February 21, 2025 • 28 mins
This episode features Cara Achterberg, co-founder of Who Will Let the Dogs Out and author of "Who Will Let the Dogs Out: Stories and Solutions for Shelters and Rescues." Drawing from her experience visiting over 150 shelters in 13 states, Cara shares critical insights into America's shelter crisis and offers practical solutions for change. From heart-wrenching stories of overwhelmed Southern shelters to inspiring tales of innovative rescue approaches, this episode explores the complex challenges facing our nation's homeless dogs and the heroes fighting for them. Learn about the truth behind "no-kill" shelters, the impact of the pandemic on animal welfare, and how communities can work together to create lasting change. Whether you're involved in animal rescue or simply care about making a difference, this conversation will help you understand animal sheltering in America and inspire you to be part of the solution.
EPISODE NOTES: Shelter Solutions: A Deep Dive with Animal Advocate Cara Achterberg
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/save-a-pooch-rescue-dog-welfare-pet-life-radio-original--6669238/support.
EPISODE NOTES: Shelter Solutions: A Deep Dive with Animal Advocate Cara Achterberg
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/save-a-pooch-rescue-dog-welfare-pet-life-radio-original--6669238/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome to Save a Pooch on Pet Life Radio. I
am Beverly and like your host, thank you for listening
in today. Our special guest today is Sarah Afterberg, a novelist,
animal advocate, and a co founder of Who Will.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Let the Dogs Out. And it's a national nonprofit that raises.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Awareness and resources for shelters. So Kara has become a
leading voice in shelter reform and solutions, with having visited
over one hundred and fifty shelters in thirteen states.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
In her latest book, Who Will Let the Dogs Out,
Stories and solutions for shelters rescues share insights into what's
happening in our shelters, what's working.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And what could be done to create successful shelters that
really serve their communities. So Kara brings both her personal
experience or professional expertise to this conversation about America's shelter crisis.
When we get back from these messages, we will hear
from Kara October.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
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Speaker 5 (02:02):
Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Welcome back to Staying but Pooch. We are talking with
Kara Octoberg, co founder of Who Will Let the Dogs Out.
Thank you for taking time today. Kara, you are a great,
great resource for those in the rescue dog industry, so
you have a lot to share, so let's get right
to it.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Looking forward to what you have to say. So what
inspired you to co found Who Will Let the Dogs Out?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
And what was your first shelter visit?
Speaker 6 (02:42):
Like you know, I never set out to start a nonprofit.
I really just got involved in rescue by fostering, and
that happened only because I lost a dog after eighteen
years and when she passed, I just really struggled to
find a new dog that I could commit to for
eighteen years. So we ended up fostering. We would just
try it out and we found the right dog, we'd
(03:03):
keep it. But instead I learned about what was happening
in our nation shelters, and I was really kind of
shocked and stunned by so much of it. The first
time I went to visit a shelter, I had already
fostered over one hundred dogs, and I had written a
book about flustering dogs, so I felt like I knew
a lot, you know, And I went there. I had
(03:23):
a vanload of donations to take and my best friend
traveling with me, and thought, oh, this is going to
be fun. And then we walked into a shelter in
North Carolina that was really it was just so eye
opening for me. I was stunned. I was really ashamed
that I didn't know it was the way it was.
And in that shelter, eighty percent of the dogs were
(03:45):
heartworm positive. They struggled to get dogs out. That month,
they had taken in over fifty dogs, so it wasn't
a huge shelter, but they'd only adopted out three. So
you do the math on that, it's a pretty hard math.
And I was just overwhelmed by the situation, by how
little they had, and just shocked that I didn't know,
and I thought, if I have fostered one hundred dogs
and I don't know, this is happening, very few people,
(04:07):
do you know? Because I should have known, And that
kind of started the ball rolling. And on that trip
went to fourteen shelters, I believe, and then I came
back again. I brought a team of volunteers and we
volunteered in different shelters, and I just grew frustrated with
the fact that nobody seemed to know what was going
on and I couldn't get my message out. So I
(04:29):
invited a photographer to come with me, because people tend
to like pictures and it can really really speak volumes,
and she and I started traveling. We went on a
tour and we just kept saying to each other, if
people could just see this, they wouldn't believe it. And
so one night we decided that, you know what, we're
gonna show them. We're going to We're going to tell
them all about what's going on, and we formed tool
(04:49):
Let the Dogs Out with my son Ian, who had
come on one of our trips, and just it went
from there. That was five years ago, and since then
we've now made over one hundred and fifty visits. We're
getting ready go on another tour in about a week
and we will go to I will visit with fourteen
shelters and rescues in twelve days, so it will be.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
A big tour.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
WHOA, So you guys just travel like within the US,
within the United States, primarily in the South, but we've
gone as far we're starting to venture a little further west.
So we've been to Arkansas extensively, and we've been all
the way down to the very tip of Florida, and
I've been to one shelter in California, and other than that,
it's been primarily, you know, the Southeastern States, and because
(05:30):
that's where you know, many many places are struggling so much.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I'm actually curious, like when you go into these shelters,
are they like welcoming to you guys, or are they
more intimidate idiot of I don't know, like they're gonna
get found out of how they run their shelters.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
You know, they are sometimes very anxious about us coming in,
and I try to see to them. We are always
on the side of the shelter. It does no one
any good for us to come right and slam the
shelter and say, you know, and there may be things
I see that I think, oh, they could be doing
this better, but I'm not going to say that publicly.
I'm going to say that to them, right, We give
them after we visit, we send, we stay in touch,
(06:08):
and we send suggestions. We say here's some things we
noticed and these things might help. These resources, these connections,
these ideas, they might help. But publicly, what we put
out on our social media is always going to be positive.
It's going to be a look how much they're doing
with how little they have, and here's how you can help.
That's basically our attitude every time going in. We are
coming in there to get them some attention. We send
(06:29):
out a press release and often local press will show up.
We just want people just to see them and see
who they are, and we want to get their story right.
