January 24, 2025 • 29 mins
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All the funds raised go to provide FREE sports, health and leadership programming to our athletes – including athletes in the Three Rivers region which serves the Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland Counties.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
And welcome in. This is a public affairs program shedding
the light on the interest and issues and concerns of
the greater Pittsburgh Aaria. Good morning, My name is Johnny Heart.
Well today we're going to be talking about Animal Friends.
Let's say a looad to Kathleen Beaver of Animal Friends.
Good to see you, Thank you for coming in.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good to see you, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
So tell us everything we need to know about Animal Friends.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Boy, how many hours do you have?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I've got nothing to do on all day to do
it great?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, you know, Animal Friends is a is a fantastic
place for the community. But let's you know, it's about animals.
You know, animals are part of our lives. Animal Friends
is a full service community. We call it a community
resource campus. We're not just one building, We're a full
campus up in Ohio township. And you know our goal
(00:51):
here is to help animals, but help people. I think
one of the things that's really important is to think
about our vision statement, which is ensure humane and compassionate
future for every Animal Friend. And I think it's important
to think of Animal Friends not just as pets and
as animals, but as the people who care for them
as well. So at Animal Friends were really focused on
(01:13):
making sure those animals are safe and healthy and getting
the care they need. But we're also looking at the people,
because if the people can't take care of the animals
that they have, then they're going to end up in
the shelter, and then we have a bigger problem in
our community. So it's all about relationships with our pets
in the community and making this a better place to
live for all of us.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
It seems like Animal Friends has always been there for
as long as I can remember. You've been around for
over eighty years.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
That's right. We were founded in nineteen forty three, and
it's kind of a unique founding, if you will. Some
people just kind of came together in World War Two.
They saw people going off to war and they were
leaving their pets behind, and people thought, well, you know
this can't happen. We need to do something for these guys.
(01:58):
So they didn't have a shelter, but they rented an
office space down at the William Penn downtown and they
had kind of a file drawer of people who wanted
pets and a file drawer of pets that were in
need of homes. And it was a matchmaking service. So
they started there and they just continued to grow. They
had a shelter in Lawrenceville and in Bloomfield and finally
(02:21):
got their first facility, large shelter facility in the Strip district.
So most people know Animal Friends is the shelter in
the Strip and we were there for a number of decades.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And so what's your relationship with Animal Friends? When did
you start with the organization?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Not in nineteen forty three, but sometimes you look great,
thank you. It may feel like that some days. But
I started in the late nineties. They started in nineteen
ninety seven, and you know, went there because I loved
the mission. I loved the fact that they were committed
to every animal that came through their doors, and saw
(02:57):
a ton of potential with the organization, and we have
we've grown in just huge ways since nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Did you move your move up? Yeah, all the well
I did.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I did start. I didn't start walking dogs, but I
did start as our marketing and development position and also
ran the volunteer program. At the time, we only had
about I think we'd like between thirty and forty employees.
Most of them were part time and most of them
were caring for the animals, and so many of us
had jobs that had today are multiple jobs. But that
(03:32):
was what I did, was development, marketing and the volunteer program,
and you know, it just it all. I've worked for
other nonprofits and the arts and with organizations working with children,
and they're all wonderful with great missions, but there's there
was something so different about Animal Friends, Fairy grassroots people
(03:54):
coming together for a common goal to really save lives.
And you know, things came together all at the same
time where we were looking at a facility that was
truly crumbling. You know, we had a place in the Strip.
We were growing so much that we were leasing other
buildings next door to us, down the street from us.
(04:16):
We were having behavior training classes in the parking lot
and stepping over puddles, and we realized we really needed
to do something different for the demand that was happening
in the community. So in just a few years later,
we had a great group of people come together and say,
we can do better, we can do more. The demand
(04:38):
is here, the volunteers are here, the community is behind us.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So and that's when you opened up the new shelter.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
That's when you know, the plans started to do more
than just a shelter. You know, we we wanted to
stay in the city. That's that was our roots was
to be there focused on you know, we started focused
on veterans really, which i'll tell you a little bit
more about a little later. But you know, you know
(05:05):
when when you're looking around you and what you have
is facilities that are falling down. I mean literally, we
would see the building kind of kind of edging off
a little bit, and we thought, we've got to find
something that's safer for these animals, and we have to
also find something safer for our community and for our staff,
(05:25):
and we really need to grow these programs. So we
wanted to stay in the city. But when you looked
at the rent and the property costs in the city,
we were able to get you know, we looked at
a piece of property that was an acre for a
million dollars and we're like, well, we're gonna have the
same problem if we don't think kind of outside of
(05:46):
the box. And so we started looking outside of the
city and found a really beautiful piece of property in
Ohio Township, which was just up the road, ten minutes
from the city. And yeah, it's not far from down,
not at all. So for about four hundred thousand dollars,
you know, we got thirteen and a half acres.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
And it's a beautiful and beautiful place.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Exactly, and it's a beautiful piece of property. And you know,
the other thing that we really looked at was we
could build a shelter full of cages and you know,
every animal that came in, put them in and help
them out and get them back up. But that's not
solving the root of the problem. And we knew that,
(06:27):
you know, thirty forty fifty sixty employees were not going
to solve the problem here in Pittsburgh. So we really
looked at how can we involve the community in our
in our challenges and help through education, through volunteering, through
just involvement. So what we built, which was very state
of the art at the time, was not a shelter,
(06:48):
but was a community resource center. So if you were
to come into our building and it was very new
at the time and people were scratching their head, going
how is this a shelter? Was we have a lot
of program spaces, we have a lot of education space.
Is it's not all just cage after cage after cage.
It's really focused on how do we inspire people to
(07:08):
come and to learn to be better pet guardians too,
to know more about the care of our pets, the
health of our pets, so we create a more humane
and compassionate community, not just helping animals.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Do me a favor. Let's let's let's when you're talking
about your uh, your building, kind of give us a
a a radio tour of Animal Friends because it really
is worthwhile. You walk in and you're right, it doesn't
look like your standard shelter because you you know, it's
it's it's it's very it's very nice, and you you
(07:43):
have this huge cat area that is you know, full
of go ahead, So I'll let you do it and
give us a little tour.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Give an audio tour here Animal Friends. Well, you know
when you when you you get to come across a
beautiful bridge with a little a little stream underneath, which
really sets the tone. And I know that.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
It and one thing that you'll see, even before you
get in a building, you'll see a lot of your
volunteers walking the dogs. You always see a volunteer. You
have so many, so you really rely on these volunteers too.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Absolutely, absolutely, and that's well get back to volunteers as well.
