September 26, 2025 • 49 mins
What happens when animal welfare organizations are stretched to their breaking point? In this episode, we sit down with Meredith Festa from Paws Unite People to explore the state of animal welfare today.
We'll unpack the financial crisis that is forcing rescues to make impossible choices, and learn about Paws Unite People's unique mission to not only save animals but also support the people who care for them. Meredith shares a powerful call to action for the rescue community to put aside competition and work together to advocate for meaningful change. Discover the hidden challenges of animal rescue and what you can do to help during this critical time.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dixie (00:00):
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues making adifference in the lives of animals.
Thank you so much, Meredith,for joining me today.
I'm glad that you wanted to comeon to talk about the crisis that
we have going on in animal rescue.
Before we start can you share a bit aboutyourself and the rescue that you are with?
Meredith (00:24):
I am 50 Woo.
I have been doing animal rescue in somesort of capacity since I was really young.
Actually when I was a kid we werestill allowed to work if your parents
signed off on it with working papers.
And I volunteered and had asmall part-time job at IDE week.
'cause I grew up in Levittown.
(00:44):
That was in UA on Long Island.
And I did that a couple of hours a week.
And then again, when I was going for myconfirmation, I needed to do community
service and I did that as well.
When I did that, I actuallyworked in the training department
with the rehabilitation cases.
They actually taught me at a veryyoung age how to help socialize.
(01:05):
Scared cats and dogs, nothing dangerous.
Obviously I was a child, buttimes were different then.
And then through college I worked atNorthshore League and then , after
college I started to work in banking, butI still always had a foot in the animal
welfare world, be it fostering dogs orcats for other rescues, volunteering
at other rescues, things like that.
In 2013, we started Paws Unite Peoplebecause I noticed there was a big gap
(01:32):
within the animal welfare community.
You foster homes and then youhad animal shelters, but there
was nowhere for cats and dogs.
To go that sort of didn'tfit in either bucket.
Not ready for a home, but too scaredor traumatized to be at a shelter.
So that was the goal, was totry to create that middle.
We started it out doing it with myselfand a couple of other core volunteers who
(01:56):
were experienced, who would take thoseanimals into our home until we could
save enough money to get a facility.
We did an animal abuse case in2014 where it was a hoarding case.
It was over 80 cats.
It was Turkish Angora breeder.
Some of them didn't make it.
Some of them survived, but the townshelter refused to take though.
(02:17):
So we rented a building.
And it started there small.
We started in a 900 square foot facility.
Now we're in an almost , 5,000square foot facility.
So we've definitely got more spaceand we are definitely doing a
little bit more , in the community.
We hope not just animals fromabuse, cruelty, neglect, but
we also train service animals.
(02:38):
We train therapy dogs.
We have special needs adults and kidscome work with the animals that we have
that are cleared for that so that theycan learn a skillset or they can have
positive interactions with animals.
Sometimes special needs child can'thave a cat or a dog at home, but they
can come to this shelter a coupleof days a week and play with them.
And we also take in animals temporarilyfor people suffering from temporary
(03:03):
shift in housing, temporary homelessnessor domestic violence cases where
people are fleeing domestic violence
right now we have a dog at theshelter from someone who is fleeing
domestic violence and two cats fromsomeone who's currently homeless.
But we don't put them up for adoption.
If that makes sense.
Is that enough about me?
Dixie (03:22):
It does make sense.
It's very interestingtoo with the background.
'cause I can just imagine, 'cause I docat rescue, having that many cats in a
900 square foot building and then buildingup to go to a 5,000 square foot building.
That's pretty impressive.
Meredith (03:38):
It started so small, like it was 86 cats, but they didn't survive
about 40, made it out of the vet.
It was one of the worstthings I've ever seen.
It was like Auschwitz for cats.
But yeah, we started super smalland then now we're just big.
It's crazy.
We do international stufftoo, like we back up.
All the international rescues, severalof them in Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Korea
(04:01):
Taiwan in the event they and Afghanistan,we used to, not now because well,
but in the event animals are shippedto the United States and run into an
issue at that moment we would step in.
So we do have some dogs and cats inthe building that came from overseas.
We didn't bring them here, but theywent to other rescue groups or straight
(04:21):
to adopters that it didn't work outbecause I also don't think animals
should be brought to this country and flythousands of miles just to be euthanized.
That really ground to my gears,
Dixie (04:32):
exactly.
Meredith (04:33):
Yeah.
Dixie (04:34):
Can you explain when you're taking in like these pets that are on
a temporary basis for the homelessnessor the domestic violence, how you
end up reuniting them, how long youusually have to house 'em before the
people are able to take 'em back.
Meredith (04:49):
We try to, each case is different.
You never can put, even withrehabilitation, each case is different.
Each cat you take in each dog, youtake in each family, we assist.
It's different.
So it's never a one size fits all.
So the most recent case, a girl wasfleeing a domestic violence situation.
She needed to put her dogs somewhere safe.
(05:10):
She's very young.
Very young, and she has to gether proverbial, what together so
that she can start her life over.
So I didn't give her a time limit.
I told her to take what she needstime-wise, and she comes and she
volunteers and helps out take care ofthe animals, and she gets to see her dog.
And I've noticed, especially withdomestic violence, women and sometimes
(05:35):
men, we've had men stay in thesesituations that they shouldn't stay
in because they love their pets.
The last cat case we tookin from domestic violence.
I had the cat for six months.
I've had some longer, we've only had oneinstance in the years we've been helping
out where we did not return the animal.
(05:57):
It is a dog.
That dog is a permanentresident at our shelter.
He suffers from permanent PTSD fromwitnessing a very horrific event.
She ended up going back to her husband.
I couldn't give the dog back.
But normally I would say it takespeople on an average one to three
months to get themselves back in order.
(06:18):
We had a house fire,it was like eight cats.
We had them for nine months 'causethey had to rebuild the whole house.
So when I say each case isdifferent, it really is.
Dixie (06:27):
Sure
Meredith (06:27):
depends.
You have to really talk to people.
You have to figure out if they'retelling you the truth too, which is
something we've gotten very good at.
We've had instances, oh shoot,yeah, we had a dog that came in.
The gentleman temporarily lost his home.
His mother passed away.
It was sold out underneathhim by the family.
By the time he found an apartment,his dog was diagnosed with cancer.
(06:50):
So what we ended up doing was he gota key to the building and he would
just come and visit with the dog.
At the facility.
I hate calling it a shelter'cause we're not a shelter.
Like all the animals are not in cages,they're in rooms with TVs and couches.
It's like a rehab center.
But he was able to comevisit with his dog.
His dog was at a big pit bull.
(07:11):
His name was muscles.
He lived in the cat room.
So he would come, when he had time.
I didn't care because , by thattime we had known him very well.
We trusted him.
He would come, hang out, gohome, take care of his dog leave.
But because moving the dog mid, in thathospice situation into a tiny apartment
where he had to be carried up and downthe stairs just wasn't gonna work.
(07:32):
So like I said,, you have tolook at each case differently.
We just took in.
10 dogs out of a hoarding case.
We actually had 17, but sevenwent to other rescues finally.
Thank you.
And we have 10 left.
And each one of them is different.
They all suffer from different issues.
Some of them are furtheralong than others.
You can't one size fits allrehabilitation work for sure.
(07:53):
And you can't one size fits allpeople that are experiencing
an uproot in their life.
Dixie (07:59):
How many animals can your facility house?
Meredith (08:03):
Right now we have 32 dogs and we have 46 cats.
We could technically taken up to 50cats and I can house, depending on
the dog sizes 'cause it's all modular.
I could move walls and things.
We could probably houseeight or nine more dogs.
(08:25):
But fiscally, no.
We are over capacity from a financialstandpoint, which seems to be the problem
across the board in animal rescue lately.
Dixie (08:34):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we can start getting into that too.
And another thing too that Iwould like to mention, because.
I love that you're helping outpeople with their pets for temporary
situations rather than have themsurrender their animals to a shelter.
And I think that's what rescue should be.
Or if somebody does need to surrenderan animal, it should be a situation
(08:55):
like that, like something thatis really beyond their control.
Meredith (08:59):
Yeah, I don't want your dog.
I said this, the girl was so nice andshe's just I don't know what to do.
I said, you need to get outta there.
Keep yourself safe.
I don't want your dog, but I'll keepyour dog safe while you figure it out.
, That's why we started this.
, It was part of our mission statement frominception was to do community outreach
(09:19):
to try to stop the cycle of abuse.
What and the other side of that wasalso to try to help good owners keep
their pets as much as we possibly could.
There's so many animals that need helpthat don't have good owners, right?
So if someone is a good person andit's a good owner and it's a temporary
setback, we shouldn't be taking theircats and dogs, especially with cats.
(09:42):
I don't want your 18-year-old cat.
I don't want your 12-year-old cat,because it's going to end up living
in my facility for a very longtime if it gets adopted at all.
But.
I feel like it's so important.
If you looked at it that way, if rescuegroups tried to be a temporary bandaid in
situations like that, it would alleviatethe amount of dogs getting surrendered
(10:05):
to municipal town county run sheltersbecause people are stuck temporarily.
But it would also keep us from havingto long-term house older animals that
may not be as easy to get adopted.
I hope that made sense.
Dixie (10:18):
It does.
Exactly.
And I agree with that too.
Now I see in my area a lot, I find peopleare what I'm gonna say is abusing rescues,
because all the calls that we get, it'sconstantly, oh, I'm moving tomorrow.
I need a place for my animal to go.
And that's not what rescue is for.
Rescue is not for like yourlack of planning or your lack of
(10:39):
responsibility, it's for animals thatare actually in need or in crisis.
Meredith (10:46):
Yeah.
We never help people like that.
Unless it's domestic violence, that'sa completely different situation,
Dixie (10:50):
right?
Yes.
Meredith (10:50):
But if people call me, I'm like, I'm moving.
I need to rehome my dog.
I'm like you should havecalled us three weeks ago.
'cause I'm pretty sure youknew you were moving then.
I feel bad when I do it,we have to have limits.
I've had a lady call me onceat three in the morning.
She got my phone number from an emergencyvet and she was just like, I just left
my boyfriend, my one cat's at the er.
(11:11):
She's my other cat's in the car.
I can't afford the pet fee at the hotel.
And I'm like, listen, I'll meet you.
At the time we were in East Patchog,I'm like, I'll meet you in East Patchog.
I'm leaving my house now.
I'll be there in 30 minutes.
I got you cat.
I got you back.
Don't worry about it.
Just don't worry about it.
And we tried to raise money tohelp her cover the vet bill for
the cat that was in the ER becausethat guy was a piece of crap.
(11:32):
So those calls, you can't control that.
It's, especially when they're strugglingto leave, like a lot of times we'll
talk to people trying to get outtathat situation and they're not sure.
