Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the people and rescues making a difference in the lives of animals. Today I am gonna be chatting with Amber Richard from Southern Pets Animal Rescue. Thank you for coming on the show. I am interested in hearing about all you do with Southern Pets Animal Rescue. How did you first come to get involved in animal rescue?

Bought a trailer and I moved to my new trailer. Inherited like 12 cats, and it just seemed every time I went to there was kittens and didn't know what to do and I felt overrun, but I couldn't. Ignore the cats. So I'd feed 'em and until I finally learned what TNR was and started that,. and then you couldn't walk more than two city blocks without seeing stray dogs running around. There was just a need. So it started off with helping one injured dog and then TNR and cats, and then it really just snowballed from there.

You said when you first got involved and you saw all these cats around this trailer, that you didn't know what TNR was. How did you come to learning about that?

It was literally just Google searching at first, looking into affordable spay and neuter. I had called around to animal control. They didn't offer those services. The vets were two, $300 to fix a cat which really wasn't feasible. So stumbled on TNR and then that's when I reached out to Spay Nation to see what it was about. Started with that, started bringing, at first I was just bringing the females, getting them fixed so we didn't have more babies. Over time it's just okay, I have the time, I can start helping these other cats and I can trap the cats at the pig here, or Sonny's or, and help them because certain businesses here in town had 50, 60 cats in their parking lots.

Wow. And what area are you in?

Church Point, Louisiana.

For listeners who are not familiar with Church Point, where is that and would you consider it a rural area?

We're pretty much smack dab in the middle of Crowley Lafayette, Opelousas and Eunice. And Acadia Parish, and we are very super rural.

Before you started doing the Southern Pet's Animal Rescue, there really were no resources in your area at all?

No ma'am.

So what inspired you to take that step to create a non-profit?

I hate to say it like this, and because I did independent rescue for the first 10, 10 and a half years, I had no desire to be a 5 0 1 C3. I was doing fine with what I was doing within limits. I had supporters and people that had been following me for years since I started this, but to up the scale from independent to be able to apply for grants to make a bigger impact. Be able to accumulate sponsorships from different organizations, you have to have that. So it was more, if I wanted to be able to do more to help more, I needed that.

When did you get your 5 0 1 C3 status?

It was official in April 13th of this year.

Oh congratulations. Since you have gotten that 5 0 1 C3 status, have you seen that has made any kind of difference? Have you received any grants?

We have been able to get a couple of smaller grants. We got one for the Howard Script Foundation. We've gotten a couple smaller grants from places like the Hound Compassion Project, or Colorado Animal Rescue Express. They've helped out host clinics. They both helped out together to host the first clinic for free spay and neutered for Acadia Parish, which we're trying to make an annual biannual clinic to help people get their animals spay and neutered. It's definitely brung opportunities. Like I can also apply to get damaged bags of food, which would be a huge help to the rescue from places like Amazon or Tractor Supply, like it, it enables you to do more and have more support.

Is it just you or do you have helpers?

That's a little bit complicated. Like we had people that were all gung-ho, let's do this. They had great ideas. They wanna help. But when it comes to the actual physical day-to-day operations to get out of d worm puppies TNR, nobody really steps up to do it. I spend 14 to 16 hours a day caring for the animals. When I'm not working, when I'm working, I'm up all night doing it. It's pretty much a one man operation. And then every once in a while somebody will come in and help, but it's not a consistent thing.

Yeah. And I know that's a problem with rescue too, because when you try to help people don't understand that you have two full-time jobs 'cause you work. And then you do rescue. And so it's like I find people always getting aggravated and they'll get smart sometimes when you can't help 'em right away. And it's like they don't realize though, that you have to work a full-time job too, in addition to doing the rescue stuff.

