Mohawk Hudson Humane Society Happy Tales Beer Label Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

Not a readers'-choice ballot: a shelter's beer-label pet contest

Mohawk Hudson Humane Society's Happy T'ales Beer Label Contest works nothing like a typical business readers'-choice ballot. Four winning pets, chosen by the highest vote counts, become the faces of a limited-edition beer label for Brown's Brewing Company's Best Friends Lager, printed as a collectible four-pack rather than announced on a magazine's awards page.

The confirmed page sets entries due by 9:00 PM Eastern time on Wednesday, September 2, 2026. Mohawk Hudson Humane Society, based in Menands, New York, hosts the contest at gogophotocontest.com/mohawkhumane through GoGo Photo Contest.

How many categories run, and how often one person may vote, is not stated; confirm on the live ballot each cycle for whatever the current voting stage actually allows.

Eight confirmed years, with one missing from the run

The page's own history spans eight confirmed contest years: 2018 through 2024, then 2026, with one year in that stretch not confirmed anywhere. That gap sets the Happy T'ales Beer Label Contest apart from a program that publishes an unbroken annual streak, though the confirmed years on either side of it show a contest with real staying power at Mohawk Hudson Humane Society.

Unlike a magazine-run business ballot that adds new categories or sponsors each cycle, this contest keeps the same basic shape year after year: pets enter, the public votes, and four winners end up on Brown's Brewing Company's own beer label. The confirmed page does not explain why that year is missing from the run, so no reason for the gap is offered here.

What the beer connection actually confirms

Brown's Brewing Company's Best Friends Lager and the resulting collectible four-pack are the one concrete prize detail on the page. What isn't confirmed is any additional prize for the pets themselves, a formal category breakdown, or a stated limit on repeat voting by a single supporter.

What the beer partnership means for Mohawk Hudson Humane Society

Brown's Brewing Company lending its own Best Friends Lager label to four shelter pets each cycle gives Mohawk Hudson Humane Society a marketing reach a typical shelter calendar wouldn't have on its own. A collectible four-pack carrying a real pet's photo puts the shelter's own animals in front of beer drinkers who might never otherwise see an adoption listing.

That partnership also explains why this contest looks different from a typical shelter calendar fundraiser: the prize isn't a wall calendar spot, it is a spot on a product a brewing company actually sells. Nothing on the confirmed page states whether the shelter receives a portion of the beer's own sales beyond that exposure; confirm on the live ballot each cycle for whatever financial arrangement currently applies.

Menands, not one of New York's citywide business ballots

Mohawk Hudson Humane Society keeps a Menands, New York address, distinguishing its own beer-label fundraiser sharply from New York's larger citywide business ballots run out of Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx.

None of those four business ballots shares a judging process, an entry form, or a beer partner with Mohawk Hudson Humane Society's own contest. A pet entered here competes only against the shelter's own entrants for a spot on the Best Friends Lager label, no matter how any nearby business ballot happens to name its own winners.

Supporting a shelter's own beer-label fundraiser responsibly

Because the confirmed page leaves both the category structure and any per-voter limit unstated, the safer path for a supporter is asking real people who already know the pet in the photo to vote, rather than assuming a specific daily allowance exists. A contest that has run since 2018 has built genuine trust with its supporters, and irregular activity around the September 2 entry deadline risks that trust regardless of how the eventual voting rules read.

Landing a spot on Brown's Brewing Company's own beer label is a meaningful prize for a shelter pet, worth pursuing through legitimate means rather than shortcuts the page hasn't authorized. Is buying votes legal explains what typically applies to a shelter's paid or unpaid pet contest, and Building real momentum for an online ballot walks through approaches suited to a contest built around a single yearly deadline like this one.