Giving Back: Puppies Behind Bars

BJT readers—who represent one of the highest-net-worth magazine audiences anywhere—clearly have the means to contribute to a better world. To help you do that, we’re spotlighting one deserving organization per issue. All of them have received a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator, which evaluates philanthropic institutions based on their finances, accountability, and transparency. 

“At Puppies Behind Bars, we believe that dogs can change lives,” says Gloria Gilbert Stoga, founder of the organization, which trains prison inmates to raise service dogs. Puppies enter prison at the age of eight weeks and live with an inmate for about 24 months. They then become explosive-detection canines for law enforcement agencies or service animals for wounded war vets.  

Stoga started the program in 1997 to help inmates cope with their emotions while preparing puppies for guide dog training. Later, she realized a need existed for canines to assist law-enforcement agencies and adjusted the training accordingly. Then, in 2006, she took the program one step further by having inmates prepare dogs to aid wounded vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

“Our dogs can change the lives of inmates,” Stoga says, “and they can change the lives of veterans for whom, in many cases, war has come to feel normal while being home has felt very scary.”