No that it really is a real problem and. I don't want to say anything bad about anyone, but the situation comes down to honestly financing for everybody from the owners to the rescue. If you're going to have, say, one cat. You need to be able and know and understand that in that year, that cat is going to have about $300 of basic medical expenses, but your heartworm, flea medicines, your shots, your rabies, and then you need to be able to set money aside for an emergencies. And if you can't do that, then you like, honestly, you can't afford an animal. So people have the biggest hearts, they love animals. That plays a part in a lot of this. People get oh, I saw this stray cat, so I took it in. Then next thing you know, you have seven stray cats, so that's great. They have a home and they're being fed. But when those emergencies come, if you can't financially afford it, what are you gonna do? It comes down to a choice of if you can afford your animals or if you're going to let them suffer or. Are you going to have to start calling rescues and shelters and organizations to try to help you with your animals? And then the problem comes in there. A lot of organizations are not equipped or financially equipped to help owners with big bills. Like this week alone, we've had the re owners with animals with broken legs, or what they assumed was broken legs. Only one was broken, and two was neurological. They surrendered them to the rescue. It's not that they didn't want to, they couldn't do the financial burden or they couldn't quarantine their animals or they couldn't come back and forth from wherever they're living. Like one of them was in kinder. My vets in Crowley. I have no association with any vets out there. Could I do that? Yes. But until then, I would have to pay full prices for vetting, which is something we cannot do. And if we have to do that, we can't help. So it's tit for tat. So I was like, I gave 'em the option. I'm like, you can bring 'em to my vet and we'll pay for it. They didn't want 'em. So we took 'em and we're doing that. But it literally comes down to no matter how much you love animals, if you kinda cannot financially afford it, then you shouldn't do it until you can.

I absolutely agree with that. And I just had somebody reach out to me today, and it's a similar situation where she took in a stray cat, and of course it was a female. That female turned into several kittens. She kept two of the males. And of course the female cat was not spayed, and in this case it was more so she didn't know where to go to get it done, so I can't fault anybody for that. She knew she had to get it done and she wanted to get it done. She just didn't know where she had to go to get it done at a reasonable cost,

That's a huge problem in Louisiana in general, there are not enough affordable vets for low income families.

Yes. And in this situation it snowballed into 11 cats and none of 'em are spayed or neutered.

And people don't realize that a kitten can get pregnant as early as 16 weeks. That's a baby.

Yes. And a lot of people don't know that. And it's a shame too, because even when people go to a lot of vets, I know the vets that do the high volume spay and neuter. They'll do 'em little, they'll do 'em when they're kittens, before they reach maturity. But I know that there's a lot of people who say they'll go to a vet and their vet will recommend waiting until the first heat, or waiting until they're a year old sometimes, and they have to go by what their vet says because that's the professional that's the expert. And it's sad because people don't know that at four months old that they can get pregnant and have babies.

There is a lot Now that's saying that you should wait till, I think it's 18 months now. I may be wrong. I think it's 18 months now that they're recommending spaying and neutering, especially dogs, because they're saying they're not mature. Their reproductive organs, their bladder and things like that aren't mature all the way. So they say if you spay them younger, they can have incontinence problems later on in life that I have heard. Now, me personally, I've never waited more than I think my boxer was a year, and this was way before I got into rescue. It was before I knew what spaying neutering did. All my other animals have been fixed between as early as 12 weeks to 24 weeks. And let's see, Chloe's five, she doesn't have any problems. She's a female. It really just depends on what your beliefs are with that. And also your ability, if you're gonna have females and males, if you can keep them separated. If you don't want puppies, you gotta remember, you're gonna have to do that. For at least 12 months because it's rare, but as early as five months, they can have babies too. Like they can get pregnant and start having babies, but they read, they get into where they can have babies, generally around six months and older. So for those 12 months, are you able to keep your males and you're females apart?

Yeah. And then if you can, are you able to feed that many more? Because that's something I hear too is oh, I've got four kittens I can't afford to feed 'em. And it's it would've been cheaper for you to spay the mom to begin with. Then to feed a mom and four kittens, or even possibly six kittens, depending on that litter size until you can find homes for those.

