.
Marc designed a special gown for Beth and the most luxurious set of cat ears I’ve ever seen. Hello couture kitty!
Beth Stern, a proud self-described crazy cat lady being fitted with her special cat ears.
At the end of the day the message is: compassion is always in fashion, and we don’t need to wait a New York minute to make a difference in the lives of animals.
22 Comments
Robert Higgins
Beth loves animoes! Except the ones that are slaughtered to make her abnormally large leather shoes and designer handbags to hold her husbands checkbook
Animal Advocate???
I’m sorry, but Beth Oats is not an animal advocate. Beth and her husband’s PR firm have created a persona for Beth as a platform for books, magazine articles and TV appearances — but it’s all a facade.
An animal advocate would educate herself on the unspeakable cruelty and torture of animals raised in factory farms. But there are literally hundreds of photos of Beth Oats showing off her noveau-riche extravagantly large designer handbag and shoe collection — Beth has killed hundreds of animals simply to grow her purse stockpile. There’s also a photo of Beth wearing a large fur hat.
Animal Advocacy must include all animals, not just cute kittens and puppies, in order to be taken seriously.
Zena
Rescuing animals is a noble cause. And I’m sure NSAL has done more than their fair share in that regard. However, there’s still no denying that it receives 2 out of 5 star rating from the reputable Charity Navigator, including 2 out of 5 stars for financial accountability and transparency. Mr Stern after spending $52million in a cash transaction for a Palm Beach estate recently contracted to spend another $10 million for closet renovations. How would he feel if he knew that $3.9 million of that expense went to the contractor’s administrative, salary and promotional expenses right off the top? Wouldn’t he go elsewhere to pay less and possibly get more? Then why would he expect his fans to underwrite the uncommonly-large NSAL executives’ salaries, accumulation of capital to fund-raise including extravagant parties and pageants – in other words, 39% off the top not going to the actual vanity-project cat hostel?
There’s video and still shots at one particular TV show Ms Stern and her photo prop animals appeared on, when off the camera, one of the regular NSAL grunts attempted to pet and comfort an animal Ms Stern was holding uncomfortably. Unbeknownst to her a camera was running and in fact captured for posterity her brief dismissive look of disdain and comment toward this hapless worker essentially warning her to keep her hands off and stay away from her photo op. The mask was off and the true heart of the real Beth Stern revealed. Please don’t be misled.
This “animal activism” (so long as it doesn’t extend to the inhumane and often painful removal of animal hides she can pay exorbitant amounts to wear or carry once they are turned into designer labels), is a craftily orchestrated campaign by Stern’s PR firm, Buchwald and Associates to gain positive exposure for a relatively talentless never-was on the north side of 40 with a bust-line that expands and contracts from month to month.
And as to the alleged “supermodeling”? With the plenitude of Beth Ostrosky-Stern web photos on the web including her sharing Sunday insert pages modeling working class togs, one must ask themselves: “why is there not a single shred of photographic proof of her being a European model for 4 years?” Really, who’s kidding who? Don’t let them use you.
stephanie
Mrs.Stern is not an Animal Rights Advocate! She has a leather shoe collection that would have made Imelda Marcos jealous. She recently wore a garrish LAMBSKIN DRESS. Furthermore, she is constantly waving LEATHER purses and bags at every NSAL photo-op. And lets be honest, kittens are the LEAST difficult pets to place. Her attempts to portray herself as an Animal Rights Advocate are OFFENSIVE to actual Animal Rights Advocates.
Chriza
I LOVE beth for this shes the best!!! So gorgeous 2
JoJo
Ms. Wilde:
I am certain you haven’t had occasion to monitor and moderate your site comments section before, but you’ve also probably never featured a person who is so controversial before. And to be clear, helping homeless animals is not controversial, but Beth Ostrosky’s motives for doing so just might be. And an argument could be made that she’s not in fact, helping them much at all, and is actually helping herself. She is NSAL’S spokesperson and styles herself as the face of this “Save the kittens” movement, so criticism of her is appropriate in the context of your article about the event. Before you chose to write another piece either featuring her or even mentioning her in the context of something you deem important work, you might want to take a little time to research this question: Why is this woman so reviled? – and find out if it truly is just a band of “jealous haters” bent on expressing their hostility or if there are some very legitimate criticisms and grievances about her. Thanks for reading.