We want to tell not just about the dogs, but
about the people too, so because that's kind of where
my heart is. I want to help these people that
are struggling so hard.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, that's amazing that you take on both takes. You're
like the positive monitor and not the ones that people
are intimidated. But that's awesome. So your book reveals some
realities about obviously the whole shelter system. What surprised you
stirring your visits too across the areas that you've covered.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
I think it really really is the people we've gone
into shelters where there's just one individual. It might be
a paid animal control officer, it might be a volunteer,
and they are the only person you know, coming into
that shelter and doing the work and trying to find
homes for these dogs, and they are working so hard.
And I was just surprised at how often the local
(07:25):
area wouldn't have any idea. They wouldn't even know that
this situation existed right there in their mids. They wouldn't
even realize it. And we would we hear from people
that would be, oh, I didn't even know we had
a shelter. Or we'd be out in there and maybe
eating at a restaurant or whatever and wearing our T
shirts and someone would comment and we would say, oh,
we were here to visit your shelter, and they would
be like, we have a shelter, Which that always shocked
(07:47):
me that people didn't realize that. And the other thing
that really shocked me tremendously. It was on my third
trip down. I was with my son on that trip.
Is that dog pounds still exist and in their staff
by dogcatchers. And I thought that was something that went
away when I was you know, that was from when
I was a kid. The dog catcher was a bad guy, right, No,
they still exist. In fact, on this next tour, we
(08:08):
are going to a dog pound in Tennessee and meeting
with a dog catcher and that's their role they and
they are operated like a pound. They put the dogs
in the pound, they stay in the pound. If they
are not claimed by owners, they're then taken to a
bed and killed. That just shocks me.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
It shocks me.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
And whenever I tell and I don't tell this story
that often because you know, many people have a hard
time hearing this stuff. But it's going on in our
country and we need to know it, we need to
talk about it, we need to fix it.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, exactly, And you mentioned pound because I haven't heard
that Hord in Ohio. Actually, So for the quick, quick
recap or people who may don't understand the difference between
shelters and pounds, I'm not going to assume that shelters
also don't euganize, because some of them do. What are
the differences?
Speaker 6 (08:52):
So a dog pound is simply an they're there to impound.
They have an ordinance to collect loose dogs or you know,
dogs that have been left behind in an incident with
police or that kind of sits dogs that are just that.
They're impounded, just sort of and they are put in
the pounds that we have seen. They are placed in
a kennel. They are held for whatever the legal stray
(09:12):
hold is for that area, which is typically between five
days and seven days, and if no one claims them,
then they're available to rescue. And some pounds do allow
rescues to come in the pound we'll be visiting. We
are going in with the rescue. If they aren't claimed
or they are not pulled by rescue, then they are
taken to the vet to be euthanized. And a shelter
(09:33):
should be just that a shelter. It should be a
place where animals are. Animals come, and most of them
are this. Animals are brought by animal control officers or
they're turned in by Good Samaritans, and some shelters also
accept owner surrendered dogs and they are held again for
their legal strayhold before they're then available for adoption or
to be pulled by rescue. And many shelters will let
(09:55):
dogs stay as long as they have room. They will
hold dogs almost indefinitely. We've been places where dogs have
been there for literally years.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (10:03):
Yeah, so they'll do that. So that's kind of the difference.
The shelter is going to try to rehome and adopt
out dogs and there's a pound is simply a holding facility.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Gotcha, Thank you for that. Clarity needs to be get
out there. And you talk about the three critical elements
for a successful shelter, one being leadership, to being veterinary
access and through being community engagement. Can you kind of
elaborate on why these three are crucial.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
Or you know, it's taking us a while, like the
first few years that we were doing this, struggling like
what is it they need?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
What?
Speaker 6 (10:35):
You know? Everywhere I went, I would say, you know,
other than money, I mean, other than money, what can.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
We do what?
Speaker 6 (10:40):
But the longer we did it and the more you're
assessing and talking about these shelters after every visit, we
realize the very very critical things are leadership, veterinary access,
and community engagement leadership, because you've got to have a
leader who is committed to saving all the savable dogs,
the adoptable dogs like that. They have to be that
committed and we sell it firsthand. And that kind of
the light bulb went on for me when we were
(11:02):
in South Carolina out of shelter Anderson County Pause and
we met with the director there, who also happened to
be a veterinarian, so she kind of knocked out two
things at once. But she came into that shelter they
were actively at that point. This is a large, large shelter.
I want to say, maybe five hundred dogs a month
come in there, and they were at that point euthanizing
(11:22):
sixty percent of their animals, so only forty percent of
the animals that came in the building got out alive.
And she came in and took over this shelter, and
in six months they were considered no kill. They were
only euthanizing things they couldn't save. She said, if you
can scrape it off the pavement, I'll try to put
it back together. Because she's a veterinarian and you know
so her and I said, well, how did you do
(11:43):
that and she said, we just simply stopped killing dogs.
We took that off the table. When you take that
option off the table, then you find others and they did,
their team did, they got their community on board and
they did it. So that was kind of clear to
me that when you first you have to make the
decision that it's possible. So many places say, oh, we can't,
it's too hard. There's just too many dogs, not enough adopters,
(12:05):
not enough room, you know, and they just say they can't.
You've got to be committed and believe that you can.
And that might be the director, that might be a
board of supervisors that looks over the shelter, that might
be the shriff. So it depends on where the shelter,
you know, where the leadership falls in that for each area.
But that's the first really important piece. The second one
is vetinary access and everyone in the country is struggling
with that right now. Everybody is struggling for veterinary access
(12:27):
and it's a hold up and it really prevents shelters
from saving, especially in the South where the heart where
heartworm just you know that I was stating, and if
you can't afford to treat them or even give them preventatives.
Once they come into your shelter, it's really hard to
save them. And if you don't have access to spae neuter,
it's hard to move dogs out. And then if you're
adopting them out on spained and unneutered, they're going to
(12:49):
come back to you and multiples, so venary access is
really critical. It's the second key piece you have to
have to turn a shelter around. And then third piece,
I think the most important piece, and the piece I
get them was excited about, is community engagement. If your
community needs to know that these are their animals. They
don't belong to the Animal Control department. They belong to
the community, and the community as that should come in
(13:11):
and take some responsibility for that, and they should be
a part of fixing the problem. In every shelter that
is succeeding right now has a vibrant volunteer program, They
have a strong foster program, They are active in their community,
they are getting their animals out and they're inviting the
public into their shelter. They have hours that work for anybody,
you know, so they are open, you know, afternoons and evenings,
(13:33):
not just that little ten to two like right and
animal places are so they really make it possible for
people to come in and they are part of their shelter.
