12-17-25 *INTERVIEW* Adopting Animals with Dr Apryl Steele Chairperson of Humane Colorado

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't forget. We got Governor Polis coming up at eight
thirty four. Very pleased to have joining the show. April Steel,
Doctor April Steel, and that's ap Ryl and for nearly
eleven years now, but only for a few days more.
She is the CEO of Humane Colorado. And first of all, April,

(00:21):
it's very good to have you here. Thanks so much
for spending time with us. And was that Dumb Friends
League before Good Morning?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
And yes, it was Dumb Friend's League before we rebranded
in March to Humane Colorado.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
All right, I have questions, Gina has questions. We've got
about six minutes, so let's try to do a lot
of things. One thing I want to ask you about,
and then we're going to talk about your fund. But
once I want to ask you about is something I
was talking about during COVID when there were lots of
people adopting animals, and I said on the show, please
don't adopt in it, or please don't go get an
animal wherever you're getting it from. Please don't go get

(00:55):
an animal from a breeder or a pet shop or
whatever unless you're pretty confident you're gonna to keep that animal.
And I've seen anecdotally some data that a lot of
people have been turning dogs, especially into animal shelters. Is
that true and if so, would you like to say
anything about it.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, so it's slightly more complicated than that. I think
right after the pandemic people were really able to keep
their animals. We didn't see the math turned in that
a lot of anecdotal reports showed. However, what we do
know is that when dogs, especially reach about two years
of age, they reach their social maturity and most of
their behavior issues manifest then. So they you know, a

(01:39):
lot of puppies that were adopted during the pandemic and
then stayed home and had their people home all the
time didn't really learn the confidence of being alone in
their home and have developed some behaviors that are bothersome.
And those are the dogs that, when they reach two
years of age start getting turned back into shelters because
people don't know how to make anazo's behavior. So it's

(02:01):
a little bit of a delayed thing that we've seen,
but we have been seeing many more dogs coming to
the shelter.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Very interesting insight, Doctor Steele.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
I'm curious.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
I know it's hard to talk about yourself and look
back at your career and things like that. I get it,
but for a decade over a decade here, how has
just animal welfare and just like the standard care of
pets really change in the past decade, is what you've
seen at Cuane Colorado and a CEO.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, it's a lovely question and it's fun to talk
about because it's the team, it's not me. But there's
so much that we have seen evolve. I think people
are valuing animals more and so it's no longer acceptable
to say only people with the most privileged can have
a relationship with the animal. We know that animals help
people's mental health, emotional health, physical health, and I don't

(02:50):
want to imagine a society where people and animals don't
have positive relationships and help each other through life. So
as we start honoring that in a different way, we
also have to understand our responsibility and making sure these
animals are cared for. And that's where the subsidized veterinary
care has really come into play. Is you know, just

(03:12):
as positive as that human animal bond can be to
help people get through life, it can turn just as
devastating if an animal gets sicker and injured and someone
cannot afford the care that that animal needs to heal,
and so being a veterinarian and knowing that healing is
my calling. Increasing our service to the community in this
way and creating our veterinary hospital at CSU Spur where

(03:36):
we help stick and injured animals with subsidized veterinary care,
has been exceptionally rewarding. We actually serve more animals that
are owned and in the community last year than we
did in our shelters, but it was pretty close. It's
about twenty thousand in the shelters and about twenty three
thousand in the community.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Wow, that's incredible.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
That really is a remarkable thing. I love this. When
my dog got hurt, someone told me about the SPUR
and I said, look, I can afford to pay for
my dog's care, and so I don't want to even
think about, you know, draining that resource. So yeah, that's
a that's a pretty cool thing. And and the the
April Steel Fund for Veterinary Care. Is this going to

(04:19):
be a full time job for you or what? You know,
how are you approaching this?

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Absolutely not. So it's definitely an honorary title that the
organization and our boarder Directors has done to really make
you know, honor the work and the healing passion that
I have had for the last decade. And so they've
created this spawn that helps serve the vetern veterinary needs

(04:45):
of animals within our shelter and at our subsidized veterinary
hospital in the community. So whether it's a low cost
vaccine or sicker injured animals, it's going to do both.
And I'm just incredibly honored that they have done that,
and you know, hopefully more and more animals will get
killed because of that. And I just wanted to say,

(05:05):
real quick, thank you so much for commenting on you
could afford the care, so you didn't use that resource,
because we have so much more need for this resource
than we have availability. And that's why the fund's important.
And that's also why people that can afford veterinary care
should use one of our excellent veterinarians in our community.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Doctor Steele, Real quick, about thirty seconds here, if you
had to give one piece of advice for the future
CEO Katie Parker, what would you give her?

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Well, first of all, she's amazing. He needs little advice
from me, absolutely outstanding. But my advice would be just
remember that compassion is the best way to make decisions.
And while passion can motivate you, compassion is what makes
the biggest difference.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
I think that answer helps you understand why doctor April
Steele was such a great CEO of Human Colorado, which
many of you probably remember his dumb friendsly because it
was that for many years until recentlyations on a wonderful
tenure as CEO and on the fantastic legacy of the
Doctor April Steel Fund for Veterinary Care. What a great

(06:09):
thing to be remembered by, a great way to be
remembered by.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
I love that. Thank you, and thank you for your partnership.
You guys are lovely