Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the people and rescues making a difference in the lives of animals. Hi Veronica. How are you?

Hi Dixie. I'm great. Thanks so much for calling.

You're welcome. Thank you for joining me today. So we could talk about the work you do as an animal advocate. I understand you work for several organizations, so tell me a little bit about yourself and the groups you volunteer with.

I try to lend my time to anybody I see reaching out on social media. First off, that big easy animal rescue is one and chat that cat and, animal rescue New Orleans. This most recently I've been doing work with investigative, work with the Humane Society of Louisiana. And that's been very rewarding and I feel like we're really making a difference there. And how did you get started in this? Were you always into animals? As a, when I was about 12, I've always been into animals, and at age 12 I've joined a program at the zoo, which now as an adult, I'm not a fan of zoos, but at the time they took us to the SBCA as part of the training program to be a junior zookeeper. And at the SBCA, they showed us a film about what happens to. Animals one, they're euthanized and it was really jarring. And ever since then I've been, tried to be an advocate and donate, know and give time as much as possible.

Yeah. I was actually a volunteer at the zoo as well.

Oh, you were? Okay. Yeah. I was in this junior zookeeper program and I did, I'll say to their credit, I learned the training program was great. I learned a lot. But as I mentioned, now I'm not such a fan of. Any enclosures?

Yeah. When I was a junior in high school, we had to pick a volunteer program. We had to go there for two weeks, so that's what I ended up doing I picked the zoo. I went to the zoo and I ended up staying there the whole summer, and I went back the following summer. I really enjoyed it. But you're right.

That's funny. I did the same thing really. I went back yeah. We might have even known each other.

Yeah. I did mine 92 through 94

yes. I think that's pretty close to me. I enjoyed it as well. I I got to work in the nocturnal exhibit. Is it the type of thing you did?

Actually it was right before the release of Jurassic Park, so they had the dinosaur exhibit. Oh, cool. Yeah, they put me in dinosaur exhibit area. And they had games that they would play for all the kids coming. I was tyrannosaurus white instead of Vanna White. That's a like, that's really cute. And yeah, but they would bring out some animals. I wasn't trained for the mammals, but they would bring out the insects. And oh yeah. It was funny because I was there for maybe two days and they tell me, oh, you're gonna be in charge of the roaches today. And I'm terrified of cockroaches. So I was like, oh my God, this is gonna be horrible. I'm gonna quit. But they brought out the hissing ones and then they brought out a giant one and those they're totally different. I wasn't scared of 'em at all. They were actually both really cool. But yeah. That's funny. How

big are, is a giant cockroach.

He was probably about like maybe eight inches. He's big, but he looks nothing like the ones that we have coming out of the sewers here. So it was like totally different. And I actually held him and he would walk around my hand and then I would hold the little hissing ones too. I think it was the Madagascar hissing cockroaches. But yeah those were really cool too. And I was fine with those, but if I see one of the flying ones that come into your house or one of the ones coming up by the sewers I freak out. I still can't handle those.

Me too. You're like the roach whisperer.

Yeah, I don't think so. Could you share what drew you to the different roles that you're doing cause you said you work with three or four different groups and how that has changed your overall perspective on animal welfare

