Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the people and rescues making a difference in the lives of animals. Today we're joined with Dr. Mark, animal advocate. He is a published author and a longtime animal rescuer. Hi, Mark. How are you today?

I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine. Good to hear from you.

Yep. Good to hear from you. So can you tell us a little bit about how you got involved in animal rescue and give us a brief bio?

Oh, I would love to. It was I'll start off real far back as I can, and then I'll catch it up to speed, but anyway, as a young child of six years old, I actually got my first puppy, my father had given me, and it's like, that was a world to me. Well, I grew up with animals ever since I was six years old, and I wanted to actually be a veterinarian, but at the time that I applied for veterinary school it was you know, I didn't quite have the GPA, and back at that, during that time, It's almost like you, you didn't have a 4. 0 in college and you weren't going to get into vet school and what have you. So I didn't make it into vet school, but later in life I actually wanted to work with animals. So when I retired from my profession I decided that I wanted to go and be a animal advocate, animal rescuer. So what I did is I wind up Going back to school, learning how to be a true animal advocate, also how to be a true animal rescuer. So, a couple, about 10 years ago, I opened up an animal rescue in close to Miami. It's a place called Pompano Beach where I lived. Well, I opened up a forester based animal rescue due to the fact that I was not allowed actually to have animals on the property that I had had bought there. So anyway I ran a forester based and learned a lot from the forester based animal rescue. I did that about six years in Florida. And then I decided that I wanted to be a full time, on hand rescuer. So I moved to Louisiana. I bought seven acres here in Louisiana and became an an owner and manager of a large rescue where there were times that I had over 100 animals that was farm animals and domestic animals as well. Now, I didn't have cats only because I had so many dogs, and I truly didn't have a cat house where I could actually put cats, but I love all animals. But I did what I could do, and I took on horses, ponies, goats. Many horses and of course, dogs. Because at any one time during my early years of rescue when I got to Louisiana, I had like a hundred plus dogs. Most of them were puppies that were actually discarded. In the in the parish of Washington, which is located about 55 miles from New Orleans. But anyway, that was a that's a quick history of how I got into the rescue business as well as being an animal advocate. Now that I'm 78 years old, it's, it has gotten a bit much. I've cut down my rescue. I do not take any more animals now because of the fact that I'm just not able to take care of that many animals. But what I do, is I work mostly now as an animal advocate. I have several channels that I do. One of them is called Pawsitive Personals. I have about 160 videos from pet care to pet training, to how to become an animal advocate, how to become an investigator investigating animal cruelty, how to become a journalist. All of that you can find. Actually on my YouTube channel again called Pawsitive Personals. And I also have a news channel called Pet News USA Advocate. And you can go on that channel and you'll find stories of rescues. Actually a lot of rescue type stories on that channel. Something that may, will hopefully help you, make you feel good about society today because there are some really good people who really works hard to help animals. So, when I became an animal avidist, like, I thought everybody was evil. They hated animals because there's so much animal abuse, but there are some good people. Anyway, I hope that You know, kind of gives you an overview of how I got here.

It does. And what is the name of your animal rescue?

Mark's Animal Rescue Incorporated. We're a 501c3 rescue. We've been a 501c3 for about 10 years now. My first 501c3 rescue, of course, was my foster based in Pompano Beach. And then when I moved here, I took on, I got a Louisiana. Corporation, but we've been a 501 C now for about 10 years.

That's great. And how many animals do you have in your care now?

We're all together. I have 47 animals that's counting my farm animals and my dogs. I have dogs right now. I have 19 dogs. Those dogs except for two, are your medium size to large dog. When I say medium size, 40 pounds to, I got one dog that's about 120 pounds. And they've been with me, unfortunately. I've tried to find them, them homes without great success. People will, I've had a lot of luck adopting smaller animals, but your big animals, your big dogs it's really hard to find a good home for them. So, I would say while I'm on your broadcast here that if anyone is looking for a large animal. I really do have some good, and I don't just say that, I have some really nice, beautiful, sweet, large dogs that are looking for a good home. And most of them is going to need a large dog. yard or a field or, you know, for for you to adopt him because they're large dogs.