I'm dealing with the situation that kind of relates to this right now. An elderly lady, she's sick, she has. Two female dogs and one male dog. And she moved from another state down here. So she set up spay and neuter appointments and she thought she'd be able to keep her females and her male apart. And it didn't happen. So now she has three adults and 15 can corso mixed puppies.

Wow. So

she's completely overrun. She's 85 years old. She can't afford to feed them. I offered her bags of food. I have 'em outside for her to pick up tomorrow. So we're working to try to find rescues for the cane corsos, but everybody's bursting at the seams there. The state of economy and other situations going on in people's lives. Donations are at an all time low for almost every rescue I've ever talked to this year has just been like, we can't help as much because of the donation and financial burdens of rescue. You would've thought, like when everybody home with COVID and all these animals were getting spayed and neutered and then adopted out, like you, we would've saw a significant decrease in the population. That's not true either. For the rescues that I deal with and talk to, we've seen a huge increase in the amount of puppies or dogs in general. Just being overbred. Honestly, it's just insane.

Now in your area, can you describe what day to day in terms of stray animals in places like grocery stores, fast food, restaurants, gas stations? Just in general.

Okay, to take an example, yesterday I went to trap, ferals for a event today. So one of our Dollar Generals, they have a colony with probably about 12 babies and I've seen three or four adults. But there is a field, so they hide in there. So it's hard to estimate, but there's. The dollar store. There's a good 15 to 20 cats living there, and a lot of them are sick. The hospital has a lot of cats. There's probably about 10, but those, they're taken care of. They have a caregiver. Those look good. And then you have places like the Piggly Wiggly. They have a cat colony in the back, which we have TNR, quite a bit of them, but they're fighting for food and territory with raccoons. Believe it or not, there is an obscene amount of raccoons over there. And the bad thing about rural living too and country in general is people believe oh, I live in the country, so I'm gonna let my dog roam. People don't think about my dog's gonna do what nature intended it to do. If you have a female and she goes into heat, it's gonna attract all the males. And then, okay, they had those puppies and if they don't go anywhere, it's the same situation over and over again. So those puppies just get re-homed and the, that, that mentality shifts over to the next home and it keeps going and keeps on. There are always stray dogs around here. For our parish, our city and our parish has like the highest stray rate. It is absolutely insane. Cats over here are awful. Even this year with fixing, we're at 550 cats about for the Acadia Parish area, and it's not even a dent it's not even a scent of what and what people contact you for help.

Do you have a problem with people dumping? Puppies or even kittens off on the rural roads?

Yes, very much i'm literally sitting outside and looking at my quarantine house we have 14 puppies that were dumped right now. We just sent nine that were dumped up to Virginia to find homes 'cause there's just not enough space here for them. There doesn't go a week where I don't get a call about at least three to four litters of dump puppies. So that is a real problem. But the root of that problem is, are no resources for the people that want to make the difference. Church Point is a very low income area. There are no resource resources for Acadia Parish. We don't have the Bissell vouchers, we don't have the free programs with Lafayette. There's nothing here.

Do you think anything could be done in addition to offering these programs to curb the dumping of pets on the roads like that?

When they give out tickets for dogs at large and stuff like that, they need to stop letting them be dismissed and there are no consequences to your actions. Then you're going to keep doing those actions until there are consequences for them. So I think a big help in that area would be when they see stray dogs running outta people's yards, even if it's just on the road outside of their yard. If they get their tickets, maybe they'll keep their dog in their yard. Maybe they'll build a fence or get an invisible fence or keep their dogs inside. Winter too it's a horrible problem with people having chain dogs and not having the proper housing. If those tickets would stand, people might be stopped and say okay, I need to figure this out. For every action there has to be a consequence. And for a lot of the Acadia Parish, there are no consequences. That's just the truth. And I know that sounds ugly, but that's the truth, that there are a lot of people here that do really awful things and dump puppies and they get caught and nothing happens.