I didn't realize, I guess it was about three years ago, there was a feral cat outside my apartment that needed help badly, could barely walk, was dragging its back leg. Its eyes were crusted shut. It was deaf. And so I started reaching out to all these groups. I had already volunteered at the time for Animal Rescue New Orleans, but I, I just needed help. What to do with this cat, how to trap it, what's the best way, and reached out and really the only one that got back to me was Trap Dat Cat So I got involved with them, and helping trap and also to transport all the cats. And it was, it's such an amazing organization. Nina Hemeter has, at any given time, 40 cats on her front porch waiting to, go get fixed and she's just tireless. So watching her work and then realizing, just getting more and more, little by little I started seeing just. people don't realize that how rampant animal abuse is. And it's like when I got involved in one group, then I would see more and more on social media and then that would open me up to another group that I joined and then that would open me up to see. It's horrific and I feel people have been, society as a whole has been so sheltered from it because it doesn't often get a lot of press. And I started really. Thinking to myself, I know that what I'm good at, and what I'm not good at, and I know that I'm good at writing and lobbying and tenacity, if you will. So I started to write letters and proposals to the city council and trying to, create an animal, task force. That you can better, go out and investigate. Abuse and neglect and also a registry I've been working on because I'm really very frustrated that people can abuse an animal and easily go back out and adopt another one. I just don't see any reason why there's, there should always already be one in place. It seems very basic, to have a registry that you can share between shelters and rescue organizations across the country. So I've been working on that and realizing that's the, probably what I'm best at is lobbying and advocating, at a state level. But it's really just opened my eyes to, the irresponsibility of people these days and the lack of accountability, the surrenders and the rehoming have been so normalized and it's really just pathetic. There are reasons to rehome and surrender if you cannot care for your animal, if you have a dire circumstance. But what I'm seeing is this, just constant just. I don't feel like I have time or I'm moving and I need to rehome in two days or I'm bringing to a shelter and I feel as though I, I get a lot of pushback on social media because I'm very, aggressive with these people and explaining like, exactly, okay, you're gonna drop it at a shelter. Euthanize is a really pretty word for what actually happens, so let me tell you, you know what's going to happen to your pet? And I get some pushback, but I feel like it's time is a society that we stop normalizing and accepting this behavior.

I agree with you on that. And I see it all the time too. I do cat rescue. And I find a lot of people don't really understand what a rescue is for. A rescue isn't for the people that are just abandoning their responsibilities. Like, if you're gonna move, you know you're gonna move, and don't expect a rescue to take it. That's not a dire circumstance, I guess maybe I'm looking at things different too with. How a rescue should actually be. A rescue is gonna be for the animals that are actually abandoned. The animals that are like falling out of car engines on the street need help. The sick animal that you see on the corner that's neglected. But I get calls too for people, oh, I'm moving tomorrow. Can you take my animal? You're a rescue.

And then they're angry if you don't have space, like you're just, people just are not educated, they just think there's this utopia at the rescue where there's just all this space and money and time and

Right.

It's just not reality.

Exactly. And then what you're saying too about the registry, I think that's a wonderful idea. But a problem that I often see is a lot of the rescues not wanting to work with one another.

Yes. So I see it too.

Yeah, they have that information there, but it's like for some reason there's just a reluctance to share. And that's in part why I wanted to start this podcast was to help bring rescues together we're all working for the same goal.

I think that's a great idea. And I think that hopefully, eventually, they'll be pressured enough. 'cause I feel like that goes along with transparency to be able to share with other rescues and network with them. And some of them do come off as elitist to me. And, closed off. And I think that's gotta change. I think there's so many changes, we have to make, we, one foot in front of the other turtle runs the race, we'll get there.

Yes, exactly. So do you do active investigations with the Humane Society of Louisiana as a cruelty investigator.

Yes, and I attended a certification class just the other day, and it was put on by Humane Society of Louisiana. I was at in Livingston Parish, Sheriff's Office, and Humane World for Animals, which was formally. Humane Society of the United States, and it was so informative. I enjoyed it so much. I took a whole notebook of notes. They went from, how to spot signs of neglect. To how to make your report so that it's, it will hold up in court. And dog fighting is, I'm happy to say I see a lot of it getting cracked down on at this point, starting to, but the dog fighting portion of the certification was very eyeopening and interesting, and I wanna share as much. Many of the tips as I learned, with people, because even just a citizen, a neighbor could see one of these signs and potentially, out a dog fighting ring.

Yeah, I'd love to talk about that if you wouldn't mind going over that with us.

Yeah. Then, first off, like neglect, people always, and I understand people, just a citizen, in their neighborhood is. Reluctant to call the police because they don't really know if the dog's being neglected. But some signs that they can look for would be, by Louisiana law. Animals must cats and dogs must have a solidly built shelter if they're outdoors. And that doesn't mean it's tarp or wire crate. It has to be something solidly built. That rain cannot get through, that protects them from the sun, protects them from the colds and has soft bedding in it, and things people can look for. For instance, if the dog looks a little thin or if there's, they don't see food and water bowls nearby. If the dog, the animal has changed. And also, spots. This was interesting to me on their backside, on either side of the tail. That gets worn down. And it's definitely something that all neglected dogs have that characteristic of the hair wears off and it's from not having a soft place to sit. So over time, and they're also somewhat skinny, so there's no fat padding there. So that's something people can look for. And let's see something else interesting I thought was that. For livestock horses, for instance, if, people should look for if there's hay or grass or water buckets available, and if the tree bark is missing, I thought this was interesting. The horses already look skinny and there's tree bark missing from the bottom of the trees. It's because they're starving and they're peeling the bark off to survive.