Layla Morgan Wilde
We normally do not need to moderate comments but flamers are not welcome. All comments with foul language will be deleted.
Yaqi
Lots of things don’t seem quite right about this “passion project”. First, after dropping $52 million on a FL oceanfront home and an additional $10 million on renovations, why are they begging people to fund this cat ranch? Howard has always prided himself for not bothering people/fans for money. Now, he has been bothering people for a couple of years with this NSAL stuff. Why does NSAL have a bad charity rating? Why do the people on the staff make 6 figure salaries? Why is there a ridiculous fish tank there? Why does Beth act like a 3 year old about kittens? Why doesn’t Howard just foot the bill? He has the money and its his wife’s dumb idea. Just seems kind of out of touch to be so extravagant for a bunch of cats given all the problems in the world. You mean to tell me they couldn’t find a way to make the cats lives better at the shelter for less than $7 million?
The second part of this that is getting harder and harder to overlook is the “animal activist” hypocrisy. Every time I turn around Howard and Beth are draped in leather, yet Howard claims meat eaters are un-evolved. Gee, that’s rich coming from a guy who is only out-leathered by the gimps of the world. And Beth showing off her ridiculous ring in the NY Daily News while wearing a lambskin dress? Gimme a break. But she CARES about animoes ! Look, bottom line is, Beth has no job and needed a hobby. Getting into the “animal biz” is one of the easiest endeavors for rich, trophy wives to take up time and make it seem like they work hard. Please think twice and get all the facts before donating money to this charity.
lilmundster
10 MILLION ? To One scam of a charity , 10 million dollops they retarded sterns could have gave /split that money to Real Animal rescues ,
How long will Howard Sterns Allegedly 20 million fans take to raise this money
I guess they won’t it’s almost going on years now , Billy Joel donated A TON OF MONEY, THAT DEPLORABLE CALENDER THEY SOLD , WHY CAN’T THIS JUST STOP
THE SIT IN THE STUDIO DONORS
Robert Higgins
Wasn’t there some kind of chicanery going on with her father, Scott Ostrosky? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…
djenkin8
Beth Stern uses the animals from the NSAL as photo props and a way to get herself onto TV shows. However, foster mom Beth will have the maids at her Hamptons mansion take care of the kittens while she jets off to LA to be seen on Extra – a perk from Howard’s AGT job, as Extra is syndicated on NBC.
Animal activist Beth was rocking Marc Bouwer’s “cruelty-free” fashion line at this amazing event, but you can see lots of pictures of Beth wearing leather at her red carpet photo ops as well as a whole spread on the West Coast Leather website.
Bobby J Nelson
Is this the same Beth Stern that is constantly photographed in leather and suede? The same Beth Stern who’s husband made almost a billion dollars degrading women and throwing bolagna at strippers butts? The same billionaire that wants his hardworking middle class fans to pay for the addition with their names on it?
Howiewig
Gotta protect the animoes. She traded in her womb for money and fame
MedicareFraud
Beth Ostrosky Stern is frequently photographed wearing expensive skins from various animals, clutching insanely priced leather purses and shoes. But she is an animal activist?! Also, do some research on how “fraud” relates to the Ostrosky name. You may think twice about putting this “angel” on a pedestal. Her husband calls for his listeners, many of which live paycheck to paycheck, to donate to Beth’s latest vanity project- a free range cat hotel named after their dog (who they blatantly overfed, leading to it’s early death). You may ask what’s wrong with that? Well, keep in mind Mr. Stern has over 100 million dollars in real estate and was just in the news for remodeling a closet in his latest mansion for his supermodel (lol) wife for over 10 million dollars. How much has Mr. Stern donated? This thing could have been paid for, built and taking in cats years ago.