Those are always the onlylast minute ones I take.
From the general public.
Because they're leaving.
Yeah.
It's a lot.
Those people go through a lot.
Dixie (11:53):
It's good to take that burden of their animals off
of them, that's something thatthey don't have to worry about.
Meredith (11:59):
Yeah.
I've seen people keep themselvesin those situations because
rescue goats won't help them.
I've seen people stay in thosesituations because they didn't think
that they had options or they didn'twanna give up their pets because they
were sad or scared or they loved them.
But, I've had people likethis girl, her dog's awesome.
(12:19):
It's her emotional support dog.
She had a traumatic eventwhen she was younger.
This is her trained emotional support dog.
She called multiple rescue groups and theyall offered to take her dog for adoption.
I'm like, I don't want yourdog's I want you to be okay.
And I didn't think that's right either.
I don't think it's right to takethis girl's dog upfront right away.
(12:40):
We set limits, but let's give thiskid some time to get back on her
feet before you take her animal.
I understand her dog isvery easy to put in home.
It would be a nice, easy, quick adoption,but are we really doing the right
thing for that person or that dog?
Dixie (12:54):
What is the crisis that you're facing right now?
What is your biggest challenge?
Meredith (12:59):
Long Island has a very big hoarding problem, so I've
been dealing with that a lot.
And then funding, there's just no funding.
We've seen a lot where I talkedabout this the other day just with
someone where grants I normallyget or don't exist anymore.
There were a lot of cuts made,especially for my organization.
So you have to figure a lot of thefunding that we were getting to help
(13:21):
women fleeing domestic violence and,or disabled or special needs adults and
children was coming through programs thatwere labeled DEI that have been canceled.
And sometimes I think peopledon't understand how funding
from the government works.
So the government will issue large grants.
Those large grants go to largerfoundations and organizations,
(13:42):
and then that money trickles down.
And as small guys, weapply for those funds.
So you know when you get a grantfor $6,000 from Red Rover to help
people fleeing domestic violence,they got that money from above, and
then that money came from above.
It trickles down.
So unless you're a huge animalwelfare organization, you're
(14:05):
not getting those big checks.
You're getting the smaller pieces ofa pie that came from somewhere else.
So the grants havedissipated in that bucket.
USDA had a lot of funding cuts.
We lost $23,000 in grants that fellunder that bucket for the cats and dogs
spay, neuter programs, stuff like that.
And then states are losing theirfunding or not getting their funding
(14:27):
depending on what state you're in.
So then those programs get cut.
And then also two people have tightenedtheir wallets because the financial
state of life has been a little unstable.
So you have a lot of peoplegiving less, but asking for more.
So I've had an uptick in people askingus for assistance on multiple levels,
(14:50):
because when people are strugglingfinancially, you get an uptick in
domestic violence, that happens.
Those situations become volatile.
So we have more people asking usfor help that are in bad situations
at home, we have more people askingfor help because they're homeless or
they're losing their home, or theycan't afford their home anymore.
We have more people askingfor help with vet bills.
(15:12):
But then I'm also seeing an uptakein neglect cases where people
aren't asking and neglecting theiranimals, and you're seeing an uptake
in animals that are ending up inshelters that are in poor state.
We just did that hoarding caseand nobody wanted to do anything
about it because there was no onefor nowhere for the dogs to go.
The town shelter's full.
(15:33):
There's nowhere for the animals to go.
The woman is mentally ill,she's not going to get charges.
So why take the dogs outta the house?
Because where are they gonna go?
We'll just condemn her house.
She can leave them outside.
And I said, no, we're gonna take them outof the house and we're gonna get rescue
groups to step up and figure it out.
But now you have rescue groupsbesides myself, there's 25 dogs.
(15:55):
I have 10.
But me and the other rescues thathelped out, now we're stuck trying
to find the money to pay thesebills in an environment where people
aren't donating to help those dogs.
So it's a struggle.
But yeah, money, money's alwaysbeen a challenge for rescue groups,
but it is really bad lately.
I know where you are.
It's been really bad too.
(16:15):
I have some friends that way.
Bad.
Bad.
Dixie (16:19):
Are you seeing a lot of rescues up by you having to close
their doors because of this?
Meredith (16:23):
Yes.
A lot of rescues are closing their doors.
A lot of rescues are closing their doors.
I just saw the other day I was like,another rescue shutting down because
they can't afford their bills.
There was a horrible story I saw floatingaround this woman that euthanized all
the dogs, which I think is insane.
And she was sketchy to begin with.
But that's what's happening is thatpeople, animal rescues and animal
(16:44):
shelters are clothing shop becausethey can't afford to pay their bills.
And we are on the edge I have rentto you in four days, and I still
have to find $4,000 for that.
But, I make phone calls.
I'm pushing fundraising.
On top of that, you have utility bills.
Like people don't understand how muchit costs to run an actual facility.
(17:06):
Foster based rescuescan be very expensive.
But for a facility on LongIsland in New York, we are
spending $9,000 a month in rent.
And insurance fees.
And then utilities areabout 1200 bucks a month.
And that's just to keep the lightson and the door open and you
have to add a dog food, right?
(17:27):
Veterinary care and all theother things on top of that.
So we are, our budget to run theshelter every month is about $15,000.
Barring no major medical event.
And we were doing that, but now thatgrants are gone and funding's gone,
like I sit and I say we're not gonnatake anything else in the dogs.
Were in emergency.
(17:48):
I wasn't gonna put themback in the backyard.
There was just a way, and thank Godother rescue groups stepped up to help.
'cause I don't know what I would dowith 25 of them, but it really comes
down to we have to start deciding arewe going to try to keep going or are
we gonna try to place what we haveand close our doors because they're
just, donations are just not there.
But I know three rescuers that aredone, they're not doing it anymore.
(18:12):
They're just not going to do it anymore.
They're just gonna close it up.
They're gonna adopt out whatthey have and close shop because
they're killing themselves.
And it breaks my heart becauseas these smaller groups close,
where did the animals go?
Because the town shelters are full.
, We've done a really good job.
(18:33):
And and it's other problems.
You, and I hate to say this,like rescue groups get mad.
I, we did a really good job at likewith the no kill movement, right?
To reduce euthanasia rights,to increase live release rates.
A lot of that comes from town municipalshelters not taking in pets . I'm
(18:56):
seeing it where people will call me andsay, especially with cats, , I called
the town shelter because I'm beingevicted and I have 30 days to leave.
But they said they can't takemy cats, they have no room.
I just saw, was it John, one ofthe rescuers on Long Island posted
that he picked up five cats today.
(19:17):
The owner got evictedbecause ACC didn't take them.
So we're gonna start to see more,I think more street abandonment.
I'm noticing a lot more friendlycats and dogs floating around the
streets than I normally would see.
Especially from where we are.
It's indicative of a bigger problem right
Dixie (19:39):
do you think rescues may, in a sense, have created the
problem by giving people thismentality that they can always.
Go surrender their animal, so , if theshelter's not gonna take it, there's
this thought, then there's rescue,but then of course rescues get full.
Do you think that could haveanything to do with it as well?
(19:59):
Or what are your thoughts on that?
Meredith (20:00):
I don't think that we created it.
I think it's really hard to say.
I just got a call the other day, sevenmonth old pit puppy, perfectly dog social.
And it was somebody who adopted adog from me, and it was an older dog.
And she's listen, I'm trying, , mykid's friend, they have this dog,
their parents lost their house.
(20:21):
They have nowhere to go.
I said, I'd take the puppy in.
It is torturing my dog.
I said I'm sure it is.
Because the dog I gave them couldbe a little tricky with other female
dogs, especially younger ones.
She goes, but I didn't want thedog to end up getting euthanized.
And when they went to the town shelterand asked if they could take it,
they said that they had no space,that the only owner surrenders they
(20:44):
were taking were for euthanasia.
Who wants to euthanizea seven month old puppy?
Nobody, right?
So they just said, , wecan't take it right now.
So there was nowhere for the dog to go.
I ended up calling a differenttown shelter who I knew had space,
and I was just like, listen, canyou please just take this puppy?
There's nothing wrong with it.
It's just a puppy.
I can't take it.
(21:06):
Now, do I want that dogsitting in a town shelter?
No.
It's a puppy.
It needs proper socialization and it needsto be, in a foster home or an environment
like mine that's close to a home that'sstructured because this puppy's just
going to end up being conditioned ata critical development age to be in
a shelter and you don't want that.
(21:27):
But I had to say no because Ican't afford it, and I think that.
We didn't create the problem by alwaysbeing there, but we definitely put a
bandaid on it for a while, for alwaystrying to find a way, because it really
does come down to money because if therescue groups have the money to pay for
(21:47):
the vet bills, to pay for the whatever,the marketing the Facebook ad the
management, the all of the things you needto do to raise money, fundraising costs,
all of that stuff, if they have the moneyto get that all done, then the animals
could get adopted, the vettings finished.
But when you have to wait to raisethe money needed to do the thing so
(22:10):
that you could put the cat or the dogin a home, it starts to drag it out.
And if you overload yourself,you just can't afford it.
I know four animal rescue groups in myarea alone that have, vet bills in upward
outstanding balances of $40,000 each.
Right now our outstanding vet bills areon three K and I'm having a heart attack.
(22:30):
I never let it get that bad.
You can't get it.
Let that bad.
But I have to say no.
And I think, again, I don't think wecreated a problem with the general public.
I think that we bandaided it by not sayingno, because we were getting donations and
now that we're not, and things are cut,and funding's cut and people tightened
(22:53):
their wallets and things are unstable,we're starting to see the effects of that.
I hope if that made sense.
Dixie (23:01):
It does.
It makes a lot of sense with you havingbills of 15,000 a month, that's a lot.
Yes.
It's very difficult to get that amount in.
I can only imagine.
Meredith (23:12):
I'm going to
cry.
We were getting grants, soI never, and this is truth.
I never would've signed the leasefor this building where we are.
If I thought for an iota of amoment that I was gonna lose
$50,000 in grant funding overnight.
Never.
(23:32):
I never imagined that Iwas gonna get an email.
'cause that was consistent for years.
$69,700 is the total loss for2025 in grant funding alone.
That's pretty muchalmost the shelter bills.
A lot of money.
And it was a lot of emailssaying, listen, we're sorry.
(23:52):
We know we approved you for agrant for first quarter 2025, but
due to cuts and funding, we areunable to do that and we apologize.
You're just like, oh, great.
Shoot me.
Dixie (24:04):
Have you tried to come up with some other kind of.
Fundraising ideas or things to do
? Meredith (24:09):
Anybody wanna buy a kidney didn't work.
I tend to be really sarcastic.
The biggest thing everybody says to meis I always act like it's gonna be fine.