I didn't know that.

I didn't either. And I thought that was one of these things may not be cause for concern, but several of these things absolutely are

right,

several of these things together. And it's just if they see something, say something. And a lot of people have this attitude of nothing well they're not gonna do anything about it. And that angers me because they definitely won't if we don't speak up. And if the more people that you know, instead of commenting on Facebook, maybe email or call their district attorney or their local sheriff's office or their city council and demand change, it takes as much time to do that as it does to say, oh, the hope somebody helps this poor animal, online. That doesn't help the animal at all. Your energy would better be better, much better utilized to send a message.

And I find a lot of people on social media do find that they think that they're helping by doing that, and they're not. That's like one of my biggest pet peeves ever is that you're gonna sit down and you're gonna comment something like, oh here's this. Can you go help?

I hope someone helps them. I'm like, you are someone.

And like you said, it could just be something as simple as that, that if you see something that's wrong, then post it on social media, but also try to do something about it too.

Absolutely. And I'm grateful for people that, bring awareness to it. Like, oh, I saw this dog doing this, I've seen hundreds of comments when 90% of 'em are. Lengthy enough it would take maybe less time to write just a little quick email and it's just, they're saying, oh, this is terrible. I hope someone helps them. And, put your money where your mouth is. I'm getting tired of it, honestly. 'cause it's gonna take effort from all of us to make a difference because we put ourselves in this position as, a whole by being irresponsible with our pets. So that we're overpopulated and now it's an epidemic.

Yeah. And then another issue with that, when people do those posts and everybody is commenting on it, like you said, this is terrible. If it's a situation that I might actually be able to go help with. It's hard for me to go through and look to see if the situation has actually been taken care of already, because you gotta go through 30, 40 comments

you're so right.

Yeah. And there's none in there where somebody actually has helped, or there might be a comment in there where it looks like somebody, did help, but they didn't help. And so it just really does make things more difficult.

And I've noticed that too. And I have to go to the top and I have to hit like new comments, 'cause I don't wanna drive, honestly, two hours if somebody's, helped and I have to look at, and try to siphon through them. I think it brings more awareness to the post. I think the algorithm, I'm not really savvy ab I don't know much about that, but at the same time, yes, absolutely people sometimes offer to help and I think it gets lost in the fold,

absolutely. So what were other signs of neglect from your class?

Basically, ribs showing and, animals should not have prominent ribs. Animals that are taken care of and they shouldn't have a spine that you can, see from a distance or see up close. They shouldn't, you shouldn't be able to see their bones. Also, any dog, we learned that a lot of things about, there's. Oftentimes like dog fighting, for instance, if people hear dogs barking and they don't see them and they're hidden from sight. We learned that, anytime that's happening and you don't see, say you're a neighbor and you don't see this dog ever get walked or come out, but you can hear it barking. Like that's something to be aware of. And also, a lot of times people are hesitant to ask. About their, if they see a pet, say, tied in a side yard, they're hesitant to ask Hey, is that dog okay? But you can always make something up like, oh, I was just checking. I have a dog. I wanted to see if maybe y'all wanna do a play date or, I'm pretty bold. Like I'll find my fence in the middle of the night and just go look. But I don't expect everybody to do that. But yeah, neglect the food, the water very little to no human interaction. I just met a dog walker in one of the neighborhoods in New Orleans, and she's great. She seems to keep a really sharp eye out. She said, oh, there's this dog. It doesn't have any access to food or water. It's chained up. It has very little shelter I've never seen. She, and I said, how wonderful that while you're walking your dog, the dog's doing your job. You're paying attention, to what and it turns out that she wouldn't end up getting the little dog from the people. So that was really a great story. And I was, I couldn't believe she's a wonderful person. I was really, I said, if everybody would do that on their walks,

Absolutely.