There was a shelter in Georgia this that was doing
that so much. It was exciting to see there. We've
had a lot of kids in there doing all kinds
of things, and the director there said to me, this
shelter is their shelter. These animals belong to them, And
(13:56):
that was another time a light bulb went on with
she's right, and that's how we fix this. So the
shelters we see that have turned it around and are
succeeding have those three things. They have a leader committed
to saving the animals, they have access affordable access to
veterinary care, and they have a community that is involved
and engaged in what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
That's like a three powerhouse right there, which is obviously
going to be in a book which emphasizes the solutions.
So that's great that it's not just highlighting the problems.
And you kind of started getting into the success stories.
What are some other ones that you've witnessed.
Speaker 6 (14:30):
There have been so many that we've gotten to because
we've done it long enough. Now we've to watch a
few of them. We're going to be visiting a shelter
for the third time on this trip that has come
so far.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
And I'm not going to talk about them.
Speaker 6 (14:41):
Because I haven't seen it yet, but I know that
they were pretty rough when I saw them in twenty
nineteen and then and a little bit better in twenty
and now we're going back again and we're excited to see.
We've heard so many good things, but there's a great
little shelter. In fact, they are hosting a book event
while we're on on this tour in Cheatham County, Tennessee,
(15:02):
which is is a rural county's small shelter doesn't have
a very big budget, and they were a shelter that
was euthanizing ninety percent of the animals. And when they
had a new director come in, she's young, and she
looked around and they had a huge facility in not facility,
piece of land. It sits like way out way rural.
It took us a long time to find it. It's
(15:23):
really rural, and they have about I want to say
they have seventy eight or something like that, and very
wooded and there we was so much crap all over
the place when she took it her, which is, you know,
it was a dumping ground for the county and they
had like a lot of their vehicles, but then people
dumping trash and so the first thing they did was
clean the whole thing up. The next thing they did
was cut trails all over the property, walking trails, and
(15:46):
they invited the high school, local high school to design
a story trail so to create you know, images and stories,
and they posted them all through the trail, and then
they invited the public to come out to this beautiful
property and it was beautiful and walked up or just
come and walk and the only thing they asked was
that you take one of their adoptable dogs with you
along the trail.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
And that kind of opened the door and got people
coming out there because it had been such a dark
place where so many animals died and people didn't want
to go there, and that got people to start coming out,
and from there they built their volunteer program. They now
have a nonprofit that works with them to help get
the things they need because they are small menus full shelter,
so they don't have funds for things like treating heartworm,
(16:27):
and they can't always do things quickly, so this non
trofit helps them tremendously, so that it's been really, really
exciting to watch Tetum come along in the last five years.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Entern the corner that is so creative. Oh good job
on the confronting that. Now I do want to segue
into your Instagram, but before we do, we're just going
to have a quick break and when we get back
we'll continue talking with Carol Hakaburg.
Speaker 7 (16:58):
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Speaker 1 (17:41):
Talk past, Let's done petco at.
Speaker 8 (17:43):
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Speaker 2 (17:57):
Welcome back, to favor Poach. We are talking with co
founder of who will Let the Dogs Out Care off
the Berg. I almost wanted to start seeking that let
the dogs go where you go there, how does it
work and what kind of impact have you seen from
these targeted resources.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
Our Instagram program has been dream come true for me
when we first started going out to these shelters, and
a lot of them we visit our small, municiful shelters
that really struggle, and they are not the ones that
get the grants from the vague organizations, and that's often
because they don't have the ability to apply for them.
Many of the places we go to, not many, but
some of them we go to, they don't even have
internet access, so applying for a grant is really tricky.
(18:38):
And many don't have computerized records right, so they can't
they can't get the money, and they needed the most.
So we wanted to create it was my I had
this dream. I was like, what if we could just
and be like, ohprah, you get this and you get that?
Like what if we could and we get so like
if we visited your shelter, we know you, We've told
your story. We continued to follow what you're doing, and
(18:59):
you have a need. I want to be able to
meet that, and I wanted to take away all the
red tape and we did that, and we were so
lucky the ASPCA did first fund our initial program and
continue to fund it. And we don't hand out money,
we don't hand out checks. But if for instance, you're
at a shelter this last tour we're on, you're at
a shelter, small, little rural Kentucky shelter. They didn't have
(19:22):
an animal scale, like a professional animal scale, and theyse don't.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Cost a lot.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
I believe it was three or four hundred dollars, but
in a municipal budget that they don't have that money.
That shelter didn't have money for a lot of things
in a scale was one of them. And I asked
the director, like, how are you knowing how much deworm
or to give or how are you telling rescues how
much the dog weigh is that you're trying to get
them to pull? And she was like, I have a
good eye. I can usually guess which isn't a safe
way of being medicating a dog. And so we bought
(19:49):
them a scale and had it delivered. So when we
see a need, we're able to meet it and instead
of them having to ask for it or us giving
them money, which is tricky in a municipal shelter, you
can't just hand them money because it has to go
to the county. It's just very complicated, you know. But
we can give them things. So we've given many many
Coronda beds, raised beds for dogs that were sleeping on cement.
(20:09):
I feel like we've given several hundred by now. We
give a little teeny shed, a portable shed to another
shelter because there it was a small building, it was
really noisy, and the director wanted to be able to
have people meet dogs in a quiet place instead of
the chaos of barking dogs. He wanted a separate space,
and so we bought him this little portable shed. It
(20:30):
sits right next to the shelter, and he tricked it
all out like a living room. You walk in there,
you think you're in the living room, and it just
creates that space. So it's things like that that we
are able to do. Most of our instagrams are valued
between like two hundred and fifty and the biggest we've
done is the six thousand dollars shed. So we've done
a bunch and it's my dream is that we have
more money to do more. We are limited by how
much money we have. It would be awesome if we
(20:52):
had enough money on our Instagram for instance, fix or
buy a new transport van for this shelter we visited
in Arkansas, a big shelter, wonderful shelter. Their van hasn't
run in years. They use it for storing supplies in
the parking lot and they are workers and volunteers drive
their personal vehicles that take dogs to vets, to pick
up lost animals, to drive to transport. And that's that's
(21:15):
too big for us. We can't do that one by
dream that some prile that's something we'll be able to do.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
How do you guys get supported to be able to
provide all donations? None of us are paid. We're all
volunteers that are working in this organization and so we
depend on donations. We have a couple really nice doners
who support us regularly. We only have like two or
three that support us monthly, which we love to have
that because it's so much nicer and easier to plan.