They're like, Meredith, everybody thinksyou're just gonna figure it out, out.
I'm like, I know it's bad.
I don't know.
We're pushing fundraising as hardas we can on social media, but the
(24:29):
general public, I'm not the big org.
We had a big bump in finances.
, We did help overseas and I mentionedthat, and we worked with animal
rescuers in Afghanistan when thefall of Afghanistan happened.
Activision Blizzard, the videogame company gave us a large grant
$600,000, but that was specificallyto get those women out of Afghanistan
(24:53):
and their families, right?
So that was donor directed funds.
We got that money, we got everybody thatwas helping our US troops and our go US
government employees over the years withthe cats and dogs out of Afghanistan.
And then that money was gone,never to come back again.
I couldn't give you for anything else.
So sometimes people look at our financesand they see that big bump, and I'm like,
(25:15):
yeah, that was a COVID loan and, A grantfor a specific purpose and then nothing.
And then we're back to normal.
It's oh look at Meredith.
She's 150, 190, 150, 200,000, 800,000.
And then it goes 200,001, 200,000, one 50.
'cause we, it was just that one peak.
'cause sometimes youhave that one big thing.
(25:36):
But that one big thing didn'tgive us like public notoriety.
No one knows who we are.
That was just someone who knew thatwe worked with that shelter and
wanted to help those specific people.
We are not a big org that gets inthousands of donations that has
hundreds of thousands of followers.
We have 33,000 on Facebook's,3000 I think on Instagram, and
(25:58):
two, almost 2000 on TikTok.
Like we're not big.
So relying on your social mediabase is just not, we don't have
a hundred percent followers.
It's just that doesn't work.
So I've been trying to think outside ofbox with grants, and not just for myself,
but some of the dog sanctuary rescuers.
It breaks my heart, these people havecommitted their lives to helping dogs
(26:20):
that are just not adoptable at all.
And they put this, they dumped their wholelife savings and their whole life into it.
And now no one's giving grants topeople who aren't doing adoptions.
And then even still, it needs tobe a certain amount of adoptions.
And that's hurt.
And I was like, even with me withrehab to give a good example, we were
getting $40,000 a year from a very big.
(26:42):
Store organization.
We'll just say that.
And that they shifted gears.
Now we do abuse, cruelty,and neglect cases.
So you and I both know these, thedogs I took from a hoarding case,
they're not gonna get adoptedquickly, i'll have to heal them.
I have to take them to the vet.
We need to get their skin better
. They have behavior issuesthat I'm gonna work on.
(27:03):
So we may be six months before those10 dogs are ready to leave my facility.
Now, during those six months, I'mnot doing puppies and kittens.
I'm not taking in those kinds of animals.
So my adoption numbers for thenext six months are gonna be low.
So when they shifted gears tohow many cats or dogs you got
adopted a year, I lost that money.
(27:25):
So you're starting to see the peoplethat do what I do or the sanctuary
work, lose out on opportunities fromlarger foundations and grants that
still are out there because they'restrictly basing it on numbers, which is
where I think encourages the problem.
So if a shelter or a rescue isgetting money based on the amount
(27:49):
of adoptions that they do, arethey doing ethical adoptions?
Are they really making sure that theseanimals are going to the right home?
How many of those animals arereturned or dumped in local shelters?
There's a big one here.
They do hundreds of adoptions a month.
I have three of their dogs andeight of their cats in my building.
Dixie (28:10):
I can understand that because I do more, sanctuary.
I do more.
Like adult cats.
Of course I'll take in kittens.
I help kittens Oh, have.
But the whole thing with an adult catis an adult cat is, they're overlooked.
They take a long time Yes.
To get adopted.
It does make a lot of sense becauseyou might see these groups that
(28:31):
are taken in puppies adoptingout all these puppies right away.
But meanwhile, the people that havethe adult animals, they're with those
animals for several months before youfind a home, because everybody wants
the cute little puppies and kittens,
Meredith (28:45):
not just months.
Eight years ago I was left 50cats and $50 in a will, and all
those cats were 10 years old.
Can I tell you, I still haveproblems with my building.
I have a cat that justturned 24 years old.
Lisa's been with us for nine years now.
(29:06):
She's 24 years old.
Nobody wanted her nine years agowhen she was not 24 years old
because she was a senior then.
She's like ancient now.
And then you also have rescueslike mine that may take dogs.
Like I have a beautiful dog.
She's seven years old.
Her name is Pebbles.
She's been with us for almost five years.
She's mint.
She does not like other dogs.
(29:27):
I would put her with a newborn baby.
I would put her with an newborn baby.
She works with nonverbal autistic kids.
She is amazing.
She cannot go to a home with other dogs.
She cannot go to a home with ahouse, with a chain link fence.
Come on Long Island.
That's pretty common.
So she's been with me a long timebecause I refuse to set her up to fail.
So what we've done withdogs is they're part of our
(29:49):
outreach program with the kids.
So like when people call and say, we can'thave a pet, my son really loves dogs.
I'm like, great, I'll throw 'emin the backyard with Pebbles.
He can wash her, go swimming.
I don't care.
You can sit there for threehours, doesn't matter.
It makes her happy.
You wanna take a dog for day trip?
Go ahead, take PEs go.
She just doesn't like how the dogsdon't let her interact with another dog.
You see a baby in a carriage,she'll lick its face.
(30:10):
But like you have a lot of that, likeI'm sure you have cats that have been
with you way longer than a couple months.
Oh dear.
We all have those.
Yeah.
But right now we have, like Isaid, the amount of cats we have.
I have 16 cats over the age of 19.
Dixie (30:27):
Wow.
Meredith (30:28):
No one's adopting those.
Yeah, they're not leaving.
They're leaving, but just not thatway, which is why I don't cage.
That's why we have the furniture andthe couches and the television sets
and the waterfalls and they make itlook like a house and people come and
sit and pet the cats and watch tv.
And our cats are dog socials.
So I use the cats that have been with mefor eight years that were supposed to die
(30:48):
eight years ago because they were supposedto be hospice cases and still live.
They're great with dogs.
So when we get dogs in, like we justtook we just took three chihuahuas from
another rescue who got those chihuahuasfrom a hoarding case with 63 dogs.
They got the chihuahuas in February.
The dogs were not doing well,they weren't moving forward.
I'm like, ah, we'll throw'em in the cat room.
(31:10):
And everyone thought I was crazy.
I'm like, you just wait.
The cats will sort it up.
Cats became friends with chihuahuas.
Now Chihuahuas are approaching peoplebecause their cat friends are right.
So at least the cats have a purpose.
The cats get to help otheranimals move forward.
They have a purpose.
They're happy.
They have a chihuahua to bother.
(31:30):
They can clean it.
They play with it, but they arehoping as well, so they have a
purpose, which was that middle.
I tried to, I told you Itried to fill a middle.
So are our cat sanctuary camps.
Yeah.
I don't know.
If somebody came to me tomorrowand said, I'd love to adopt
Lisa, I'd be like, really?
If Lisa likes you, sure.
Take her home, let her go home.
But nobody's adopting a 24-year-old cat.
(31:51):
With a tilted head.
No one.
But Lisa loves those chihuahuas, soit, Lisa, those chihuahuas are learning
how to live with a multi pet home.
'Cause there's a dog in therethat's a permanent resident as well.
And he loves dogs.
He just hates people.
So when people visit, I haveto take him out of the room.
But he loves dogs.
So they're learning howto live with other dogs.
(32:12):
They're learning how to live with cats.
They're learning.
It's funny, 'cause hoarder dogsgo to the bathroom everywhere
and one of the chihuahuas poopedon the cat's like ottoman.
And the cat just smacked it.
And that dog has not poopedon the ottoman since.
So they're helping with housebreaking.
And if you look at our videos, Ihave a video of Barry who is our
handicap dog, she has no hind legs.
(32:32):
She's been with us foralmost five years now.
She's actually got a potential adopter.
We have to do a meet next week.
But it took me that long to find a dogwith no hind and legs, a home where
someone was willing to take on that.
But Barry has helped us socializeso many dogs, and I was like,
here, 10 schnauzers go play.
And she's teaching them to trust people.
(32:54):
And if it wasn't for Barry andthe cats, those dogs would not be
as far along as they are becausethey're making friends with Barry.
They're making friends with the cats, thenthey're watching Barry and the cats and
baby sharks, the other dog interact withpeople and go, oh, hey, I can do that too.
So it's, but like we don't havethose adoption numbers that are crazy
because sometimes that's not just one.
(33:15):
Sometimes it actually is years.
And those on the animals that other placescould say you should have euthanized them.
And again, I'm gonna go backto some of these animals,
did not fly 3000 miles to die
39 cats were left at JFK airport.
What was I supposed to do?
Let them get euthanized?
Hell no.
Some of them were older.
I still have them.
It's okay.
(33:36):
They're at least doing somethingto help other animals find a home.
It's just now that things havegotten numbered base, it's just hard.
Dixie (33:44):
I understand.
Meredith (33:44):
I babble.
I'm a
New Yorker.
Dixie (33:46):
That's okay.
What do you think needs tobe done to change things?
Or how do you forecast thingsin the future in animal rescue?
Meredith (33:55):
I think
in general, first, everybodyneeds to stop arguing.
Animal rescuers argue all the time.
It's not a competition.
We all have to come to some sortof middle level because animal
cruelty laws in this country, in theUnited States are not consistent.
In most cases they're not enforced.
But the reason, and working withpoliticians as much as we do,
(34:18):
especially with helping Afghans andthen other things we're doing with
law enforcement and hoarding cases,I can tell you most politicians
think animal rescuers are nuts.
'cause we're always arguing andwe're always fighting and we're
always badmouthing each other.
And you and I both know that's true.
So we need to try to stop, take astep back and try to work together
for like comprehensive animalwelfare reform that's consistent.,
(34:43):
I think also you need to look at thehoarding issue that occurs across
this country with animal hoarding.
And really start looking at it likethis is a mental illness problem.
So when we do a hoarding case.
Typically when I'm mitigating it, andit's not law enforcement, and I've
done that before, I haven't done onein two years, but we have helped orders
(35:07):
get their numbers down, clean theirhouse up without getting arrested.
And we work with social workers andmental health professionals and you
need to make sure they're getting theaftercare and then that's dissipated.
So now it's arrest them, presscharges, take all their animals away,
no follow up, no follow through.
They get convicted five years, no dogs.
Guess what happens in five years?
(35:28):
They go get more dogs
or they're convicted and they'retold that they can't have pets and
they get them anyway and nobodyfollows up to make sure they don't.
So I think we need to do a betterjob addressing the hoarding problem
that's happening across this country.
'cause it's everywhere.
I think we need to, as rescue groups,create partnerships with law enforcement,
district attorneys, people in positionsof legal authority to try to figure out
(35:53):
a plan to what to do in these situations.