But that's the beauty of it is when you walk,
when you come up our driveway, you're seeing the whole campus.
You get to see what's happening there. We have play
so when you come up the campus, if you look
off to your left, you're going to see we have
some off leash areas that people can rent. If you
(08:35):
don't want to go to those big public play areas
when there's a lot of dogs there, you can rent
one and bring your own dog. You can bring a
couple of dogs, so we have two of those right
down over the side, and then you come up the
driveway to the main building and when you enter, first
of all, we have a see this is going to
be a long tour. The other unique thing is we
(08:58):
have when you talk about volunolunteers, we have volunteers who
do everything. So again you're going to see those those
dog walkers out there caring for our animals and socializing
them and exercising them. But our grounds are beautiful too
because we have a garden club there as well, which
you think is funny for a shelter, but think about
the number of dogs that are being walked on our property,
(09:20):
and think of what they do when they go outside,
which was very difficult to keep shrubs and bushes and
flowers and plants well right. But the problem was they're
also killing everything. So we have a group of animal
loving Garden Club volunteers and some of them are master gardeners,
(09:40):
and they see it as a challenge to say, oh, hey,
what kind of plants can we plant here that will
survive this the harsh conditions of having hundreds of dogs
peeing on them. So it's been a lot of fun
to have these people. So when we talk about volunteers,
there's lots of unique ways to get involved. And it helps,
(10:00):
you know, it sounds funny that, oh, why are you
worried about how beautiful your campus is. Well, it helps
people that come in to go, oh my gosh, I
didn't realize that kind of plant could withstand this. So
it's really been a lot of fun for that. But anyway,
so you walk in and it's gorgeous there, walk into
a big lobby. We have a welcome center right when
you walk in, and that's just to get acclimated. We
(10:22):
know that when you walk in we have very high
ceilings and you kind of are going, oh my gosh,
where are the animals. Because we really pride ourselves on
we don't want you to walk in and go, yep,
it's a shelter because I can smell it. We have
the building was built to have an HVAC system that
really turns the air to make sure that it not
(10:42):
only does it smell great, but that it's healthy for
the animals because there's disease and there's illness, and we
want to make sure that that air is turning over
all the time. But when you come in, if you
go down to the right, do you hang a right.
We have a classroom which can be used for trainings.
We have scout troops in there. We can do bunny
yoga in there, which is always fall on.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So you do yoga and you bring in the bunnies
to kind of jump around with it. Yeah, participatly.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
We know people don't like to exercise, but if you
add a little bunny, we do bunny and sometimes we
do kitten yoga, which you can come in with your
matt and we have a yoga instructor that comes in
and then we bring the bunnies. But it's also a
place where we can do meet and greets for our
dogs if you have a dog and you want to
make sure that's a great pet. So there's spaces there.
(11:34):
We have a kitchenette, so sometimes we have Scout troops
come in and they want to bake biscuits for the animals.
We have staff, like over the holidays, and again our
staff are incredibly compassionate and creative, and they were baking
biscuits for the dogs to make sure that they got
something special and healthy for the animals during the holidays.
(11:55):
So that's up on the I told you this is
going to be a three hour interview. But on the
that's on the right. But if you go and hang
a left and you start walking down the main hallway,
we have a we call it our HEAK, which is
our Humane Education and Enrichment Center, and that's for our
little kids. So you know, we have a lot of
(12:15):
families that come into Animal Friends and you know, as
a parent, my kids are grown, but you brought them
into the shelter and they were so excited to see
the animals that they'd kind of buzz through that door
and want to just run up to those enclosures. Of
the animals, and we know that can be scary for
the animals. So the idea was to put in this
Humane Education Center that kind of slow down the kids
(12:38):
pop in here first. It's a hands on experience for
them with kind of a changing exhibit where you can
come in and learn a little bit about the animals
that you're about to see, about their care, about the
jobs that we do there. It's always changing, but it
slows everybody down a little bit, lets them get some
of that excitement out and then they get to go
(13:01):
and look with a better state of mind, a little
bit better presence for the animals. Right across and you know,
also with the Humane Education Center, we also do storytime
with kids. We have summer camping program which is always
sold out, so if you want to do that, that's
critical for the young people to learn about becoming the
(13:23):
next generation of animal lovers and pet owners as well.
Across from the Humane Education Center we have a large
outreach center and it can be divided into and there's
always something going on in there. We do bun runs,
which I'll ask you if you know what a bun
run is.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I assume it have something to do with bunnies.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
There you go. You know, we have three species at
Animal Friends. We support dogs, cats, and rabbits. Rabbits are
the third most adopted animal in the region and across
the United States. We don't have as many, but we
do have anywhere between aid and twelve bunnies at any
given time on site. And the bunnies need to get out.
(14:03):
They need to you know, so they need a bun run.
And also, so many people don't know about bunnies. They
see them, they may think, oh, it's it's a pet
to keep in a cage, but they're not. They can
be litter trained, they can live in your house similar
to a cat. Although I will warn.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
All my friends with bunnies they have like amazing personalities. Yep.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, they're really unique animals and they bond and they
have their own little unique personality. It's really great. We
have wonderful volunteers that on Saturdays we do a public
bun run where if you just want to come, you
want to go into the bun run, sit down, let
the bunnies hop up to you, and our volunteers will
tell you all about bunnies. Doesn't matter if you're not
(14:45):
interested in adopting, just just come get to know the species.
It's a really great time, especially with kids in a family.
We also do dog play groups in our outreach center,
so our dogs need time to socialize, so often on
one you'll see a couple of dogs in there having fun,
running around, playing and jumping. It's also a great way
(15:05):
that we can get to know our dogs and understand
how they might be in a home. Will they be
better going home with another animal? Are they better going
home with no other pets in the home as well?
But a lot of work happens that in that space.
