In the press · October 5, 2026 · 5 min read
25 years, 5,000 shelter pets, and the bath that changes everything.
On September 24, 2026, we marked 25 years of Hollywood Grooming with a gala in West Hollywood — and three outlets covered what the Foundation has been quietly doing for a decade of it.
Twenty-five years ago, Chuck and Yael Rubin started with one mobile grooming van in Los Angeles. Eleven years ago, they started doing it for free for animals nobody was booking appointments for. This fall, both milestones arrived at once.
The anniversary gala was hosted by content creator and animal advocate Kate Steinberg, who has long used her platform to push adoption and rescue. Our volunteer groomers — the people who give up a Saturday to bathe a terrified dog they will never see again — were recognized for their service. And we raised funds toward an additional grooming truck dedicated entirely to shelter work.
The number we care about is 89%
Since 2015, the Foundation has groomed more than 5,000 shelter pets for free — over 700 in the last year alone. Every week, a fleet of mobile vans and 20+ volunteer professional groomers deploy to a partner shelter in Los Angeles County. The shelter pays nothing.
Here is why we keep doing it: 89% of the pets we groom are adopted or fostered within days.
That statistic sounds like marketing until you have stood in a shelter kennel. A matted, frightened, dirty dog is a dog people walk past. The same dog — clean, brushed out, able to lift its head and make eye contact — is a dog somebody stops for. We do not pull dogs. We do not run a kennel. We do not place pets. The shelters do all of that. We make the pets adoptable, and then we get out of the way.
What the coverage said
We were grateful to see the milestone picked up by three outlets, each finding a different angle on the same work:
TheWrap covered the gala itself and Kate Steinberg's advocacy, writing that Hollywood Grooming "does incredible work for shelter dogs across the Los Angeles area." — JD Knapp, September 28, 2026
The Jewish Journal told the founders' story — Israeli immigrants who built a business and then built a nonprofit underneath it — and covered our community outreach work alongside partner organizations serving unhoused Angelenos and their pets. — Ayala Or-El, October 1, 2026
LA Living Magazine focused on the model itself: every pet groomed through the business helps fund a free groom for a shelter or foster animal, and on the new truck unveiled for shelter work.
What 25 years actually bought
Not the vans. The volunteers.
A quarter century of grooming in Los Angeles built something we could not have bought: a network of professional groomers who will show up on their day off, shelter partners who trust us with their animals, and rescue organizations who call when they have a dog nobody is clicking on. Our programs now run from weekly shelter visits to Santa Paws Miracle Makeovers to Red Cross disaster response.
To every groomer who has volunteered, every shelter that has opened its gates to us, and every donor who has paid for a bath they will never see — thank you. We save lives, one bath at a time. Here's to the next 25 years.