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- [00:08]
A
This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Happy Friday. We had a great week here on the show. If you couldn't be with us for every single second, you can go back and check out and listen to any of our segments. I recommend checking out our conversation on Tuesday with cookbook author Gassanna Bullock Prado Boy what that woman can do with a focaccia. And on Wednesday we spoke with the co host of the new podcast the Loop, which is set in New York City and focuses on kids and young adults who are involved in the justice system. And yesterday, if you didn't catch Nick Offerman live, you should really go back and give that conversation a listen. He joined us to talk about his new woodworking book and he took listeners calls. To listen. Head to our show page@wnyc.org or look for all of it. Wherever you get your podcasts. Now, let's get this hour started with the joys of shelter dogs. This month is National Adopt a Sheltered Dog Month, and all across the nation, shelters are highlighting the benefits of inviting a new furry friend into your life. Today we hear tips on how to find your new companion. According to the ASPCA statistics, around 5.8 million dogs and cats enter shelters and rescues in 2024, a slight decre from the years before. However, the amount of time dogs and especially large dogs are staying the same and it's actually increased a little bit. Our next guest is here to help us understand why it's important for us to give shelter pups a home. And a tip for any of us who want to take care of a new furry friend. Joining us is Aurora Velasquez, the regional director for the East. For the east for the Best Friends Animal Society. Am I saying that right, Aurora?
- [01:55]
B
The east region at Best Friends Animal Society. Yes.
- [01:58]
A
Thank you so much. Thanks for being on the show, listeners. We'd like to hear from you. Have you adopted a dog from a shelter before? How long has this dog been a part of your family? Our number is 212-433-WNYC 212-433-9692. What was something you had to get used to being a new dog owner. And if you have a really good picture of your pup, you should put it on Instagram and tag us Olivet WNYC. We will repost it. We'll give you 15 minutes of fame for you and your pup. For people who don't know what is National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month all.
- [02:38]
B
About, it's really all about Just shining a light on the fact that there are thousands and thousands of really incredible dogs waiting for homes and shelters every day across the country. You mentioned a stat earlier about how many cats and dogs came into shelters last year. For dogs. It was 2.5 million. So a lot of dogs looking for homes.
- [03:02]
A
All right, for listeners considering adoption, let's start at the basics. Where should they start? What should they ask themselves?
- [03:10]
B
Start by visiting your local shelter or rescue and keeping an open mind. The right package might look a little bit different than what you imagine. Maybe you fall in love with a small dog when you were thinking a big dog or vice versa. And it's really important to think about what your lifestyle looks like and what you're looking for in a pet. So you're somebody that loves to go on long walks and stays active. Maybe a more active, energetic dog is for you. If you're a couch potato. Maybe considering an older pet is going to be a more compatible situation.
- [03:47]
C
How can someone tell, really tell if they are ready to have a dog and for the responsibility of it?
- [03:55]
B
Oh, that's such a, such a personal question. I think it's really just about, like I said, being clear about what you're looking for and how a pet is going to fit into your lifestyle, having contingency plans for when, when things come up. You know, if you all of a sudden have an emergency, are there folks in your life that are going to be able to step in and make sure that your pet is okay? What happens when you're going on vacation? Do you have a pet sitter that can make sure your dog still gets to go out on walks? It's just thinking about all of those things that happen every day in life, planned and unplanned, and making sure that there's space in that picture for a pet.
- [04:39]
C
How does fostering factor in here?
- [04:42]
B
Oh, fostering is great. It's a great way for folks to get involved who are maybe not sure if they're ready to make the full commitment to adoption. It's an opportunity to bring a dog home out of a shelter, give them a break, because shelters can be pretty stressful places for them. So it gives them a little bit of a break, gives them some time to decompress, and also is a little bit of a, you know, almost like a test run to see are you ready to adopt.
- [05:12]
C
Let's take a few calls. Let's talk to Liz in Smithtown. Hi, Liz. Thanks for calling, all of it. You're on the air.
- [05:20]
D
Hi.
