State of Animal Welfare: Updates from Marley's Mutts Dog Rescue's Melissa Brunson

Melissa Brunson, Executive Director of Marley's Mutts Dog Rescue, returns to share critical updates on animal welfare in Southern California where shelters are facing overwhelming challenges. Kern County's 40% euthanasia rate reflects a system in crisis where happy, healthy dogs are being euthanized simply due to lack of space. 

Ways to help:  Donate to Marley's Mutts, Follow on Facebook, Follow on Instagram, and Subscribe to Marley's Mutts YouTube Channel.

Some Episode Highlights:
• Miracle Mutts program now partnering with behavioral health organizations for therapy dog services
• Positive Change program expanding to multiple prisons including negotiations for Arizona facilities
• Mutt Movers transport program has relocated over 400 dogs this year from overcrowded shelters
• Kern Safe coalition bringing multiple rescues together to address overpopulation crisis
• New Troops and Tails program launching to provide emotional support animals for veterans
• Only 8% of problematic pet situations stem from "bad owners" – most issues relate to education and resources
• Spay/neuter clinics making significant impact with 2,500 animals fixed in a single month
• Social media engagement critically important to rescue visibility and adoption success

Also discuss, the groundbreaking Kern Safe Coalition has united former competitors to tackle overpopulation collectively. Their coordinated approach delivered 49 spay/neuter clinics in a single month, sterilizing approximately 2,500 animals and dramatically reducing their waitlist from 1,500 to around 500. Melissa dispels common misconceptions about rescue, revealing research showing only about 8% of problematic situations stem from truly "bad" owners. Most challenges arise from lack of educa

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Back to The Podcast
• 4:03 Catching Up with Melissa Brunson
• 18:59 The Reality of Kern County's Animal Crisis
• 32:55 Kern Safe: Rescues Working Together
• 44:18 The Truth About Kill vs No-Kill Shelters
• 56:35 How Everyone Can Help Animal Rescue
• 58:00 Closing Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:06

Hello, my friends and fellow animal lovers, welcome to a new episode of the Story of my Pet podcast. I am so excited to be back after a longer break than expected, but we are back and ready to share some amazing pet stories. I cannot wait to share some interviews with you that have been done over the last year. Great conversations I am having with my guests and meeting you know even more amazing pet parents. That's kind of why I started this to begin with. But also a lot of those pet parents are here to help share, educate, advocate for animal rescue, fostering and adoption. And this episode is really great for me to have my first guest return for a second episode Super excited to have Melissa Brunson here with us today. She is the executive director of Marley's Mutts Dog Rescue in Kern County, california, and she, at this point, is my number one guest. Her previous episode has been one of my most popular. People are still listening to it and I realize it's been long enough. We need to do an update.

Speaker 2: 1:20

So Melissa and I talk about the state of the overpopulation crisis in our country in our state, california, and in the central Southern California and how the various programs Marley's offers helps us to save rescue dogs and shelter dogs every single day. This was recorded prior to the fires that occurred in Los Angeles in 2025. Being in Kern County in California, we are around two hours away from several of the fires and so, of course, melissa and Marley's has been impacted. They are trying to help some of the animal rescues, shelters and nonprofits in the Los Angeles area by taking in some pets so that they have more space to bring in the pets that are impacted. A lot of the organizations down there are not only dealing with pets like cats and dogs. They've also had to deal with larger animals like horses and donkeys, and also wild animals, because a lot of these areas were very close to obviously. That's why there's fires lots of trees, lots of trails, places where wild animals live and they're also being highly impacted by that. All that being said, melissa and I recorded this before those fires happened, so we do not specifically talk about that, but any of the things we talk about can still be applied in ways that you can help either Marley's as an organization by donating or fostering or volunteering so that they can help more animals that are being displaced from Los Angeles, or by just supporting one of their other amazing programs. We also talk at the end about how important social media is to animal rescue and the little things we can do as followers to help boost them on those different algorithms on the different social media platforms.

Speaker 2: 3:17

I'm really excited to be back, have our first full episode back and getting to share some time with Melissa Brunson from Marley's Mutt's Dog Rescue, a state of the animal welfare in our country and state, but also some great tips of how you can help in your own community, and that's what it's all about. I am here to educate and advocate, and if one animal gets saved, fostered, adopted, rescued from listening to my podcast, then my work is worth it. So thank you for being here, for listening, for continuing to listen and come back as we bring new episodes, and I just want you to know how much I appreciate your support of this podcast and I hope you enjoy this interview. I am super excited to be here with my guest today, someone who maybe is probably familiar to many of you, but especially my listeners, because I interviewed her before and she is still the number one downloaded episode of this podcast. This is amazing, so I'm very excited to welcome back Melissa Brunson from Marley's Mutt Dog Rescue.

Speaker 2: 4:38

Hi Melissa, thank you so much for being here. Hi, it's so great to be back. I know it's kind of crazy to think how long it's been.

Speaker 1: 4:46

I think it's been almost a year, maybe longer.

Speaker 2: 4:49

Yeah, I was thinking your episode came out March or around then of last year. I mean I can look it up. But and then a few months later I also interviewed Connor from Marley's, which is a great episode too. So I know everybody wants to hear what's going on with Marley's, how are things, what's new and all of that. So let's start with a kind of catch up report of where things are from. You know about a year and a half ago where things are at now for you.

