August 20, 2024 • 12 mins
We spoke with Jenn Humphrey, Founder of Brass City Rescue Alliance, about the Woof! There It Is! Comedy Night Fundraiser on Saturday, August 24th at the Southington Elks Lodge.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you for listening to Community Access. I'm Alison Demurz.
My guest today is Jen Humphrey, Founder, President and CEO
of the Brass City Rescue Alliance. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm doing good? How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'm doing great? Thank you. How did the Brass City
Rescue Alliance begin?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, I've I was basically by accident. I kind of
started sharing dogs online when I was on furlough from
working as a taxi prayit at EACHNAR block in twenty thirteen,
and it just kind of took on a life of
its own. I was a scrapbooker, and so I would
make these cards to promote dogs and such, and after
(00:44):
a while it just kind of evolved, and I began
my own rescue in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Had you always loved animals or done this kind of
work before?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Never did this kind of work. Always loved animals, always
had five or six in my adult life and when
I was a homeowner, and I've always just been a
dog person.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
So ten years ago, because this is your tenth anniversary, yees,
what did you do next? How did you find a
place and get it all started?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The Middlebury Animal Control building had been vacated by Animals
for Life and so it took about eight months to
negotiate to get into Middlebury Animal Control and operate as
a you know, we were already a nonprofit, but operate
in there and start figuring out what's going to work
and what's not like in terms of bringing in dogs
(01:36):
and the need that's out there in the community. Don't
realize just how much that need is until you're actually
in a building and people are knocking on your door.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Wow, what is it that you do exactly to help animals?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well, we are a local dog rescue. Obviously, we have
a building. We have about fourteen kennels that we can
actually use because we have storage and we have to
keep for animal control too. And basically we rescue, rehability
and vet dogs that somehow manage to find their way
to us.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And where is the location for people who don't.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Know it, is that two Service Road in Middlebury. It's
right next door to Maggiemuxflies restaurant.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And what is your phone number and web address?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
The phone number is two zero three five six zero
five zero five six and the website is Brass City
Rescue dot org.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So for people who are listening, how can they help you.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
The biggest way to help us is honestly to hit
us up on social media, whether it be Facebook or
Instagram or both, and definitely share our dogs, share our fundraisers,
share you know, our stories, because that's the thing, you know,
you never know who's going to see going to do something,
(03:00):
or and needs help, or they lost their dog and
they want another one. You don't know who's going to
connect with, you know, with an animal that we have.
And quite frankly, if we don't get one adopted, we
can't rescue another one.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So tell me some of the services that you do.
Do you offer fostering, do you offer to adopt dogs
or so we.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Adopt ods out, so they come into our care, We
take them to the bat we take care of whatever
they need, okay, and as of right now, we have
a lot of medical cases. So and then we find
suitable homes for them. Right now, Connecticut is very slow
with adoptions all over and with all rescues and municipal
(03:43):
animal control facilities, so a lot of people are moving,
they're having to rehome their animals and everyone's full. So
it's been really slow right now. But in general, yes,
we find them a home or somebody sees them on
our social media or on our website and they apply
and it's good match. They meet and you know, they
have a brand new dog in the family.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Is there a process that you have them go through.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, we usually don't have fosters and medical cases come here,
so everybody's pretty much at the shelter. They apply on
our website. We usually process an application within a day,
have a phone interview called the vet, you know, personal references,
you know, google them ridiculously, and then we set up
an appointment and they meet a dog and sometimes it's
(04:29):
a love match, and sometimes it's not. They might not
like the next dog next to that one, but we
always try to obviously, you know, see what's gonna work
in their home. It's got to be a match. It's
gotta you know, all the bells and whistles of it.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
It's got to be good for everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, otherwise we're gonna come back and we don't want that,
you know, because I have to move on to the
next dog that needs help.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
And I'm sure you go through a serious process because
you love these animals as if they were your own children.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah, yes, I'm very very particular. I mean there have been,
and you know, and I think I'm fair, and I
think a lot of rescues are fair. Some some may
be a little harsher. But we always try to relate
on a human level too. You know, we are honest,
and we love our dogs and we want them to
(05:21):
have the best possible home, because if we're not all
working together to make this happen, even after they get
in the home, we're there for them. I always say
to everybody when we sign the contract, welcome to the family.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
How great is the need right now in the state