To try to stop gabit from going forward.
Wellness checks, things like that.
I also think that maybe we need totry to get better partnerships with
the townships and the counties andthe states that we're in to try to
help, especially when we're steppingup to take animals that were abused,
(36:15):
that were part of an investigation.
Because if we are gonna step up andtake 10 dogs out of a case that was
where a person was arrested, theanimals are also a victim of a crime.
So the county or the state orthe township could, in theory.
Help the animal rescues that helpthose animals with some of the expenses
(36:35):
because they do that with people.
Those are just my random thoughts.
And I also think we need to try to cometo some sort of way to get a consistent
across the board, maybe a coalitionwhere we could try to help people pay
their medical bills more on a nationallevel so that they don't surrender
because they can't afford something.
(36:56):
A network of organizations thatare willing to offer up foster
homes to temporarily house petslike we do would also be fantastic.
I could go all day on this.
Sorry.
There's lots of ideas.
Dixie (37:09):
Yeah.
Those are all great ideas.
And what you said too about therescue groups working together, that
was one point of this whole podcastwhen I first started it, is because
I did see a lot of rescue groups,like they fight with each other.
Meredith (37:24):
Yes.
And yes.
Dixie (37:25):
Rather than fight with each other, work together, we all have the same goal.
Meredith (37:30):
Yeah
Like I'm not competition, sogenerally speaking, I try to
get along with everybody, butI'm that weird bucket, right?
I'm not competing with you.
If you're doing kitten adoptions, you win.
I had five kittens this wholeyear, and they're just getting
adopted now because they were somalnourished I couldn't fix them
until they were six months old, right?
And then I have a bunchof old cats and old dogs.
I have cats and dogs.
(37:51):
I can't bring new adoption eventsat Petco or Pet Smart because they
don't like other cats and dogs.
So I'm not anyone's competition.
The people who know who I am areusually within the rescue community
because again, I'm the person that youcall, like I have three chihuahuas.
I can't do anything with the Merediths.
Do you have room?
I'm that person.
But I think we all need to worktogether because I picked up the phone
(38:13):
and I called all the people that I'vehelped before, and I'm like, Hey, she
want a schnauzer because some of thedogs in this house didn't need me.
Some of the dogs outta these 25 dogsdidn't need to be at my facility.
Yes, they needed medical care, but theydid not need as much socialization.
They were not as traumatizedas some of the others.
(38:33):
I think if we all worked togetherinstead of competing for the high
profile cases, that would be way better.
Dixie (38:40):
Yeah I agree with that.
I had somebody come look at twokittens that I had the other
day to adopt 'em together.
They looked at 'em and I told 'em, I'mlike, look, before you make this decision
on my two kittens, I'm like, they have twoother groups that have adoption events.
Go check them out too.
Meredith (38:55):
yep.
People come to me and they're like,Meredith, I saw you have a dog.
It's worm.
Worm is a , seven pound Maltese.
He's been with me for almost fouryears now because worm's fence,
his criminal offense that ended himup in a town shelter was hopping
a neighbor's fence and ripping aGerman shepherd's ears off again.
I'm gonna repeat.
It's a seven pound Maltese.
(39:17):
He's extremely large dog aggressive andhe flies like a squirrel flying squirrel.
So I worked with Worm on nothopping five foot fences.
He doesn't do that anymore.
Initially when we had him for adoption,I said he needed a DPS collar.
He doesn't run away anymore.
He doesn't bolt anymore.
He is got a lot of training,but he is still a jerk.
He's just a jerk.
(39:38):
He's not an abused dog.
He was a spoiled brat that never gottaught rules, structure, or boundaries.
They bought him in a pet store, theyhad him for a year, and then he did
that because they never told him no.
'cause he was cute and theycarried him everywhere.
And they, and that goes back towhat could we do differently?
Education, educating people on howto train your dog, how to train
(39:58):
your cat to use a litter box.
All of that stuff.
Going out into the world and puttingout podcasts and, advice like you
see, if you follow us on socialmedia, I try to tell people what we're
doing to rehabilitate dogs or howto train a dog or how to help a cat.
Because I think it's important to sharethat knowledge, not only within the rescue
community, but with the general public.
(40:18):
As well.
Because if that had been done, if somebodytold people it doesn't matter that he's
only seven pounds, you need to train himthat it's not okay to eat your neighbor's
German Shepherd because on the day thatyou let him go in your backyard because
you didn't realize Cujo was next dooroutside, he's gonna fly over the fence.
And you would think that Wormwould've lost that fight.
(40:40):
He did not.
We have 148 pound Amberly.
He's a good boy.
And I know Worm got over a fenceand nipped at him and he just looked
at me and he's little dog Matt.
Now I'm very lucky 'causeHugo's good with little dogs.
He tolerated that.
But somebody's dog next door may not.
We need to educate people likehow to train the dogs, but we also
(41:01):
like need to make sure that weare not setting dogs up to fail.
I'm not gonna put Worm in a housewith someone with a four foot fence.
That'd be crazy.
Dixie (41:07):
Yeah.
Makes sense.
Makes total sense.
Meredith (41:09):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So when people call me andsay, how high is your fence?
And they'll go, oh, I havea four foot chain link.
I'm like, yeah, doesyour neighbor have a dog?
And they're like, yeah, myneighbor has this golden retriever.
I'm like, I know that thisshelter have Malteses available.
You need to go there because Wormis not the right dog for you.
I refer them to other groups that Iknow have dogs, similar body type to
(41:31):
the little one that they inquired about.
Dixie (41:34):
Because it makes a better fit for everybody.
Meredith (41:37):
Yep.
And we have the worstschnauzers from this case.
So when people call me and say,Hey Meredith, I was calling
about the Bayshore hoarding case.
I'm like, oh, you know what?
Most of mine are not ready yet,but I know that Valerie's are.
So you can call them at the adoptioncenter, or I know that Virginia's are, you
can call Attack North for country kids.
Or, I know Yorkie 9 1 1 took four from me.
(41:58):
They have younger ones.
They had no issues.
They're just babies.
You can call them because ifyou don't do that, a no one's
gonna ever wanna help you again.
And B, like the goal is to getanimals adopted so that you can
free it up so that there is space.
I don't know.
It's not a competition , if youdon't have the right animal and your
(42:19):
rescue for someone, it shouldn't bejust, we don't have that right now.
I'll keep you on the list in case we getsomething in that matches your needs.
It takes three seconds andwe all know who has what.
It takes three seconds for usto go, you know what, gimme
a second look for a Maltese.
Let's see who has malteses in the area.
Dixie (42:35):
Yeah.
I love that you do that.
Meredith (42:38):
You gotta, I dunno.
People say I'm too nice.
Dixie (42:43):
Before we end the call, what final message would you
like to share with our listeners?
Meredith (42:49):
I just wish everybody would do one kind thing every
day 'cause if we all do that, wecan make a world a better place.
And I also to always rememberbefore you judge, think.
Put yourself in that person's shoes.
If you grew up like that persongrew up, you might do the same
(43:09):
thing or make the same choices.
If you were in that person's situation,those things could have happened to you.
Goes back to kindness.
So when you're dealing with people,especially animal rescuers, when people
call you and ask for help and they reallydo need help or they can't afford the
vet bill, instead of going online andit's oh my God, I got this dog from
(43:29):
these people and they couldn't affordthe vet bill and he's really sick.
Maybe say , Hey, somebodyfell in hard times.
They couldn't care for their dog.
They had the wherewithalto call and ask for help.
We took the dog in.
We're gonna get it the help itneed, or we wanna try to help these
people 'cause they're a good ownerbecause if we did that, we can
actually, if we kept dogs with goodpeople and cats with good people.
(43:53):
We literally could go to the town and thecounty shelters, the high kill shelters
and help the animals that nobody wantsbecause we would have the space and the th
instead of just flipping adoptable pets.
I hate to use the word flipping.
I'm not calling people flippers,but we can't just do kittens and
poppies, but I get that it's easy.
I don't do kittens and puppies.
(44:14):
Do you know why?
Could you guess?
I didn't wanna be one of those people.
I didn't wanna be adoption fee driven.
I didn't wanna fall into the trap.
I gotta go pull a bunch of puppies.
'cause we need money to pay for things.
I wanted to figure out a different way.
We've been at, since 2013.
(44:34):
This is the first time I'mhaving a major problem.
I could not have predictedthis life situation at all.
Like this one's for the books,
Dixie (44:40):
but yeah.
Yeah, nobody could predict.
Yeah, I tried.
Meredith (44:43):
I was like, what the heck?
Wow, I've never had someone offerus a grant, get approved and go,
oops, sorry, our funding got cut.
That has never happened.
And you can't even get mad.
You just laugh.
I gotta laugh.
. So other final thought is to pleaseagain, be kind, but also be conscious
and aware and take responsibility.
If you're going to takeon a case, see it through.
(45:05):
If you can see it through, ask for help.
Don't dump it on someone else.
When someone else does actually help you.
Make sure that you don't abandonthem with that situation.
I guess that's it, right?
That was a good end.
Dixie (45:18):
Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me and I
think things will end up gettingbetter, so just hang in there.
Meredith (45:25):
Trying.
We'll see what happens.
Whatcha gonna do.
You're not gonna pack it up.
You're gonna keep fighting.
I have my quote of the day hasbeen, let's just go down swinging.
You are gonna go down, swinging,go down trying, go down swinging.
At the end of the day, even if youfail, if you tried your best and you
did everything you could, then you'regonna be able to sleep at night.
(45:47):
But if you just give up andwalk, then you didn't try.
There's always that what if in the back.
Dixie (45:53):
Yeah.
And it sounds like you've donea lot of good, that's for sure.
Thank you for listening andwe hope you join us next week.
If you know somebody that loves animalsas much as I do, please send 'em our way.
We would love to talk to 'em.
If you are enjoying our show, pleaseconsider leaving us a donation.
A hundred percent goes to our animals.
(46:15):
Paws in
the night Claws in thefight Whiskers twitch and
tails
take flight
They’re calling in Stories to spinFrom the wild to the heart within
(46:42):
Broken wings and hopeful springsWe’re the voices for these things
animal posse hear the call.
We stand together.
Big and small Rescue tales We’vegot it all Animal posse Saving
(47:10):
them
all
The vet’s got tips The rescuer’sgrit The foster homes where love
won’t quit From a pup in the rain toa bird in pain , Every soul’s worth
(47:38):
the
strain
Animal posse
Hear the call
We stand together Big
(48:03):
and small Rescue tales We’ve gotit all Animal posse Saving them all
Every caller tells a tale, everyhowl a whispered wail, we rise up.
We never
(48:24):
fail.