Speaker 1: 5:21

So Rescue moves very fast and it also moves very slow. So our Miracle Muts program is now operating with current behavioral health and so that's been a big partnership that we've forged in the last year, which has been amazing, and our program has grown. We have so many people asking us about, you know, can you bring your therapy dogs to? You know any number of events. We've been super busy, which is wonderful. We need more people. So if you have a dog that you think is a therapy dog candidate, you know, reach out to our Miracle Muds program because we're constantly looking for new dogs to be certified to be able to go into. You know any number of types of facilities. It could be, you know, senior living. It could be our books and books program which helps, you know, our folks, young kids with literacy again from behavioral health. We just have so many different places that we operate in for miracle months.

Speaker 2: 6:20

Positive change. I would just say that is so great If you've never experienced it or seen it therapy pets, but therapy dogs are powerful. I remember when my dad was in the hospital and he had one come and it just lit up his whole face and his day. You just don't understand the power of petting a dog for a few minutes. You don't.

Speaker 1: 6:43

And it's great for folks that are, you know, like your dad. It's really good for kids when they're having literacy issues, because they get to read to an animal that isn't going to judge them Right. And then it's also great for people that are going through rehabilitative services from strokes or things like that as well, because then they get to. You know, petting the animal and running your fingers through its fur helps the dexterity in your hands and all those kinds of stuff. Those kinds of things as well, you know. And then also rehabilitative other types of rehabilitative services people that are struggling with addiction. So, yeah, it's a great program.

Speaker 2: 7:23

Pets are so healing. We all know that. That's why we have them right.

Speaker 1: 7:26

Exactly. That's why we work with them, right?

Speaker 2: 7:29

That's why we come home for a long day and we want that pet, so I love that. Miracle Muts is still growing and I hope anyone out there listening that's interested in their dog being a therapy dog can go to the website and learn more about that.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Yeah, that's amazing. Our Positive Change therapy dog can go to the website and learn more about that. Yeah, that's amazing. Our positive change program is running. We have a program at CCI to hatch pee. That one's been running for a long time. We have two yards at North Kern State Prison. We are working on a contract with Kern Probation. I'm just waiting for the paperwork to go through on that.

Speaker 1: 8:04

Kern Probation is the organization that runs juvenile facilities and there's three of them in Kern County. So we're just waiting for, you know, the contract and all of that to go through. For those which it's amazing because they reached out to us and said, hey, we want to fund our own programs, and we were like, awesome, like we can do that. That's great. So we're excited about that. We're working on federal funding for our prison in Victorville and then we recently obtained an RFP which, for folks who don't know, is a government funded contract with the state of Arizona to run two prisons there.

Speaker 1: 8:43

We're not going to be the rescue that will be running the program. We have a rescue there that's going to be facilitating it. So we just got back from Phoenix, actually late last week, so we've got a lot going on. That's a lot. Our Mutt Movers program over the weekend broke. Over 400 dogs moved out of Kern County for the year so far and it's, you know, just barely November. So we've got, we've been moving anywhere from 35 to 70 animals, you know, a month, and so we're hoping we'll get close to 500 for the year, which is great in a year when adoptions are slow for everybody. It really has given us a path to be able to get dogs out of Kern County because our shelter situation has not changed that much.

Speaker 2: 9:30

Unfortunately not you. I knew you guys were doing a lot with that because I get all the emails asking for support or drivers for the transports and I'm like that's amazing. You know it's a great way, but I also know other areas are impacted too. So there's a limitation on how much can move and where, and all of that, yeah, there's a geographical limitation as well.

Speaker 1: 9:52

Going all the way out to, you know, the East Coast is kind of difficult. We have been exploring other thoughts on how do we move dogs east Maybe not all the way to the East Coast, but more east Cause. Right now the majority of our transports are going to Washington and Montana and those are in conjunction with the city of Bakersfield animal care center. So it's been great to be able to move dogs for them and, you know, to be able to pull dogs from Kern County animal services as well.

Speaker 2: 10:22

Right, yeah, I was saying to Melissa before I hit record that it's been about a year and a half since I was volunteering and working in the shelter with adoptions, but everything I see, I'm like it doesn't seem like things have really changed.

Speaker 1: 10:37

They really haven't. They have and they haven't. We can talk a little bit more about that later with an update on, like what's going on in the community too. I think it's an important topic to talk about and to just kind of give folks a state of the union, so to speak, on that regard.

Speaker 1: 10:54

Right, and then, starting in November well, november 9th we are going to be announcing that Marley's is going to be starting a veteran program, just another way for us to help the community. It's a passion project for Connor, who was on your podcast. He is a veteran and you know we've been talking for quite some time about how do we help veterans that are either transitioning right out of military service and into civilian lives and how do we really help those that are struggling. There's about 45,000 veterans in Kern County and at our last juncture of you know relay of information, there's really only one facility that's attached to the VA that helped them with their mental health. Okay, so Troops and Tails, which is the name of the program going to be a way for Marlies to be able to give back to the community and help veterans that really need that mental health assistance. So we're going to be working with a group of therapists who have already agreed to sign on and there'll be individual sessions, group workshops and then, hopefully, some of our dogs will get adopted as emotional support animals.

Speaker 1: 12:08

We're working with a fabulous organization called Doggie Do Good. They are in Arroyo Grande. They do service dog training, but they will also do ESA training. So they're going to be out here about once a month because they do work in Tehachapi, and so they're going to come out and do some assessments on our dogs as part of our partnership.

