WayStation Animal Rescue Transport: Saving Lives Through Collaboration and Community

A year ago today, St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center merged with the Humane Rescue Alliance in Washington, D.C. to create the first regional animal care, adoption, field services, and community support organization in the country. No animal or person is turned away from our doors. 

Why is this so important? Through this merger, we now touch the lives of over 100,000 animals each year! Some of those animals – about 20,000 – come directly into our care and are adopted out into loving homes. Others are served through community-focused pet support programs; accessible veterinary medicine; and through animal control, cruelty investigations and rescues in the field.  

Our widely supported WayStation animal rescue transport has dual purposes.

On the one hand, we move animals from distressed source shelters into communities where there is often a surplus of adopters who are waiting to give them homes. Through the ‘sister shelter’ part of the program, we invest financial and operational resources to help strengthen those overburdened source shelters. With our support, these organizations can implement more programs and services to get at the root causes of pet homelessness in their areas. 

Going forward we intend to deepen our relationships in those communities, and to increase the types of resources we provide. Not so long ago, we were struggling with overpopulation, too; we remember the pain of that struggle and want to lend a hand to those organizations who are in its midst. 

Now, we have a network of 90 organizations in the U.S. and Canada who work together to save animals’ lives and serve their communities. That number will grow, as our goal is to expand that safety net to ensure more animals have loving homes and more families have the joy of rescue and adoption.  

We recently followed a group of animals from Aiken County, South Carolina, where overpopulation remains a serious problem, to Morristown, Vermont, where there are eager loving families waiting to adopt them. We mark our merger anniversary by sharing this video, which captures the animals’ WayStation journey, as well as the journey of our organization and our bold vision for the future.  

We’ve learned a lot this year by merging two strong animal welfare groups with distinct strengths and histories to create an organization that is greater than the sum of its parts. Yet, the last few months have challenged us beyond our wildest imaginings, as we’ve navigated the pandemic and faced challenges that will ultimately make us stronger, more agile, and better prepared to face the future.  

Our successful response to COVID-19 reinforced my deeply held belief that to truly serve our communities we must create deep and trusting partnerships. When we had to move our animals from the shelter into foster homes to ensure the safety of our teams, the community, and the animals in our care, we were overwhelmed by the response. Nearly 2,500 people signed up to become foster parents! When we decided to keep adoptions going, virtually and by appointment, our community stepped up to support us. Since March we have placed more than 1,400 animals into loving homes. 

The disruption of the pandemic has created space for new thinking. In these past months we have worked with other leading animal welfare organizations to create a new model for how organizations like ours serve their communities. Intuitively, we knew there would be no return to ‘normal.’ HRA is now serving as a prototype organization for this new approach, known as Human Animal Support Services (HASS), which positions us at the intersection of animal welfare and human social services – which is where more problems will get solved. 

We are so grateful to all of you who have been an essential part of our story and are thrilled to have you join us on this exciting leg of our journey. It will be an exciting time as we reinvent the traditional sheltering system to better serve more animals and more people. We are fortunate to have such strong advocates and supporters to stand behind us, walk with us, and chart a new course to close the societal gaps which still create so much animal and human suffering. Thank you so much for everything.

Stories of True Redemption – and Why Michael Vick Shouldn’t be Honored by the NFL

About fifteen years ago, when I was the CEO of New Hampshire’s Monadnock Humane Society, our director of operations called me at home and asked, “Are you sitting down?”

Calls that began with that question typically meant bad news, but nothing could have prepared me for what followed. She told me that my former foster dog, a beautiful black shepherd named Cheyenne, had been shot in the head.

First, I felt sick, then I cried, and then I was filled with rage. Cheyenne was so scared that she huddled in the corner of her room and refused to eat. After eight weeks in our home she became a playful, happy puppy; she learned to trust people. When she was adopted by a woman with two kids, I imagined the happy life she would have. Someone had violated her trust in the most horrific way.

Our first order of business was to rush Cheyenne and her ‘sister’ Bella to the hospital. Although both girls had been shot at point blank range in the head, they both would, miraculously, survive.