Then you get to the animals. You know, often you
hit our cats first. And we have a large condo
(15:26):
area and I.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Didn't know what to call it because that's exactly what
it is. I called it has different you know, ladders
in places where they can they can play, and I
love it.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, we have a couple of ways that we care
for our animals at Animal Friends. We have the the
condo rooms, which are somewhat traditional. We don't have the cages,
you know, there are glass glass fronts, so people aren't
kind of sticking their fingers all the time in each
of the cats. But it's a safe space for them,
(15:57):
but they can be seen. They are smaller enclosures with portals,
so we can expand the portals and depending on the
size of the cat, or maybe there's two bonded cats
that need to be together or a little of kittens.
We also have socialization rooms for the cats to get
out of their spaces, to stretch, to play, to socialize,
(16:19):
and we have two free roam rooms, and our free
room rooms are for cats that we know get along
and may need some extra space, and up to ten
cats can be in each one of those rooms, and
that's what you're talking about. We have the ladders and
the cubbies and all kinds of spaces and often, you know,
(16:40):
we've been getting a number of hoarding case cats coming in. Yeah,
we've seen that since the pandemic. We had a few before,
but it's really been a challenge for a lot of
the shelters, but definitely for Animal Friends where we're getting
twenty thirty sixty cats at a time that have been
in a house and some of the cats been socialized,
(17:01):
some of the cats not so much. So those free
room rooms are great opportunities for the cats to be
together because they were comfortable that way and to help
have the more social cats help the less social cats
get to the point where they're ready for adoption, and
then they're being seen. People can come. They're used to
seeing people pass by, but those are really important spaces
(17:22):
as well. We also have a couple other little unique spaces.
We have a new kitten room that we just open,
so definitely from about May until October, we're full of kittens.
So we have kittens in that space where people can
go in and meet and greet with some of the kittens.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Is there a time of the year where your senses
of cats and kittens kind of explode? Is it? What
time of year is that?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, it's usually it's been usually spring through summer. We
call it kitten season, and kitten season has expanded, especially
now this year it's a little cooler, but last year
we had a really mild winter, and when we have
mild winter, we end up with a longer kitten season. Yeah,
so usually we see kittens starting sometime April and then
(18:08):
running sometimes through November. It really depends on how the
weather was. It goes back to Spain, Nooter and we
can talk about that.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Sure all right now? The dogs, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
And then well, we put the cats. You know, when
we built this building, we said at the time, back
in two thousand and two thousand and five, we most
people were coming to look at dogs and the cats
were not as popular, but we had a lot more
cats that needed to find homes. So we described it
as we're going to put the milk in the back
of the supermarket, so we put the dogs in the back.
(18:43):
So you have to walk by the cats and sometimes
you go, you know what, maybe a cat would be better.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
For us, right, yeah, and so all right, so let's
get to the dogs. Yes, you have the you know,
the cattle beyond the cats, and.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, we have when you walk down, we kind of
get your primed for the for the dog adoption floor
is we have some multidg rooms, so they are little rooms.
You can look into them with the glass and sometimes
those there are dogs that you know, would just do
better in a more quiet space. Sometimes there's two dogs
in there that they bond they're bonded so they're they're
better together, and sometimes it's puppies. So you can kind
(19:22):
of look at the dogs going down, and then our
adoption you kind of hang a little right and go
into our adoption floor where we house about twenty five
dogs there. Now I will say that right now we
still have our adoption floor closed to the public. That
was something that came out of COVID. We were it
wasn't just us, it was many of the shelters found
that during COVID, when we didn't have people in the shelter,
(19:45):
all of a sudden, the animals on the adoption floor
and they were just calmer and we had less behavioral
challenges within the shelter. And we were finding it was
because people weren't on the adoption floor going cage to
cage and getting the dogs excited, and so they could
just be calmer.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So how do you do that? Do you have pictures
of dogs and then you say, okay, there's that German shepherd,
we'd like to see that when you bring it into
a little place where you can socialize with the dogs, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Okay, exactly. We have videos up of them, So our
volunteers and our staff will take videos outside so you
can really get to know the personality of it. And
if there is a particular dog that you want to see,
we will certainly. I mean, obviously the dog comes out,
we take it into our meat and greet room and
you get to spend time with it with the animal.
But we're finding that one or two dogs that would
(20:37):
get it, we're excitable with people on the adoption floor
would then teach the other dogs to get excited, and
it made everybody, made it harder for everybody to get
a dog.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Well, the adoptions of the bunnies and the cats and
the kittens and the dogs and the puppies is just
just a portion of what Animal Friends does tell us
about some of your wellness kind of programs and things
that you do.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, that's kind of the other side of it. I look.
I like to think of Animal Friends as kind of
kind of too pronged. You know. We have the pillar
of rescue and rehabilitation of the animals, the shelter work
where the animals are coming in, but prior to that,
what we really are working on is trying to keep
those animals in their homes. If we can keep them
(21:18):
where they belong in their homes safely, then hopefully they
don't have to cycle into the shelter because shelters are hard.
You know, I'm really proud of Animal Friends. It's a
beautiful facility we have amazing staff. We have an enrichment coordinator,
we have dog walkers. We have so much for them,
but it's hard. You know, whether it's a cat, a dog,
or a bunny, they're best in a home. So when
(21:41):
they come in, we do the best we can. But
if we can keep them where where they are best
loved and best care for, we want to do that.
Sometimes we find that animals are coming into shelters because
of you know, they're moving, they've had a family situation
that has changed, they have some behavioral challenge, just a
medical challenge, but often it's just financial and they're struggling
(22:04):
with paying for food, they're struggling with a behavior challenge,
they're struggling with vet care. So what we're trying to
do is if that's the reason they don't need to
be in a shelter, we can help you with that.
If you love your pet and the only reason you
can't keep that pet is because you don't have enough money,
that's not right. You know, we need to keep that
(22:25):
animal with you because we know how much animals improve
our lives. And if you're going through a challenge in
your life, you've lost a job, you've lost a spouse,
you know, to lose a pet, I mean, that's devastating.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
So you have different programs like that, like the food bank. Yes,
you have a food bank just for pets.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
We do. We have our chow Wagon Food Bank. We
rely on donations from the community to stock our shelves.
