Dave Portnoy gives $150,000 to Lucky Puppy in Argyle to buy new rescues bus

The Chronicle’s Ben Westcott reports: Dave Portnoy, the social media mainstay and founder of Barstool Sports, has donated $150,000 to Argyle-based Lucky Puppy Rescue to help it purchase a new bus for shipping rescue dogs from Florida to upstate New York to be adopted.

“It really is one of those movie moments, where you’re praying for a miracle — and it happens,” Lucky Puppy staff member Andrea Orta told The Chronicle.

Mrs. Orta, who lives in Queensbury, said Mr. Portnoy reached out saying he wanted to help Lucky Puppy after hearing the problems the rescue group was having with its old bus.

“I think he was getting tagged a lot on social media, and obviously he has local ties because he lives part-time in Saratoga,” Mrs. Orta explained.

She said the new bus should be built by early fall, and that Mr. Portnoy wants the Lucky Puppy logo and images of two of his own dogs on the bus.

Mrs. Orta said the old bus was breaking down almost every single transport.

“We had our transporter stuck on the New Jersey Turnpike at one point with 40 dogs, and then the bus broke down in the middle of nowhere in Virginia in the middle of the night with 40 dogs, so it just really became a safety issue.

“We were to the point where we were like, we literally can’t do this anymore — we don’t have an operation if we don’t have a new bus.”

Lucky Puppy has raised about $40,000 on its own over the last year that will also go toward the new bus.

The Chronicle did a front page story on Lucky Puppy in May 2024.

“Since opening in 2019, Lucky Puppy Great Beginnings Adoption Center in Argyle said it has placed approximately 2,000 dogs in safe, loving homes.

“The dogs come from the western Florida panhandle. Lucky Puppy Rescue was founded in Bonifay, Florida in 2008 at a 125-acre family farm.”

Founder Teri Mattson said it came to Argyle following ome Saratoga “snowbirds” who had volunteered.

“We would ship up a few dogs at a time and get them adopted, but we have so many, that we eventually started looking for a property to buy to use for an adoption center…And that’s where we kind of lucked into this place, because it used to be a dog kennel.”

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