Our second order of business was to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators. The story was complicated and awful. The adopter’s boyfriend, and that sweet teenage boy who had come in with his mother to adopt Cheyenne, had shot the dogs. As details emerged, so did a story of violence. Research shows that animal abuse often co-exists with violence to people. The (now) young man who shot Cheyenne (I’ll call him Mike) failed her so terribly because he had been failed himself.

I then did something that surprised the staff and community – and made some of them very angry. I petitioned the court to drop the cruelty charges against Mike and sentence him to community service at our shelter.

I intervened on Mike’s behalf despite the protests of colleagues and volunteers whom I loved and respected. I did so because I believed that the best way to honor Cheyenne, and make the strongest impact possible, was to give her abuser a second chance. I knew we could provide Mike with a profoundly more humane example than that of his abusive father figure.

This service project took a lot of planning to balance Mike’s service with the priority we placed on the wellbeing of our animals. Cheyenne and her sister, both recovering in foster homes, would never see Mike. Staff members would always be with him .

At first, Mike was withdrawn and quiet; he rarely made eye contact as he cleaned outdoor kennels and did laundry. After a couple weeks, we started to see a change – he asked about individual animals, trying to learn their stories. Once he saw them as unique and special beings, he wondered what they needed to move onto their next chapters.

The more he got to know the animals, the more he opened up. He started to greet the animals by name and with genuine happiness. His confidence grew; he developed enthusiasm for his work and a connection with our team. There is no doubt that this experience completely changed the course of his life because he was open to change.

I believe deeply in second chances for animals and people. You can’t do this work effectively – with integrity and an open heart – if you don’t believe people can change for the better. I know redemption is possible, because I’ve seen it dozens of times. But true redemption requires desire and accountability.

In 2007, one of our legacy organizations, the Washington Animal Rescue League, was ground zero in one of the most infamous and egregious animal cruelty cases in our nation’s history. We took the dogs rescued from Michael Vick’s dogfighting operation, Bad Newz Kennels. Our staff were some of the first people to show the dogs love and respect. These poor animals had endured unimaginable trauma; when they were given the love they deserved, they blossomed into dogs who could pay it forward.

Vick is back in the news with the NFL‘s selection of him as a Pro Bowl Legends captain. I’ve heard the arguments that Vick did his time in prison, although most people don’t realize he did so under a plea bargain and never served a moment for animal cruelty charges. After his release, Vick gave a few speeches against animal fighting alongside the Humane Society of the United States. To my knowledge, he hasn’t done much more.

Should that be enough? Doesn’t Vick deserve a second chance, too?

I don’t know whether Vick is truly remorseful. His public appearances and his meetings with elected officials could have been authentic – or opportunistic. I know some of the people who adopted his broken dogs. Their stories are told in “The Lost Dogs,” by Jim Gorant, and I encourage anyone who wants to see Vick at the Pro Bowl to read the book. Apparently, Vick had to be forced to pay the court-ordered restitution money intended for the costly care for his dogs. If Vick had shown any interest in the welfare of those dogs after they were rescued (he didn’t), or if he had used some of his millions to help the everyday Americans who went into debt to give his dogs homes and make them whole again (he did not), I might believe in his story of redemption, but I don’t. 

I suspect those who support having Vick honored at the Pro Bowl don’t appreciate the brutality of his crimes. Skim the book. Vick personally ordered the killing of ‘loser dogs’ and participated – himself – in their drowning, slamming, hanging, and electrocution. The extreme depravity of those acts offers the possibility that true remorse might not even be attainable. This was senseless torture of precious creatures who wanted love, security, and appreciation – like our own pets.

Beyond Michael Vick, what is the NFL thinking? How can they elevate someone with his history as a role model? Maybe it’s no surprise – every major decision the NFL has made in recent years, from silencing Colin Kaepernick to selecting Vick as its brand ambassador, has reinforced a culture of sexism, violence, drug abuse, and suppression of free speech.

