- Video shows Marley's Mutts co-founder Zach Skow and Board Member Jeff Goldstein detailing the importance of maintaining their social media presence.
- Before they lost access to the account, Marley's Mutts' Facebook page had nearly one million followers, and Skow says Facebook fundraisers account for a significant portion of their revenue.
- They say they have not heard from Meta yet, and in the meantime, they have created a new Facebook page in case they can never regain access to the original one.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
For the past 15 years, Marley's Mutts has been building up its social media following. A few weeks ago, they said they lost access to their popular Facebook page which had around 750,000 followers.
"I don't think my brain has fully contemplated what it would be like if we're not able to get it back," said co-founder Zach Skow.
Skow is one of the co-founders of Marley's Mutts. The rescue helps save the lives of animals in Kern County shelters by rehabilitating and caring for them on a large ranch in Tehachapi.
Skow says the success they've had is largely due to social media and its ability to digitally reach people.
"Meta has been responsible for at least half of our fundraising up to this point for the last 15 years. So it is critically important to our infrastructure, to our ability to have a budget and to maintain that budget," Skow said. "With all of that gone, it's utterly devastating."
In late December, Skow says he received a message from someone posing as a person he had worked with in the past. Before he knew it, he lost access to the page he had built up for over a decade.
"We immediately reported the page as hacked. We went through all of the online and Facebook complaint forms that are possible," Skow said. "We filled out our tickets, we did everything that was asked of us, and we simply cannot get any response from Meta."
23ABC reached out to Meta for a comment but did not receive a response.
Marley's Mutts says they take in a large number of animals within Kern County to save them from euthanasia. As a board member, Jeff Goldstein says this work is life-changing.
"Every one of our animals is a victim…and it's really hard," Goldstein said.
Goldstein adopted two dogs from the rescue, and he says it changed his life.
"They've become the children I never had, and when I'm away from them, I miss them as much as I miss my wife," Goldstein said.
To continue to save lives, both dog and human, Skow says it's important to either regain access to their page or build the following on a new one.
Skow says many of their programs are maintained through Facebook groups, so although the rescue has a large Instagram presence, he says they depend on their Facebook platform to stay connected.
"Our community has come together and Kern County has started tagging Meta in as many posts as possible," Skow said. "We're not trying to be negative, we're just trying to get our page back. Animals' lives depend on it, our programs depend on it."
Marley's Mutts says they have created a new Facebook page in case they are unable to get access to the original one.
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