Speaker 6 (21:40):
When you know rockid thing you're going to have but no,
the ASPCA has funded that Instagram program. The company Max
and Neo, which is a fabulous pet supply company. They
bought us a vehicle and wrapped it and we look
really cool tricked out. It's a little Honda Element and
we drive into these places. So those are our big supporters,
(22:01):
and then the rest of it, you know, it's fundraising,
and that's the hardest part is funding because you know,
we're trying to help shelters. We're trying to help them
get money, so it's hard to them be asking for
money for us, but we need it so that we
can help them. So it's it's an ongoing challenge.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Exactly are you guys also on Instagram?
Speaker 6 (22:19):
We are? We are on Instagram, on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube,
you have a podcast, We're everywhere anywhere we can. We're
trying to get this message out, you know, reach people
wherever we.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Can, just to raise awareness. Absolutely, And what's the handle
for the Instagram who.
Speaker 6 (22:34):
Will Let the Dogs Out? All of our handles are
purple let the Dogs Out? To make sure you awesome
will in there. So if you put who Let the
Dogs Out? You get a lot of really great videos
that will let the dogs.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Out, you'll mind us.
Speaker 6 (22:45):
It seems like a great idea at the time, but
you know it's with a challenge sometimes.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I can imagine now I'm going to check just out
of curiosity for those running the rest of your organizations
who might be experiencing burnout, which I'm sure also them
are what guidance can you offer for them?
Speaker 6 (23:03):
You know, everybody's super overwhelmed right now. They're so overtaxed
being asked to do so much. And the problem, you know,
the number of animals that are coming into our shelters
and getting turned away from our shelters is hard, and
that's putting a big burden on rescue. We got to
do this really cool event in Kentucky. We're invited there
by a city council woman, and she invited like rescue
(23:25):
and shelter and government officials and volunteers and tenant supporters
and veterinarians, everybody who was involved to come. And she
reached out to me because she said, I can get
them all in the room, but then I don't know
what to do. So we traveled there and we facilitated
a day of just connecting and sharing ideas. I mean,
we started the day by saying, Okay, I know you
(23:46):
all have some horrible stories, but we're not here to
tell those horrible stories. We're going to stay focused on solutions.
That's all we're going to work on today is solutions.
And it was a really cool day and it made
me realize how isolated they feel, because as we went
around and people introduce themselves, I mean there were tears,
There were people saying, it just feels incredible. It will
be in a room with so many people who get it,
(24:06):
who understand, who are struggling. We kept hearing the words
I'm just drowning. It was just it was just really inspiring.
We're planning to do three more of those events this
year several other states. But the one other thing that
they do in Tennessee actually the director of Nashville Humane
Association she started a monthly meeting I think they're bi
(24:28):
monthly now, but a monthly meeting where she invited the
directors of all the shelters to come and they meet
at a different shelter each time, and they have lunch
and they kind of do like, you know, a case
study on that shelter, like what can we do, how
can we help you know, like give us a tour,
tell you know, and they kind of brainstorm and they
support each other. And I think that rescues could do
the same thing. Too often we're competing with each other
(24:50):
for resources instead of working together. And I think if
shelters and rescues could meet up, that the people could
get together. They're each other's best resources, ideas, best support.
So I think when you're feeling really overwhelmed, the best
thing to do is to reach out to another shelter
or rescue and say, what are you doing that's working?
And you know, just reach out for that support because
(25:12):
it's been inspiring to see what happens when they start
to work together and do things together.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Thank god you said that, So yeah, there needs to
be a bit more unity. I suppose you can say
it like that. So yeah, thank you for explaining that.
They can also go to your website because I see
there's a ton of information on there for rescue organizations. Now,
before we wrap up, what advice would you give to
someone who wants to start fostering dogs.
Speaker 6 (25:38):
Fostering is my thing. I still foster, even though I'm
doing all this, I'm always fostering. I I left count
after three hundred, I don't know where we're at, but
I think that fostering is the one thing anybody, just
about anybody can do right now that's going to help.
I mean, the situation is really hard, really hard all over,
just so many animals and so many shelters that just
(25:59):
don't have room, and they're having to make hard decisions,
and right now, taking in a dog to foster is
a way to help. That's one way you can concretely help.
And I would tell anybody who's interested in doing it,
ask a ton of questions. Ask them what happens if
I have there's a medical problem, like how does that
handle it? Within this rescue? How does the dog get adopted?
(26:20):
How much am I going to need to do to
help this animal get adopted? Who provides the supplies, that
creates the food, the treats, that kind of stuff, And
what's the average amount of time that a foster would
have a dog. And then another really important question to
ask is if this doesn't work out because whatever reason
doesn't get along with your dog or whatever that reason,
(26:42):
what happens then? Because you don't want to be you know,
if you foster for an organization that doesn't have the
resources to be able to back you up in a
tough situation or take that dog in a critical situation.
Then you know it's going to land on you. So
you want to know that up front. How all those
know that stuff up front, so before you start fostering.
But I can't recommend it. It's the coolest thing. It
(27:04):
was a really cool thing we did with our kids.
And that wasn't something I expected. I thought they would
have a really hard time with it, you know, letting
these dogs go, But they didn't. They totally got it.
They understood that, you know, if we let this one go,
we can save another. And sometimes it hard because they
got attached, but they totally got it, and they would
even say it's kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, it's like you get a new dog every two
or three weeks. It was.
Speaker 6 (27:25):
They really enjoyed it. And the same time, you know,
you might get a dog that you don't love, you
don't love, but I mean you love, but you don't love, uh,
And that one's outsane forever either, So it's kind of fun.