We have a relationship with about thirty five people food
pantries because we figure if people are hungry for you know,
we need people food, there to need pet food as well.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yeah, yeah, makes perfect sense, yep.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
And that was the premise that our food bank was founded.
So our chow Wagon program was really founded on the
premise of, you know, people that were feeding their pets
their own foods. They were getting their meals on wheels
meal and then they were splitting it with their pet,
and we thought that's not healthy for either the pet
or the person, so we started our chow Wagon program.
(23:23):
Today we're working with thirty five pantries throughout you know,
the multi county area, and last year we donated over
two hundred and five thousand pounds of food out into
the community. So the need is there, we know it is.
The need is there for people. We know it's there
for their pets as well.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
What about your spay and neuter program.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, we to our campus. We I talked about the
thirteen and a half acre campus. We've expanded in twenty fourteen,
we expanded. We're now a seventy five acre campus. We
grew quite a bit and we added another building in
twenty seventeen and that's our Animal Wellness Center. So we
always had a spainter program, at least it started when
(24:02):
I was there back in the nineties and it's just grown.
We know that overpopulation has been a big problem in
the region and across the country. So one of our
focuses has been to end that overpopulation challenge. So we've
done boy over one hundred thousand spas and neoters since
I've been there. High quality, low cost shelter for the
(24:27):
shelter animals as well as for the public. So the
other thing is, if you're a City of Pittsburgh resident,
the city has a wonderfully compassionate program. You get free
spain Nooter up to five animals each year if you're
a City of Pittsburgh residence. So it's a really great thing.
Pittsburgh is a really great city for the animals, So
please take advantage of that.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
What other vet services do you provide.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
We do vaccines, we do wellness appointments, we do basic
GP appointments, the general care and routine of the animals,
but we also do some surgeries as well. Sometimes people
go and find that their animal needs something a little
bit more expensive, they go to their vet, they can't
afford it, and then sometimes they get to the point
(25:11):
where they have a decision to make. They can't afford
that three, four or five thousand dollars surgery and they
have to either decide am I going to find the
money or am I going to have to just say
goodbye to this animal whether it goes to a shelter,
or they have to make the hard choice to euthanize.
So we do have a program, a Save my Pet program,
where people can come and we'll take a look at
the situation. Either we'll do the surgery or we'll underwrite
(25:34):
the cost at a vet clinic to have that done.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
So, if somebody needs either the chuck Wagging services or
the vet services, what's the best way to contact.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
You, Yeah, just give us a call or go to
our website. We're happy to help. And that's the other
thing we're working on is we know usually it's not
just one problem. If you need food, you probably need
affordable vet care as well. If you need affordable veat care,
you may have some behavioral questions as well. So we're
we're putting together kind of a hub of services. So
we want you to give us a call. You can
(26:04):
call our clinic, you can go on our website, and
we will get you hooked up with all of those services.
So it's not just one and done. We want to
stay and keep that relationship with you.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Tell me about your staff, your organization.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, we have an incredible staff. We have about one
hundred and twenty staff members at Animal Friends. You know,
obviously we have the administrative staff that kind of keep
things running, but I can't say enough for the staff
that work at the clinic that are out in the
community doing the work, and then the ones that are
helping our animals. We have obviously high level veterinarians that
(26:41):
are working to make sure the animals are healthy. But
the other side of it is, you know, the physical
health is really important, but that emotional health is just
as important. And we have some really highly credentialed behavior
staff on our on our team that you know look
at these animals as individuals and really take a look
(27:04):
at Okay, where did they come from, what are they
dealing with, and how can we help them get back
on track. Spend many, many hours working with these animals
to identify what the issue is, what that trigger might be,
and then get them back to where they need to go.
So it's not just they come in, they get a shot,
they get in a cage, and back out the door.
(27:24):
They're with us. We're understanding who they are, where they
came from, making sure that we make a good match
when they go back out into the community.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I know, you really rely on your volunteers. Yeah, so
if somebody tell us a little bit about the volunteers
what they do, and if somebody is interested in helping out,
what can they how can they how can they participate?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Our volunteers do absolutely everything. I mean, there isn't a
project that Animal Friends that volunteers cannot get involved and
if they want to. I mean sometimes people say, oh,
volunteers aren't allowed behind that door. That's not the way
it is Animal Friends. We're wide open, fully transparent. If
you want to do launch were Animal Friends. You can
do laundry if you want to help up in surgery
(28:03):
with getting the instruments cleaned, you can do that. If
you want to walk the dogs, you can certainly do that.
It's all about training, So if you have an interest,
we have an orientation program that you can go through
and then special training depending on what you want to do.
But you know, it sounds crazy, but we have about
sixteen hundred active volunteers. Some of them do one thing,
(28:25):
you know, throughout the year, and some are there honestly
more than I am.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I know of a.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Couple volunteers and I'm like, do you ever go home?
And they're just the backbone of the organization for sure.
The other big piece of volunteering is fostering. So a
lot of people say, oh my gosh, I couldn't go
into the shelter, that's too hard for me. But you
can foster if you have an extra room. We rely
(28:50):
on fosters to get our animals out of the shelter environment,
and we do foster in a lot of different ways.
Maybe it's just that little neonate kitten that really needs
to get out of the shelter where it's not not
as healthy for them to be. We have bottle feeders,
for those. But then at the other end, we're really
proud of our hospice program. You know, not every animal
is ready ready to go, still has some quality of life,
(29:13):
but it would be a really hard placement to put
a sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year old cat into a home
or a cat that may have a chronic issue but
still has a really good quality of life. So our
foster volunteers will take them into their homes and they
get to they get to spend their final days, you know,
on a sweet, nice soft bed and patch of sunshine
(29:33):
with a loving family. And that's the way it should be.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
All right, If somebody wants to make a donation, or
they would like to be a volunteer, or if they
would just like to see the facility, I'll what's your website.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
It's Thinking Outside the Cage dot org.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
That is Thinking Outside the Caage dot org. This is
Animal Friends has been, you know, part of Pittsburgh for
generations and you've done so much for the community on
behalf of Pittsburgh and the community and everybody that you
have helped and all the animals. Thank you for everything
that you guys do.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Well, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Kathleen Beaver, CEO of Animal Friends and definitely a CEO
you should know, Kathleen, Thank you, Thank you as always.
