A Dearborn shelter dropped 'Pawchella' after a Coachella legal threat. The donations rolled in anyway.

A Dearborn animal shelter has renamed its annual June fundraiser after lawyers for Coachella objected to the original name, and the change has done little to slow the event.

Friends for Animals of Metro Detroit had been promoting the gathering as Pawchella. After the company behind the Coachella music festival sent a cease-and-desist letter over the "chella" ending, the nonprofit dropped the name and now calls the event Pawfest. The shelter says it complied within days rather than fight, even with the event roughly a month out.

The free-to-rename fight has not dampened the fundraiser. The event runs noon to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 13, at the MaryAnn Wright Animal Adoption and Education Center, 16121 Reckinger Rd. in Dearborn. Admission is $5, children 12 and under get in free, and parking is free. The shelter promotes live music, vendors, food, raffles, and adoptable animals on site.

Cory Keller, president and CEO of Friends for Animals, said the organization had not realized the suffix was protected when it created the event. "We had no idea of the trademark and never had any intention of infringing on it," Keller said in a public statement, adding that the group changed the name as soon as it learned of the issue.

Keller has also tied the rename back to the point of the day itself. "This event has always been about bringing animals and the community together," Keller told the Detroit Free Press. "That is still the vision for this event."

If the legal letter was meant to make the problem go away quietly, it has done the opposite. Friends for Animals reported a wave of out-of-state donations and support after the dispute became public, per the Detroit Metro Times, with limited-run T-shirts and raffle tickets selling through the shelter's site at metrodetroitanimals.org. Raffle prizes this year run up to roughly $2,500 in gift cards, according to reporting on the event.

Goldenvoice, the promoter behind Coachella, has a long record of policing the "chella" suffix. Reported targets over the years include Barkchella, Cowchella, Floatchella, Carchella, Moechella, Afrochella, and Filmchella, among others, per the Metro Times. One of those letters reportedly went to a Minnesota nonprofit that serves writers with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Friends for Animals of Metro Detroit, founded in 1996, says it cares for more than 2,500 dogs and cats each year. Money raised at the fundraiser goes to the shelter's general operations, including medical care and food for animals waiting to be adopted.