For that reason.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
That's a trickle down effect and that that's gonna really
help the younger generation. Yeah, understand these animals more so
that's that's a bonus right there, Kara. So we are
out of time. I really really appreciate you taking the
time and thanks to our showp Looser Mark Winter for
making the show possible. You can learn more about care
of the work at who Will Let the Dogs Out
(27:59):
Thought and the information for the upcoming book is also
there and link will also be on the show page.
So if you have any questions, comments, our ideas for
the show, please email me at Beverly at petlife radio
dot com. So until next time, spread animal compassion.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on petlfradio
dot com.
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome to Save a Pooch on Pet Life Radio. I
am Beverly and like your host, thank you for listening
in today. Our special guest today is Sarah Afterberg, a novelist,
animal advocate, and a co founder of Who Will.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Let the Dogs Out. And it's a national nonprofit that raises.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Awareness and resources for shelters. So Kara has become a
leading voice in shelter reform and solutions, with having visited
over one hundred and fifty shelters in thirteen states.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
In her latest book, Who Will Let the Dogs Out,
Stories and solutions for shelters rescues share insights into what's
happening in our shelters, what's working.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And what could be done to create successful shelters that
really serve their communities. So Kara brings both her personal
experience or professional expertise to this conversation about America's shelter crisis.
When we get back from these messages, we will hear
from Kara October.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
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(01:49):
more about the benefits of spee and Neoter and meet Scooter,
the newtered cat at give Them ten dot Org. That's
give them ten dot Org.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Welcome back to Staying but Pooch. We are talking with
Kara Octoberg, co founder of Who Will Let the Dogs Out.
Thank you for taking time today. Kara, you are a great,
great resource for those in the rescue dog industry, so
you have a lot to share, so let's get right
to it.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Looking forward to what you have to say. So what
inspired you to co found Who Will Let the Dogs Out?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
And what was your first shelter visit?
Speaker 6 (02:42):
Like you know, I never set out to start a nonprofit.
I really just got involved in rescue by fostering, and
that happened only because I lost a dog after eighteen
years and when she passed, I just really struggled to
find a new dog that I could commit to for
eighteen years. So we ended up fostering. We would just
try it out and we found the right dog, we'd
(03:03):
keep it. But instead I learned about what was happening
in our nation shelters, and I was really kind of
shocked and stunned by so much of it. The first
time I went to visit a shelter, I had already
fostered over one hundred dogs, and I had written a
book about flustering dogs, so I felt like I knew
a lot, you know, And I went there. I had
(03:23):
a vanload of donations to take and my best friend
traveling with me, and thought, oh, this is going to
be fun. And then we walked into a shelter in
North Carolina that was really it was just so eye
opening for me. I was stunned. I was really ashamed
that I didn't know it was the way it was.
And in that shelter, eighty percent of the dogs were
(03:45):
heartworm positive. They struggled to get dogs out. That month,
they had taken in over fifty dogs, so it wasn't
a huge shelter, but they'd only adopted out three. So
you do the math on that, it's a pretty hard math.
And I was just overwhelmed by the situation, by how
little they had, and just shocked that I didn't know,
and I thought, if I have fostered one hundred dogs
and I don't know, this is happening, very few people,
(04:07):
do you know? Because I should have known, And that
kind of started the ball rolling. And on that trip
went to fourteen shelters, I believe, and then I came
back again. I brought a team of volunteers and we
volunteered in different shelters, and I just grew frustrated with
the fact that nobody seemed to know what was going
on and I couldn't get my message out. So I
(04:29):
invited a photographer to come with me, because people tend
to like pictures and it can really really speak volumes,
and she and I started traveling. We went on a
tour and we just kept saying to each other, if
people could just see this, they wouldn't believe it. And
so one night we decided that, you know what, we're
gonna show them. We're going to We're going to tell
them all about what's going on, and we formed tool
(04:49):
Let the Dogs Out with my son Ian, who had
come on one of our trips, and just it went
from there. That was five years ago, and since then
we've now made over one hundred and fifty visits. We're
getting ready go on another tour in about a week
and we will go to I will visit with fourteen
shelters and rescues in twelve days, so it will be.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
A big tour.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
WHOA, So you guys just travel like within the US,
within the United States, primarily in the South, but we've
gone as far we're starting to venture a little further west.
So we've been to Arkansas extensively, and we've been all
the way down to the very tip of Florida, and
I've been to one shelter in California, and other than that,
it's been primarily, you know, the Southeastern States, and because
(05:30):
that's where you know, many many places are struggling so much.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I'm actually curious, like when you go into these shelters,
are they like welcoming to you guys, or are they
more intimidate idiot of I don't know, like they're gonna
get found out of how they run their shelters.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
You know, they are sometimes very anxious about us coming in,
and I try to see to them. We are always
on the side of the shelter. It does no one
any good for us to come right and slam the
shelter and say, you know, and there may be things
I see that I think, oh, they could be doing
this better, but I'm not going to say that publicly.
I'm going to say that to them, right, We give
them after we visit, we send, we stay in touch,
(06:08):
and we send suggestions. We say here's some things we
noticed and these things might help. These resources, these connections,
these ideas, they might help. But publicly, what we put
out on our social media is always going to be positive.
It's going to be a look how much they're doing
with how little they have, and here's how you can help.
That's basically our attitude every time going in. We are
coming in there to get them some attention. We send
(06:29):
out a press release and often local press will show up.
We just want people just to see them and see
who they are, and we want to get their story right.
We want to tell not just about the dogs, but
about the people too, so because that's kind of where
my heart is. I want to help these people that
are struggling so hard.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, that's amazing that you take on both takes. You're
like the positive monitor and not the ones that people
are intimidated. But that's awesome. So your book reveals some
realities about obviously the whole shelter system. What surprised you
stirring your visits too across the areas that you've covered.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
I think it really really is the people we've gone
into shelters where there's just one individual. It might be
a paid animal control officer, it might be a volunteer,
and they are the only person you know, coming into
that shelter and doing the work and trying to find
homes for these dogs, and they are working so hard.