- [05:20]
E
Oh, I'm so glad to finally get through to somebody that's so wonderful. Yeah, I have. This is my second shelter dog that I have now. She's a German shepherd. I got her at North Shore when she was three and a half months old. I think the people that bought just.
- [05:37]
C
Oh, you're going in and out. Let's see if you can stay in one place and talk to. Sorry. There you go. Stay there. Go.
- [05:42]
E
Hold on. Okay, hold on. So she's 12 now, and we've had quite a journey. We've done. Are you good? We've done a lot of obedience work. We've done obedience competitions and agility. She does nose work still. She still does nose work at the age of 12.
- [06:03]
C
Hello, Liz. Thank you so much for calling in. Let's talk to Jenna in East Northport. Hi, Jenna. Thank you so much for calling, all of it.
- [06:12]
E
Hi, thanks so much. This is my favorite topic in the whole world. So all my life, I've only had rescue dogs. I've actually worked at some animal shelters. I'm a writer. I've written about this one thing that's really important for people to know, and I'm sorry, because I came into the call a little late, and I don't know if you talked about puppy mills already, but dogs at pet shops, never, never, never go to a pet shop. Only go to reputable shelter. Pet shops get dogs from puppy mills, even though they'll tell you they don't. So that's one really important thing. And when you adopt a pet, you not only save that life, you open up a space in the shelter for another pet. We just lost our lucy, who was 13 years old. It's been heartbreaking, but I would never trade those years for anything in the world. The pure love, joy, unconditional that they give you is the best in the world. But, yes, of course, know what you're getting into. But please, please, please, I encourage everyone, please go to a shelter. These are the most amazing dogs. They tend to be even healthier because they're not interbreeding. So I can't say enough about shelter dogs. Please go to your shelter to get a dog.
- [07:25]
C
Jenna, thanks so much. My guest is Aurora Velasquez, a representative from the Best Friend Animal Society. It's National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month. We are taking your calls. If you adopted a shelter dog, call in. Give your dog a shout out. 2124-3396-9221-2433, wnyc. All right, Aurora, what are some misconceptions that people have about shelter Dogs.
- [07:54]
B
I think people have a misconception that shelter dogs have something wrong with them, that they're in a shelter for a reason, when that is very, very rarely the case. We see so many dogs ending up in shelters because of life changes with their family, financial issues, you know, job loss, housing issues, things like that. There are really incredible dogs in every single shelter in this country, certainly in New York City and the surrounding areas. They're purebreds, they're mixes, they're young, old, and everything in between. They're just really incredible dogs that just happen to not have a home.
- [08:39]
C
How do shelters help match the right dog with the right family?
- [08:45]
B
At best friends, we really love what we call conversation based adoptions, where it's a little bit of a less pressured approach, where we're really just talking to potential adopters and getting a feel for all those things that we talked about a little bit earlier. What does the lifestyle look like? What is somebody looking for in a pet and then having them meet some pets and seeing where the magic happens, where that connection is made. But I think it's really an almost organic approach, a little bit of a holistic approach to see, you know, where are these matches, where are they going to be made, who's going to click and what new families can we create?
- [09:31]
A
What's the average amount of time a dog typically spends in a shelter?
- [09:36]
B
Right now, nationally, the average is about three to four weeks, which is. It doesn't sound like a long time, but really is an incredibly long time. Shelters are very full across the country, many of them over capacity, which is why things like Adopt a Shelter dog month are so important. Folks got to get out there, they got to go to their local shelters and rescues and bring one of these dogs home.
- [10:08]
A
What happens when animals aren't adopted?
- [10:12]
B
You know, it's different for every organization. Two out of three shelters in the country today are no kill, which is incredible. And more and more are becoming no kill every day. Shelters are working really, really hard to save as many animals as possible. There is an estimated 7 million households that are going to acquire a new dog in the next year. And if just 6% of those households adopted, the entire country would be no kill. And we wouldn't have to worry about what happens when dogs don't get adopted.
- [10:48]
A
Let's take some more calls. Daisy on the Upper west side. Hi, Daisy, thanks for calling, all of it.