Hopefully we can reach somebody that would be interested in a large dog. It is sad too. Cause I mean, we see that too with the adult cats, where they're just often overlooked. And I mean, they're perfect animals. They're great animals, great companions. And for some reason, large dogs, adult cats, people seem to overlook them.

Yeah, exactly. May I ask you how long have you been doing, because I know you do cat rescues, but how long have you been doing cat rescues?

I've been doing cat rescues probably about maybe 18 years.

Oh, wow. So, long time. Good for you.

Yep.

I did not know that. I didn't know how long you were doing it. I knew you were doing cat rescues, but I didn't know how long.

I've always had cats my whole life, but it's been about 18 years where I've got involved rescue fostering and, tNR. For your animals at your rescue, you do that all by yourself Do you have any help?

I don't. I do it by myself. Fortunately, God's been good to me. I've had I, I retired with a fairly decent pension. And I say that only because of the fact that anyone considering getting into rescue I'm gonna say right up front, even though you might become a 501 C3, don't expect people to donate in any sums that's really going to help you. If you become a really true animal rescuer and you take on a lot of animals, that cost becomes tremendous. And I will say that I have been disappointed in rescue people before because I have, when doing my investigations, found animal rescues, actually not animal rescues, people had to rescue the animals from the animal rescuer because you can't. Like, I have people come to me and say, Well, you've got room, you can put It ain't a question of room, it's a question of You need to vet this animal And that's expensive You need to feed this animal, and shelter this animal Well, all that cost And I've had people say, well, I'm a 501c3. I'm gonna get donations. I can tell you right now, those donations do not come. They're rare when you get a donation that's really going to help you, because the cost of running a rescue is very expensive. I wanted to just, when I moved here from Florida I just opened up my rescue. In fact, it wasn't even opened up yet, didn't even have a place to live. And so anyway a neighbor came down and said there's a lab, looked like a chocolate lab dead in a ditch. Anyway, I went over there and didn't find out, but the lab wasn't dead, but he did have a broken back, broken hip, broken leg. Well, my first cost when we talk about cost and when you want to rescue this lab needed about 6, 000 of work to get him to actually and In almost 90 percent shape, according to the vet, but he said, you know, for 2, 000, I mean, we can get the dog walk and he'll be fine, we'll mend. And I said, well, we'll just have to do that. I just moved here and 6, 000 is a bit much. So anyway, we did, I did get the dog fixed up. In fact, I still got him because I love that dog. It's a chocolate lab and he's still with me after seven years. I've been here seven years. But anyway, it just costs when you want to rescue. You know, you got to be sure that you have the funds to do that. The dog that was in the ditch? What's that dog's name? Oh, that's highway. I named him Highway. Oh, I like it. I like it. That's a good one. That's a good one. He's been with me, I've been here seven years and Highway was my first rescue and highway's still with me 'cause I didn't have the heart to, to adopt him out. And I, and it's not like I couldn't, they had several people that wanted a beautiful chocolate lab. But I put so much time and effort in nursing him back that there was no way that I was going to let Highway go. That's wonderful. So Highway is still with me, one healthy little, one healthy, I say little, he's not little, one healthy dog. Yeah, that's a great story. I agree with you, when you said that you do have to have some kind of funds. You can't just go out and rescue without having any kind of funds. You do have to have that. You can't rely totally 100 percent on donations. You do have to realize that you are going to come out of pocket. Yes, it's going to be you know, for me personally, it's been, it's a lot out of the pocket and for most rescuers, and like I said, you know, I find a lot of rescuers, you know, call themselves rescuers, but, you know, these animals aren't provided, the ones they rescue, they're not provided with everything that they need, and and I'm gonna tell you that, that becomes a heavy burden on people, and I see people, I know they feel sorry for animals, And they have a great love for animals, but you know, there's sometimes you've got to draw a line because you need to take only care of the animals that you can actually take care of, because again, I have a fairly decent place here that's well built for rescue, but I tell people all the time, I can't take on any more animals. And the first thing they'll tell me is, well, you've got all this space here in these buildings. So this rescue is full. And and it's not only that, it's not, again, it's not the space. You've got to be able to take care of these animals and vet these animals and feed them. And that's not cheap. Well, let me ask you this, Mark. How many rescues do you think Bite off more than they can chew as far as you know, take it on too many. You know, I don't know Yeah, I don't know an exact number. I really