Speaker 1: 12:22

And so they're going to be, you know, they're going to come out and do some assessments on our dogs as part of our partnership and then, as we kind of work through, hoping to be able to obtain grants that will help us be able to fund service dogs for veterans, because most people don't know this, but the waiting list, the average wait time, is two years. That doesn't surprise me, no, and with the suicide rates with veterans and you know, knowing that doesn't account for addiction-related deaths the number's really more like 44 a day, not 22 a day, and so we're hoping that we'll be able to, you know, help the community in that regard as well. Thankfully, we have some great grantors who have already said, you know, sent us money so that we can start the specific yard that's just for that program and we can start working on those things. So it's super exciting, we're excited about this program.

Speaker 2: 13:20

I'm excited. It sounds like a great program.

Speaker 1: 13:23

And.

Speaker 2: 13:24

I am a daughter of a veteran so it means a lot to me and if my dad was still here he would love to hear this, because he was an animal lover his whole life and, you know, even though he was in the service decades before I was born. There's a pride of being a part in having a veteran in your family and it's funny. From my own experience in psychology, I understand the need for veterans with mental health. But also, as the daughter of a veteran, I realized a lot growing up that my dad wouldn't really talk about it and it wasn't until he got older and he was I knew he was a veteran. We went to the VA for medical stuff like that. But it wasn't until I was older and he really started talking about his experiences and I was like gosh, no wonder you didn't want to talk yeah, it's, it's tough, it's really tough.

Speaker 1: 14:20

I mean, my ex-husband was a veteran, is a veteran, was a veteran. He's a veteran. My uncle's a veteran and we have, you know, a few that that work and volunteer with us as well, and so we're excited to be able to provide that service. I think we've come a long way as a country in terms of how we treat our veterans, but I still think that there's so much more that we can do.

Speaker 2: 14:47

Absolutely so. If someone's listening to this episode and they're like I really want to help, I want to donate or do something, what would you say to them, specifically for Marlies, that you're looking for support in terms of finishing out the year and moving into a new one?

Speaker 1: 16:56

I mean, we're always looking for support. In so many ways I think people think about, oh, I don't have time to volunteer or I don't have the money to donate. And the reality is this day and age where social media, the way it is, sometimes all it takes is a forward as one of our posts to, you know, a private message or to a story or to something like that on your social media that catches someone's attention. So it could be as simple as just sharing, when you look at our social media, just sharing what we're sharing, right, sharing the stories of the dogs, sharing about our programs. And then we always need volunteers. Everybody in animal welfare needs more volunteers, more hands-on. We need fosters and I think sometimes needs more volunteers, more hands-on. We need fosters, and I think sometimes with fosters, folks think, oh, it's got to be long term until the dog gets adopted, and that's not necessarily the case, right? Sometimes just having a dog we call it, like you know, home for the holidays, finding a home for a dog for the holidays, for a week or two, while people are, you know, I know there's lots of people that travel, but some people are just like to stay home during the holidays and they're off work and sometimes just having an animal in a home for that amount of time gives us so much information about the dog and also, you know, gets us so much content that we can post, because people like to see animals in homes and when they do and they see how they behave, then they're so much more excited about that, right.

Speaker 1: 18:20

And then also, you know, giving Tuesday is coming up. It's the Tuesday after Thanksgiving every November, which is a really important day for every nonprofit across the country when people really get excited about causes that are close to them and kind of near and dear to their heart, and then they have the ability to be able to give back in that way. And then year-end giving I mean year-end giving is a big time as well. I'll be honest, I don't think we talk enough about year-end giving. I think we all talk about it, but I don't think people understand that it's an important time of year, not just for nonprofits, because we do earn quite a bit of money. That gets us through the first two months of next year, which are typically very difficult financial months for most nonprofits January and February. After the holidays everybody's like, yeah, I'm tapped out, I don't have any money, right. But if we make a push prior to that and folks think about oh, I could get a tax break if I donate Right.

Speaker 1: 19:19

So it's great for the nonprofit, but it's also great for you. You know the donor, because then you get the tax right off before next year's tax season starts. But I think there's so many ways to give back that people just don't really think about. And I think the other thing that's important is it doesn't have to be a lot Yep To make an impact.

Speaker 2: 19:41

Right, I can say I have a recurring five dollar a month that you get. Yeah, and it's great because I don't forget that. No, I don't forget. But then when I see something new going on, I'll make another donation or something like that.

Speaker 1: 19:53

Yeah, but you know, just five dollars a month, or you know ten dollars a month or twenty, you know continue with our mission, but it's the folks that give five, 10, 20 dollars a month, right, those folks are the ones in mass that really bring in the majority of fundraising money, and so I don't know that people recognize how important that is.

Speaker 2: 20:34

Right, yeah, because it's something that I know I can afford and I can always up it if I want to, you know, and it's a great way to do it throughout the year without even having to realize it, and then, like you said, at the end of the year, oh, that adds up and I get to, you know, write it off. I think people often think they have to give hundreds or even thousands and they don't realize that any nonprofit, but especially animal rescue, that five dollars is food, that five dollars, you know, is gas or whatever it is needed for an organization.

Speaker 1: 21:11

And it's true.

Speaker 2: 21:12

It's important for people to give what you can. Every dollar counts.