Does Acadia Parish have an animal shelter or animal control?

So Acadia Parish has Acadia Parish Animal Control, which they are not equipped to handle the entire parish. We're 540 square miles. There are 18 kennels for 540 square miles. So the biggest problem with a lot of the dump dogs is people will call animal control. Hey, can I surrender my dog? They'll tell 'em, yes you can, but you also need to understand that your dog is the first one gonna be one of the first ones on the list to be euthanized. And that's the truth. A surrendered dog will be euthanized before a stray. A stray has to do a stray hold.

Is that something that the shelter educates people on or not really?

They're trying it has gotten a lot better. I find in the last two or three years, they got people that care in there and are trying their best and they're trying to like a situation they got called because of a dog that's right here by my neighborhood. It wasn't me just saying, but they asked for a dog house. So they tried, they posted, Hey, does anybody have extra dog house? Which I gave them a dog house and they gave it to that owner. They had an old lady in town and the ACL was really good. The dog had ear infection, so we worked together and we got ear infection meds for her, so she couldn't afford it. Now, is it possible for every situation? No. But at least they're trying. At least they're like, Hey, here's. This rescues number or try calling here? Like a lot of them give out my number for the Stray Cats and we do what we can. It's just kinda, there's not enough resources to help everybody, but they're trying.

Now when it comes to doing the TNR for the cats, are you the only one over there or are there others that help you out with that?

I've heard of, I haven't met them, that there are two ladies that'll do a little bit of TNR here and there, but they pay outta their own pocket. So they can only do it as they can afford it. I've heard of them. I haven't met them. I did meet one of the, another lady Ms. Val, she has TNR and everything in her area, her neighborhood, which is great. I love her. She does a great job with that. But as for consistent or even semi consistent TNR? No.

And what about other rescues? Are you the only one?

In Acadia Parish, there's me, there's Haseya's, but Haseya's they're contracted with the City of Rain. They only focus on the city of Rayne. And then I think we have. Precious paw prints in here too, and they're deep into the Crowley area.

What are some of maybe the biggest misconceptions people have about rescues in your area?

Biggest misconception is that we're rich for one. People really do think we have an endless supply of money. We don't. We really don't. If we don't get the donations, I can't say I can't speak for the other rescues over here, but if my rescue doesn't have enough money to do something, I have to pay for it. So therefore, that means I gotta work a job. So just like everybody else, I work a job, I run a rescue, I run a food pantry. So it's a lot There's not an endless supply of money. Guys, I wish there was then we could actually do a so much more, also a lot of people don't realize the difference between a rescue a 5 0 1 C3 rescue, or even a reputable independent rescue versus a government shelter. So rescues are generally. Like 99% of the time are gonna be foster based organizations that survive on donations versus the government shelters, which are run by the government, with government employees. And the government funds those shelters. They have, an annual budget. So that's the difference between those. That's the biggest difference. A lot of people are like do you euthanize? I heard you euthanize. No, I don't euthanize a dog unless it is medically necessary. Or if we have somebody that is completely aggressive, human aggressive, then that's something we would have to take into consideration because that dog is a liability.

Do you think people sometimes take advantage of rescues by trying to use a rescue to abandon their responsibility?

Honestly, yes. There are multiple people, I'm not gonna say names here in Church Point, they know they cannot afford animals. And this isn't just one or two dogs. So this one family I have taken in the last 10 years, gotta be 30 animals from them. they'll get a free animal off of Facebook and they're like, oh, we love it so much. It's family. And then six months later, a year later, I think the longest they ever kept one of the dogs was a year and a half. Oh, it's just not working out for us. We don't have time for it. I need you to take it. And this cycle repeats over and over again. And a lot of the time like this particular family, they'll find free designer much or pure breads, and then they breed them and then they saw the puppies and then they. Once they get what they want off of them, they no longer want the dogs. And then it comes like they drop it in my lap. Alright, I have this dog. This particular family, if you don't take it, I'm gonna give it to this person. That person is way worse than the first person because every animal I've had to take from them is sick or emaciated or pregnant. It's a repeated cycle. There are some people that truly do take advantage of rescues for their own personal gain. It's something, you breed it, you make money off of it, then you don't want it. That's personal gain.