don't but I will tell you in my investigations Of 10 years and i've done quite a bit. I was a deputy sheriff for a while and and he's baton rouge parish and then Maybe six months here in washington parish But I will tell you that most rescuers with their love and passion for animals take on more than they should. Because they are not able to actually take care of these animals like they should. So the percentage of people who take on animal rescue takes on more than they, they should. But for me to tell you a number, you know, I'm not able to do that. Now, you consider yourself an animal advocate. Can you explain what that means? I fight Every day for animal rights, animal welfare. And I've done that for about 10 years. There is a LA Institute where I received my doctorate from on animal advocacy. That I learned a great deal about that particular subject in terms of animal rights throughout the country. And I speak of country, the USA I've learned a lot about animal welfare, I've learned a lot about animal rights, and wherever a person is located, if you truly want to be an animal advocate, that requires a lot, because that means that you need to work with your local government, you need to work with local law enforcement. And unfortunately, both are not easy to work with. And I'm gonna give you an example and I know a lot as I've been doing this for a long time, but in Washington Parish, where I live at now is I have been to several local government council meetings trying to get our parish to bring about some animal ordinances. We have no animal ordinances in Washington Parish. And basically when I go and meet with the the council members during their meetings, they have on a Monday evening, 6 30, once a month, they have an open council meeting for the public, which I. Attended and unfortunately all they will tell me basically is, well, we're going to give that some thought. Well, they've been giving that a thought now for, oh, four or five years, they've still been giving it some thought. And and really I asked for a lot and I drew up along with someone else, we drew up this, some animal ordinances. I'm sorry about that. That's all right. Animal ordinances for the parish. Excuse me, just a minute. Okay. Hey, Dixie? Yes? Dixie, just, can you kind of just for a minute give me five minutes? I'm sorry. Yeah, no problem. Okay, I'll be right back with you. Okay. Somebody drove up in my driveway I'll tell you what that was. I'm sorry for the break. The little chihuahua I was talking about. That was the owner. Oh, wonderful. So, what happened with this dog, if you can tell our audience, cause I know we know about it, but our audience doesn't. So if you can give us a brief synopsis on what just happened, cause I think that's kind of cool. We just had a reunion on a podcast. Well, this morning a neighbor of mine, Bill came by here because he wanted, he wasn't able to see. The dog had been microchipped, because he microchipped to see if the dog had one, and he did. But Bill was not able to read the number. So anyway he brought the little dog over, and I looked at the number, and I was able to read it, even though I'm old, I got great eyes now. I was able to read it, but we were not able to find that the microchip. At least on the search that I did, was not able to find it. The name of the owner. So, I think, and this is, I think this, because this builds out here, this is the lady who picked the dog up, that they went to one of the shelters, and a local shelter had shipped that dog, and so they had a record of that dog. And so Bill was able to find the owner, and he just called me and said the owner would pick the dog up, because I offered to foster the dog until we found a place for the dog. Well, anyway the lady here just picked up the dog, so the dog is, fortunately went back to the owner. Oh, that's wonderful. Great job. Great job. Pretty simple. I didn't do a whole lot. I just offered to foster the dog, which I don't mind doing. I don't take in animals for myself, but, you know, and a little dog like that, you know, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna turn him down. So, anyway that's what happened. But the little dog was able to get back with his owner. What happened was, though, the owner, I just talked to the owner, is that the fireworks actually was what scared that dog off. And and that happens a lot every year. I find that dogs that I found dogs every year I'd come across a stray dog and find the owner. It was a fireworks that the dog just ran off. Yeah. Yeah. That does happen a lot. I know it's 4th of July and, New Year's that's the top two, holidays when you have lost pets. Yeah, absolutely. So anyway, but fortunately, you know, and the one thing I do, and I have to say this, my own horn gets sick, but in my time here in Mount Hermon, Louisiana, where my rescue is that we have saved over 2, 000 dogs here. We've rescued 2, 000 dogs and we have found homes for over 2, 000 dogs. That's amazing. I'm very proud of the record that we have established here. And the only, again, the only reason I don't do it anymore is because I got to the point where at 78, even though I still feel good, I just never know. So I don't take on any more. New dogs, and and I work on trying to get the ones I have adopted. Okay. And just to back up for a second, really quick to let the listeners know.