- [10:54]
F
Hi, thanks for having me.
- [10:57]
A
Want to hear about your dog?
- [11:00]
F
His name is Ollie. We don't know the breed exactly, but we're very confident he's part beagle based on his bark and definitely part hound based on how he loves to chase the mice on the street. And we got him from an ACC shelter in Queens. And originally I actually wasn't going to meet him based on his profile, but my parents were both very insistent that we do. And right before they brought him in, they did say they did gave us a warning that he was. Well, this needs some explaining. At ACC shelters, dogs are ranked 1 to 4 for being the most difficult to handle. One, being super friendly can be in any home. And he was a level three. So when they said that I was in my head, I was immediately like, no, probably not. We probably can't get him. But then he came in to us to meet us and he immediately came up to me. And my parents were super friendly and we didn't believe he was a level three. But when he first came up to me and was like super friendly in my face, I was thinking, this is the one, he's the one. And we brought him home. He definitely took a little bit getting used to the new environment. He did growl at my parents once or twice. But yeah, since then we've had him for six months and he's been a huge, huge help to the family. When I'm feeling down, he comes to me at least half the time and he lets we do. I taught him all kinds of tricks.
- [12:41]
A
It sounds like, you know what, Daisy?
- [12:43]
C
It sounds like you have a great experience. You've had a great experience. Thank you for sharing your calls. I want to move on to a whole bunch of others. Charlie is calling in from Vermont. Hi, Charlie, thanks for calling, all of it.
- [12:53]
G
Hi, you're on the. This is a great, amazing, long time listener. This is a pretty. I'm passionate about this subject. I've adopted three dogs in the last 20 years and I. My advice, if you're asking for it, is train your dog because your dog has a much better life. And when you leave town, if you got a well behaved dog, people are dying to take them while you're out of town. There's some great trainers in Brooklyn and New York.
- [13:29]
C
Charlie, thanks for the advice. Let's talk to Nigel in Rahway, who's calling in. Hi, Nigel, you're on the air.
- [13:36]
H
Hi, thanks for taking my call. I think one of the things that is a little bit bothersome is that there are people out there that are looking to adopt dogs and they try, but there are these requirements that are really high sometimes and they're like, oh, you need to have A fenced in yard. And you need to have all these like requirements in order to adopt a dog. And it's a little bit of a problem sometimes in that, you know, you have all these dogs that you're trying to get adopted and you're. And people are trying to get them adopted into a really, really, really perfect situation. And like that's, that's, that doesn't exist. You know, you have a lot of really, really good families out there who want to adopt a dog. And maybe they don't have a fence in the yard, maybe they don't have a perfect situation. So, you know, can you talk about that a little bit because.
- [14:35]
C
Sure.
- [14:35]
H
It seems like there's many times that we've tried to adopt a dog and they've, they've turned us down because, oh, you don't have a defense in yard and that, that kind of thing.
- [14:45]
C
Yeah, I wanted to ask about that for people who come and I can sort of relate at. A friend had a hard time adopting a cat. It took a really, really long time for her to adopt a cat after being a longtime cat owner. Um, can you talk about some of the difficulties people might face and maybe advice you can give them on how to get past those difficulties?
- [15:07]
B
Yeah, and I can certainly relate myself. I've had difficulties at times finding organizations to adopt from. It's like with anything there, there's a whole spectrum out there from what we would call the lowest barrier. You know, organizations that really are looking to send animals home and make those matches with as little as little barrier as possible. You know, all the way up through organizations that really have sort of a much more rigid, maybe strict process. On our website we have what's called the Pet Life Saving dashboard, which shows all of the animal shelters in a given area. You can look by state, by county, by city. So I think it's really just about finding the organization that has an approach, maybe has an ethos that resonates with you and feels like it's appropriate for what you're looking for and working with them.
- [16:06]
C
Yeah, we got a text that says we adopted our cats from Best Friends Animal Rescue. They made the process so easy. Bravo Rescue and adoption fees are deductible. Someone texted us shout out to the big dog rescue in Texas. They regularly bring dogs to the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest by the. What's your. What's your. Your address so people can, can go search for themselves.
