Friday June 20th, 5 p.m.
Before the members meeting, we invite some of the local organizations over to talk about why we're here and what we're doing.
There are about 40 people at this get-together. Some of them already know about safe Humane. Others don't, and Cynthia Bathurst (director of Safe Humane) is eager to have them involved. So she and Paul explain the program and invite others to talk about their part in it. And then I talk about Best Friends and our work just generally.
This is Charles Kraft, director of Chicago Animal Care & Control. He's the person who has to deal with all those abandoned bully breed dogs who are picked up off the streets or dropped off at the shelter.
And this is Rev. Dr. Johnson of the African Methodist Church, who arrived about half way through, having been called to an urgent intervention situation (violence, of course). He told us how he talks, in his sermons, about the need for "safe haven" in neighborhoods where you can take your life in your hands just trying to get to the grocery store; about teaching respect to young people, which is so important because when you respect other people as being people in their own right, you're not so likely to get violent with them; and about kindness (and again respect) toward animals – on the basis that if we respect all living beings, then we're going to be good to each other.
On the left here you'll recognize Yvette from my post this morning, and the other two ladies are Susan Robinson from PAWS Chicago and Melia Carter, one of the founders, along with Cynthia, of Safe Humane.
When I was talking to the assembled company about the work of Best Friends, I mentioned that we'd recently done a "trade" with PAWS Chicago. They're an amazing no-kill shelter, adoption and spay/neuter organization, which has grown up over just the last ten years. When we first met them at our first members meeting in Chicago, in the early days of the No More Homeless Pets campaign, they hadn't yet opened a shelter. Paula Fasseas, the founder, was doing low-cost spay/neuter on Saturdays at a bank! (Her husband owns the bank, and was delighted to put it to good use over the weekend.) Today, PAWS drives the no-kill movement in Chicago.
But it's always difficult for a no-kill shelter when they have animals who are hard to adopt. That's where Best Friends tries to step in and arrange for these special-care pets to come to the sanctuary. Recently we brought three dogs who need lots of behavior coaching to the sanctuary. This is Nochi with John Garcia, whom you'll recall from the TV show Dogtown on National Geographic.
Whenever possible for the shelter, they take back some adoptable dogs or cats. That why we call it a "trade".
And in this case, in exchange for the three slightly-badly-behaved pooches, PAWS took 27 cats. What a deal!
Next: The members meeting