Speaker 1: 21:16

It really does, and I think you know it's also interesting because people are so used to traditional nonprofits and their margins or their you know how much their general administrative costs are, and they don't realize that it's different in animal welfare because we have to have people that are taking care of the animals, so ours is always going to be a little bit higher, right, because we have to have folks, like for us at our rescue ranch, you know, making sure that all the animals are cared for in the way that they deserve to be.

Speaker 2: 21:44

So Right Now. I know recently you guys started a channel on Instagram and talking about some new things going on with social media. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 1: 21:58

So we started a broadcast channel for the folks that follow us, as a means for them to just stay in touch and to drive, you know, traffic, and for them to be able to see some things that not everybody sees Right, and so we started a broadcast channel that is free. We did start subscription services on YouTube, patreon and Instagram as well. It's all going to be the same content, but we wanted to give people the opportunity to use whatever platform they're most comfortable with. Right, because there's so many. It's five dollars a month and for five bucks a month you get, you know, one basically exclusive content video a week and then you get pre-release content.

Speaker 1: 22:40

We are going to stick our neck out there a little bit and start showing some of the bloopers that we catch on video right and in photos, just because those are things people never see and we never do anything with it, but they're so funny sometimes Literally so funny and not everybody loves a funny pet video, right, and then part of the subscription service is also is going to be training tips, fostering information, adoption information, how do you find the right dog for your home? So not just the cute, you know dog stuff, the videos of our dogs getting adopted or the dog stories, but also like what can we do to help solve your problems?

Speaker 1: 23:22

Which is so important, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:26

No, you know, I think it's a great thing to do, because I love that you're meeting people wherever you are. Youtube, you know wherever you are, go there and follow us and subscribe. But it's also I have a couple. I actually have a couple rescues or pages that fundraise for rescues that I am subscribed to, so I get special content. They know me because I comment and they're like, yeah, content. They know me because I comment and they're like, yeah, but having a channel also is great, because you never know who's seeing your post because of all the algorithm stuff. This way, you know people are being notified every time you're putting out something, and that's a big impact in terms of visibility, I'm sure.

Speaker 1: 24:04

It is. Yeah, it's helped a lot. I mean, I was shocked. We started a broadcast channel and within the first five minutes we had 200 subscribers and I was like, how did that happen? And it's great. We don't post in there every day, no, just like we don't do subscription content every day, but it gives people more visibility into what we're doing. And you're right, like I noticed with folks that I follow, I'll go a week or two and I'll be like, oh, I really miss seeing this person's content. What happened to it? With the broadcast channel, we can just, you know, make sure that folks are seeing what we're putting out there gives us better visibility.

Speaker 2: 24:39

Yeah, that's great. And when I post this interview, I now post all the video interviews on YouTube. I can tag your guys's YouTube channel so people can go and subscribe. And I know for me doom scrolling on social media especially right now with an election and everything else going on in the world can be kind of depressing. But when I doom scroll pets, I'm not depressed and oftentimes I'll see that one video or something. Yeah, it's what I needed.

Speaker 1: 25:08

I needed a smile and now I can move on with my life or I want to go see a cool adoption story for a dog that's been at Marley's for a while, and and we do post, we post shorts on our YouTube. We also post, you know, longer videos there as well that folks will have access to. So, yeah, yeah, that yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:27

So you mentioned it earlier but we'll kind of get into it now. So Kern County, california, what is kind of the state of our situation in terms of animal welfare and rescue?

Speaker 1: 25:42

We still have a 40 percent euthanasia rate, which is difficult and obviously it fluctuates Right, so that's an average Right. Which is difficult and obviously it fluctuates right, so that's an average right. But about a year ago we started not marley's, but there is a bunch of when I say we, I mean a group of rescues, and the two main shelters in our area started a group called kern safe, and the purpose of kern safe, uh, so it's marley's mutts, sos dog rescue, emma and mel's um, almost eaten from ridge crest. We've got bakersfield city shelter, kern county animal services. We all came together as a group and said, okay, so we're kind of tired of complaining about everything, right, because that's what happens. That's what happens in animal welfare is people get so focused on what's not happening instead of what they can do to affect change. So we were able to and gosh, I hope I'm not forgetting anybody, because that would be disastrous.

Speaker 2: 26:48

So I probably should jump off and apologize and make sure I didn't do that ahead of time, but I'll make sure to look it up and list everybody in the show notes. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 26:58

So we together decided that you know what can we do, how can we come together and create an organization that can help affect change? What is that and what types of things does the community need? Because I think very often we kind of go to. Well, you know, it's crappy owners. It's not always crappy owners, sometimes it's that, you know, vet care is too expensive. Yes, sometimes it's a lack of education. Nobody's ever told them spaying or neutering your animals is better for their health. Oh, and also, you're not going to have oopsie letters, right, right, you know, and there's so many aspects to what we need to do to tackle the issues in Kern County.

Speaker 1: 27:42

So, kern Safe, we just basically said we know that we don't all have the same resources, but we don't want to exclude anyone from being part of Kern Safe. We have quite a few volunteers and we're so grateful to them from all different types of organizations within Animal Rescue that come and help us. So we have done four vaccine clinics, four massive vaccine clinics where we did, you know, dap, rabies, microchips, signups for spay and neuter. Most of those clinics were doing over 400 vaccines At every single clinic. We have one coming up on November 16th and I'm not going to disclose the location, just because we typically try to make sure that we're reaching the folks that we need to reach through traditional methods. Right, we don't put it out on social media because then it just doesn't reach the people that we're looking to reach.