So that dog was just now, reunited with its owners because of a microchip that was in the animal. That's exactly right.. Fortunately for that dog, he had a microchip. Yes. Yes, and a lot of animals are not microchipped. But just give us a quick idea on how microchips work. Yeah. You take the little dog, or your dog, I see. And to your vet. They will and it's actually a little bitty chip that they put under the skin and there's information on that chip and it goes to a registry. So anytime and the, there's a, there's an apparatus that one can use if a dog is lost or something like that. 'cause usually chips are pace placed over the neck area. So there's a little apparatus that you can pass over that area, we'll pick up, if that dog has a chip, we'll pick up a number. On that dog. And then once you do that, then you can go to a national registry and search that number and and if that person registered that dog, because it doesn't do any good to put a microchip in if you don't register the microchip. So it's very important if people know that once you put a microchip in, the microchips not gonna do anything unless you actually register that dog. Under that microchip. So I want that, I want people to understand that. 'cause I have picked up a lot of animals that I ran a check on and actually they were microchipped but unfortunately people don't don't register the microchip. So there's no way of knowing who the owner is. And just so everybody knows, the microchip is not a GPS tracking device, so you cannot track your animal. That is microchipped That is correct. That is correct. It is not a tracking device. People are under that assumption, Philip, that it is a tracking device, and it is not. It's only good if people put it in, they register it, and then if the dog gets lost, then any shelter that may come in contact with that dog or a rescuer, they should have something that will detect whether or not that dog has a microchip and hopefully that dog's been registered. But like you said again, I'll repeat, it's not a, it's not a GPS. It's not going to track your dog down. Okay, now something else that I would like to add to that, because a lot of people don't know this, when they do find an animal and they get what's called a dead end microchip, where, you know, it's a microchip, the dog was microchipped, but the microchip was not registered. So one thing that if you come across a chip like that, one thing that you can do is you can call up that microchip company and say, hey, who did you sell this chip to or who was this chip implanted by? And then a lot of times you can go backwards from there and find the owner as well. And you were absolutely correct. I'm sorry I forgot to say that, but you were absolutely correct, so I'm glad you brought that up.