of Connecticut for animals to be adopted.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It's horrendous. We have had pretty much with the housing
crisis turned into the South, between the expense of people
not being able to afford to feed their animals, or
they're not able to vet them and stay and neuter,
they're having unwanted litters, war and or other medical issues
(06:00):
that they're not able to afford, and then the housing
crisis is a whole other thing. Nobody can afford a rent,
and not many actually except the animals. So you're finding
people that have two, three, four dogs, maybe even two
cats in there too, having to basically get rid of
all their animals and that's why you're seeing a lot
of abandonment on the news and in the media right now.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And you mentioned in the South. You actually reference that
we're like the South, so it's pretty bad in the
South as well.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Oh god, it's horrible in South, it is. It is
absolutely horrible. They do mostly do not believe in spay
and neuter down there, so you can only imagine the
amount of animals that are down there.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
My goodness, that's bad. It's just heartbreaking, it is.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
It. It's really bad out there all over the country
right now, you know. But a lot of animals from
the South will come up to New England because typically
we've always been better, but says COVID, we just we've
just gotten worse.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
So you have this fundraiser that's coming up. It's called
Wolf There it is. That is so funny. It's a
comedy night fundraiser at the Southington Elks Lodge on Saturday,
August twenty fourth. It's ring your own food, there's a
cash bar and raffles. You have several comedians. Do you
know anything about them?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, actually, one of my girls, you know, planned it
and I started watching some of the videos and everything. Next,
Gopolletti is the main one, the main comedian, and he's
pretty hot stuff. So he kind of recruited some of
his other friends to do it with us. And I'm
looking forward to it because it's not too often rescues
(07:45):
have comedy nights. It's not too often that you have,
you know, two three four comedians and I'm really looking
forward to it.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
And so how can people get tickets?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
So basically we do not have a website that you
can order tickets on. You can either venmo at Brass
City one, cash app, dollar sign Brass City One. You
can PayPal it's PayPal, dot me forward slash Brass City Rescue,
or you can honestly call us at two O three
(08:19):
five six, soh five oh five six and we can
passss your credit card over the phone.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Do you have a Facebook page or Instagram?
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yes, it's just Brass City Rescue Alliance.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And where will the proceeds go from this event? H?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
We have a lot of medical cases right now, so
if anyone's following us on Facebook, they'll see all about
the Golden Girls. They and Reagan is beginning our heart
room treatment. And then we also have a couple in
care that are at my house that have been here
forever because they're medical. We have Little Max, he's always
(08:54):
up a vet and then we also have Stewart getting
getting a meal and neuter this Friday. He's from Navautaki
Animal Control. I took in a couple of owners surrenders
in the last couple of weeks. They're getting neutered next week.
I had a couple of dogs from Middlebury Animal Control
(09:15):
that just got neutered, all in a very basically a
thirty day period. A lot of surgery, so it's usually
all from medical bills.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
If anybody were to find a stray dog, what process
should they go through?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
They always always have to contact their local animal control
because that could be somebody's dogs that they're looking for.
Just because it doesn't have a it might not have
a collar on it or something doesn't mean that it's
not somebody's dog. And I'm also I used to be
on the team at Connecticut Dogs on Recovery and they
(09:50):
are definitely always busy. Every single day they're posting a
dog that is lost and loose. And a dog can
go one hundred miles in a day if they wanted to,
so it can get pretty far. Or if somebody picks
it up and then dumps it out, or it gets
away from somebody, it could be pretty far. So you
always have to contact animal control and definitely reach out
(10:12):
to Connecticut Dog Bound Recovery on Facebook and see if they,
you know, if it's one of their cases, you know,
post it on social media, if your local, whatever your talks,
you know, whatever your talent page is. It's the law
that you have to let animal control know.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
And what if you suspect abuse.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Oh boy, well still you have to call it animal control,
all right, and if you're unable to reach them, then
you call the dispatch line at your local police department.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I'm speaking Jen. Before I go anything else, we didn't
talk about that you want to mention.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
No, just basically we're we're we're excited that it's our
tenth year. We want to get all of our bogs adopted.
So if you're looking for if you're looking for a
you want to add you want to add a dog
to your home, even if you want to add a cat.
I don't have any cats, but if you message us,
we'll certainly connect you with some cat rescues. Everyone's looking
(11:10):
for a home, so if you've got a home to
offer an animal, please please consider adoption from either a
rescue or from your local animal control.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Excellent. I'm speaking with Gen Hunphrey. I'm speaking with Jen Humphrey, Founder,
president and CEO of Brass City Rescue Alliance. Go to
Brasscity Rescue dot org. Excuse me, I'm so sorry. I'm
glad it's you. Go to Brasscdrescue dot org to find
out more about their wolf there. It is comedy Night
(11:40):
fundraiser Saturday, August twenty fourth at the Southington Elks Lodge.