And I was just surprised at how often the local
(07:25):
area wouldn't have any idea. They wouldn't even know that
this situation existed right there in their mids. They wouldn't
even realize it. And we would we hear from people
that would be, oh, I didn't even know we had
a shelter. Or we'd be out in there and maybe
eating at a restaurant or whatever and wearing our T
shirts and someone would comment and we would say, oh,
we were here to visit your shelter, and they would
be like, we have a shelter, Which that always shocked
(07:47):
me that people didn't realize that. And the other thing
that really shocked me tremendously. It was on my third
trip down. I was with my son on that trip.
Is that dog pounds still exist and in their staff
by dogcatchers. And I thought that was something that went
away when I was you know, that was from when
I was a kid. The dog catcher was a bad guy, right, No,
they still exist. In fact, on this next tour, we
(08:08):
are going to a dog pound in Tennessee and meeting
with a dog catcher and that's their role they and
they are operated like a pound. They put the dogs
in the pound, they stay in the pound. If they
are not claimed by owners, they're then taken to a
bed and killed. That just shocks me.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
It shocks me.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
And whenever I tell and I don't tell this story
that often because you know, many people have a hard
time hearing this stuff. But it's going on in our
country and we need to know it, we need to
talk about it, we need to fix it.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, exactly, And you mentioned pound because I haven't heard
that Hord in Ohio. Actually, So for the quick, quick
recap or people who may don't understand the difference between
shelters and pounds, I'm not going to assume that shelters
also don't euganize, because some of them do. What are
the differences?
Speaker 6 (08:52):
So a dog pound is simply an they're there to impound.
They have an ordinance to collect loose dogs or you know,
dogs that have been left behind in an incident with
police or that kind of sits dogs that are just that.
They're impounded, just sort of and they are put in
the pounds that we have seen. They are placed in
a kennel. They are held for whatever the legal stray
(09:12):
hold is for that area, which is typically between five
days and seven days, and if no one claims them,
then they're available to rescue. And some pounds do allow
rescues to come in the pound we'll be visiting. We
are going in with the rescue. If they aren't claimed
or they are not pulled by rescue, then they are
taken to the vet to be euthanized. And a shelter
(09:33):
should be just that a shelter. It should be a
place where animals are. Animals come, and most of them
are this. Animals are brought by animal control officers or
they're turned in by Good Samaritans, and some shelters also
accept owner surrendered dogs and they are held again for
their legal strayhold before they're then available for adoption or
to be pulled by rescue. And many shelters will let
(09:55):
dogs stay as long as they have room. They will
hold dogs almost indefinitely. We've been places where dogs have
been there for literally years.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (10:03):
Yeah, so they'll do that. So that's kind of the difference.
The shelter is going to try to rehome and adopt
out dogs and there's a pound is simply a holding facility.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Gotcha, Thank you for that. Clarity needs to be get
out there. And you talk about the three critical elements
for a successful shelter, one being leadership, to being veterinary
access and through being community engagement. Can you kind of
elaborate on why these three are crucial.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
Or you know, it's taking us a while, like the
first few years that we were doing this, struggling like
what is it they need?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
What?
Speaker 6 (10:35):
You know? Everywhere I went, I would say, you know,
other than money, I mean, other than money, what can.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
We do what?
Speaker 6 (10:40):
But the longer we did it and the more you're
assessing and talking about these shelters after every visit, we
realize the very very critical things are leadership, veterinary access,
and community engagement leadership, because you've got to have a
leader who is committed to saving all the savable dogs,
the adoptable dogs like that. They have to be that
committed and we sell it firsthand. And that kind of
the light bulb went on for me when we were
(11:02):
in South Carolina out of shelter Anderson County Pause and
we met with the director there, who also happened to
be a veterinarian, so she kind of knocked out two
things at once. But she came into that shelter they
were actively at that point. This is a large, large shelter.
I want to say, maybe five hundred dogs a month
come in there, and they were at that point euthanizing
(11:22):
sixty percent of their animals, so only forty percent of
the animals that came in the building got out alive.
And she came in and took over this shelter, and
in six months they were considered no kill. They were
only euthanizing things they couldn't save. She said, if you
can scrape it off the pavement, I'll try to put
it back together. Because she's a veterinarian and you know
so her and I said, well, how did you do
(11:43):
that and she said, we just simply stopped killing dogs.
We took that off the table. When you take that
option off the table, then you find others and they did,
their team did, they got their community on board and
they did it. So that was kind of clear to
me that when you first you have to make the
decision that it's possible. So many places say, oh, we can't,
it's too hard. There's just too many dogs, not enough adopters,
(12:05):
not enough room, you know, and they just say they can't.
You've got to be committed and believe that you can.
And that might be the director, that might be a
board of supervisors that looks over the shelter, that might
be the shriff. So it depends on where the shelter,
you know, where the leadership falls in that for each area.
But that's the first really important piece. The second one
is vetinary access and everyone in the country is struggling
with that right now. Everybody is struggling for veterinary access
(12:27):
and it's a hold up and it really prevents shelters
from saving, especially in the South where the heart where
heartworm just you know that I was stating, and if
you can't afford to treat them or even give them preventatives.
Once they come into your shelter, it's really hard to
save them. And if you don't have access to spae neuter,
it's hard to move dogs out. And then if you're
adopting them out on spained and unneutered, they're going to
(12:49):
come back to you and multiples, so venary access is
really critical. It's the second key piece you have to
have to turn a shelter around. And then third piece,
I think the most important piece, and the piece I
get them was excited about, is community engagement. If your
community needs to know that these are their animals. They
don't belong to the Animal Control department. They belong to
the community, and the community as that should come in
(13:11):
and take some responsibility for that, and they should be
a part of fixing the problem. In every shelter that
is succeeding right now has a vibrant volunteer program, They
have a strong foster program, They are active in their community,
they are getting their animals out and they're inviting the
public into their shelter. They have hours that work for anybody,
you know, so they are open, you know, afternoons and evenings,
(13:33):
not just that little ten to two like right and
animal places are so they really make it possible for
people to come in and they are part of their shelter.
There was a shelter in Georgia this that was doing
that so much. It was exciting to see there. We've
had a lot of kids in there doing all kinds
of things, and the director there said to me, this
shelter is their shelter. These animals belong to them, And
(13:56):
that was another time a light bulb went on with
she's right, and that's how we fix this. So the
shelters we see that have turned it around and are
succeeding have those three things. They have a leader committed
to saving the animals, they have access affordable access to
veterinary care, and they have a community that is involved
and engaged in what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
That's like a three powerhouse right there, which is obviously
going to be in a book which emphasizes the solutions.