Some of these people that do take advantage of that and even possibly these people that are dumping animals, do you think they not realize what's going to happen to a dumped animal? Do you think they know, the survival rate of a stray animal that isn't spayed or neutered?

A lot of people don't know that and I find 'cause I'll post if, just say for like TNR. I make posts all the time, and I put in there, I specifically put in there that over 75% of cats die within the first year outside. So it's the same with the dogs for it's, how do we explain it? I think a lot of people are desensitized from it. Okay, so I can go dump this down, this back road and it's done. It was healthy, it's a alive and if they don't see the consequences, if somebody finds that dog sick or injured and they don't see the consequences, how are they gonna know what truly happened? It's like a lot of people, they see all these injured animals on Facebook, like working with Marty Pauls all the time. We get calls for hit dogs or abused dogs and people see it and maybe stuff like those organizations that help like that and are able to educate the public that way, that will make a difference. But I don't think until they see it and experience it. What actually happens with a dog that's been hit by a car or a dog that's been taken in for a bait dog, like the consequences, their pain, I don't think until you experience it that somebody is gonna understand, actually truly understand what they're doing.

What would you say to your community, how do you think they could get involved to make things better? What small steps could they start taking today

It's a simple as for people that let their dogs roam, stop letting your dogs roam. If. You take in a stray cat, reach out to organizations like the Wildcat Foundation or Spay Nation, and ask them if they have financial assistance. There are programs that will help with financial assistance, so you only might have to pay $20 for a cat spay. Versus the 60. That's what normally what a feral cat at Spay Nation a feral package, standard feral package at Spay Nation is 45. If you get their F-C-R-V-P vaccine, it is 60, and if the cat is pregnant, it is 71 because then they have to have a pain medication. I wanna make sure I corrected myself there. But there are financial assistance programs. Now most of them are not in Acadia Parish, but there are some that will help Acadia Parish residents. There have been an influx of Biss of vouchers coming in, which we can't get them as Acadia Parish residents, but. Like people in St. Landry give them to their friends, so people are able to use those. There are options you can do what is it called? Spay, USA, you can apply online. They have grant options for everyday owners to get their animals fixed at a discounted rate. They're not gonna let you do it for free, but I think for one of the ladies that did it, here's $250 to TNR, these cats at Pig, we'll cover 30, you have to cover 15. So it's as simple as just researching. And if you don't know, ask.

What success have you seen with, say, your social media and getting the message spread? I know you said that people see these injured animals and it seems to sink in and help them understand what's actually going on. But what have you actually seen for your personal pages?

I had screenshotted a couple of posts from people I don't wanna say complaining, but complaining. About stray cats at different locations and it's not a one-time post, it's four or five different people posting about the same situation. But they're all, I don't have time. I can only fit one cat in my car or something like that. So I made a post with that and then I stated facts about cats in the post. And I'm like, my thing was for that post is if you're not gonna be part of the change, then why complain? So a couple of ladies on there, two of them saw the post and apparently it resonated with them. So one of the ladies, she reached out, she's we have a really bad problem with stray cats and Crowley. So she's what can I do? And I was like, all right, you can borrow my equipment. You will trap your cats and help get transport. We'll help pay for them. So when she did that, she went and trapped her first cat and we got it neutered. Now, the first cat that she did, he was messed up. He had a whole bunch of wounds and stuff, which he ended up causing me a good deal more than a feral cat. But we were able to do that and then I hope that she knows that, that was like, Hey, thank you for doing this. It doesn't seem like a lot, but for that one cat, she made a difference. And that's all that matters. Even if that's all she does, at least she took a proactive step. She did something, she trapped him, she brung him to the vet, not even three miles from her house and we paid for him. She took a proactive step. So I know like that post might have seemed like me complaining about complainers, but the irony, okay, I get it. But that post hey, made somebody stop and think I wanna do this. And we had another lady like, Hey, I live in Crowley. And she reached out to the First Lady, if you need help, I'll transport the cats that you're trapping. Just let me know. So now those two ladies are working together to make a difference for their community. So I think just a lot of it's the approach and how you word stuff. Because beyond that situation we've had a lot more people reach out about TNR. There's always a list of people wanting help and they can't pay for all their cats, but they'll pitch in, they'll help trap them. So it's a slow process, but it's getting there because 12 years ago I couldn't get anybody to come out and trap with me. They weren't doing anything. So it's been improving, but it's very slow.

