CHATSWORTH, Calif. — Kelly Holland’s annual animal rescue fundraiser “Vice is Nice” celebrates its tenth anniversary Saturday night, and the industry is encouraged to join the festivities. The event, held at Holland's sprawling Rancho Providencia property, brings together animal lovers and adult industry luminaries to raise funds to support the mission of The Animal Rescue Alliance (TARA).
Holland, CEO of Chick Media and the former owner of Penthouse, enthused about the ongoing goodwill the “Vice is Nice” event has received. “For ten years, the industry has shown incredible support for animal rescue,” she said. “In a time of incredible change, I think it’s great that a few things remain constant. The center of gravity has shifted around Porn Valley, but ‘Vice is Nice’ is still a wonderful time for the entire industry to come together in a casual, relaxed place and party for a good cause.”
The fundraiser’s marquee event is the Celebrity Poker Tournament; this year's prizes include a 4K flatscreen television and gift certificates to local golf courses.
“Raffles, raffles, raffles,” said Holland. “I never knew raffles would be so popular until several years ago when [Girlfriends Films’] Moose told me he had been working on his ‘raffle strategy.’ Who knew there was a strategy?”
"Vice is Nice” amenities will also include bars, plenty of food, DJs and Erica McLean, who is flying in from Mexico to read the cards of party guests.
Kelly Holland
Holland has long observed a marked overlap between animal rescuers and those who also work in adult. “Julia Ann, Dyanna Lauren and Melissa Monet have been deeply involved in rescue as long as I’ve known them,” she said. “Long before I joined Penthouse as its president, and then owner, a rescue [group] inside the company had evolved called Pets for Pets. Dyanna, Leslie Glass and others were the force behind that. I’ve speculated as to why we are, as a community, so involved with animals and perhaps it is our inherent renegade status. Our pets have no judgment around our career choices.”
Long before she launched “Vice is Nice,” Holland created and hosted an annual Halloween party where partiers were asked to attend dressed as their favorite dead celebrity. The event earned an infamous citywide reputation. Then Fate took a hand in Holland’s career as an activist. “Once I bought Rancho Providencia, I fell into rescue,” she said. “I didn’t have the time or the resources, but when you have four acres, animals just show up.”
In 2010, she elected to formalize her rescue efforts and founded TARA. Holland realized a party involving her adult biz colleagues — “I thought, ‘Oh, I should have a little thing in the summer,’” she recalled with a laugh — would raise needed funds and generate publicity.
“It started with 200 people in the first year which was so nice. I got to say ‘hello’ to everyone. Last year, it was four times that size," she said. "Each year, the week before the event when I’m about to collapse, I think I’ll never do it again. Four months later, I will have forgotten how grueling it can be. I’ll only remember how many people were having a great time, how many friends I saw and how many rescues and animals we helped and I’ll say, ‘Well, that wasn’t so hard! I can do that again.’ That’s the problem with being an eternal optimist and having a bad memory!”
Holland designed the org to be small and flexible to respond quickly and effectively on a variety of fronts.
“We rescue and re-home, but there are always animals that are unadoptable: the old, the sick, the ones with behavior issues,” she told XBIZ, noting that TARA expanded its mission to provide sanctuary to such animals in desperate need.
“We have some aging residents. I jokingly say we’re an ‘old folks home’ for cats, dogs and horses. Right now, I would love to find a home for two aged, blind poodles suffering from Cushing's disease.”
She said TARA also works with and actively supports the work of other rescue orgs. “This year, I am trying to pay down vet bills that are roughly equal to the Guatemalan national debt. Really, these vet bills might be higher than that. Some of it comes from people whose pets need critical care and they simply can’t afford it.”
Los Angeles has become “increasingly hostile and nearly impossible” for regular people to work and live. Animals bear the brunt of that squeeze. “There is always work to be done,” she said. “And this is just what I do in my spare time!”
Holland lavished praise on her "volunteers, friends, supporters and sponsors" who carry the weight of pulling "Vice is Nice" together year after year. "Thanks to them, I am still alive and not in an asylum the morning after," she said.
She thanked current and past sponsors Adam & Eve, ATMLA, Chaturbate, Exxxotica, Talent Testing Services, Angie Rowntree’s Sssh.com, Vivid Radio, Wicked and XBIZ, among others.
“Year after year, as I walk through the crowd, the thing I hear most often is, ‘I haven’t seen you since last year!’ It’s also a great place to people-watch an amazing mashup of animal rescuers, industry folk and everyone-in-between. My weather app says it will be a beautiful, balmy night, so come out and party! See you here!”
For additional details, including ticketing, click here.
View XBIZ's photo galleries of prior "Vice is Nice" events.