This
is
the
bond
The holy grail
(48:44):
Animal posse Hear the call We standtogether Big and small Rescue tales We’ve
got it all Animal posse Saving them all
(49:08):
Every caller tells a tale Every howla whispered wail We rise up We never
fail This is the bond The holy grail.
Song by Suno.ai
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues making adifference in the lives of animals.
Thank you so much, Meredith,for joining me today.
I'm glad that you wanted to comeon to talk about the crisis that
we have going on in animal rescue.
Before we start can you share a bit aboutyourself and the rescue that you are with?
Meredith (00:24):
I am 50 Woo.
I have been doing animal rescue in somesort of capacity since I was really young.
Actually when I was a kid we werestill allowed to work if your parents
signed off on it with working papers.
And I volunteered and had asmall part-time job at IDE week.
'cause I grew up in Levittown.
(00:44):
That was in UA on Long Island.
And I did that a couple of hours a week.
And then again, when I was going for myconfirmation, I needed to do community
service and I did that as well.
When I did that, I actuallyworked in the training department
with the rehabilitation cases.
They actually taught me at a veryyoung age how to help socialize.
(01:05):
Scared cats and dogs, nothing dangerous.
Obviously I was a child, buttimes were different then.
And then through college I worked atNorthshore League and then , after
college I started to work in banking, butI still always had a foot in the animal
welfare world, be it fostering dogs orcats for other rescues, volunteering
at other rescues, things like that.
In 2013, we started Paws Unite Peoplebecause I noticed there was a big gap
(01:32):
within the animal welfare community.
You foster homes and then youhad animal shelters, but there
was nowhere for cats and dogs.
To go that sort of didn'tfit in either bucket.
Not ready for a home, but too scaredor traumatized to be at a shelter.
So that was the goal, was totry to create that middle.
We started it out doing it with myselfand a couple of other core volunteers who
(01:56):
were experienced, who would take thoseanimals into our home until we could
save enough money to get a facility.
We did an animal abuse case in2014 where it was a hoarding case.
It was over 80 cats.
It was Turkish Angora breeder.
Some of them didn't make it.
Some of them survived, but the townshelter refused to take though.
(02:17):
So we rented a building.
And it started there small.
We started in a 900 square foot facility.
Now we're in an almost , 5,000square foot facility.
So we've definitely got more spaceand we are definitely doing a
little bit more , in the community.
We hope not just animals fromabuse, cruelty, neglect, but
we also train service animals.
(02:38):
We train therapy dogs.
We have special needs adults and kidscome work with the animals that we have
that are cleared for that so that theycan learn a skillset or they can have
positive interactions with animals.
Sometimes special needs child can'thave a cat or a dog at home, but they
can come to this shelter a coupleof days a week and play with them.
And we also take in animals temporarilyfor people suffering from temporary
(03:03):
shift in housing, temporary homelessnessor domestic violence cases where
people are fleeing domestic violence
right now we have a dog at theshelter from someone who is fleeing
domestic violence and two cats fromsomeone who's currently homeless.
But we don't put them up for adoption.
If that makes sense.
Is that enough about me?
Dixie (03:22):
It does make sense.
It's very interestingtoo with the background.
'cause I can just imagine, 'cause I docat rescue, having that many cats in a
900 square foot building and then buildingup to go to a 5,000 square foot building.
That's pretty impressive.
Meredith (03:38):
It started so small, like it was 86 cats, but they didn't survive
about 40, made it out of the vet.
It was one of the worstthings I've ever seen.
It was like Auschwitz for cats.
But yeah, we started super smalland then now we're just big.
It's crazy.
We do international stufftoo, like we back up.
All the international rescues, severalof them in Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Korea
(04:01):
Taiwan in the event they and Afghanistan,we used to, not now because well,
but in the event animals are shippedto the United States and run into an
issue at that moment we would step in.
So we do have some dogs and cats inthe building that came from overseas.
We didn't bring them here, but theywent to other rescue groups or straight
(04:21):
to adopters that it didn't work outbecause I also don't think animals
should be brought to this country and flythousands of miles just to be euthanized.
That really ground to my gears,
Dixie (04:32):
exactly.
Meredith (04:33):
Yeah.
Dixie (04:34):
Can you explain when you're taking in like these pets that are on
a temporary basis for the homelessnessor the domestic violence, how you
end up reuniting them, how long youusually have to house 'em before the
people are able to take 'em back.
Meredith (04:49):
We try to, each case is different.
You never can put, even withrehabilitation, each case is different.
Each cat you take in each dog, youtake in each family, we assist.
It's different.
So it's never a one size fits all.
So the most recent case, a girl wasfleeing a domestic violence situation.
She needed to put her dogs somewhere safe.
(05:10):
She's very young.
Very young, and she has to gether proverbial, what together so
that she can start her life over.
So I didn't give her a time limit.
I told her to take what she needstime-wise, and she comes and she
volunteers and helps out take care ofthe animals, and she gets to see her dog.
And I've noticed, especially withdomestic violence, women and sometimes
(05:35):
men, we've had men stay in thesesituations that they shouldn't stay
in because they love their pets.
The last cat case we tookin from domestic violence.
I had the cat for six months.
I've had some longer, we've only had oneinstance in the years we've been helping
out where we did not return the animal.
(05:57):
It is a dog.
That dog is a permanentresident at our shelter.
He suffers from permanent PTSD fromwitnessing a very horrific event.
She ended up going back to her husband.
I couldn't give the dog back.
But normally I would say it takespeople on an average one to three
months to get themselves back in order.
(06:18):
We had a house fire,it was like eight cats.
We had them for nine months 'causethey had to rebuild the whole house.
So when I say each case isdifferent, it really is.
Dixie (06:27):
Sure
Meredith (06:27):
depends.
You have to really talk to people.
You have to figure out if they'retelling you the truth too, which is
something we've gotten very good at.
We've had instances, oh shoot,yeah, we had a dog that came in.
The gentleman temporarily lost his home.
His mother passed away.
It was sold out underneathhim by the family.
By the time he found an apartment,his dog was diagnosed with cancer.
(06:50):
So what we ended up doing was he gota key to the building and he would
just come and visit with the dog.
At the facility.
I hate calling it a shelter'cause we're not a shelter.
Like all the animals are not in cages,they're in rooms with TVs and couches.
It's like a rehab center.
But he was able to comevisit with his dog.
His dog was at a big pit bull.
(07:11):
His name was muscles.
He lived in the cat room.
So he would come, when he had time.
I didn't care because , by thattime we had known him very well.
We trusted him.
He would come, hang out, gohome, take care of his dog leave.
But because moving the dog mid, in thathospice situation into a tiny apartment
where he had to be carried up and downthe stairs just wasn't gonna work.
(07:32):
So like I said,, you have tolook at each case differently.
We just took in.
10 dogs out of a hoarding case.
We actually had 17, but sevenwent to other rescues finally.
Thank you.
And we have 10 left.
And each one of them is different.
They all suffer from different issues.
Some of them are furtheralong than others.
You can't one size fits allrehabilitation work for sure.
(07:53):
And you can't one size fits allpeople that are experiencing
an uproot in their life.
Dixie (07:59):
How many animals can your facility house?
Meredith (08:03):
Right now we have 32 dogs and we have 46 cats.
We could technically taken up to 50cats and I can house, depending on
the dog sizes 'cause it's all modular.
I could move walls and things.
We could probably houseeight or nine more dogs.
(08:25):
But fiscally, no.
We are over capacity from a financialstandpoint, which seems to be the problem
across the board in animal rescue lately.
Dixie (08:34):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we can start getting into that too.
And another thing too that Iwould like to mention, because.
I love that you're helping outpeople with their pets for temporary
situations rather than have themsurrender their animals to a shelter.
And I think that's what rescue should be.
Or if somebody does need to surrenderan animal, it should be a situation
(08:55):
like that, like something thatis really beyond their control.
Meredith (08:59):
Yeah, I don't want your dog.
I said this, the girl was so nice andshe's just I don't know what to do.
I said, you need to get outta there.
Keep yourself safe.
I don't want your dog, but I'll keepyour dog safe while you figure it out.
, That's why we started this.
, It was part of our mission statement frominception was to do community outreach
(09:19):
to try to stop the cycle of abuse.
What and the other side of that wasalso to try to help good owners keep
their pets as much as we possibly could.
There's so many animals that need helpthat don't have good owners, right?
So if someone is a good person andit's a good owner and it's a temporary
setback, we shouldn't be taking theircats and dogs, especially with cats.
(09:42):
I don't want your 18-year-old cat.
I don't want your 12-year-old cat,because it's going to end up living
in my facility for a very longtime if it gets adopted at all.
But.
I feel like it's so important.
If you looked at it that way, if rescuegroups tried to be a temporary bandaid in
situations like that, it would alleviatethe amount of dogs getting surrendered
(10:05):
to municipal town county run sheltersbecause people are stuck temporarily.
But it would also keep us from havingto long-term house older animals that
may not be as easy to get adopted.
I hope that made sense.
Dixie (10:18):
It does.
Exactly.
And I agree with that too.
Now I see in my area a lot, I find peopleare what I'm gonna say is abusing rescues,
because all the calls that we get, it'sconstantly, oh, I'm moving tomorrow.
I need a place for my animal to go.
And that's not what rescue is for.
Rescue is not for like yourlack of planning or your lack of
(10:39):
responsibility, it's for animals thatare actually in need or in crisis.
Meredith (10:46):
Yeah.
We never help people like that.
Unless it's domestic violence, that'sa completely different situation,
Dixie (10:50):
right?
Yes.
Meredith (10:50):
But if people call me, I'm like, I'm moving.
I need to rehome my dog.
I'm like you should havecalled us three weeks ago.
'cause I'm pretty sure youknew you were moving then.
I feel bad when I do it,we have to have limits.
I've had a lady call me onceat three in the morning.
She got my phone number from an emergencyvet and she was just like, I just left
my boyfriend, my one cat's at the er.
(11:11):
She's my other cat's in the car.
I can't afford the pet fee at the hotel.
And I'm like, listen, I'll meet you.
At the time we were in East Patchog,I'm like, I'll meet you in East Patchog.
I'm leaving my house now.
I'll be there in 30 minutes.
I got you cat.
I got you back.
Don't worry about it.
Just don't worry about it.
And we tried to raise money tohelp her cover the vet bill for
the cat that was in the ER becausethat guy was a piece of crap.
(11:32):
So those calls, you can't control that.
It's, especially when they're strugglingto leave, like a lot of times we'll
talk to people trying to get outtathat situation and they're not sure.
Those are always the onlylast minute ones I take.
From the general public.
Because they're leaving.
Yeah.
It's a lot.
Those people go through a lot.
Dixie (11:53):
It's good to take that burden of their animals off
of them, that's something thatthey don't have to worry about.