That's amazing. Like you said, even if it just makes a difference in the li in the life of one cat, if you rescued one animal through that post, you've done your job. That's amazing.

God rest her soul, Ms. Judy t Neil, she taught me that story. I don't know how many years ago. It was probably eight to 10 years ago. It's called the Starfish Story. You can Google it. And it's a story about a somebody on a beach and they were picking up starfish and throwing them back in. And the man that encounters says why are you doing that? There's miles and miles of beach and there's gonna be starfish all the way down. And the person said for that starfish that she just threw back in the water. She made a difference. So that has stuck with me all these years and as much as I wanna say, like we can take one of the colonies here if we can't catch one cat, but we can help catch another and that cat has spayed and neutered and treat it for whatever ailments it has, we've made a difference. And that's what matters is trying and. Trying to be part of the solution and trying to make a difference, even if it's only one animal at a time.

Yeah, absolutely. That's what I even say with this podcast. If somebody listens to one of these episodes and it gets them involved to save one animal, then the job has been done.

I wholeheartedly agree.

Before we end the call, tell people how they can find you and also do you have any final message?

They can reach us at Southern Pets on Facebook, Southern Pets Animal Rescue. They can email us at Southern Pets Animal Rescue at gmail.com. Our information's on Google, our number, our email final message is probably be part of the solution and not part of the problem, even if it's one at a time. That's literally it, one at a time.

What would you tell people to do to get involved with being part of the solution? Then,

even if you can only do it one day a month, or one day every two months, go and volunteer at your local shelter or a rescue, or be a volunteer transporter. There's always a need for a volunteer transporter. And it's literally just picking up a dog from point A and bringing it to point B to get it safe or a cat. Or sometimes you might get a reptile and you can choose which ones you pick and choose. Create initiatives. If you have communities or in like your neighborhood, your community. Do a pet food drive and pick a random rescue or a shelter to donate it to. You can do toys. Get your kids involved. Let them do a little lemonade stand and. Asked them to donate a little bit of their proceeds that's very popular in the summer is a lot of kids will do the little lemonade stands and it's so adorable and nobody wants to say no to a kid. So they, most of 'em do pretty well. If you see problem spots, like you see an overabundance of cats at a business, reach out. Like just even alerting organizations that trap to that situation, something might get done and be persistent in it. I'm not saying harass anybody, but be persistent and if one organization can't help you, don't feel like you fail. Try somebody else. Type you up an email and start sending it to different organizations. You might get 10 nos before you get a yes. But that yes is gonna make all the difference. And at least you did that. You started up, you set it up, and all it took you was a little bit of time to send an email. There are so many ways you can help.

Thank you so much for having this conversation with me, Amber. I really enjoyed speaking with you.

I enjoyed speaking with you too, Dixie, and thank you for inviting us.

That's it for today's episode. I wanna thank everybody for listening and supporting us. If you wanna take that an extra step, consider becoming a member. We just added this to our website, animalposse.com, scroll down, look for the support tab. Our membership program is going to help us directly support animals in need, whether that be through vaccinations, food or spay neuter efforts.