Okay, now before we had reunion, you were talking about animal advocacy. Did you say you, have a doctorate in animal advocacy? I'd like to know a little bit more about that. Like where did you study to get that? Well, what it is it's a program that I had taken plus it's one of those it's one of those life. Experiences Doctorate where you get a honorary doctorate and I received the honorary doctorate from the L. A. Institute and that was from my work in five years as a animal rescuer and animal advocate without any designation whatsoever. My, my rescue, my, my Forrester based animal rescue in Florida which I reached out to a lot of people. I also had a animal channel that I work with. It was an animal news channel, and that's how the L. A. Institute recognized me as working as an animal advocate, because it was called Mark's Animal News Network, which I had done for several years, along with my animal rescue, along with my fight with government. and law enforcement to try to get them to do their job. So what happened is as a consequence of my studies and my life experiences, I was awarded a honorary doctorate from the LA Institute in Los Angeles. And that's how that all came about. Okay, that's wonderful. That's great. It just goes to show, it just, you know, my, my passion is animals. That's, that people ask me about that all the time. But that's what I do. That's what I everything that I do today it's all toward animals, helping animals. Okay, so now you do also have a YouTube channel called Pawsitive Personals. So can you tell us a little bit about that and what can people find on that YouTube channel? Oh, Pawsitive Personals, and that's let me spell that, make sure, it's P A W S I T I V E, and then personals, P E R S O N A L S. And sometimes people ask me, why did you name a channel that? Because plosive, of course, is the paws, it recognizes animals with that, or paws are four legged animals for the most part. And then personals is, animal rescue is a personal thing with me. It's a passion, it's a personal thing with me, so that's why I called my channel Positive Personals because everything I do is a personal thing for animals. Now, I have roughly I think the last count Don't quote me on this, but my last count is about 160 videos that I have done on this YouTube channel. My last count is I have about 9, 000 subscribers right now. I have over 62, 000 views for my my YouTube channel. I've been in existence for four months doing this particular channel. I have And I have about 160 videos that cover everything from animal care, animal tips animal advocacy animal training, a lot about advocacy, because I I focus on working Trying and trying to get our local government and law enforcement to start doing their job. And I'm sorry to say in my opinion that local governments and law enforcement have left animals behind. It's almost like they're invisible. And I just don't do well with that. And as a prior law enforcement officer, I've seen that firsthand. Where. We might take care of a problem that's in the home. Family squabble, what have you, and somebody might go to jail, two people, and what happens to the animals? Nothing. We don't do anything. They're left abandoned. I mean, it's just unbelievable. Dogs that are kicked out. And particularly Louisiana, I'll speak about Louisiana since I live here. But the people who dump animals, well, you know, something really happens to that animal. That animal dies for whatever reason. When they were dumped. Well, that's actually a felony. In Louisiana. I mean, you can go to the statues of Louisiana. That's a felony to dump animals. And I, and again, in my opinion, that law enforcement does not take animal abuse, animal neglect seriously. You know, you can put it in their face and it's like, they're going to make up some excuse. Well, we can't do this. We can't do that. We can't. It's always, we can't do something. Instead of being positive and wanting. work to help animals, I find that doesn't happen. It's not a priority for them. And they'll tell you that, well, we don't have the resources. It's not a priority. Or they just don't care. And that's exactly what I found. They just don't care. So, I work every day. To push animal rights and animal welfare, and I find that because of my age, I do this through my YouTube channel, through my website, to get people fired up about doing something to help animals. And so I feel that my videos may teach people elsewhere that you need to get involved with your local government representative. You need to start pushing them. You need to start pushing law enforcement to do their job. Law enforcement's there to protect people and animals. That's what they're there for, but they don't. They're just animals, they're just totally invisible. And if we all should know this, no, I say that, I take that back, the data that I have read over many years strongly suggests and that people who abuse animals at some point is going to start abusing people and I don't get That we're law enforcement ignores animal abuse because if they took care of that, they take care of the animal, they're going to make people realize, well, you know, that they're serious about animal abuse. And I better be and put these people in jail or find them or do something because at some point, these people are going to act on humans. And I can't get law enforcement or either. They don't care again. They don't care. They don't want to do it or it's not a priority. What have you, but they need to understand if they take care of the animal abuse, that's going to be less human abuse. That's going to happen because downright. There's a lot of people who are evil and