Meredith (11:59):
Yeah.
I've seen people keep themselvesin those situations because
rescue goats won't help them.
I've seen people stay in thosesituations because they didn't think
that they had options or they didn'twanna give up their pets because they
were sad or scared or they loved them.
But, I've had people likethis girl, her dog's awesome.
(12:19):
It's her emotional support dog.
She had a traumatic eventwhen she was younger.
This is her trained emotional support dog.
She called multiple rescue groups and theyall offered to take her dog for adoption.
I'm like, I don't want yourdog's I want you to be okay.
And I didn't think that's right either.
I don't think it's right to takethis girl's dog upfront right away.
(12:40):
We set limits, but let's give thiskid some time to get back on her
feet before you take her animal.
I understand her dog isvery easy to put in home.
It would be a nice, easy, quick adoption,but are we really doing the right
thing for that person or that dog?
Dixie (12:54):
What is the crisis that you're facing right now?
What is your biggest challenge?
Meredith (12:59):
Long Island has a very big hoarding problem, so I've
been dealing with that a lot.
And then funding, there's just no funding.
We've seen a lot where I talkedabout this the other day just with
someone where grants I normallyget or don't exist anymore.
There were a lot of cuts made,especially for my organization.
So you have to figure a lot of thefunding that we were getting to help
(13:21):
women fleeing domestic violence and,or disabled or special needs adults and
children was coming through programs thatwere labeled DEI that have been canceled.
And sometimes I think peopledon't understand how funding
from the government works.
So the government will issue large grants.
Those large grants go to largerfoundations and organizations,
(13:42):
and then that money trickles down.
And as small guys, weapply for those funds.
So you know when you get a grantfor $6,000 from Red Rover to help
people fleeing domestic violence,they got that money from above, and
then that money came from above.
It trickles down.
So unless you're a huge animalwelfare organization, you're
(14:05):
not getting those big checks.
You're getting the smaller pieces ofa pie that came from somewhere else.
So the grants havedissipated in that bucket.
USDA had a lot of funding cuts.
We lost $23,000 in grants that fellunder that bucket for the cats and dogs
spay, neuter programs, stuff like that.
And then states are losing theirfunding or not getting their funding
(14:27):
depending on what state you're in.
So then those programs get cut.
And then also two people have tightenedtheir wallets because the financial
state of life has been a little unstable.
So you have a lot of peoplegiving less, but asking for more.
So I've had an uptick in people askingus for assistance on multiple levels,
(14:50):
because when people are strugglingfinancially, you get an uptick in
domestic violence, that happens.
Those situations become volatile.
So we have more people asking usfor help that are in bad situations
at home, we have more people askingfor help because they're homeless or
they're losing their home, or theycan't afford their home anymore.
We have more people askingfor help with vet bills.
(15:12):
But then I'm also seeing an uptakein neglect cases where people
aren't asking and neglecting theiranimals, and you're seeing an uptake
in animals that are ending up inshelters that are in poor state.
We just did that hoarding caseand nobody wanted to do anything
about it because there was no onefor nowhere for the dogs to go.
The town shelter's full.
(15:33):
There's nowhere for the animals to go.
The woman is mentally ill,she's not going to get charges.
So why take the dogs outta the house?
Because where are they gonna go?
We'll just condemn her house.
She can leave them outside.
And I said, no, we're gonna take them outof the house and we're gonna get rescue
groups to step up and figure it out.
But now you have rescue groupsbesides myself, there's 25 dogs.
(15:55):
I have 10.
But me and the other rescues thathelped out, now we're stuck trying
to find the money to pay thesebills in an environment where people
aren't donating to help those dogs.
So it's a struggle.
But yeah, money, money's alwaysbeen a challenge for rescue groups,
but it is really bad lately.
I know where you are.
It's been really bad too.
(16:15):
I have some friends that way.
Bad.
Bad.
Dixie (16:19):
Are you seeing a lot of rescues up by you having to close
their doors because of this?
Meredith (16:23):
Yes.
A lot of rescues are closing their doors.
A lot of rescues are closing their doors.
I just saw the other day I was like,another rescue shutting down because
they can't afford their bills.
There was a horrible story I saw floatingaround this woman that euthanized all
the dogs, which I think is insane.
And she was sketchy to begin with.
But that's what's happening is thatpeople, animal rescues and animal
(16:44):
shelters are clothing shop becausethey can't afford to pay their bills.
And we are on the edge I have rentto you in four days, and I still
have to find $4,000 for that.
But, I make phone calls.
I'm pushing fundraising.
On top of that, you have utility bills.
Like people don't understand how muchit costs to run an actual facility.
(17:06):
Foster based rescuescan be very expensive.
But for a facility on LongIsland in New York, we are
spending $9,000 a month in rent.
And insurance fees.
And then utilities areabout 1200 bucks a month.
And that's just to keep the lightson and the door open and you
have to add a dog food, right?
(17:27):
Veterinary care and all theother things on top of that.
So we are, our budget to run theshelter every month is about $15,000.
Barring no major medical event.
And we were doing that, but now thatgrants are gone and funding's gone,
like I sit and I say we're not gonnatake anything else in the dogs.
Were in emergency.
(17:48):
I wasn't gonna put themback in the backyard.
There was just a way, and thank Godother rescue groups stepped up to help.
'cause I don't know what I would dowith 25 of them, but it really comes
down to we have to start deciding arewe going to try to keep going or are
we gonna try to place what we haveand close our doors because they're
just, donations are just not there.
But I know three rescuers that aredone, they're not doing it anymore.
(18:12):
They're just not going to do it anymore.
They're just gonna close it up.
They're gonna adopt out whatthey have and close shop because
they're killing themselves.
And it breaks my heart becauseas these smaller groups close,
where did the animals go?
Because the town shelters are full.
, We've done a really good job.
(18:33):
And and it's other problems.
You, and I hate to say this,like rescue groups get mad.
I, we did a really good job at likewith the no kill movement, right?
To reduce euthanasia rights,to increase live release rates.
A lot of that comes from town municipalshelters not taking in pets . I'm
(18:56):
seeing it where people will call me andsay, especially with cats, , I called
the town shelter because I'm beingevicted and I have 30 days to leave.
But they said they can't takemy cats, they have no room.
I just saw, was it John, one ofthe rescuers on Long Island posted
that he picked up five cats today.
(19:17):
The owner got evictedbecause ACC didn't take them.
So we're gonna start to see more,I think more street abandonment.
I'm noticing a lot more friendlycats and dogs floating around the
streets than I normally would see.
Especially from where we are.
It's indicative of a bigger problem right
Dixie (19:39):
do you think rescues may, in a sense, have created the
problem by giving people thismentality that they can always.
Go surrender their animal, so , if theshelter's not gonna take it, there's
this thought, then there's rescue,but then of course rescues get full.
Do you think that could haveanything to do with it as well?
(19:59):
Or what are your thoughts on that?
Meredith (20:00):
I don't think that we created it.
I think it's really hard to say.
I just got a call the other day, sevenmonth old pit puppy, perfectly dog social.
And it was somebody who adopted adog from me, and it was an older dog.
And she's listen, I'm trying, , mykid's friend, they have this dog,
their parents lost their house.
(20:21):
They have nowhere to go.
I said, I'd take the puppy in.
It is torturing my dog.
I said I'm sure it is.
Because the dog I gave them couldbe a little tricky with other female
dogs, especially younger ones.
She goes, but I didn't want thedog to end up getting euthanized.
And when they went to the town shelterand asked if they could take it,
they said that they had no space,that the only owner surrenders they
(20:44):
were taking were for euthanasia.
Who wants to euthanizea seven month old puppy?
Nobody, right?
So they just said, , wecan't take it right now.
So there was nowhere for the dog to go.
I ended up calling a differenttown shelter who I knew had space,
and I was just like, listen, canyou please just take this puppy?
There's nothing wrong with it.
It's just a puppy.
I can't take it.
(21:06):
Now, do I want that dogsitting in a town shelter?
No.
It's a puppy.
It needs proper socialization and it needsto be, in a foster home or an environment
like mine that's close to a home that'sstructured because this puppy's just
going to end up being conditioned ata critical development age to be in
a shelter and you don't want that.
(21:27):
But I had to say no because Ican't afford it, and I think that.
We didn't create the problem by alwaysbeing there, but we definitely put a
bandaid on it for a while, for alwaystrying to find a way, because it really
does come down to money because if therescue groups have the money to pay for
(21:47):
the vet bills, to pay for the whatever,the marketing the Facebook ad the
management, the all of the things you needto do to raise money, fundraising costs,
all of that stuff, if they have the moneyto get that all done, then the animals
could get adopted, the vettings finished.
But when you have to wait to raisethe money needed to do the thing so
(22:10):
that you could put the cat or the dogin a home, it starts to drag it out.
And if you overload yourself,you just can't afford it.
I know four animal rescue groups in myarea alone that have, vet bills in upward
outstanding balances of $40,000 each.
Right now our outstanding vet bills areon three K and I'm having a heart attack.
(22:30):
I never let it get that bad.
You can't get it.
Let that bad.
But I have to say no.
And I think, again, I don't think wecreated a problem with the general public.
I think that we bandaided it by not sayingno, because we were getting donations and
now that we're not, and things are cut,and funding's cut and people tightened
(22:53):
their wallets and things are unstable,we're starting to see the effects of that.
I hope if that made sense.
Dixie (23:01):
It does.
It makes a lot of sense with you havingbills of 15,000 a month, that's a lot.
Yes.
It's very difficult to get that amount in.
I can only imagine.
Meredith (23:12):
I'm going to
cry.
We were getting grants, soI never, and this is truth.
I never would've signed the leasefor this building where we are.
If I thought for an iota of amoment that I was gonna lose
$50,000 in grant funding overnight.
Never.
(23:32):
I never imagined that Iwas gonna get an email.
'cause that was consistent for years.
$69,700 is the total loss for2025 in grant funding alone.
That's pretty muchalmost the shelter bills.
A lot of money.
And it was a lot of emailssaying, listen, we're sorry.
(23:52):
We know we approved you for agrant for first quarter 2025, but
due to cuts and funding, we areunable to do that and we apologize.
You're just like, oh, great.
Shoot me.
Dixie (24:04):
Have you tried to come up with some other kind of.
Fundraising ideas or things to do
? Meredith (24:09):
Anybody wanna buy a kidney didn't work.
I tend to be really sarcastic.
The biggest thing everybody says to meis I always act like it's gonna be fine.
They're like, Meredith, everybody thinksyou're just gonna figure it out, out.
I'm like, I know it's bad.
I don't know.
We're pushing fundraising as hardas we can on social media, but the
(24:29):
general public, I'm not the big org.
We had a big bump in finances.