So that's great that it's not just highlighting the problems.
And you kind of started getting into the success stories.
What are some other ones that you've witnessed.
Speaker 6 (14:30):
There have been so many that we've gotten to because
we've done it long enough. Now we've to watch a
few of them. We're going to be visiting a shelter
for the third time on this trip that has come
so far.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
And I'm not going to talk about them.
Speaker 6 (14:41):
Because I haven't seen it yet, but I know that
they were pretty rough when I saw them in twenty
nineteen and then and a little bit better in twenty
and now we're going back again and we're excited to see.
We've heard so many good things, but there's a great
little shelter. In fact, they are hosting a book event
while we're on on this tour in Cheatham County, Tennessee,
(15:02):
which is is a rural county's small shelter doesn't have
a very big budget, and they were a shelter that
was euthanizing ninety percent of the animals. And when they
had a new director come in, she's young, and she
looked around and they had a huge facility in not facility,
piece of land. It sits like way out way rural.
It took us a long time to find it. It's
(15:23):
really rural, and they have about I want to say
they have seventy eight or something like that, and very
wooded and there we was so much crap all over
the place when she took it her, which is, you know,
it was a dumping ground for the county and they
had like a lot of their vehicles, but then people
dumping trash and so the first thing they did was
clean the whole thing up. The next thing they did
was cut trails all over the property, walking trails, and
(15:46):
they invited the high school, local high school to design
a story trail so to create you know, images and stories,
and they posted them all through the trail, and then
they invited the public to come out to this beautiful
property and it was beautiful and walked up or just
come and walk and the only thing they asked was
that you take one of their adoptable dogs with you
along the trail.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
And that kind of opened the door and got people
coming out there because it had been such a dark
place where so many animals died and people didn't want
to go there, and that got people to start coming out,
and from there they built their volunteer program. They now
have a nonprofit that works with them to help get
the things they need because they are small menus full shelter,
so they don't have funds for things like treating heartworm,
(16:27):
and they can't always do things quickly, so this non
trofit helps them tremendously, so that it's been really, really
exciting to watch Tetum come along in the last five years.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Entern the corner that is so creative. Oh good job
on the confronting that. Now I do want to segue
into your Instagram, but before we do, we're just going
to have a quick break and when we get back
we'll continue talking with Carol Hakaburg.
Speaker 7 (16:58):
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Speaker 1 (17:41):
Talk past, Let's done petco at.
Speaker 8 (17:43):
Life Radio, Petline Radio, Petlfradio dot Com.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Welcome back, to favor Poach. We are talking with co
founder of who will Let the Dogs Out Care off
the Berg. I almost wanted to start seeking that let
the dogs go where you go there, how does it
work and what kind of impact have you seen from
these targeted resources.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
Our Instagram program has been dream come true for me
when we first started going out to these shelters, and
a lot of them we visit our small, municiful shelters
that really struggle, and they are not the ones that
get the grants from the vague organizations, and that's often
because they don't have the ability to apply for them.
Many of the places we go to, not many, but
some of them we go to, they don't even have
internet access, so applying for a grant is really tricky.
(18:38):
And many don't have computerized records right, so they can't
they can't get the money, and they needed the most.
So we wanted to create it was my I had
this dream. I was like, what if we could just
and be like, ohprah, you get this and you get that?
Like what if we could and we get so like
if we visited your shelter, we know you, We've told
your story. We continued to follow what you're doing, and
(18:59):
you have a need. I want to be able to
meet that, and I wanted to take away all the
red tape and we did that, and we were so
lucky the ASPCA did first fund our initial program and
continue to fund it. And we don't hand out money,
we don't hand out checks. But if for instance, you're
at a shelter this last tour we're on, you're at
a shelter, small, little rural Kentucky shelter. They didn't have
(19:22):
an animal scale, like a professional animal scale, and theyse don't.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Cost a lot.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
I believe it was three or four hundred dollars, but
in a municipal budget that they don't have that money.
That shelter didn't have money for a lot of things
in a scale was one of them. And I asked
the director, like, how are you knowing how much deworm
or to give or how are you telling rescues how
much the dog weigh is that you're trying to get
them to pull? And she was like, I have a
good eye. I can usually guess which isn't a safe
way of being medicating a dog. And so we bought
(19:49):
them a scale and had it delivered. So when we
see a need, we're able to meet it and instead
of them having to ask for it or us giving
them money, which is tricky in a municipal shelter, you
can't just hand them money because it has to go
to the county. It's just very complicated, you know. But
we can give them things. So we've given many many
Coronda beds, raised beds for dogs that were sleeping on cement.
(20:09):
I feel like we've given several hundred by now. We
give a little teeny shed, a portable shed to another
shelter because there it was a small building, it was
really noisy, and the director wanted to be able to
have people meet dogs in a quiet place instead of
the chaos of barking dogs. He wanted a separate space,
and so we bought him this little portable shed. It
(20:30):
sits right next to the shelter, and he tricked it
all out like a living room. You walk in there,
you think you're in the living room, and it just
creates that space. So it's things like that that we
are able to do. Most of our instagrams are valued
between like two hundred and fifty and the biggest we've
done is the six thousand dollars shed. So we've done
a bunch and it's my dream is that we have
more money to do more. We are limited by how
much money we have. It would be awesome if we
(20:52):
had enough money on our Instagram for instance, fix or
buy a new transport van for this shelter we visited
in Arkansas, a big shelter, wonderful shelter. Their van hasn't
run in years. They use it for storing supplies in
the parking lot and they are workers and volunteers drive
their personal vehicles that take dogs to vets, to pick
up lost animals, to drive to transport. And that's that's
(21:15):
too big for us. We can't do that one by
dream that some prile that's something we'll be able to do.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
How do you guys get supported to be able to
provide all donations? None of us are paid. We're all
volunteers that are working in this organization and so we
depend on donations. We have a couple really nice doners
who support us regularly. We only have like two or
three that support us monthly, which we love to have
that because it's so much nicer and easier to plan.