If you have any comments, concerns, or an idea for
a future program, please email us from this radio station's website.
I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank you so much for listening.
And welcome in. This is a public affairs program shedding
the light on the interest and issues and concerns of
the greater Pittsburgh Aaria. Good morning, My name is Johnny Heart.
Well today we're going to be talking about Animal Friends.
Let's say a looad to Kathleen Beaver of Animal Friends.
Good to see you, Thank you for coming in.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good to see you, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
So tell us everything we need to know about Animal Friends.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Boy, how many hours do you have?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I've got nothing to do on all day to do
it great?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, you know, Animal Friends is a is a fantastic
place for the community. But let's you know, it's about animals.
You know, animals are part of our lives. Animal Friends
is a full service community. We call it a community
resource campus. We're not just one building, We're a full
campus up in Ohio township. And you know our goal
(00:51):
here is to help animals, but help people. I think
one of the things that's really important is to think
about our vision statement, which is ensure humane and compassionate
future for every Animal Friend. And I think it's important
to think of Animal Friends not just as pets and
as animals, but as the people who care for them
as well. So at Animal Friends were really focused on
(01:13):
making sure those animals are safe and healthy and getting
the care they need. But we're also looking at the people,
because if the people can't take care of the animals
that they have, then they're going to end up in
the shelter, and then we have a bigger problem in
our community. So it's all about relationships with our pets
in the community and making this a better place to
live for all of us.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
It seems like Animal Friends has always been there for
as long as I can remember. You've been around for
over eighty years.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
That's right. We were founded in nineteen forty three, and
it's kind of a unique founding, if you will. Some
people just kind of came together in World War Two.
They saw people going off to war and they were
leaving their pets behind, and people thought, well, you know
this can't happen. We need to do something for these guys.
(01:58):
So they didn't have a shelter, but they rented an
office space down at the William Penn downtown and they
had kind of a file drawer of people who wanted
pets and a file drawer of pets that were in
need of homes. And it was a matchmaking service. So
they started there and they just continued to grow. They
had a shelter in Lawrenceville and in Bloomfield and finally
(02:21):
got their first facility, large shelter facility in the Strip district.
So most people know Animal Friends is the shelter in
the Strip and we were there for a number of decades.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And so what's your relationship with Animal Friends? When did
you start with the organization?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Not in nineteen forty three, but sometimes you look great,
thank you. It may feel like that some days. But
I started in the late nineties. They started in nineteen
ninety seven, and you know, went there because I loved
the mission. I loved the fact that they were committed
to every animal that came through their doors, and saw
(02:57):
a ton of potential with the organization, and we have
we've grown in just huge ways since nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Did you move your move up? Yeah, all the well
I did.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I did start. I didn't start walking dogs, but I
did start as our marketing and development position and also
ran the volunteer program. At the time, we only had
about I think we'd like between thirty and forty employees.
Most of them were part time and most of them
were caring for the animals, and so many of us
had jobs that had today are multiple jobs. But that
(03:32):
was what I did, was development, marketing and the volunteer program,
and you know, it just it all. I've worked for
other nonprofits and the arts and with organizations working with children,
and they're all wonderful with great missions, but there's there
was something so different about Animal Friends, Fairy grassroots people
(03:54):
coming together for a common goal to really save lives.
And you know, things came together all at the same
time where we were looking at a facility that was
truly crumbling. You know, we had a place in the Strip.
We were growing so much that we were leasing other
buildings next door to us, down the street from us.
(04:16):
We were having behavior training classes in the parking lot
and stepping over puddles, and we realized we really needed
to do something different for the demand that was happening
in the community. So in just a few years later,
we had a great group of people come together and say,
we can do better, we can do more. The demand
(04:38):
is here, the volunteers are here, the community is behind us.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So and that's when you opened up the new shelter.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
That's when you know, the plans started to do more
than just a shelter. You know, we we wanted to
stay in the city. That's that was our roots was
to be there focused on you know, we started focused
on veterans really, which i'll tell you a little bit
more about a little later. But you know, you know
(05:05):
when when you're looking around you and what you have
is facilities that are falling down. I mean literally, we
would see the building kind of kind of edging off
a little bit, and we thought, we've got to find
something that's safer for these animals, and we have to
also find something safer for our community and for our staff,
(05:25):
and we really need to grow these programs. So we
wanted to stay in the city. But when you looked
at the rent and the property costs in the city,
we were able to get you know, we looked at
a piece of property that was an acre for a
million dollars and we're like, well, we're gonna have the
same problem if we don't think kind of outside of
(05:46):
the box. And so we started looking outside of the
city and found a really beautiful piece of property in
Ohio Township, which was just up the road, ten minutes
from the city. And yeah, it's not far from down,
not at all. So for about four hundred thousand dollars,
you know, we got thirteen and a half acres.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
And it's a beautiful and beautiful place.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Exactly, and it's a beautiful piece of property. And you know,
the other thing that we really looked at was we
could build a shelter full of cages and you know,
every animal that came in, put them in and help
them out and get them back up. But that's not
solving the root of the problem. And we knew that,
(06:27):
you know, thirty forty fifty sixty employees were not going
to solve the problem here in Pittsburgh. So we really
looked at how can we involve the community in our
in our challenges and help through education, through volunteering, through
just involvement. So what we built, which was very state
of the art at the time, was not a shelter,
(06:48):
but was a community resource center. So if you were
to come into our building and it was very new
at the time and people were scratching their head, going
how is this a shelter? Was we have a lot
of program spaces, we have a lot of education space.
Is it's not all just cage after cage after cage.
It's really focused on how do we inspire people to
(07:08):
come and to learn to be better pet guardians too,
to know more about the care of our pets, the
health of our pets, so we create a more humane
and compassionate community, not just helping animals.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Do me a favor. Let's let's let's when you're talking
about your uh, your building, kind of give us a
a a radio tour of Animal Friends because it really
is worthwhile. You walk in and you're right, it doesn't
look like your standard shelter because you you know, it's
it's it's it's very it's very nice, and you you
(07:43):
have this huge cat area that is you know, full
of go ahead, So I'll let you do it and
give us a little tour.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Give an audio tour here Animal Friends. Well, you know
when you when you you get to come across a
beautiful bridge with a little a little stream underneath, which
really sets the tone. And I know that.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
It and one thing that you'll see, even before you
get in a building, you'll see a lot of your
volunteers walking the dogs. You always see a volunteer. You
have so many, so you really rely on these volunteers too.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Absolutely, absolutely, and that's well get back to volunteers as well.