there's a lot of people I, you know, I cry at night. Because of all the abuse that I've seen the animals and it's been horrible. And I still think about that in my mind. It's like I went to war and I saw all these, you know, soldiers, my friends who died and what have you. But, you know, for me, it's animals. And when I go and see animals that's been tortured and what have you, it's hard for me to sleep sometimes. And I've cried a lot of nights over this. So I'm asking people on your podcast and whoever's listening to this, I'm asking you to please start working with your local government to get your representatives, if they haven't passed animal ordinances, work to get that done. And work with your sheriff's office and your local city police officers, because somebody, we've got to push these people to do their job. Because it seems like they're not. If we don't put a little pressure behind our law enforcement, local government, nothing's going to happen. And I chastise people, and I don't mean to, but people who go on social media and say, you know, this dog is going to die if we don't rescue this dog out of this shelter, they're going to euthanize this dog, they're going to do this, they're going to do that. You know, I appreciate people that do that, and they do help some animals, but that's never, ever going to solve the problem. It's a continuous wheel that just goes around and around. And unless we get the root cause of it, and that is, local government needs to make the laws. Law enforcement needs to enforce those laws. And until that's done this circle of abuse and neglect is going to continue and I would hope that people who's listening to this podcast understand that A lot of animals are going to die because we don't really take care of the root cause of this. I'm sorry I'm talking too long about that, but that's quite a passion for me. No, that's totally okay. I mean, I understand that. Seeing all animal abuse and all the stuff that you see on social media, all the negative things, it's overwhelming. It really is. Yeah, it is, and it's tough, you know, and I, even though I don't rescue anymore, I've seen so much, that even sitting at my computer and gathering information and what have you, it, it saddens me that so many animals, Or dying and tortured and neglected and in local, our local government and law enforcement just turn a blind eye to it. That's just how I feel. They turn a blind eye and until we get those things changed, it's not going, it's never going to change. You know, and then going back to local government, I couldn't get Washington Parish. To do a spay and neuter law, where every person who owns an animal here should be licensed. Every animal that owns should be not only licensed, but their animal should be spayed or neutered. And that's the only thing I was asking, couple of, you don't have to take all of the animal, let's just start with two. Let's let people pay a small license fee to have an animal. And the second thing is they must have that animal spayed or neutered within a timeframe. And that's all I was asking. I was not even able to get that. Does that tell you anything? Now, let me ask you this, Mark. Don't you have a book on Amazon that talks about animal abuse and law enforcement or investigating animal abuse? I have I have written 14 books about animals. And there, there's many of them that cover a different training and again, pet care, emergency care and what have you. I have several books if people are interested, I wish they would go to Amazon under Dr. Mark McMorris Jr. And those books are, one is, there's one is How to Become an Animal Advocate. It takes you, it's a great guide. It takes you from A to Z on how to become an effective animal advocate and what you need to do and how you need to do it and who you need to talk to. It's a great book. And I put a lot of effort into that book. The other book. is for those who really want to be more involved, not only as an animal advocate, learn how to be an animal abuse investigator. That book takes you also from A to Z and what to do in terms of animal abuse and how to use. To recognize animal abuse, after you do, what you need to do as far as collecting evidence and one big thing about investigating animal abuse is nothing like investigating a criminal act by humans. It's just nothing because animals themselves can't go to court and be a witness against Another. The bottom line is evidence collecting for animal abuse is totally different from collecting evidence in terms of criminal offenses by people. And this book covers that exclusively dealing with animals and the collection of evidence in order to, because it's very difficult to go to court and get a guilty. Sentence on our plea on that because of the fact that there's really not witnesses per se unless you have evidence. In terms of photos and videos and all the other things that you might collect around there. And there's a lot of things that you don't think about that you need to collect for your evidence in order to do this. And I'll tell for people who are not law enforcement officers but for let's say volunteers, shelter managers, shelter volunteers someone who wants to learn how to do this. It tells you how to. Collect the evidence and how to safely, and I mean safely, Give evidence without putting yourself in jeopardy because that's a big thing. You cannot go on people's property to get and take pictures of animals or what have you. There, there's a way to do this and this book teaches you how to do that. So anyway, I got carried away, but there's two books that people would be interested in. I think that if you wanted to get involved with this is