Speaker 1: 28:41

So most of the organizations that are part of Crimsafe have been running spay and neuter clinics. Safe have been running spay and neuter clinics. We've put into the community, into Kern County, in the last year, or in you know just under a year, about $3 million in funding for spay and neuter. Our list at one time was 1,500 pets at any given time. Oh, my God, we are just now getting to a space where our list is 5.3, which still sounds like a lot, but it's a really good indicator for us as an organization with CURM Safe to say okay, so our list isn't 1,500 at any given time for months at a time, right, and us taking animals off of the list and sending them to spay and neuter clinics and so it's not 1,500 at any given time anymore, right, we're at 500 now, and so that's great because we know it's making an impact. The shelters have shared with us that they are not seeing the level of illness that they were seeing last year.

Speaker 1: 29:48

But we know it's a challenge. It's going to take us five years to get things under control. Yeah, yes, because of the sheer volume of animals we have in the county. Yeah, and how many people don't know? You have to vaccinate your animals every year Because even if you're just taking them out for a walk, they could still be a dog and snarf something up off the ground. Or if it's a cat, right, right?

Speaker 2: 30:14

Yeah, it can happen. It's actually funny. I just recently so I've fostered kittens for Kern County Animal Services and two years ago now I had a litter of six bottle babies. That was a full-time job, Wow.

Speaker 1: 30:31

Yes, of six bottle babies. That was a full-time job. Wow, yes, no, definitely it was a full-time job.

Speaker 2: 30:34

But I adopted one of them, our pumpkin oh, and she'd been spayed and vaccinated through the shelter and then all of a sudden I realized, oh my gosh, I haven't taken her to the vet to get. Oh no, it's been too long, right. So I took her to the vet. I have literally had the same vet since I was a child, where we took our family dogs, and it took a week for me to be able to get in because of how booked they are and just for an exam and vaccines. And she also had a little more work done because we weren't sure what was going on with her. That was $300. Yeah, I was like, wait what, wait what. Yes, it's so expensive need to get that.

Speaker 2: 31:13

Even annual vaccines can be a lot for someone in this economy when everything's more expensive. And here in Kern County I've had many friends tell me how hard it is to find a vet that's taking new patients as well as get in if there's a serious issue that you know, most people have to sit in the parking lot at the emergency vet for hours waiting. So I don't think people especially if you've always had pets and you take care of them you've never really seen you don't realize the impact of that. Being able to have a vet to get in the cost. All of that is a big part of why we are where we are.

Speaker 1: 31:52

It's true and I think you know, thankfully there are organizations like Tractor Supply and Petco and you know Critters Without Litters and CurrentSafe and organizations like that will help to be able to do. You know, lower costs Right, the lowest of the clinics for Kern Save were $20 per animal. Right, that includes cone medication, surgery and all of that and that's because the rescues or the shelters are the ones that are sponsoring those events right, right Are paying for the vaccines themselves and the supplies and all of that and our partner.

Speaker 1: 32:32

So snip is spay and neuter. Imperative project is part of current safe as well. Okay and so and they're great.

Speaker 2: 32:41

I that's actually where pumpkin she was got. She got snipped on the bus in the parking lot at the shelter. So it's great and it's so much easier the younger you do it. So it's like don't put it off, find where you can go. But I know a lot of it because I experienced it myself when I would almost get into arguments with people in the public about certain things, that a lot of it is lack of education.

Speaker 1: 33:07

Right, it really is, and it's sad, I don't think. I think it's something like. So Connor and I made a trip to Boston last year at this time and one of the things they've since been able to kind of get their animal issues, you know, under control. But they shared with us that what they found out through all their research was that about 8% of the population are the ones that are not good animal owners. Wow, so the rest of it is really lack of education, lack of resources. I mean there's any number of things that could be contributing to what is happening, and so we really have to attack it on all fronts.

Speaker 2: 33:49

Yeah, I think that's true. I think, especially when I talk to people, they like the blame what is happening and so we really have to attack it on all fronts. Yeah, I think that's true. I think when I talk to people, they like to blame the bad, you know, parents, the bad pet owners, whatever you want to say, but it's like that's not it, because, trust me, I've been in there and people sometimes have to give up pets they love I. You know, I saw often when I was in the shelter, a lot, you know, older dogs that were there because their human was in the hospital or someone passed away. You know there's a lot, there's a multitude of reasons, but I love that you guys are really trying to figure out what it is that you can help with that actually makes an impact. Right, and it's again.

Speaker 1: 34:29

it was kind of born out of okay, we're tired of complaining about everything that's happening. Everyone's talking about how bad it is. What are we doing about it? It's not enough that we're pulling animals from the shelter and bringing them into our rescue. That's part of it, but it's not enough. Right, that used to be enough. It did. I mean, when you have happy, healthy, social animals dying every day in the shelters, pulling dogs into your rescue isn't enough.

Speaker 1: 34:59

You do what you can, and I think the nice thing about Kern's Day is we all just said look, we all have different resources available to us. Some of us have spay and neuter grants. Some of us have vaccine grants resources available to us. Some of us have spay and neuter grants. Some of us have vaccine grants. Some of us have volunteers who are willing to go out in campus neighborhood. Some of us, you know, are really great at administrative stuff, and so we were. We made it very clear in the beginning whatever you have to bring to the table, bring it. It doesn't matter if you know Marley's puts in a hundred thousand and another rescue doesn't have that. But you have the ability to canvas, or you have the ability to print flyers or volunteer or whatever it may be Like. We don't care about what level of financial responsibility you bring to this table. We care about how committed you are to working as a group to make stuff happen.