But that's the beauty of it is when you walk,
when you come up our driveway, you're seeing the whole campus.
You get to see what's happening there. We have play
so when you come up the campus, if you look
off to your left, you're going to see we have
some off leash areas that people can rent. If you
(08:35):
don't want to go to those big public play areas
when there's a lot of dogs there, you can rent
one and bring your own dog. You can bring a
couple of dogs, so we have two of those right
down over the side, and then you come up the
driveway to the main building and when you enter, first
of all, we have a see this is going to
be a long tour. The other unique thing is we
(08:58):
have when you talk about volunolunteers, we have volunteers who
do everything. So again you're going to see those those
dog walkers out there caring for our animals and socializing
them and exercising them. But our grounds are beautiful too
because we have a garden club there as well, which
you think is funny for a shelter, but think about
the number of dogs that are being walked on our property,
(09:20):
and think of what they do when they go outside,
which was very difficult to keep shrubs and bushes and
flowers and plants well right. But the problem was they're
also killing everything. So we have a group of animal
loving Garden Club volunteers and some of them are master gardeners,
(09:40):
and they see it as a challenge to say, oh, hey,
what kind of plants can we plant here that will
survive this the harsh conditions of having hundreds of dogs
peeing on them. So it's been a lot of fun
to have these people. So when we talk about volunteers,
there's lots of unique ways to get involved. And it helps,
(10:00):
you know, it sounds funny that, oh, why are you
worried about how beautiful your campus is. Well, it helps
people that come in to go, oh my gosh, I
didn't realize that kind of plant could withstand this. So
it's really been a lot of fun for that. But anyway,
so you walk in and it's gorgeous there, walk into
a big lobby. We have a welcome center right when
you walk in, and that's just to get acclimated. We
(10:22):
know that when you walk in we have very high
ceilings and you kind of are going, oh my gosh,
where are the animals. Because we really pride ourselves on
we don't want you to walk in and go, yep,
it's a shelter because I can smell it. We have
the building was built to have an HVAC system that
really turns the air to make sure that it not
(10:42):
only does it smell great, but that it's healthy for
the animals because there's disease and there's illness, and we
want to make sure that that air is turning over
all the time. But when you come in, if you
go down to the right, do you hang a right.
We have a classroom which can be used for trainings.
We have scout troops in there. We can do bunny
yoga in there, which is always fall on.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So you do yoga and you bring in the bunnies
to kind of jump around with it. Yeah, participatly.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
We know people don't like to exercise, but if you
add a little bunny, we do bunny and sometimes we
do kitten yoga, which you can come in with your
matt and we have a yoga instructor that comes in
and then we bring the bunnies. But it's also a
place where we can do meet and greets for our
dogs if you have a dog and you want to
make sure that's a great pet. So there's spaces there.
(11:34):
We have a kitchenette, so sometimes we have Scout troops
come in and they want to bake biscuits for the animals.
We have staff, like over the holidays, and again our
staff are incredibly compassionate and creative, and they were baking
biscuits for the dogs to make sure that they got
something special and healthy for the animals during the holidays.
(11:55):
So that's up on the I told you this is
going to be a three hour interview. But on the
that's on the right. But if you go and hang
a left and you start walking down the main hallway,
we have a we call it our HEAK, which is
our Humane Education and Enrichment Center, and that's for our
little kids. So you know, we have a lot of
(12:15):
families that come into Animal Friends and you know, as
a parent, my kids are grown, but you brought them
into the shelter and they were so excited to see
the animals that they'd kind of buzz through that door
and want to just run up to those enclosures. Of
the animals, and we know that can be scary for
the animals. So the idea was to put in this
Humane Education Center that kind of slow down the kids
(12:38):
pop in here first. It's a hands on experience for
them with kind of a changing exhibit where you can
come in and learn a little bit about the animals
that you're about to see, about their care, about the
jobs that we do there. It's always changing, but it
slows everybody down a little bit, lets them get some
of that excitement out and then they get to go
(13:01):
and look with a better state of mind, a little
bit better presence for the animals. Right across and you know,
also with the Humane Education Center, we also do storytime
with kids. We have summer camping program which is always
sold out, so if you want to do that, that's
critical for the young people to learn about becoming the
(13:23):
next generation of animal lovers and pet owners as well.
Across from the Humane Education Center we have a large
outreach center and it can be divided into and there's
always something going on in there. We do bun runs,
which I'll ask you if you know what a bun
run is.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I assume it have something to do with bunnies.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
There you go. You know, we have three species at
Animal Friends. We support dogs, cats, and rabbits. Rabbits are
the third most adopted animal in the region and across
the United States. We don't have as many, but we
do have anywhere between aid and twelve bunnies at any
given time on site. And the bunnies need to get out.
(14:03):
They need to you know, so they need a bun run.
And also, so many people don't know about bunnies. They
see them, they may think, oh, it's it's a pet
to keep in a cage, but they're not. They can
be litter trained, they can live in your house similar
to a cat. Although I will warn.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
All my friends with bunnies they have like amazing personalities. Yep.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, they're really unique animals and they bond and they
have their own little unique personality. It's really great. We
have wonderful volunteers that on Saturdays we do a public
bun run where if you just want to come, you
want to go into the bun run, sit down, let
the bunnies hop up to you, and our volunteers will
tell you all about bunnies. Doesn't matter if you're not
(14:45):
interested in adopting, just just come get to know the species.
It's a really great time, especially with kids in a family.
We also do dog play groups in our outreach center,
so our dogs need time to socialize, so often on
one you'll see a couple of dogs in there having fun,
running around, playing and jumping. It's also a great way
(15:05):
that we can get to know our dogs and understand
how they might be in a home. Will they be
better going home with another animal? Are they better going
home with no other pets in the home as well?
But a lot of work happens that in that space.