As far as like the neglect, obviously, dogs are in fighting are neglected and we learned a lot about, what to look for signs of dog fighting as well.

And what would those signs be?

One of the things that stuck in my mind that really stood out is if you see a dog that's, possibly, maybe part pit bull. Even with heavy chains, there's no reason for any animal, to be on a chain that can tow up a 5,000 pound boat. A heavy chain is, from what we learned, it's a sign for sure, and they do that, so that the dogs are conditioned. They build more muscle. And honestly, anything that people think, I know people think dog fighting is horrific, but times it by a million because the things that we saw in this class were so barbaric and these are the people that do this are absolute monsters and. Yeah, the people have no idea how actually horrible it is. And they do things like break the dog a dog's front legs and throw it in the pen, poke its eyes out so it's blind and throw it in the dog fight pen. It is horrible. And these are not people that just dog fight. These are people that rape and murder and sell drugs to children. I'm glad to see they're cracking down on it. But one thing people can look for, especially in rural areas, is. The dogs are barking, but they're pretty much hidden from sight. This person has dogs, but you don't see them ever out in the open. And if you can get a visual, another sign is a dog with a heavy chain that's on this circular or or worn down area of the ground where it's just dirt because that indicates that is the dog's whole life. There's, just an area where the dog is existing is all worn down to dirt. You pretty much know the dog doesn't go anywhere else, ever. That's his whole life. And so that was another thing I found. I found that very interesting. I did not know that. And then the scarring is something. Didn't know. What I learned is that black hair on a dog, once they get a wound, the hair grows back white. Yeah, and you can see for the most part, scarring from a dog. Fight's gonna be on the head and the front legs because they're going into for the hill. And the examples we saw were dogs, black dogs had these little white kind of cuts all over, and it was white hair that had grown back because they're, I guess it's their pigment. The hair doesn't once the follicle is damaged, it doesn't grow back with the same pigment. So I thought that was, I thought that was pretty interesting. I did not know that.

Yeah, I didn't know that either.

So it's just the dog fighting is definitely people that if you think, oh, that could be dog fighting. It probably is. Because, and it's usually like I said, you don't see those dogs, you see her barking, you know they're dogs, but you don't see them anywhere. And it happens. It's amazing. It happens next door to perfectly nice, good citizens and they just don't even realize it's happening next door. And it, it is a billion dollar business.

So do you think it's that more people are just oblivious or they just don't wanna accept that it actually could be happening?

I think it's both. And I also think that people have a hard time with thinking that their judgment was off, or people have a hard time. being wrong if they're wrong about something. And I think that also people have a hard time with say there is a dog fighter living next door. That makes my neighborhood in my home look like shit. Excuse my language. You know what I mean? And I feel like they're hesitant in that way as well because of how it looks on, them and the neighborhood. But I think people are just also just not educated to. how prevalent and how widespread right dog fighting has become.

And I think a lot of people don't trust their intuition. If you think something is wrong, it's because most likely something is wrong. But I believe that goes back to that whole judgment thing, like you said, because people don't wanna say something because, oh, what if I'm wrong? But I find from my personal experience, I like to follow my gut. It, it usually doesn't fail me.

And I agree, and I'm trying to get better in my own personal life with that, because my gut it's never been wrong, but I still, am working on trusting it because it's, a scary thing because what if you're wrong or what if you make this decision and it's comes back on you? But really, the police are never going to. be mad at you. And people need to realize that our elected officials and our police work for us. They're not the other way around.

When it comes to the fighting, is it more prevalent in rural areas, city areas, or could it be both?

It can be both. It is more prevalent in. A lot of rural areas, but you can, there's few other houses well within site. And then a lot of times in a city environment, they'll have dogs, not as many, but they'll have dogs. And that's usually like a transporting, I didn't realize they transport dogs across state lines constantly for fights. So oftentimes they'll go from a rural area to like a holding home,

uhhuh,

sometimes often in a city area, and then they're taken from there across state lines or to their next fight.

Yeah. I know in a lot of the small rural parishes in Louisiana don't even have animal control, and some of them don't even have a shelter. So that's why I was wondering, if it's more under the radar if they do it in a rural area.