Speaker 2: 35:52

Right, and I can also imagine having worked in the shelter and volunteered and you know, went to the ranch for a day and volunteered and all of that. People don't realize the complexity of how all the organizations interact, work together, don't work together, right? I mean I know just from being in the shelter itself is an organization and there's politics and it's related to it being county funded and county related versus the city, shelter versus. You know, I think a lot of people don't understand the level of involvement in rescue and all the different people and what they do and what they can't do, and there's a lot of miscommunication or blaming and pointing fingers. So being able to bring everybody to the same table I'm sure has made things a lot easier. Just for you guys, it has.

Speaker 1: 36:48

I think traditionally everybody in rescue kind of has their own way of doing things, or like you're right, if you're a shelter, you have your own set of politics and problems that you have to deal with. We've tried really hard to come together and just say look, we're all going to do things differently. As long as you're doing it ethically, how we do it and how we do it that differs, doesn't matter, right? Because our goal is the same and we can't do it without each other. We all need each other to be able to do that, and I think people initially were really excited. And then, you know, as things got harder and what I mean by that is we just had to put the work in to get it done. Everybody that is part of Grim Safe runs their own organization or works for their own organization.

Speaker 1: 37:36

So we're doing rescue and then we're doing rescue right Right, Education and advocacy on top of that.

Speaker 2: 37:44

So I certainly learned that rescue and shelter workers literally are working 24-7.

Speaker 1: 37:49

They are, yeah, there is no, are yeah when they're at home and they're fostering.

Speaker 2: 37:52

I mean I realized almost every person I met who works in the shelter is also fostering. It's also coming in on the weekends or helping out at events. So I can imagine adding another organization or process on top of that is hard, but maybe it's alleviated. Some of the other it is.

Speaker 1: 38:13

But we also said, like, whoever wants to be a member of Kern Safe can be a member of Kern Safe. And again, whatever you bring to the table as a volunteer, whatever you have, bring it to the table. We do have a leadership team and we have to just like any other organization. Right? But we really made a commitment at the beginning of starting Kern State to saying again, we do things differently and whatever grief or drama people have had in the past with each other for whatever reason, doesn't matter anymore. We're all going to leave that at the door and we're going to come together as a community to help our community, because if we don't, we're just going to continue to be in the same boat, right?

Speaker 2: 38:55

Yeah, and in fighting between rescue groups doesn't help anybody, let alone the animals. And you guys don't want to waste your time with that kind of stuff. You want to. You want to focus on what you know you need to do. Focus on what you know you need to do so. And I'm sure everyone listening, wherever you live state, county, city there's different rules, there's different processes and policies and laws, but everybody can contribute right In one way or another, and we're really all just wanting the same thing which is less healthy animals being e less healthy animals yeah.

Speaker 1: 39:31

And I think the goal really is how do we keep animals in homes? Right, what is it that folks need to keep animals in homes? How do we do that? They need vaccine, they need to stay healthy, they need access to lower cost vet care, because I do understand vets and vet offices need to get paid too. I totally get it right. Right, but to some degree we need to have folks that are offering that as well, and we need to be able to come together as a community. It doesn't matter who it is, whether it's a rescue or a shelter, or a veterinarian or anybody from the community that's passionate about animal wellness. It's going to take everybody Checking your ego at the door right, recognizing that we're all going to do things differently, but that if we don't do this, the animals are the ones that end up suffering Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 40:25

So we had 49 spay and neuter clinics in the month of August. What, just for Kern Safe alone? Oh my God. Somewhere in the vicinity of 2,500 animals were spayed and neutered in that month. Oh my gosh, it's insane. It's insane. They read us the schedule during a Kern State meeting. Snip read us the schedule and we all just were like mind blown because that was city shelter, county shelter. You know Marley's SOS Unity K-Line MNMALS. Anybody that had in Kern State that had access to funding for spay and neuter but like 49?

Speaker 2: 41:08

It's crazy yeah it's crazy Great that many animals were helped. It's crazy to think that many needed it. And how many more are there. You know, I don't think people realize how quickly the volume of animals happen. I mean, I've seen diagrams about like one cat unspayed for 10 years. You know it's like thousands. You know as they multiply and multiply but people don't realize how quickly 10 dogs turns into 100, 1000, all of that turned into a hundred, a thousand, all of that?

Speaker 1: 41:47

Well, and I don't think they. So. We have had quite a bit of you know, conversations with folks about why it's important Pyometra and you know, female dogs to singular cancer and male dogs. I even had a friend of the family reach out to me not too long ago and was like, oh, I have a one old pit bull and you know I don't think I'm going to get them fixed. And I was like, OK, so first, are you saying that because you know that it's going to annoy me? Second, of all, you know it's important because, anything else aside, that's how they get testicular cancer.

Speaker 1: 42:19

And the argument back was well, the percentage is really low. Well, if they don't have them, it's nothing, but if no, then the chances are zero. So, but also, keeping your animals safe. I don't think people realize getting them spayed and neutered keeps them safe. Yep, what if a male dog knows that a female dog next door is going into heat, but there's another male in the yard and those dogs aren't dog friendly? Right, you could have a massive dog fight on your fence, right, Like there's not just. It's not just that, it's that frequently dogs get out even in the most secure yards.