Then you get to the animals. You know, often you
hit our cats first. And we have a large condo
(15:26):
area and I.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Didn't know what to call it because that's exactly what
it is. I called it has different you know, ladders
in places where they can they can play, and I
love it.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, we have a couple of ways that we care
for our animals at Animal Friends. We have the the
condo rooms, which are somewhat traditional. We don't have the cages,
you know, there are glass glass fronts, so people aren't
kind of sticking their fingers all the time in each
of the cats. But it's a safe space for them,
(15:57):
but they can be seen. They are smaller enclosures with portals,
so we can expand the portals and depending on the
size of the cat, or maybe there's two bonded cats
that need to be together or a little of kittens.
We also have socialization rooms for the cats to get
out of their spaces, to stretch, to play, to socialize,
(16:19):
and we have two free roam rooms, and our free
room rooms are for cats that we know get along
and may need some extra space, and up to ten
cats can be in each one of those rooms, and
that's what you're talking about. We have the ladders and
the cubbies and all kinds of spaces and often, you know,
(16:40):
we've been getting a number of hoarding case cats coming in. Yeah,
we've seen that since the pandemic. We had a few before,
but it's really been a challenge for a lot of
the shelters, but definitely for Animal Friends where we're getting
twenty thirty sixty cats at a time that have been
in a house and some of the cats been socialized,
(17:01):
some of the cats not so much. So those free
room rooms are great opportunities for the cats to be
together because they were comfortable that way and to help
have the more social cats help the less social cats
get to the point where they're ready for adoption, and
then they're being seen. People can come. They're used to
seeing people pass by, but those are really important spaces
(17:22):
as well. We also have a couple other little unique spaces.
We have a new kitten room that we just open,
so definitely from about May until October, we're full of kittens.
So we have kittens in that space where people can
go in and meet and greet with some of the kittens.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Is there a time of the year where your senses
of cats and kittens kind of explode? Is it? What
time of year is that?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, it's usually it's been usually spring through summer. We
call it kitten season, and kitten season has expanded, especially
now this year it's a little cooler, but last year
we had a really mild winter, and when we have
mild winter, we end up with a longer kitten season. Yeah,
so usually we see kittens starting sometime April and then
(18:08):
running sometimes through November. It really depends on how the
weather was. It goes back to Spain, Nooter and we
can talk about that.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Sure all right now? The dogs, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
And then well, we put the cats. You know, when
we built this building, we said at the time, back
in two thousand and two thousand and five, we most
people were coming to look at dogs and the cats
were not as popular, but we had a lot more
cats that needed to find homes. So we described it
as we're going to put the milk in the back
of the supermarket, so we put the dogs in the back.
(18:43):
So you have to walk by the cats and sometimes
you go, you know what, maybe a cat would be better.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
For us, right, yeah, and so all right, so let's
get to the dogs. Yes, you have the you know,
the cattle beyond the cats, and.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, we have when you walk down, we kind of
get your primed for the for the dog adoption floor
is we have some multidg rooms, so they are little rooms.
You can look into them with the glass and sometimes
those there are dogs that you know, would just do
better in a more quiet space. Sometimes there's two dogs
in there that they bond they're bonded so they're they're
better together, and sometimes it's puppies. So you can kind
(19:22):
of look at the dogs going down, and then our
adoption you kind of hang a little right and go
into our adoption floor where we house about twenty five
dogs there. Now I will say that right now we
still have our adoption floor closed to the public. That
was something that came out of COVID. We were it
wasn't just us, it was many of the shelters found
that during COVID, when we didn't have people in the shelter,
(19:45):
all of a sudden, the animals on the adoption floor
and they were just calmer and we had less behavioral
challenges within the shelter. And we were finding it was
because people weren't on the adoption floor going cage to
cage and getting the dogs excited, and so they could
just be calmer.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So how do you do that? Do you have pictures
of dogs and then you say, okay, there's that German shepherd,
we'd like to see that when you bring it into
a little place where you can socialize with the dogs, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Okay, exactly. We have videos up of them, So our
volunteers and our staff will take videos outside so you
can really get to know the personality of it. And
if there is a particular dog that you want to see,
we will certainly. I mean, obviously the dog comes out,
we take it into our meat and greet room and
you get to spend time with it with the animal.
But we're finding that one or two dogs that would
(20:37):
get it, we're excitable with people on the adoption floor
would then teach the other dogs to get excited, and
it made everybody, made it harder for everybody to get
a dog.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Well, the adoptions of the bunnies and the cats and
the kittens and the dogs and the puppies is just
just a portion of what Animal Friends does tell us
about some of your wellness kind of programs and things
that you do.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, that's kind of the other side of it. I look.
I like to think of Animal Friends as kind of
kind of too pronged. You know. We have the pillar
of rescue and rehabilitation of the animals, the shelter work
where the animals are coming in, but prior to that,
what we really are working on is trying to keep
those animals in their homes. If we can keep them
(21:18):
where they belong in their homes safely, then hopefully they
don't have to cycle into the shelter because shelters are hard.
You know, I'm really proud of Animal Friends. It's a
beautiful facility we have amazing staff. We have an enrichment coordinator,
we have dog walkers. We have so much for them,
but it's hard. You know, whether it's a cat, a dog,
or a bunny, they're best in a home. So when
(21:41):
they come in, we do the best we can. But
if we can keep them where where they are best
loved and best care for, we want to do that.
Sometimes we find that animals are coming into shelters because
of you know, they're moving, they've had a family situation
that has changed, they have some behavioral challenge, just a
medical challenge, but often it's just financial and they're struggling
(22:04):
with paying for food, they're struggling with a behavior challenge,
they're struggling with vet care. So what we're trying to
do is if that's the reason they don't need to
be in a shelter, we can help you with that.
If you love your pet and the only reason you
can't keep that pet is because you don't have enough money,
that's not right. You know, we need to keep that
(22:25):
animal with you because we know how much animals improve
our lives. And if you're going through a challenge in
your life, you've lost a job, you've lost a spouse,
you know, to lose a pet, I mean, that's devastating.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
So you have different programs like that, like the food bank. Yes,
you have a food bank just for pets.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
We do. We have our chow Wagon Food Bank. We
rely on donations from the community to stock our shelves.
We have a relationship with about thirty five people food
pantries because we figure if people are hungry for you know,
we need people food, there to need pet food as well.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yeah, yeah, makes perfect sense, yep.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
And that was the premise that our food bank was founded.