For sure. And I think that, that brings me to like, one of the training things in a rural area that they use for dogs that are being trained to fight up is, they put either wildlife like a raccoon, but most often cats. Or kittens and a little, okay. They use them for dog fighting bait, and the dog will, let the dog them chase the, they hang them from like a stick or a metal rod. And once the dog has done enough work, they allow the dog to have the, whatever they're baiting it with. And I think people need to really. Stop giving oh, it's all day long. Free kittens. Free, puppy free. That's inviting a torturing sicko or a dog fighter. You just can't do it. And if you do it, you've got to, actually be proactive and check the vet references and go to the home and ask for photos in the future because it's just, it feeds the dog fighting industry, to keep doing this with the free animals.

You tell people though, but they don't wanna hear that. There's situations where I've seen posts where they're giving away kittens and I'll go in and monitor the post. I cannot always take 'em in. But if it looks like it's a dire situation and it looks like somebody who may be doing fighting or something like that, is commenting on that post, I'll be like, Hey, I'm a rescue. I'll take those kittens.

I love that you do that. Yeah, I try to do that too. If I say, I'm like, this person looks dangerous, I'll take it. Yeah. I'll go,

I'll go look on the profiles and I hate to say that 'cause I don't want people to go put their profiles private now, but yeah, no, I'll go look and see and you can go through some of those photos and tell

just like I love that you do that.

Yeah. Just like I have some groups that I run and I've had breeders try to go push animals in my groups for rehoming, and I'm like, yeah, this looks like a breeder to me. So they end up getting banned from the group.

I love it. So I do look at people's profiles too, and if I see it, I'm like, please don't give this person a kitten. All they have is pictures of pit bulls. And I hate to make that judgment and I apologize to them. If I've made it from, if I'm wrong, then I apologize. But if it saves one animal, I don't really care what people think of me or if I hurt somebody's feelings, to be honest.

I understand that for sure.

I'm not worried with humans' feelings because they have a voice and they're able to make choices. All I care about is the animals, quite frankly.

Yep, I understand that. When you see these signs, should you be getting the authorities involved, or who should you call?

They were clear with us that one, one of these signs, if it's something like, the dog looks a little thin. You have to use your judgment one of those times. If the dog looks a little thin and it's got a tarp for a shelter or it's, the dog looks a little thin and there's multiple other dogs on the property, or you can hear multiple other dogs on the property. Somebody that's a neighbor, let's say, who's in a rural area, you can hear the dogs barking. You never see them out in the open. The neighbor is not very neighborly. Mostly keeps to themselves. Sometimes maybe has on a, any given night, multiple cars. There you just, you see the signs and then you call the police. You can call the non-emergency number or, 'cause a lot of people, like you said, don't have animal control or shelters to call. So in that instance, they would call the police because, and like I said, dog fighting. They're starting to crack down all over. They're getting very angry about it. Finally, and neglect I was happy to say that see multiple rural sheriffs, sheriff's offices represented at the certification. Lots of police from different parishes in Louisiana that don't have shelters. So they had sent some of their police officers to get training. So I really believe it's starting to turn around and you just call the police, just tell them what they saw. It's called the Humane Society of Louisiana. If you're not getting any reaction, because Jeff Dorson is amazing and he's really, he's got connections all over the state and he's very good at getting something done. If he gets a complaint, he'll send one of us to follow up with it. There was recently a guy in Monroe. He didn't have anyone to call as far as animal control, so he called the Humane Society of Louisiana, and it was about some sheep that were in a field and it was dirt field and one of a baby one was dead. It had been starved to death. And he said, I didn't really know. I didn't really wanna get involved, that's just not right. And he said, thank you guys so much for following up and. Turns out, they were being starved. Somebody had rented the land and just disappeared and left these animals just to starve to death.

Oh, wow.

And I said, sir, we're so grateful when people call. I said, thank you so much. He said they were in a dirt field. That was, that gentleman sign: a dirt field and then he said he came, he drove by again two weeks later and there was the dead baby sheep in the middle of the field. And he said, I just feel terrible. I waited that long because obviously a dirt field doesn't have any food for the animals. He's like, I should have called a long time ago right now.