, We did help overseas and I mentionedthat, and we worked with animal
rescuers in Afghanistan when thefall of Afghanistan happened.
Activision Blizzard, the videogame company gave us a large grant
$600,000, but that was specificallyto get those women out of Afghanistan
(24:53):
and their families, right?
So that was donor directed funds.
We got that money, we got everybody thatwas helping our US troops and our go US
government employees over the years withthe cats and dogs out of Afghanistan.
And then that money was gone,never to come back again.
I couldn't give you for anything else.
So sometimes people look at our financesand they see that big bump, and I'm like,
(25:15):
yeah, that was a COVID loan and, A grantfor a specific purpose and then nothing.
And then we're back to normal.
It's oh look at Meredith.
She's 150, 190, 150, 200,000, 800,000.
And then it goes 200,001, 200,000, one 50.
'cause we, it was just that one peak.
'cause sometimes youhave that one big thing.
(25:36):
But that one big thing didn'tgive us like public notoriety.
No one knows who we are.
That was just someone who knew thatwe worked with that shelter and
wanted to help those specific people.
We are not a big org that gets inthousands of donations that has
hundreds of thousands of followers.
We have 33,000 on Facebook's,3000 I think on Instagram, and
(25:58):
two, almost 2000 on TikTok.
Like we're not big.
So relying on your social mediabase is just not, we don't have
a hundred percent followers.
It's just that doesn't work.
So I've been trying to think outside ofbox with grants, and not just for myself,
but some of the dog sanctuary rescuers.
It breaks my heart, these people havecommitted their lives to helping dogs
(26:20):
that are just not adoptable at all.
And they put this, they dumped their wholelife savings and their whole life into it.
And now no one's giving grants topeople who aren't doing adoptions.
And then even still, it needs tobe a certain amount of adoptions.
And that's hurt.
And I was like, even with me withrehab to give a good example, we were
getting $40,000 a year from a very big.
(26:42):
Store organization.
We'll just say that.
And that they shifted gears.
Now we do abuse, cruelty,and neglect cases.
So you and I both know these, thedogs I took from a hoarding case,
they're not gonna get adoptedquickly, i'll have to heal them.
I have to take them to the vet.
We need to get their skin better
. They have behavior issuesthat I'm gonna work on.
(27:03):
So we may be six months before those10 dogs are ready to leave my facility.
Now, during those six months, I'mnot doing puppies and kittens.
I'm not taking in those kinds of animals.
So my adoption numbers for thenext six months are gonna be low.
So when they shifted gears tohow many cats or dogs you got
adopted a year, I lost that money.
(27:25):
So you're starting to see the peoplethat do what I do or the sanctuary
work, lose out on opportunities fromlarger foundations and grants that
still are out there because they'restrictly basing it on numbers, which is
where I think encourages the problem.
So if a shelter or a rescue isgetting money based on the amount
(27:49):
of adoptions that they do, arethey doing ethical adoptions?
Are they really making sure that theseanimals are going to the right home?
How many of those animals arereturned or dumped in local shelters?
There's a big one here.
They do hundreds of adoptions a month.
I have three of their dogs andeight of their cats in my building.
Dixie (28:10):
I can understand that because I do more, sanctuary.
I do more.
Like adult cats.
Of course I'll take in kittens.
I help kittens Oh, have.
But the whole thing with an adult catis an adult cat is, they're overlooked.
They take a long time Yes.
To get adopted.
It does make a lot of sense becauseyou might see these groups that
(28:31):
are taken in puppies adoptingout all these puppies right away.
But meanwhile, the people that havethe adult animals, they're with those
animals for several months before youfind a home, because everybody wants
the cute little puppies and kittens,
Meredith (28:45):
not just months.
Eight years ago I was left 50cats and $50 in a will, and all
those cats were 10 years old.
Can I tell you, I still haveproblems with my building.
I have a cat that justturned 24 years old.
Lisa's been with us for nine years now.
(29:06):
She's 24 years old.
Nobody wanted her nine years agowhen she was not 24 years old
because she was a senior then.
She's like ancient now.
And then you also have rescueslike mine that may take dogs.
Like I have a beautiful dog.
She's seven years old.
Her name is Pebbles.
She's been with us for almost five years.
She's mint.
She does not like other dogs.
(29:27):
I would put her with a newborn baby.
I would put her with an newborn baby.
She works with nonverbal autistic kids.
She is amazing.
She cannot go to a home with other dogs.
She cannot go to a home with ahouse, with a chain link fence.
Come on Long Island.
That's pretty common.
So she's been with me a long timebecause I refuse to set her up to fail.
So what we've done withdogs is they're part of our
(29:49):
outreach program with the kids.
So like when people call and say, we can'thave a pet, my son really loves dogs.
I'm like, great, I'll throw 'emin the backyard with Pebbles.
He can wash her, go swimming.
I don't care.
You can sit there for threehours, doesn't matter.
It makes her happy.
You wanna take a dog for day trip?
Go ahead, take PEs go.
She just doesn't like how the dogsdon't let her interact with another dog.
You see a baby in a carriage,she'll lick its face.
(30:10):
But like you have a lot of that, likeI'm sure you have cats that have been
with you way longer than a couple months.
Oh dear.
We all have those.
Yeah.
But right now we have, like Isaid, the amount of cats we have.
I have 16 cats over the age of 19.
Dixie (30:27):
Wow.
Meredith (30:28):
No one's adopting those.
Yeah, they're not leaving.
They're leaving, but just not thatway, which is why I don't cage.
That's why we have the furniture andthe couches and the television sets
and the waterfalls and they make itlook like a house and people come and
sit and pet the cats and watch tv.
And our cats are dog socials.
So I use the cats that have been with mefor eight years that were supposed to die
(30:48):
eight years ago because they were supposedto be hospice cases and still live.
They're great with dogs.
So when we get dogs in, like we justtook we just took three chihuahuas from
another rescue who got those chihuahuasfrom a hoarding case with 63 dogs.
They got the chihuahuas in February.
The dogs were not doing well,they weren't moving forward.
I'm like, ah, we'll throw'em in the cat room.
(31:10):
And everyone thought I was crazy.
I'm like, you just wait.
The cats will sort it up.
Cats became friends with chihuahuas.
Now Chihuahuas are approaching peoplebecause their cat friends are right.
So at least the cats have a purpose.
The cats get to help otheranimals move forward.
They have a purpose.
They're happy.
They have a chihuahua to bother.
(31:30):
They can clean it.
They play with it, but they arehoping as well, so they have a
purpose, which was that middle.
I tried to, I told you Itried to fill a middle.
So are our cat sanctuary camps.
Yeah.
I don't know.
If somebody came to me tomorrowand said, I'd love to adopt
Lisa, I'd be like, really?
If Lisa likes you, sure.
Take her home, let her go home.
But nobody's adopting a 24-year-old cat.
(31:51):
With a tilted head.
No one.
But Lisa loves those chihuahuas, soit, Lisa, those chihuahuas are learning
how to live with a multi pet home.
'Cause there's a dog in therethat's a permanent resident as well.
And he loves dogs.
He just hates people.
So when people visit, I haveto take him out of the room.
But he loves dogs.
So they're learning howto live with other dogs.
(32:12):
They're learning how to live with cats.
They're learning.
It's funny, 'cause hoarder dogsgo to the bathroom everywhere
and one of the chihuahuas poopedon the cat's like ottoman.
And the cat just smacked it.
And that dog has not poopedon the ottoman since.
So they're helping with housebreaking.
And if you look at our videos, Ihave a video of Barry who is our
handicap dog, she has no hind legs.
(32:32):
She's been with us foralmost five years now.
She's actually got a potential adopter.
We have to do a meet next week.
But it took me that long to find a dogwith no hind and legs, a home where
someone was willing to take on that.
But Barry has helped us socializeso many dogs, and I was like,
here, 10 schnauzers go play.
And she's teaching them to trust people.
(32:54):
And if it wasn't for Barry andthe cats, those dogs would not be
as far along as they are becausethey're making friends with Barry.
They're making friends with the cats, thenthey're watching Barry and the cats and
baby sharks, the other dog interact withpeople and go, oh, hey, I can do that too.
So it's, but like we don't havethose adoption numbers that are crazy
because sometimes that's not just one.
(33:15):
Sometimes it actually is years.
And those on the animals that other placescould say you should have euthanized them.
And again, I'm gonna go backto some of these animals,
did not fly 3000 miles to die
39 cats were left at JFK airport.
What was I supposed to do?
Let them get euthanized?
Hell no.
Some of them were older.
I still have them.
It's okay.
(33:36):
They're at least doing somethingto help other animals find a home.
It's just now that things havegotten numbered base, it's just hard.
Dixie (33:44):
I understand.
Meredith (33:44):
I babble.
I'm a
New Yorker.
Dixie (33:46):
That's okay.
What do you think needs tobe done to change things?
Or how do you forecast thingsin the future in animal rescue?
Meredith (33:55):
I think
in general, first, everybodyneeds to stop arguing.
Animal rescuers argue all the time.
It's not a competition.
We all have to come to some sortof middle level because animal
cruelty laws in this country, in theUnited States are not consistent.
In most cases they're not enforced.
But the reason, and working withpoliticians as much as we do,
(34:18):
especially with helping Afghans andthen other things we're doing with
law enforcement and hoarding cases,I can tell you most politicians
think animal rescuers are nuts.
'cause we're always arguing andwe're always fighting and we're
always badmouthing each other.
And you and I both know that's true.
So we need to try to stop, take astep back and try to work together
for like comprehensive animalwelfare reform that's consistent.,
(34:43):
I think also you need to look at thehoarding issue that occurs across
this country with animal hoarding.
And really start looking at it likethis is a mental illness problem.
So when we do a hoarding case.
Typically when I'm mitigating it, andit's not law enforcement, and I've
done that before, I haven't done onein two years, but we have helped orders
(35:07):
get their numbers down, clean theirhouse up without getting arrested.
And we work with social workers andmental health professionals and you
need to make sure they're getting theaftercare and then that's dissipated.
So now it's arrest them, presscharges, take all their animals away,
no follow up, no follow through.
They get convicted five years, no dogs.
Guess what happens in five years?
(35:28):
They go get more dogs
or they're convicted and they'retold that they can't have pets and
they get them anyway and nobodyfollows up to make sure they don't.
So I think we need to do a betterjob addressing the hoarding problem
that's happening across this country.
'cause it's everywhere.
I think we need to, as rescue groups,create partnerships with law enforcement,
district attorneys, people in positionsof legal authority to try to figure out
(35:53):
a plan to what to do in these situations.
To try to stop gabit from going forward.
Wellness checks, things like that.
I also think that maybe we need totry to get better partnerships with
the townships and the counties andthe states that we're in to try to
help, especially when we're steppingup to take animals that were abused,
(36:15):
that were part of an investigation.