So our chow Wagon program was really founded on the
premise of, you know, people that were feeding their pets
their own foods. They were getting their meals on wheels
meal and then they were splitting it with their pet,
and we thought that's not healthy for either the pet
or the person, so we started our chow Wagon program.
(23:23):
Today we're working with thirty five pantries throughout you know,
the multi county area, and last year we donated over
two hundred and five thousand pounds of food out into
the community. So the need is there, we know it is.
The need is there for people. We know it's there
for their pets as well.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
What about your spay and neuter program.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, we to our campus. We I talked about the
thirteen and a half acre campus. We've expanded in twenty fourteen,
we expanded. We're now a seventy five acre campus. We
grew quite a bit and we added another building in
twenty seventeen and that's our Animal Wellness Center. So we
always had a spainter program, at least it started when
(24:02):
I was there back in the nineties and it's just grown.
We know that overpopulation has been a big problem in
the region and across the country. So one of our
focuses has been to end that overpopulation challenge. So we've
done boy over one hundred thousand spas and neoters since
I've been there. High quality, low cost shelter for the
(24:27):
shelter animals as well as for the public. So the
other thing is, if you're a City of Pittsburgh resident,
the city has a wonderfully compassionate program. You get free
spain Nooter up to five animals each year if you're
a City of Pittsburgh residence. So it's a really great thing.
Pittsburgh is a really great city for the animals, So
please take advantage of that.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
What other vet services do you provide.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
We do vaccines, we do wellness appointments, we do basic
GP appointments, the general care and routine of the animals,
but we also do some surgeries as well. Sometimes people
go and find that their animal needs something a little
bit more expensive, they go to their vet, they can't
afford it, and then sometimes they get to the point
(25:11):
where they have a decision to make. They can't afford
that three, four or five thousand dollars surgery and they
have to either decide am I going to find the
money or am I going to have to just say
goodbye to this animal whether it goes to a shelter,
or they have to make the hard choice to euthanize.
So we do have a program, a Save my Pet program,
where people can come and we'll take a look at
the situation. Either we'll do the surgery or we'll underwrite
(25:34):
the cost at a vet clinic to have that done.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
So, if somebody needs either the chuck Wagging services or
the vet services, what's the best way to contact.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
You, Yeah, just give us a call or go to
our website. We're happy to help. And that's the other
thing we're working on is we know usually it's not
just one problem. If you need food, you probably need
affordable vet care as well. If you need affordable veat care,
you may have some behavioral questions as well. So we're
we're putting together kind of a hub of services. So
we want you to give us a call. You can
(26:04):
call our clinic, you can go on our website, and
we will get you hooked up with all of those services.
So it's not just one and done. We want to
stay and keep that relationship with you.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Tell me about your staff, your organization.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, we have an incredible staff. We have about one
hundred and twenty staff members at Animal Friends. You know,
obviously we have the administrative staff that kind of keep
things running, but I can't say enough for the staff
that work at the clinic that are out in the
community doing the work, and then the ones that are
helping our animals. We have obviously high level veterinarians that
(26:41):
are working to make sure the animals are healthy. But
the other side of it is, you know, the physical
health is really important, but that emotional health is just
as important. And we have some really highly credentialed behavior
staff on our on our team that you know look
at these animals as individuals and really take a look
(27:04):
at Okay, where did they come from, what are they
dealing with, and how can we help them get back
on track. Spend many, many hours working with these animals
to identify what the issue is, what that trigger might be,
and then get them back to where they need to go.
So it's not just they come in, they get a shot,
they get in a cage, and back out the door.
(27:24):
They're with us. We're understanding who they are, where they
came from, making sure that we make a good match
when they go back out into the community.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I know, you really rely on your volunteers. Yeah, so
if somebody tell us a little bit about the volunteers
what they do, and if somebody is interested in helping out,
what can they how can they how can they participate?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Our volunteers do absolutely everything. I mean, there isn't a
project that Animal Friends that volunteers cannot get involved and
if they want to. I mean sometimes people say, oh,
volunteers aren't allowed behind that door. That's not the way
it is Animal Friends. We're wide open, fully transparent. If
you want to do launch were Animal Friends. You can
do laundry if you want to help up in surgery
(28:03):
with getting the instruments cleaned, you can do that. If
you want to walk the dogs, you can certainly do that.
It's all about training, So if you have an interest,
we have an orientation program that you can go through
and then special training depending on what you want to do.
But you know, it sounds crazy, but we have about
sixteen hundred active volunteers. Some of them do one thing,
(28:25):
you know, throughout the year, and some are there honestly
more than I am.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I know of a.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Couple volunteers and I'm like, do you ever go home?
And they're just the backbone of the organization for sure.
The other big piece of volunteering is fostering. So a
lot of people say, oh my gosh, I couldn't go
into the shelter, that's too hard for me. But you
can foster if you have an extra room. We rely
(28:50):
on fosters to get our animals out of the shelter environment,
and we do foster in a lot of different ways.
Maybe it's just that little neonate kitten that really needs
to get out of the shelter where it's not not
as healthy for them to be. We have bottle feeders,
for those. But then at the other end, we're really
proud of our hospice program. You know, not every animal
is ready ready to go, still has some quality of life,
(29:13):
but it would be a really hard placement to put
a sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year old cat into a home
or a cat that may have a chronic issue but
still has a really good quality of life. So our
foster volunteers will take them into their homes and they
get to they get to spend their final days, you know,
on a sweet, nice soft bed and patch of sunshine
(29:33):
with a loving family. And that's the way it should be.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
All right, If somebody wants to make a donation, or
they would like to be a volunteer, or if they
would just like to see the facility, I'll what's your website.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
It's Thinking Outside the Cage dot org.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
That is Thinking Outside the Caage dot org. This is
Animal Friends has been, you know, part of Pittsburgh for
generations and you've done so much for the community on
behalf of Pittsburgh and the community and everybody that you
have helped and all the animals. Thank you for everything
that you guys do.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Well, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Kathleen Beaver, CEO of Animal Friends and definitely a CEO
you should know, Kathleen, Thank you, Thank you as always.
If you have any comments, concerns, or an idea for
a future program, please email us from this radio station's website.
I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank you so much for listening.
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