Thank you so much for being here and for loving
animals and taking care of them for us. We appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Thanks so much. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Nelson your phone just cut out, Honey, you say it
one more time.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Thank you so much for having me on. I appreciate it.
Ya
Thank you for listening to Community Access. I'm Alison Demurz.
My guest today is Jen Humphrey, Founder, President and CEO
of the Brass City Rescue Alliance. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm doing good? How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'm doing great? Thank you. How did the Brass City
Rescue Alliance begin?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, I've I was basically by accident. I kind of
started sharing dogs online when I was on furlough from
working as a taxi prayit at EACHNAR block in twenty thirteen,
and it just kind of took on a life of
its own. I was a scrapbooker, and so I would
make these cards to promote dogs and such, and after
(00:44):
a while it just kind of evolved, and I began
my own rescue in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Had you always loved animals or done this kind of
work before?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Never did this kind of work. Always loved animals, always
had five or six in my adult life and when
I was a homeowner, and I've always just been a
dog person.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
So ten years ago, because this is your tenth anniversary, yees,
what did you do next? How did you find a
place and get it all started?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
The Middlebury Animal Control building had been vacated by Animals
for Life and so it took about eight months to
negotiate to get into Middlebury Animal Control and operate as
a you know, we were already a nonprofit, but operate
in there and start figuring out what's going to work
and what's not like in terms of bringing in dogs
(01:36):
and the need that's out there in the community. Don't
realize just how much that need is until you're actually
in a building and people are knocking on your door.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Wow, what is it that you do exactly to help animals?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well, we are a local dog rescue. Obviously, we have
a building. We have about fourteen kennels that we can
actually use because we have storage and we have to
keep for animal control too. And basically we rescue, rehability
and vet dogs that somehow manage to find their way
to us.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And where is the location for people who don't.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Know it, is that two Service Road in Middlebury. It's
right next door to Maggiemuxflies restaurant.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And what is your phone number and web address?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
The phone number is two zero three five six zero
five zero five six and the website is Brass City
Rescue dot org.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So for people who are listening, how can they help you.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
The biggest way to help us is honestly to hit
us up on social media, whether it be Facebook or
Instagram or both, and definitely share our dogs, share our fundraisers,
share you know, our stories, because that's the thing, you know,
you never know who's going to see going to do something,
(03:00):
or and needs help, or they lost their dog and
they want another one. You don't know who's going to
connect with, you know, with an animal that we have.
And quite frankly, if we don't get one adopted, we
can't rescue another one.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So tell me some of the services that you do.
Do you offer fostering, do you offer to adopt dogs
or so we.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Adopt ods out, so they come into our care, We
take them to the bat we take care of whatever
they need, okay, and as of right now, we have
a lot of medical cases. So and then we find
suitable homes for them. Right now, Connecticut is very slow
with adoptions all over and with all rescues and municipal
(03:43):
animal control facilities, so a lot of people are moving,
they're having to rehome their animals and everyone's full. So
it's been really slow right now. But in general, yes,
we find them a home or somebody sees them on
our social media or on our website and they apply
and it's good match. They meet and you know, they
have a brand new dog in the family.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Is there a process that you have them go through.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, we usually don't have fosters and medical cases come here,
so everybody's pretty much at the shelter. They apply on
our website. We usually process an application within a day,
have a phone interview called the vet, you know, personal references,
you know, google them ridiculously, and then we set up
an appointment and they meet a dog and sometimes it's
(04:29):
a love match, and sometimes it's not. They might not
like the next dog next to that one, but we
always try to obviously, you know, see what's gonna work
in their home. It's got to be a match. It's
gotta you know, all the bells and whistles of it.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
It's got to be good for everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, otherwise we're gonna come back and we don't want that,
you know, because I have to move on to the
next dog that needs help.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
And I'm sure you go through a serious process because
you love these animals as if they were your own children.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah, yes, I'm very very particular. I mean there have been,
and you know, and I think I'm fair, and I
think a lot of rescues are fair. Some some may
be a little harsher. But we always try to relate
on a human level too. You know, we are honest,
and we love our dogs and we want them to
(05:21):
have the best possible home, because if we're not all
working together to make this happen, even after they get
in the home, we're there for them. I always say
to everybody when we sign the contract, welcome to the family.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
How great is the need right now in the state
of Connecticut for animals to be adopted.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It's horrendous. We have had pretty much with the housing
crisis turned into the South, between the expense of people