how to be an animal advocate and help you. How to investigate animal abuse. Lost my train of thought there for a second. Not one though. It's something definitely good to discuss because I wonder how many animal abuse cases are dropped in court due to lack of evidence. So for someone to know what they need to collect to try and get the best case possible, it's great to know. Oh, exactly. And I will tell you that it's a great percentage. I can't tell you what that percentage is, but a great percentage if not, if that 99 percent these law enforcement officers today, they don't have any animal training. They don't I'm sure chief of police and sheriff departments, they don't train their deputies on animal abuse training. I will almost guarantee they don't. So I've been trying to get my group out to different departments to see if they would be interested in in doing this because it, it's a great guide for people who actually want to learn how to be an animal abuse investigator. And again, I want to stress to people, you don't have to be a law enforcement officer to help animals. I would at least know how to be a good advocate, an animal advocate. And then I would learn how to be a good investigator because I can help you if anybody's interested. I can help you get registered as a journalist, as an investigative journalist. So if anyone ever thought about doing this, if they listen to your podcast, that I, yeah, I have no problem with me, with him calling me emailing me and getting information because I can give them more information about the books. I can give them information about how to become a journalist. And the things that you need to do. I can help those people do that. If you're truly interested in being what I call a really good advocate for animals. Thank you, Mark. What I'm going to do is I'm going to put all your links to in our podcast description. So that people can go to your, they can go to your website. They can go to, your YouTube channel and get the information and I can also include some contact information in there for you too, for those that are interested getting more involved in this. And if there's people I mean my phone number is okay too, but I don't answer phone numbers. I don't know, but if someone will text me if they want to, I take texts. I look at my text and my email address. I do not answer phone numbers. I don't know, be up front with you. I don't but if someone wants to text me or they email me, I'd be real happy to give them the information that they're seeking to do what I am doing. And again, you don't have to be a police officer. If someone who really actively wants to help animals, this is a great way to do it. And and you should try to take the steps to do it the way I written in my books because I don't want to see people get in trouble trying to help animals. And I see that all the time. People. Go into people, go on people's property and try to help animals. You don't understand that, but you can't do that. And you don't want to take the chance of being arrested for trespassing. You won't, don't want to be shot. You gotta do this in a safe way. And that's what my book's we'll tell you how and what to do, and that's important, you know, you just can't go out there willy nilly and think that you're going to help this animal because you might be putting your own self in jeopardy. All right, and before we, wrap up this call too, I just wanted ask you first, all dogs that you do have, do you have those dogs listed on Petfinder where people can see them or get more information on them? They're there. Yes, they are on Pet Finder. Yes, but I have not had a lot of success. I think that you told me that you have. I have not. And I just recently went back to Pet Finder and put several dogs to see how They do. One of them was my big shepherd that I have. He's a he's a German shepherd in all the colors and he's about 120 pounds. He's a big, he's a big guy and very gentle but he doesn't, you know, people say, well, he doesn't, he has the floppy ears. So he has a little bit of hound in him and I have not been able to, Headfinder has not helped me. Social media has not helped me. This dog has been with me at least six years now. Beautiful dog. And it just not as helped me. You know, I don't know what to say. And I've tried it with a couple of dogs first, but I have not gotten any response from that and it's kind of disappointing, but it is what it is. Right. Well, hopefully we can get you some more exposure for them. Now, also too, for your rescue, what is it that you could use for your rescue? Could you use help? Could you use donations? What is it that you would need for your rescue You know, I, I will. You need, and I hate to say this, but money is always a needed factor in rescues because a lot of that money goes out the door to the vet for vet care and feed. So if you're going to do anything, if money is the problem, then the next best thing you can help a rescue with is food. Food is always needed. You know, people do bring blankets and pillows and dog beds and stuff like that. But I'll tell you, in my opinion, it's either, you know, a donation I say cash, but a money donation or either the food itself. Those are the two big things that rescues need or shelters shelters need is food or money. And money is a priority because many of these animals are, especially when you rescue them, they all need to go to the vet, they all need their vaccinations they all need all the care that one's afforded when you take a rescue dog, so it's always a need. That's my opinion. And for the most part and working with animal rescues and shelters. In fact, I did one book. My first book was