Part of Her Pack

Gina Bongiovi describes herself as “Velcro for stray animals.”

While living in a home next to a Las Vegas park during the late 2000s housing crisis, Bongiovi, a Las Vegas native and business attorney, found herself unexpectedly caring for up to seven dogs at once. “People were driving their dogs to the edge of the city and dumping them in the desert,” she says. For those who were abandoned, she “ended up perfecting a very specific system of reuniting lost pets with their owners,” but there were dogs whose owners weren’t looking for them.

If a lost dog’s previous owner could not be located or no longer wanted their dog, it found a permanent home with her. Upon finding a new stray, Bongiovi began the process of helping the dog assimilate into her existing pack. At first, “everybody’s feathers are a little ruffled,” but the dogs would always learn to be comfortable with one another.

Bongiovi’s love of animals started early. While growing up as an only child, she felt sustained and uplifted by her connection with the animals around her. This began with a black Labrador retriever named Primo, who came to her family before she was born. After Primo came other dogs, plus several birds, rabbits and hamsters. (Bongiovi was sad to discover as a child that she is allergic to cats.) “I really leaned on my relationship with animals to create some consistency and stability in what was otherwise a really chaotic household,” Bongiovi says.

Bongiovi has provided pro bono legal counsel to several animal rescues in the Las Vegas area, from large operations to one-person shops. Among these is The Churchill Foundation, an all-breed rescue Bongiovi says grew from one woman’s passion for rehabilitating pit bulls with difficult behavioral issues.

Anyone wishing to start a nonprofit is likely to have plenty of passion and subject matter expertise, but they don’t always know the legal ins and outs of launching and maintaining such an organization. That is where Bongiovi’s services come in. She helps rescues organize, receive tax exempt status from the IRS, and write governing documents like bylaws or conflict of interest policies.

In Bongiovi’s opinion, running a nonprofit organization—especially an animal rescue—is more difficult than running a for-profit company because of the “next-level” devotion of directors, employees and volunteers. “Sometimes their passion for and their love for animals clouds their critical thinking when it comes to things like governance,” she says. In these cases, her role might be to ensure a board gets policies in writing and that volunteers sign off on them.

One organization close to Bongiovi’s heart was Vegas Shepherd Rescue, which she became involved with around the time of its founding in 2012. Having had a German shepherd named Thora as a child, she was more than happy to help them get off the ground. Although the rescue shut down in 2023, dogs involved with the organization continued to be rehomed through a partnership with the Nevada SPCA, along with the support of certified trainers and the Vegas Valley Schutzhund Club, according to the rescue’s Facebook page. One of the founders, Shari Dale, has continued her work through Shari’s Shepherd Sanctuary.

Many people are intimidated by German shepherds—sometimes for good reason, Bongiovi says. But an adoptable dog’s behavior isn’t just a product of its breed or genetics. When she began working with rescues, Bongiovi learned that dogs may experience kennel aggression, in which an animal lashes out because of sensory overload while in a shelter or boarding environment.

Bongiovi compares a dog being in a noisy, unfamiliar, stressful shelter environment to herself, an introvert, being forced to spend time in a nightclub. “People would characterize that animal as unadoptable, but you get him into an environment that’s much more calm and quiet and serene—perfect animal,” she says.

These days, Bongiovi’s pack is small. She currently shares her home with two dogs: Rigby, a 9-year-old English bull terrier; and Archer, a 6-year-old pit bull-husky mix.

And she remains motivated by knowing she is quite literally giving a voice to the voiceless.

“I wish they could, but they can’t talk. They can’t express what’s wrong with them, what’s hurting them,” she says. “So it’s just trying to have compassion for those who don’t get a choice in the situations they find themselves in.”