Speaker 2: 42:59

Right, I just saw a dog walking down the street yesterday when I went out. So it happens all the time dogs with.

Speaker 1: 43:06

We have yards with coyote rollers on them and we weren't leaving the dogs out today because our weather is really kind of dreary and cold, and we put her in a yard so she could do her business while we were cleaning her cow so that we could put her back in, I went outside to go talk to one of the staff members and she came running right up to me.

Speaker 1: 43:24

So that's just an illustration, right? Like even here, sometimes that happens, and so you want to make sure that it's not just an issue of reproduction, right, it's a health issue, it's a safety issue. It's a responsibility of a pet owner to do that for their animal, right? Because, I'll be honest, there's so many times where we see dogs that come in from the public or into the shelter and we'll go, oh, that's the finest of Bakersfield breeding, right, yeah, they have health issues and again, I'm not saying that it's intentional or that it's always intentional, because I don't believe that it is. I think a lot of times, folks just are not educated about those things and don't, right, right, they think it's just a matter of, oh, I don't want her to get pregnant, or Right?

Speaker 2: 44:13

And a lot of times, people with male dogs think, oh well, they're never around other dogs, right, it doesn't matter. No, I have gotten into arguments with people about it, but you're so true. I think there's a limited understanding of why we should do it and it's not about that. Like I've said to people even on on social media, I'll reach out and say you know, just so you know, your animal, your pet, your cat or dog will live longer, they'll have a healthier life, reduces a lot of cancers as well, as they just live longer and are healthier and have less things. And the younger you get them spayed and neutered, the easier it is. So I think people just, yeah, they. There is definitely a huge component of education and so I would see this you know it's a. Well, you can't tell me what to do with my pet, like well, we're not trying to let you know what's best for them, right?

Speaker 1: 45:06

And culturally. I think too, there are some roadblocks there, right? We hear quite often when we do vaccine clinics and we ask folks do you want to spay or neuter your pet? And they're very often it's I don't want to. You know, I don't want to alter my male dog for whatever reason. They think that it's going to disfigure them and they don't want to alter them and I just I'm like it's healthier for them. And then we, you know, really spend the time educating as much as possible, and most of the time they do it because they really do value their animal. But they didn't know or they didn't understand how important it is and it's not just that it's an only dog household and it's right, you're not going to have an oopsie litter it is that your dog, if it gets out, could reproduce and that not something that we want for them. And you're right, you know, healthier, longer lives and all those things as well, but also safety, right.

Speaker 2: 46:03

And I would say one of the things I think people don't understand about when animals are in heat and they're mating, it's not pleasant for them, especially the female animal. Yeah, it's actually quite traumatic and scary and you know, I don't want my female cats to go through that. We have ferals in our neighborhood. We never know. I'm not any chances, not just about kittens, but I know they could get hurt, you know, yeah, and so I get what you're saying and there that's, I think, a lot of the education piece of it. You and yeah, there's people just don't want to be told what to do. But ultimately.

Speaker 1: 46:42

But they need to understand. I don't believe that people are just like, oh hey, I'm gonna be a crappy pet, right. I think the vast majority of people are just. They just don't know. Yeah, we're not talking about backyard breeders.

Speaker 2: 46:56

We're talking about people just not understanding how important it is and I think that comes into play not only with spay and neuter but also with, you know, no kill versus kill shelters. It's funny A couple of weeks ago I went to get blood taken and I had my shirt on that has the name of my podcast on it that says adopt. And so the lady goes, oh, what's that? And we started talking and she had a pity she loved for years and years and I thought about getting another animal. But I want to go to make sure I don't want to go to one of those kill shelters. I want to go to one that's not, I don't know. You want to do the opposite. The kill shelters are the one that need you to adopt the pet to save a life. So can you talk a little bit about where that falls into, kind of the issues you run into in terms of people, stereotyping, rescue or shelters and that sort of thing?

Speaker 1: 47:51

So October is Pitbull Awareness Month, so that's good timing. Shelters essentially mean that the animal is at the shelter until it gets adopted or, you know, something happens and it gets sick and it needs to be humanely euthanized In our shelter system, in our kill shelters and I hate using that word because it gives a connotation to the people that work there that this is something that they want to do and they don't. So there's, you know, a few different reasons as to why kill shelters euthanize dogs. Number one they come in and they're severely injured or sick, and they have to because the animal is suffering Behavior issues, which is obvious. We don't have to go into that.

Speaker 1: 48:39

And then for space, the sad part is, in our county animals are being euthanized for space, right. So in some instances, in some shelters and other areas of the country, animals come in and they're euthanized solely because of health and behavioral issues. But our populations are so high in our shelters that we're euthanizing happy, healthy, social dogs for space. That is not something that anybody that works in a shelter ever wants to tackle and I think people need to know that. Yeah, you can adopt from a no-kill shelter. If you adopt from a kill shelter, you're saving a life. But on the flip side of that, I think part of the issue is that people have misinformation about dogs that come from shelters or from rescues and they think that they're all going to have behavior issues, they're all going to be difficult to work with. They're all going to come with baggage, going to be difficult to work with. They're all going to come with baggage Right now, because of the state of affairs in our county, there are more happy, healthy, social dogs than there are anything else.