Who taught the class

that was a trainer from the Humane World for Animals the Humane Society of the United States. She was great. She's been an investigator for years, I believe, and then of course I went, I love to like research, so I looked her up and I saw multiple YouTube videos. She had actually been an animal control officer and now was a trainer in the program. And she was really informative and wonderful. I just really she gave us different cases to look at. For instance, like one had I. I think that, it's rampant where people move out of their homes and leave their pets in an abandoned house to starve to death. And she just really kept reiterating how important it is as investigators to be thorough with our reports. A dog was left to starve to death in a mobile home. And she, that time they got there, the dog was liquified, but. She said, we were so thorough. We took video of absolutely everything, and they found the dog's teeth and the, it's a horrible story, the teeth and the walls, because the dog was so panicked as it was starving to death. And the dog's nails were worn down to nubs from scratching to try to fight its way out of the house as it was starving to death, which is the worst. Most painful death. And she said they were able to prosecute because of how thorough they were and getting samples of the wood from the wall and then that matched the, under the nails and they found like, I said, his, the teeth and nail bits in the wall and it was just horrible. But she was trying to make the point that every little thing counts when you are doing investigations.

I believe I've actually heard about that case too. I don't know if I saw a video or something about it, but that sounds very familiar.

I was openly crying. I was like, okay, I think I'm gonna go to the bathroom. Take a break. It was tough, but like, it's hard to see and she said, I don't like to show a lot of graphic videos and these trainings, but. Some of them I feel are necessary. And I feel, I wish I could show the whole world. I wish I could sit the whole world down and make them watch those kind of things. 'cause I think then maybe something will click right in their brains.

And unfortunately that seems to be a thing when people move out, they just will leave their pets inside.

Yeah. It's just bizarre. And I mean that I just feel like the big thing, that will maybe stop that is just, harsher penalties. I feel like it definitely should be mandatory jail time. These animals feel the same emotions as human beings. I don't understand why the jail time is different for animal abuse.

Yeah. And they just seem to just get like a slap on the wrist most of the time.

And then, I, the FBI themselves say that 81% of people that abuse or neglect animals. 81% of them will go on to commit a crime. Often the next crime is against a child. And then it goes to domestic violence and then it goes to bigger ones like murder. And I just feel like why? I'm nobody. I'm not trained in any kinda legislation, but it seems to me like it's law 1 0 1 to cut the problem off at the knees. Like why wouldn't they stop it? Animal abuse with a harsher penalty so that they can't go on to commit crimes against people.. I just feel like that's the most simple way to have crime go down in cities, period. Cut the problem off at the knees before it gets any worse, and I don't get why that's not happening.

Yeah, I don't either because you always hear that statistic. But then it's never taken seriously. So I don't know.

I think too, if people, were more vocal about, It there's a great page on Facebook. It's Citizens Against Animal Abuse and Neglect. It is awful. I get all my news from there every morning when I wake up on animal abuse and the admin of that page provides a link that you can find your legislator and it gives you their email, their contact email and stuff. And I think it's very helpful 'cause I think the more noise that's made, the more they're gonna pay attention. So I really encourage, like I said, people to contact. Legislators and just one sentence, even like harsher sentences for animal abuse, because whatever these people are loud, the most loud about is what's what they're gonna put on their priority list.

The registry that you're working on, what are your plans with that? And have you started putting this registry together yet?

Yes. One of my weaknesses, is any kind of, administrative, like spreadsheets and such. So what I started doing is just collecting data. I take screenshots and then record the names of each person that's, convicted. And then I went to charge. And I'm starting it just in Louisiana. But I'm hoping, that it's gonna be, I have a friend that says Rescue in Florida. She's very involved. So we're back and forth talking about, so it can be shared between states. And so I've, now, I've got the data. Basically all I need next is for it to be in the full right format, and a shareable kind of website where people can log on. And of course it has to be I'm just still struggling with how to make sure that it's not just somebody claiming there was abuse. You see what I'm saying? Like, 'cause I don't wanna do it just for people that are convicted 'cause so few get convicted, right? So that's where I'm struggling, it's just how do you make sure it's not, somebody just being mad at someone else. Oh hey, they abuse their dog, put 'em on the registry. That's something that I'm gonna look to people that know a little more than me about these things that hopefully I can get some advice on, how to prevent that and make it, a completely legitimate and reliable source.