on an animal shelter in Miami. And it was very disappointing to me because people has this idea. Oh I'm going to bring my dog to the shelter. I'm going to surrender my dog to the shelter. I can't take care of the dog anymore. Well, they got this. This notion that a shelter is going to adopt that dog out to a very lovely family. That, in all probability, that is not going to happen. That dog is going to be euthanized. And if the owner of that dog turns that dog in and says, I don't want him, that's the first dog to be euthanized. Stray dogs, for the most part in most areas of the country, there's a 72 hour waiting period and some of them are, some of them are three days, some of them are 10 days in between, but those dogs actually are not euthanized right away. It is the owner's surrender that dog is going to be euthanized and that's so unfortunate. And my book was about that. And about how, you know, what I saw in animals when they were in those pens in the shelter. And what happens to those dogs and how they shut down. It was a very sad book. It was my first book that I wrote. It was extremely sad because I was actually trying to look through the eyes of of the animal being in the shelter and what I experienced and what I saw. And And anyway, and the book, in fact, is, it's on my website. I mean, not my website, but it's on Amazon as well. And and it's called Read This Book and Save an Animal. That was my very first book that I did. Again, Read This Book and Save an Animal. If you're interested in seeing how you think dogs will look at shelters and how they react and what have you, it's a great book to read. It's great to that, you wrote something that is out there for people so they can get a better understanding too. Now do you want to provide your, huh. The bottom line is that you, I really do want people who listen to your podcast. Shelter is a misnomer. These dogs for the most part are euthanized. Yeah, I'm being honest with you. Now, there is a no kill movement, and it's called, and Best Friends has started this, if anybody's not familiar, Best Friends is a huge organization, and they've done so much for animals, I mean, a lot. And anyway, if you get a chance to donate to Best Friends, please do because they work very hard in, in helping animals. But I would say that, again, I don't want people to be misled by the term shelter. For the most part, shelter is not a shelter. It's a euthanizing center. And they euthanize. Every day, millions of animals throughout this country. And it's so horrible that and that's why I attack law enforcement. I attack local governments because, you know, I feel that's on their hands their watch, that they let these animals. Healthy animals die in shelters because they don't want to do anything. They don't want to work and they don't want to enforce the laws. And every day my videos are actually based a lot of this on, on, on law enforcement and government not doing their job. Well, Mark, before we wrap up, is there any contact information you're willing to give out as far as? Email, phone number How would someone contact you for information? You know, the best way to contact me would be to use my my email address that I use for my YouTube channel. And that's positive personals at gmail. com. That's a P A W. S I T I V E, Personals, P E R S O N A L S, at gmail. com. That would be the best way to contact me, because I answer, I always look at my emails, I'm constantly on my emails, so I will address any email that someone sends me, if they want information, they want to, look at getting a book. They want to look at being a a registered journalist to help them with their process and give them a little bit more leeway in, in helping animals. I can help them with that. So if they're truly interested in doing that by all means, I encourage you to get in touch with me because everyone that I can help. Do this become a better person at helping animals. I'm more than happy to do that. This, again, this is my whole life is helping animals. And I say that, well, when I got left of it, at 78 years old, when I got left of it, people see my pictures sometimes and they'll And he said, well, you don't look that bad because I tell you, I, the picture that is on my website makes me look a lot better than what I am because actually it's a likeness of me through an avatar that I had done. So it's not actually, it's not actually me, but certainly makes me look good. But I would be, I'd be happy to help anyone who is wanting to do something that's going to help animals. That's who I am. And thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. I really enjoyed our conversation. Oh, well, thank y'all. I appreciate what y'all do, especially with helping cats. I gotta say this last thing, though. I am so happy that you saved cats because I'm gonna tell you, I feel like, kittens and cats, they get a raw deal. That's the best way I can say it because, you know, you hear there's many people saving. Dogs. There's a lot of rescues out there and it's all about dogs and then there's horses. But you know what? Rarely do I find many people who are rescuing cats and that's a shame. And that's a, that's an utter disgrace that we don't have enough people doing that. So, you know, I really appreciate and thank you for being a cat rescuer. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Well, what else can I do for y'all today? I love my little talk and I'm, if you ever want me back please let me know. I'll be glad to, yes, we'll definitely have you back. Thank you. We appreciate you talking with us. Okay. You're welcome. All right. Okay. Bye.

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.