Speaker 2: 49:54

Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with a dog from a shelter versus some other place, because that's just where they're waiting for a home. It's not right. Nothing bad is happening to the animals in the shelters, there's just only a finite amount of space. And you know, I saw days where 60 dogs would come in. You're like, if 60 dogs come in and there's no empty cages, where are those dogs going to go? And people just don't realize that they're mandated by rules and regulations and they can't do anything. And you know, I've had experience with no kill shelters and organizations where I've brought stray animals I found and they turn me away telling me, oh, it's too old, you can take them here or there. And I'm like that's the thing they have the ability to say no to whoever they want to, unlike other shelters. So yeah, I think there's also that miscommunication issue that I find with people, because it's just that stereotype of what a shelter is and what does no kill mean and all of that.

Speaker 1: 50:57

But yeah, and I think people really do have some misinformation about that Right All the way around. You know, about a month ago Kern County Animal Services put out a plea. They had 70 dogs on their euthanasia list so we went down. We pulled 24 dogs that week, which is massive. I think the stars aligned with the universe, right, because we had 15 or 20 adoptions and we were going to have to pull animals for a positive change program and it just so happened that it happened right before they put that euthanasia list out. Every single dog we pulled, good with other dogs, good with humans, no behavior issues, happy, healthy, social, right, and they've all been great. They all have different personalities, some of them are more different than others I mean, there's all of those types of things but Right, 24 happy, healthy, social, dog-friendly, people-friendly dogs.

Speaker 2: 51:58

Yeah, and it's also that reaction you get when you tell people yeah, puppies are euthanized, kittens are euthanized, they can't take care of themselves. What do you want us to do? We can't. Our staff is not here 24-7. You know, there's so many things like that.

Speaker 1: 52:13

People don't understand Well, and they're cohabitating two, three, four and five animals. Oh yeah, and I don't think people realize this. They're not supposed to be doing that.

Speaker 2: 52:26

Right, there's supposed to be one dog in a full run, not six and a half run.

Speaker 1: 52:31

They're doing it out of necessity, because they don't want to euthanize happy, healthy social dogs.

Speaker 2: 52:40

Right and cats. It's heartbreaking. It's like a mountain.

Speaker 1: 52:43

You start to climb up and you realize oh wait, this is a lot higher than I thought it was Right. And it's hard because there's a lot more at play than just the shelter itself and the people that work there, Right. There's politics involved, there's public funding involved. There's pressure from outside sources. It's really not an easy spot to be in and I feel for the people that work in our shelters. I really do.

Speaker 2: 53:07

They're amazing and you know I got a small taste of it. I'm like I don't know how they do it, you know, 24-7, week after week, month after month. And I think sometimes when there is a really bad shelter and really bad stuff happening at one place, it gets labeled on all shelters and that's not true. Everyone I've ever met in a shelter loves animals and will do anything they can to save them and help them and get them into their own home. Sometimes shelter issues are political and it's all about you know who's running what and who's in charge of what and stuff like that. But a lot of that is beyond our control. But the things that are in our control are volunteering, fostering, adopting, educating people. We know about it. What if someone listening right now is like they're on fire, they're ready to go? What are the top three things you would tell someone to do that they can do without it costing a lot or having to spend a lot of time to support a rescue or shelter like marley's?

Speaker 1: 54:16

donate, volunteer volunteering doesn't have to take a lot of time. You know, with Kern Safe we try to do vaccine clinics. We can't run them in the summer because we all know how hot it is in Bakersfield in the summer and it's not good for the dogs or the humans to be out in that heat. Volunteer, we do those once every other month. You can spend four to six hours once every other month if you plan it to help with those types of things. Spread education and awareness is another one. Really help people to understand, because there's no way we can get to everybody that we need to get to. But each organization in and of themselves are doing what they can to educate and share the stories, share that information so people see it.

Speaker 2: 55:04

Yeah, so everybody can find their place in their own world. To help spread awareness.

Speaker 1: 55:14

Well, and there's just so many ways to help, and one of the easiest is just hit the share button so that people see it. You never know who's going to see something you share, or who's going to share it and someone else is going to see it, right, right, it's so important to do that and it's not that hard it takes two seconds.

Speaker 2: 55:27

Absolutely Well. I know we're almost up with our time and you're a very busy person. I want to thank you again for coming back to the podcast and sharing more and just being here to, you know, kind of give everybody the update but also what we need and what we need to do as a community to help, and I'm sure that I will have all the links in the show notes for Marley's and Melissa and all of their amazing programs, and I just want to thank you for being here and giving me this time.

Speaker 1: 56:02

Thanks for having me. It's always great to chat with you.

Speaker 2: 56:07

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I am so happy to have you here listening, learning and sharing these amazing pet stories alongside me. I would love to hear your thoughts on the newest episode. You can email me, dm me on social media. I want to hear from you. Did you enjoy it?

Speaker 2: 56:28

What was your one big takeaway from my conversation with Melissa, and I'd love for you to tell me what you would like to see me talk about on this podcast. My focus is education and advocacy around all the different areas of animal welfare and rescue, but I'd love to hear from you Is there a topic you'd love to see me discuss? Do you know someone working volunteering in animal rescue, non-profits, shelters that you think would be a great guest? Let me know so you can go into the show notes and send me a message. You can DM me. You can DM me. You can email me Wherever your preferred platform is. Reach out. I'd love to hear what you thought of this episode and get some feedback about what you would love to see in future episodes. Thank you so much for being here. Much love to you and your pets.