Speaker 6 (21:40):
When you know rockid thing you're going to have but no,
the ASPCA has funded that Instagram program. The company Max
and Neo, which is a fabulous pet supply company. They
bought us a vehicle and wrapped it and we look
really cool tricked out. It's a little Honda Element and
we drive into these places. So those are our big supporters,
(22:01):
and then the rest of it, you know, it's fundraising,
and that's the hardest part is funding because you know,
we're trying to help shelters. We're trying to help them
get money, so it's hard to them be asking for
money for us, but we need it so that we
can help them. So it's it's an ongoing challenge.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Exactly are you guys also on Instagram?
Speaker 6 (22:19):
We are? We are on Instagram, on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube,
you have a podcast, We're everywhere anywhere we can. We're
trying to get this message out, you know, reach people
wherever we.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Can, just to raise awareness. Absolutely, And what's the handle
for the Instagram who.
Speaker 6 (22:34):
Will Let the Dogs Out? All of our handles are
purple let the Dogs Out? To make sure you awesome
will in there. So if you put who Let the
Dogs Out? You get a lot of really great videos
that will let the dogs.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Out, you'll mind us.
Speaker 6 (22:45):
It seems like a great idea at the time, but
you know it's with a challenge sometimes.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I can imagine now I'm going to check just out
of curiosity for those running the rest of your organizations
who might be experiencing burnout, which I'm sure also them
are what guidance can you offer for them?
Speaker 6 (23:03):
You know, everybody's super overwhelmed right now. They're so overtaxed
being asked to do so much. And the problem, you know,
the number of animals that are coming into our shelters
and getting turned away from our shelters is hard, and
that's putting a big burden on rescue. We got to
do this really cool event in Kentucky. We're invited there
by a city council woman, and she invited like rescue
(23:25):
and shelter and government officials and volunteers and tenant supporters
and veterinarians, everybody who was involved to come. And she
reached out to me because she said, I can get
them all in the room, but then I don't know
what to do. So we traveled there and we facilitated
a day of just connecting and sharing ideas. I mean,
we started the day by saying, Okay, I know you
(23:46):
all have some horrible stories, but we're not here to
tell those horrible stories. We're going to stay focused on solutions.
That's all we're going to work on today is solutions.
And it was a really cool day and it made
me realize how isolated they feel, because as we went
around and people introduce themselves, I mean there were tears,
There were people saying, it just feels incredible. It will
be in a room with so many people who get it,
(24:06):
who understand, who are struggling. We kept hearing the words
I'm just drowning. It was just it was just really inspiring.
We're planning to do three more of those events this
year several other states. But the one other thing that
they do in Tennessee actually the director of Nashville Humane
Association she started a monthly meeting I think they're bi
(24:28):
monthly now, but a monthly meeting where she invited the
directors of all the shelters to come and they meet
at a different shelter each time, and they have lunch
and they kind of do like, you know, a case
study on that shelter, like what can we do, how
can we help you know, like give us a tour,
tell you know, and they kind of brainstorm and they
support each other. And I think that rescues could do
the same thing. Too often we're competing with each other
(24:50):
for resources instead of working together. And I think if
shelters and rescues could meet up, that the people could
get together. They're each other's best resources, ideas, best support.
So I think when you're feeling really overwhelmed, the best
thing to do is to reach out to another shelter
or rescue and say, what are you doing that's working?
And you know, just reach out for that support because
(25:12):
it's been inspiring to see what happens when they start
to work together and do things together.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Thank god you said that, So yeah, there needs to
be a bit more unity. I suppose you can say
it like that. So yeah, thank you for explaining that.
They can also go to your website because I see
there's a ton of information on there for rescue organizations. Now,
before we wrap up, what advice would you give to
someone who wants to start fostering dogs.
Speaker 6 (25:38):
Fostering is my thing. I still foster, even though I'm
doing all this, I'm always fostering. I I left count
after three hundred, I don't know where we're at, but
I think that fostering is the one thing anybody, just
about anybody can do right now that's going to help.
I mean, the situation is really hard, really hard all over,
just so many animals and so many shelters that just
(25:59):
don't have room, and they're having to make hard decisions,
and right now, taking in a dog to foster is
a way to help. That's one way you can concretely help.
And I would tell anybody who's interested in doing it,
ask a ton of questions. Ask them what happens if
I have there's a medical problem, like how does that
handle it? Within this rescue? How does the dog get adopted?
(26:20):
How much am I going to need to do to
help this animal get adopted? Who provides the supplies, that
creates the food, the treats, that kind of stuff, And
what's the average amount of time that a foster would
have a dog. And then another really important question to
ask is if this doesn't work out because whatever reason
doesn't get along with your dog or whatever that reason,
(26:42):
what happens then? Because you don't want to be you know,
if you foster for an organization that doesn't have the
resources to be able to back you up in a
tough situation or take that dog in a critical situation.
Then you know it's going to land on you. So
you want to know that up front. How all those
know that stuff up front, so before you start fostering.
But I can't recommend it. It's the coolest thing. It
(27:04):
was a really cool thing we did with our kids.
And that wasn't something I expected. I thought they would
have a really hard time with it, you know, letting
these dogs go, But they didn't. They totally got it.
They understood that, you know, if we let this one go,
we can save another. And sometimes it hard because they
got attached, but they totally got it, and they would
even say it's kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, it's like you get a new dog every two
or three weeks. It was.
Speaker 6 (27:25):
They really enjoyed it. And the same time, you know,
you might get a dog that you don't love, you
don't love, but I mean you love, but you don't love, uh,
And that one's outsane forever either, So it's kind of fun.
For that reason.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
That's a trickle down effect and that that's gonna really
help the younger generation. Yeah, understand these animals more so
that's that's a bonus right there, Kara. So we are
out of time. I really really appreciate you taking the
time and thanks to our showp Looser Mark Winter for
making the show possible. You can learn more about care
of the work at who Will Let the Dogs Out
(27:59):
Thought and the information for the upcoming book is also
there and link will also be on the show page.
So if you have any questions, comments, our ideas for
the show, please email me at Beverly at petlife radio
dot com. So until next time, spread animal compassion.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on petlfradio
dot com.
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