Because if we are gonna step up andtake 10 dogs out of a case that was
where a person was arrested, theanimals are also a victim of a crime.
So the county or the state orthe township could, in theory.
Help the animal rescues that helpthose animals with some of the expenses
(36:35):
because they do that with people.
Those are just my random thoughts.
And I also think we need to try to cometo some sort of way to get a consistent
across the board, maybe a coalitionwhere we could try to help people pay
their medical bills more on a nationallevel so that they don't surrender
because they can't afford something.
(36:56):
A network of organizations thatare willing to offer up foster
homes to temporarily house petslike we do would also be fantastic.
I could go all day on this.
Sorry.
There's lots of ideas.
Dixie (37:09):
Yeah.
Those are all great ideas.
And what you said too about therescue groups working together, that
was one point of this whole podcastwhen I first started it, is because
I did see a lot of rescue groups,like they fight with each other.
Meredith (37:24):
Yes.
And yes.
Dixie (37:25):
Rather than fight with each other, work together, we all have the same goal.
Meredith (37:30):
Yeah
Like I'm not competition, sogenerally speaking, I try to
get along with everybody, butI'm that weird bucket, right?
I'm not competing with you.
If you're doing kitten adoptions, you win.
I had five kittens this wholeyear, and they're just getting
adopted now because they were somalnourished I couldn't fix them
until they were six months old, right?
And then I have a bunchof old cats and old dogs.
I have cats and dogs.
(37:51):
I can't bring new adoption eventsat Petco or Pet Smart because they
don't like other cats and dogs.
So I'm not anyone's competition.
The people who know who I am areusually within the rescue community
because again, I'm the person that youcall, like I have three chihuahuas.
I can't do anything with the Merediths.
Do you have room?
I'm that person.
But I think we all need to worktogether because I picked up the phone
(38:13):
and I called all the people that I'vehelped before, and I'm like, Hey, she
want a schnauzer because some of thedogs in this house didn't need me.
Some of the dogs outta these 25 dogsdidn't need to be at my facility.
Yes, they needed medical care, but theydid not need as much socialization.
They were not as traumatizedas some of the others.
(38:33):
I think if we all worked togetherinstead of competing for the high
profile cases, that would be way better.
Dixie (38:40):
Yeah I agree with that.
I had somebody come look at twokittens that I had the other
day to adopt 'em together.
They looked at 'em and I told 'em, I'mlike, look, before you make this decision
on my two kittens, I'm like, they have twoother groups that have adoption events.
Go check them out too.
Meredith (38:55):
yep.
People come to me and they're like,Meredith, I saw you have a dog.
It's worm.
Worm is a , seven pound Maltese.
He's been with me for almost fouryears now because worm's fence,
his criminal offense that ended himup in a town shelter was hopping
a neighbor's fence and ripping aGerman shepherd's ears off again.
I'm gonna repeat.
It's a seven pound Maltese.
(39:17):
He's extremely large dog aggressive andhe flies like a squirrel flying squirrel.
So I worked with Worm on nothopping five foot fences.
He doesn't do that anymore.
Initially when we had him for adoption,I said he needed a DPS collar.
He doesn't run away anymore.
He doesn't bolt anymore.
He is got a lot of training,but he is still a jerk.
He's just a jerk.
(39:38):
He's not an abused dog.
He was a spoiled brat that never gottaught rules, structure, or boundaries.
They bought him in a pet store, theyhad him for a year, and then he did
that because they never told him no.
'cause he was cute and theycarried him everywhere.
And they, and that goes back towhat could we do differently?
Education, educating people on howto train your dog, how to train
(39:58):
your cat to use a litter box.
All of that stuff.
Going out into the world and puttingout podcasts and, advice like you
see, if you follow us on socialmedia, I try to tell people what we're
doing to rehabilitate dogs or howto train a dog or how to help a cat.
Because I think it's important to sharethat knowledge, not only within the rescue
community, but with the general public.
(40:18):
As well.
Because if that had been done, if somebodytold people it doesn't matter that he's
only seven pounds, you need to train himthat it's not okay to eat your neighbor's
German Shepherd because on the day thatyou let him go in your backyard because
you didn't realize Cujo was next dooroutside, he's gonna fly over the fence.
And you would think that Wormwould've lost that fight.
(40:40):
He did not.
We have 148 pound Amberly.
He's a good boy.
And I know Worm got over a fenceand nipped at him and he just looked
at me and he's little dog Matt.
Now I'm very lucky 'causeHugo's good with little dogs.
He tolerated that.
But somebody's dog next door may not.
We need to educate people likehow to train the dogs, but we also
(41:01):
like need to make sure that weare not setting dogs up to fail.
I'm not gonna put Worm in a housewith someone with a four foot fence.
That'd be crazy.
Dixie (41:07):
Yeah.
Makes sense.
Makes total sense.
Meredith (41:09):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So when people call me andsay, how high is your fence?
And they'll go, oh, I havea four foot chain link.
I'm like, yeah, doesyour neighbor have a dog?
And they're like, yeah, myneighbor has this golden retriever.
I'm like, I know that thisshelter have Malteses available.
You need to go there because Wormis not the right dog for you.
I refer them to other groups that Iknow have dogs, similar body type to
(41:31):
the little one that they inquired about.
Dixie (41:34):
Because it makes a better fit for everybody.
Meredith (41:37):
Yep.
And we have the worstschnauzers from this case.
So when people call me and say,Hey Meredith, I was calling
about the Bayshore hoarding case.
I'm like, oh, you know what?
Most of mine are not ready yet,but I know that Valerie's are.
So you can call them at the adoptioncenter, or I know that Virginia's are, you
can call Attack North for country kids.
Or, I know Yorkie 9 1 1 took four from me.
(41:58):
They have younger ones.
They had no issues.
They're just babies.
You can call them because ifyou don't do that, a no one's
gonna ever wanna help you again.
And B, like the goal is to getanimals adopted so that you can
free it up so that there is space.
I don't know.
It's not a competition , if youdon't have the right animal and your
(42:19):
rescue for someone, it shouldn't bejust, we don't have that right now.
I'll keep you on the list in case we getsomething in that matches your needs.
It takes three seconds andwe all know who has what.
It takes three seconds for usto go, you know what, gimme
a second look for a Maltese.
Let's see who has malteses in the area.
Dixie (42:35):
Yeah.
I love that you do that.
Meredith (42:38):
You gotta, I dunno.
People say I'm too nice.
Dixie (42:43):
Before we end the call, what final message would you
like to share with our listeners?
Meredith (42:49):
I just wish everybody would do one kind thing every
day 'cause if we all do that, wecan make a world a better place.
And I also to always rememberbefore you judge, think.
Put yourself in that person's shoes.
If you grew up like that persongrew up, you might do the same
(43:09):
thing or make the same choices.
If you were in that person's situation,those things could have happened to you.
Goes back to kindness.
So when you're dealing with people,especially animal rescuers, when people
call you and ask for help and they reallydo need help or they can't afford the
vet bill, instead of going online andit's oh my God, I got this dog from
(43:29):
these people and they couldn't affordthe vet bill and he's really sick.
Maybe say , Hey, somebodyfell in hard times.
They couldn't care for their dog.
They had the wherewithalto call and ask for help.
We took the dog in.
We're gonna get it the help itneed, or we wanna try to help these
people 'cause they're a good ownerbecause if we did that, we can
actually, if we kept dogs with goodpeople and cats with good people.
(43:53):
We literally could go to the town and thecounty shelters, the high kill shelters
and help the animals that nobody wantsbecause we would have the space and the th
instead of just flipping adoptable pets.
I hate to use the word flipping.
I'm not calling people flippers,but we can't just do kittens and
poppies, but I get that it's easy.
I don't do kittens and puppies.
(44:14):
Do you know why?
Could you guess?
I didn't wanna be one of those people.
I didn't wanna be adoption fee driven.
I didn't wanna fall into the trap.
I gotta go pull a bunch of puppies.
'cause we need money to pay for things.
I wanted to figure out a different way.
We've been at, since 2013.
(44:34):
This is the first time I'mhaving a major problem.
I could not have predictedthis life situation at all.
Like this one's for the books,
Dixie (44:40):
but yeah.
Yeah, nobody could predict.
Yeah, I tried.
Meredith (44:43):
I was like, what the heck?
Wow, I've never had someone offerus a grant, get approved and go,
oops, sorry, our funding got cut.
That has never happened.
And you can't even get mad.
You just laugh.
I gotta laugh.
. So other final thought is to pleaseagain, be kind, but also be conscious
and aware and take responsibility.
If you're going to takeon a case, see it through.
(45:05):
If you can see it through, ask for help.
Don't dump it on someone else.
When someone else does actually help you.
Make sure that you don't abandonthem with that situation.
I guess that's it, right?
That was a good end.
Dixie (45:18):
Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me and I
think things will end up gettingbetter, so just hang in there.
Meredith (45:25):
Trying.
We'll see what happens.
Whatcha gonna do.
You're not gonna pack it up.
You're gonna keep fighting.
I have my quote of the day hasbeen, let's just go down swinging.
You are gonna go down, swinging,go down trying, go down swinging.
At the end of the day, even if youfail, if you tried your best and you
did everything you could, then you'regonna be able to sleep at night.
(45:47):
But if you just give up andwalk, then you didn't try.
There's always that what if in the back.
Dixie (45:53):
Yeah.
And it sounds like you've donea lot of good, that's for sure.
Thank you for listening andwe hope you join us next week.
If you know somebody that loves animalsas much as I do, please send 'em our way.
We would love to talk to 'em.
If you are enjoying our show, pleaseconsider leaving us a donation.
A hundred percent goes to our animals.
(46:15):
Paws in
the night Claws in thefight Whiskers twitch and
tails
take flight
They’re calling in Stories to spinFrom the wild to the heart within
(46:42):
Broken wings and hopeful springsWe’re the voices for these things
animal posse hear the call.
We stand together.
Big and small Rescue tales We’vegot it all Animal posse Saving
(47:10):
them
all
The vet’s got tips The rescuer’sgrit The foster homes where love
won’t quit From a pup in the rain toa bird in pain , Every soul’s worth
(47:38):
the
strain
Animal posse
Hear the call
We stand together Big
(48:03):
and small Rescue tales We’ve gotit all Animal posse Saving them all
Every caller tells a tale, everyhowl a whispered wail, we rise up.
We never
(48:24):
fail.
This
is
the
bond
The holy grail
(48:44):
Animal posse Hear the call We standtogether Big and small Rescue tales We’ve
got it all Animal posse Saving them all
(49:08):
Every caller tells a tale Every howla whispered wail We rise up We never
fail This is the bond The holy grail.
Song by Suno.ai
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