The rescue dogs from Bad Newz Kennels are dying of old age after a well-deserved new lease on life. I think of them often, as I do Cheyenne (renamed Liesl). A few years ago, I got a letter telling me she died after a long, happy life on the 300-acre farm we dream about for all animals. She was adopted by a psychiatrist and his wife and became a therapy dog. For years she dutifully warmed the feet of his clients and silently, lovingly bore witness as they worked through their own pain and trauma. Liesl took the second chance we provided her and made her corner of the world a lot brighter –  a story of redemption we can all get behind.

Disaster Preparedness: How Working Together Saves More Lives

As Hurricane Dorian overwhelmed their shelter, the staff members of the Humane Society of Grand Bahama desperately stacked crates of cats and put dogs on any high surface they could find as flood waters poured into their shelter. It was only when the water reached their necks that the heroic employees pulled one another into a small crawl space in the attic. They listened to the cries of the animals in their care as the water level grew higher and higher. Then, there was silence.

Those of us in animal welfare watched this unfold, on television and on social media, bearing heartfelt but ultimately helpless witness as our brother and sister shelter workers endured the unthinkable – and risked their own lives for their charges.

Dorian killed at least 50 people and potentially thousands of animals, including almost half of the animals at the Humane Society of Grand Bahama.

On Wednesday evening, it was our great privilege to finally be able to do something. Around 8:30 p.m., we welcomed the 84 surviving cats at the Morristown, New Jersey, airport. As the plane taxied in, I couldn’t help but put myself in the shoes of Tip Burrow, the shelter’s executive director. She and her staff have endured the unimaginable and we grieve alongside Tip and her team and give them our utmost respect for their extraordinary efforts to save their animals.

After the cats were safely settled into their kennels at St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center, I finally had a quiet moment, and reflected on how many organizations played a part in saving these precious animals’ lives. From the Humane Society of Grand Bahama who were miraculously able to save the cats from their flooded building, to Wings of Rescue who transported the cats to us on a flight funded by GreaterGood, each of these organizations rolled up their sleeves to get the job done. While many organizations in the animal protection community may differ on a day-to-day basis in terms of their shapes and sizes, philosophies and policies, we know one thing is true: in times of crisis the most vulnerable lives depend on us and we must work together. 

Each of the organizations that make up the Humane Rescue Alliance (HRA) - St. Hubert’s, Washington Animal Rescue League, and Washington Humane Society - have a rich history of both welcoming homeless animals from threatened areas and deploying our staff to support impacted communities. We are greatly expanding our ability to do this work.

This week, and through the years, we have been proud to work alongside national organizations, such as the Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, and GreaterGood, as well as local shelters to pool resources and staff to maximize our impact. This Spring, thanks to a gift from the Humane Society of the United States, HRA will be training our 20 field responders to become certified swift water and animal search and rescue responders. These certifications will allow HRA to respond at a moment's notice to any hurricane, flooding event, or other natural disaster to help animals and people in need.   

We have made a deliberate decision to invest more of our resources into disaster preparedness so we can increase the support we provide for impacted communities; the truth is that more communities – and the animals who live in them – are vulnerable to our new reality. Since 1970, the number of natural disasters worldwide has more than quadrupled. A 2018 federal government report warned that storms, droughts, and wildfires will become more powerful and last longer.

The Mid-Atlantic region, where our five shelters are located, is no exception. With nearly 500 miles of coastline, it is essential that HRA/St. Hubert’s be prepared for a disaster and that we support other organizations’ efforts to prepare. In the Spring of 2020, HRA and the Professional Animal Workers of Maryland (PAWS) are hosting the inaugural Mid-Atlantic Animal Care & Field Services Conference. This conference will provide a critical opportunity to build collaboration among animal control agencies, shelters, rescues, and other key stakeholders in our region.

Sharing best practices in disaster preparedness, learning from one another, and building relationships between shelters in coastal communities and those inland is now essential. And make no mistake – by leaning on one another and eliminating the space between us as individual organizations, we will ultimately be able to save more of the precious lives to whom we have dedicated our own life’s work.