Deb_M
Oh, please don’t be fooled by Beth Stern’s “Animal Activist” image! She tried and tried to gain celebrity for years, but, even after she met Howard Stern, got nowhere beyond “bikini-n-implants” pics in tawdry men’s magazines till she latched on to taking adoptable pets to various TV shows, with her new-found credibility of being Spokesperson for NSAL. (a very poorly rated charity, by the way. An alarming % of the $$ they raise is used to raise more funds. Many other animal charities accomplish similar ends with more ethical use of funds. Do careful research before donating.) Beth realized that animals as props offered her a ticket to the fame she craves. At last! Of course she likes animals — most people do to some extent — but there are years and years now of photos of pets looking uncomfortable in her clutches while she beams at whatever cameras are in sight! It has been quite interesting to witness this strange career path.
Now, you may argue that her career is her business, no-one else’s, and you’d certainly have a point, BUT the woman doesn’t practice what she preaches, and oh my, can she get preachy! She rattles on about having compassion for animals, but commonly wears leather jackets, shoes, boots and has a collection of “designer” leather purses that the average woman couldn’t pay for with ten lifetime career earnings! All crafted from various types of leather! I am unfamiliar with the particulars of her diet, but understand she has given up red meat and possibly poultry, but fish and seafood are fair game. She has overfed her adopted cats so much that one has gone from 18 pounds to over 22 And when she adopted him, she was told 18 was too much! The others are getting overweight, too. Her late bulldog was overfed as well, getting all sorts of table scraps despite being well over her ideal weight. Impulsive, “love me” behavior trumps careful, disciplined behavior. Telling others what to do is so much easier than reining in one’s own behavior..
The animals she’s pictured with are just photo-ops and props, and little else. The idea to foster kittens was an easy way to get back on those same TV shows that had tired of her adoptable-pet schtick. And because super-agent Don Buchwald is behind the “promote Beth at all costs” plan, the kitten-fostering is getting Beth tons of attention. Think about the other fosterers you know… do they toil quietly while also spreading the word about unwanted pets, or do they grab the mike, pose and grin whenever possible? Do they foster cute, easily-adoptable kittens or do they take in the sad sacks who may be hurt, scared, scarred, traumatized, or just plain ugly? Usually, the easily adoptable pets stay in the shelter, and the tougher cases go to the fosterers, but I have to give NSAL some credit here — they aren’t giving Beth any more than she can handle, i.e., normal kittens.
You may disagree all you want, but do your research first… dig beneath the press releases… for example, Beth NEVER worked as a high-fashion model (Ames Discount Store and Haband were highlights of her pre-Howard Stern career!). There are NO photos from her “four years of successful modeling in Europe” Beth’s cat Apple was NOT hairless when adopted from NSAL, There are photos that show Apple as a normal-looking DSH cat when she left NSAL for the Stern home, but Beth has repeatedly told others that Apple was “bald”. Perhaps she had significant hair loss upon arrival at NSAL, but NOT when she left. Beth did NOT invent, (as she repeatedly claimed) the now-failed Pawfect Smile pet dental pen, an actual dentist did. Beth did not write her book, “Oh My Dog”, Kristina Grish did. Sure, it’s common for ghostwriters to assist greatly in authoring non-writer’s books, but usually the “celebrity” author doesn’t run around pretending to have done it all by himself or herself. There are many odd twists, half-truths, outright lies, and ever-changing “facts” when it comes to Beth’s “resume”! It’s odd, yes, but kind of fun and fascinating to follow this!
If you do research and STILL want to claim Beth Ostrosky Stern is some sort of “Angel to the Animals” please justify this: Beth was photographed in the Hamptons this month — JUNE 2014 — wearing an $1845 lambskin dress. LAMBSKIN!! Look up how that’s produced and see if anyone who wastes good money on it can be considered any sort of friend to animals! And less than a week later, this shamelessly two-faced woman was parading around on a makeshift catwalk promoting cruelty-free fashion! What an awful, hypocritical joke! Too bad the baby lambs are the joke’s punchline.
Sometimes, Cats Herd You
That looks like a really fun event. We really admire NSAL, and it’s so heartwarming to see that big number on the side of the van of the number of lives they have saved.
Coccolino
That’s amazing! What fun to get to attend that!
The Island Cats
What a cool event!
easy rider
what a great event, I love the dress and I would like to see how it looks with the cat ears on Beth :o)
Laila and Minchie
What a fun event to attend! Love those cat ears!
Tamago
What a great event! Those cat ears are gorgeous 🙂
Sparkle
What a cool event! We are big fans of North Shore Animal League.