not being able to afford to feed their animals, or
they're not able to vet them and stay and neuter,
they're having unwanted litters, war and or other medical issues
(06:00):
that they're not able to afford, and then the housing
crisis is a whole other thing. Nobody can afford a rent,
and not many actually except the animals. So you're finding
people that have two, three, four dogs, maybe even two
cats in there too, having to basically get rid of
all their animals and that's why you're seeing a lot
of abandonment on the news and in the media right now.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And you mentioned in the South. You actually reference that
we're like the South, so it's pretty bad in the
South as well.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Oh god, it's horrible in South, it is. It is
absolutely horrible. They do mostly do not believe in spay
and neuter down there, so you can only imagine the
amount of animals that are down there.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
My goodness, that's bad. It's just heartbreaking, it is.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
It. It's really bad out there all over the country
right now, you know. But a lot of animals from
the South will come up to New England because typically
we've always been better, but says COVID, we just we've
just gotten worse.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
So you have this fundraiser that's coming up. It's called
Wolf There it is. That is so funny. It's a
comedy night fundraiser at the Southington Elks Lodge on Saturday,
August twenty fourth. It's ring your own food, there's a
cash bar and raffles. You have several comedians. Do you
know anything about them?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, actually, one of my girls, you know, planned it
and I started watching some of the videos and everything. Next,
Gopolletti is the main one, the main comedian, and he's
pretty hot stuff. So he kind of recruited some of
his other friends to do it with us. And I'm
looking forward to it because it's not too often rescues
(07:45):
have comedy nights. It's not too often that you have,
you know, two three four comedians and I'm really looking
forward to it.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
And so how can people get tickets?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
So basically we do not have a website that you
can order tickets on. You can either venmo at Brass
City one, cash app, dollar sign Brass City One. You
can PayPal it's PayPal, dot me forward slash Brass City Rescue,
or you can honestly call us at two O three
(08:19):
five six, soh five oh five six and we can
passss your credit card over the phone.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Do you have a Facebook page or Instagram?
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yes, it's just Brass City Rescue Alliance.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And where will the proceeds go from this event? H?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
We have a lot of medical cases right now, so
if anyone's following us on Facebook, they'll see all about
the Golden Girls. They and Reagan is beginning our heart
room treatment. And then we also have a couple in
care that are at my house that have been here
forever because they're medical. We have Little Max, he's always
(08:54):
up a vet and then we also have Stewart getting
getting a meal and neuter this Friday. He's from Navautaki
Animal Control. I took in a couple of owners surrenders
in the last couple of weeks. They're getting neutered next week.
I had a couple of dogs from Middlebury Animal Control
(09:15):
that just got neutered, all in a very basically a
thirty day period. A lot of surgery, so it's usually
all from medical bills.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
If anybody were to find a stray dog, what process
should they go through?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
They always always have to contact their local animal control
because that could be somebody's dogs that they're looking for.
Just because it doesn't have a it might not have
a collar on it or something doesn't mean that it's
not somebody's dog. And I'm also I used to be
on the team at Connecticut Dogs on Recovery and they
(09:50):
are definitely always busy. Every single day they're posting a
dog that is lost and loose. And a dog can
go one hundred miles in a day if they wanted to,
so it can get pretty far. Or if somebody picks
it up and then dumps it out, or it gets
away from somebody, it could be pretty far. So you
always have to contact animal control and definitely reach out
(10:12):
to Connecticut Dog Bound Recovery on Facebook and see if they,
you know, if it's one of their cases, you know,
post it on social media, if your local, whatever your talks,
you know, whatever your talent page is. It's the law
that you have to let animal control know.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
And what if you suspect abuse.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Oh boy, well still you have to call it animal control,
all right, and if you're unable to reach them, then
you call the dispatch line at your local police department.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I'm speaking Jen. Before I go anything else, we didn't
talk about that you want to mention.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
No, just basically we're we're we're excited that it's our
tenth year. We want to get all of our bogs adopted.
So if you're looking for if you're looking for a
you want to add you want to add a dog
to your home, even if you want to add a cat.
I don't have any cats, but if you message us,
we'll certainly connect you with some cat rescues. Everyone's looking
(11:10):
for a home, so if you've got a home to
offer an animal, please please consider adoption from either a
rescue or from your local animal control.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Excellent. I'm speaking with Gen Hunphrey. I'm speaking with Jen Humphrey, Founder,
president and CEO of Brass City Rescue Alliance. Go to
Brasscity Rescue dot org. Excuse me, I'm so sorry. I'm
glad it's you. Go to Brasscdrescue dot org to find
out more about their wolf there. It is comedy Night
(11:40):
fundraiser Saturday, August twenty fourth at the Southington Elks Lodge.
Thank you so much for being here and for loving
animals and taking care of them for us. We appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Thanks so much. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Nelson your phone just cut out, Honey, you say it
one more time.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Thank you so much for having me on. I appreciate it.
Ya
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