So what kind of support or collaboration do you think would be the most helpful in bringing these registry ideas to fruition?

I think, first to, just to get the registry created. If there's anybody out there that's good with Excel spreadsheets and I'm willing to put money into it and I have to hire help, of course there's a limit to that, and I I can't pay several hundred dollars an hour to anybody, but, I think just the basic format, the basic skeleton of the actual website. The format of how you would put in, the names of people and what city. And I've gotten a lot of help with that from Chat, GPT. But there's only so much he can do for me. And then at once it's created I'm going to market it to rescues and animal shelters. And then what I want is crime stoppers to step up and. Take a more active role and people you can call Crime Stoppers now to report animal abuse, but I want them more visible and more actively involved. Lee County and Florida is doing an incredible job. They have an animal abuse task force, they have a registry. Crime Stoppers is very visible. They put up billboards and I'm trying to model the program after them.

Okay.

It's a lot.

Yeah. I didn't know anything about that.

It's Lee County in Florida. It's right around Sarasota, Florida. And they have a whole animal cruelty task. Force. And their own page. The sheriff started and they've been really nice. I said is I'm trying to do the same thing and they were. Said, email us. So I did, and they've been very nice and helpful about it. And so that's one state that I could share the registry with.

So that's good. Yeah. Yeah. At least it's one step closer, right?

Yeah, I'll get there.

It's, it sounds like a wonderful idea

thank you. I, yeah, I think it's necessary, don't you think, would we need that?

Yeah. I think it would be something that would be needed. I think it's a really good idea

because I just asked, how do we know that these people that also people surrendering for no good reason. They move to a new apartment and they decide to get another pet and they just can do it. That's not right. And I just feel like there's gotta be more accountability when you surrender a pet for, 'cause you don't have time, quote unquote. You need to be doing more than signing a paper and I've. Called out the SPCA for that, and I said, you need to at least have them volunteer a day, make them watch a film, have, some kind of educational awareness brought to them when they surrender so that they just don't think it's, and oh, no big deal.

And I believe there are cases when people need to surrender, medical issues, things of that nature. I understand that. But like you said, for some of these things where it's just like, oh, we're moving. Let's go get rid of the dog. Let's go surrender the dog. Or, I'm having a baby. Let's go get rid of the cat. And I think that definitely is a part of the problem. I, I do wish people understood what went into it when they do surrender an animal. And in a lot of the times it's not so much with the dogs. It does happen. But like with adult cats, they grieve themselves to death. They'll stop eating.

I know it's horrible. I love cats are, like the forefront of my heart. I try to help as many as possible and people just don't understand how bonded cats get. And there's been some little research done on cats so I can't even imagine. I think probably 50 years from now people are gonna find out the cats. Are like these deeply feeling, highly intellectual, beings that we have discounted for so long, and they do. They grieve, they stop eating, they start having behavior issues using the bathroom outside the litter box. It's just very sad because cats do not do well in new environments, a lot of the time.

What message would you like to share with our listeners who are passionate about helping animals?

I would say please get involved because the problem is so overblown now that it's gonna take a lot more than us in rescue. To make a difference. We need every single person who you know, cares about animals or thinks that it's sad when they see an animal abuse. Write a letter, write an email, keep the same email, copy and paste it if you need to. I often put emails that I send online and on social media, and they can copy and paste that or make a call and just say, I'd like to leave a message for mayor so and okay. What's the message? We need stricter penalties for animal abuse. And I voted for him and I expect to see it happen. It's very simple. They work for us, put 'em to work. We need help.

Definitely. Thank you for sharing all that information with me. It was very informative. Some things definitely that I didn't know. So I'm so glad that you were able to come on the show with me today.

Thank you Dixie. I'm so excited that you have this show. I love it. I always listen to it.

Oh great.

So thank you so much for doing all this hard work because I know it's not easy and thank you for being, bringing awareness, to people.

Sure. If you know anybody else that wants to be on the show, please let me know.

I will. Thank you so much for having me.

Alright, you're welcome. It was good talking to you. And that's all the time we have for today's episode. If you are in animal rescue, or if you know someone that has a story that should be told, please contact us. We would love to have you or them on the show Thanks for listening, and please join us next week as we continue to explore the world of animal rescue.