- [16:28]
B
Bestfriends.org NYC and we have an adoption center down in Soho.
- [16:34]
C
Let's talk to Janet who is calling in from Pinebush? Hi, Janet. Thanks for calling, all of it. You're on the air.
- [16:41]
I
Hi, my pleasure. Thank you very much for this program. I am very familiar with the work of the Bideway, which is where I got my first dog when I was 10 years old. My grandpa took me and she lived with us for 14 years. I am now on my fourth dog in my life who was a rescue from Nez Perce Reservation out in Idaho, where I was working on a film Go. And I found this pup. I saw this puppy by the side of the road and I had a leftover hamburger bun in my car. I always kept food scraps. I wasn't going to save anybody's life, but I could make their day, you know. And so I tossed in this, this hamburger bun, drove the 17 miles to the folks I was staying with. Kept thinking about this dog who had been framed in my rearview mirror as I was driving away and said, I.
- [17:35]
B
Got to go back.
- [17:36]
I
And I went back and this puppy jumped right into my car. He is now 14 years old. I'm looking at him asleep on the couch right now, probably an Australian cattle dog. Smart, loyal, fierce. And I have. So I'm familiar with many of the organizations that have been mentioned on air today from other callers, especially the Bideway, where we got my first dog and Pets Alive, which is right up here in Ulster County. And I'm very familiar with their wonderful work with all breeds of animals.
- [18:12]
C
Thank you.
- [18:13]
I
And you just can't do any, any, you can't do any better. And you can do so much good and take some harm out of the world by taking, taking into your household a creature that needs refuge and kindness.
- [18:30]
A
Thank you so much for calling.
- [18:31]
C
We really appreciate it.
- [18:33]
A
This is Tarika, I believe, calling in from Montclair. Hey, Tarika, thanks for calling. You're on the air. Hi.
- [18:40]
D
Thank you for taking my call. Yeah, so I have a shelter dog. She's 13 now.
- [18:45]
F
I always say she saved our lives.
- [18:47]
D
We didn't save her life. But I also wanted to call in to give a shout out the Associated Humane Society in Newark, which is an open intake shelter. I volunteer there, walking dogs once a week. And they have some of the most wonderful dogs who would make the best companions. So if folks in the area are looking for dogs, that's a great shelter to go to. They do a really good job of matching you with dogs. You could also foster dogs, which I know a lot of folks might not know. And I'm sorry if this has already been said, but it's free to foster. They pay for everything. And they also just recently started an adventure trails program where you can take a dog out for the day and take them for a walk, take him on a hike. And it's a great way to publicize the dogs and sort of show, you know, the community and that they're good dogs, they're such fantastic dogs. But the last thing I do want to say is also, and I'm sorry if this has been mentioned, but you know, once, if you do adopt a shelter dog, you have to give them time. We see a lot of dogs coming back after people have had them for a few days or a few weeks, but they haven't settled in. There's this three, three, three rule. You know, three days to kind of decompress, three weeks to, you know, find their bearings, and three months to really fit into your routine. So adopt a shelter dog. You'll never go wrong, but give them time.
- [20:09]
A
The 3, 3, 3 rule. That's a really good tip.
- [20:11]
C
Thank you so much.
- [20:12]
A
I have a question for you, Aurora. It says shared shelter websites like petfinder make searching adoptable animals much more convenient. Are there any issues that we should be aware of with these sites?
- [20:25]
B
The only thing that I would say folks should be aware of is, you know, there's always going to be a delay between what is viewable on the website and what's happening in the shelter. So you may look at those websites and really set your heart on a dog that might be getting adopted in that moment down at the shelter. So those are great websites to peruse and maybe sort of see what kind of animals are available for adoption in your area. But nothing beats going down to the shelter and meeting the dogs and, and having that in person experience.
- [20:56]
C
Is there anything that I haven't been able to cover with you that you make sure you want to make sure our listeners know?
- [21:03]
B
You know, in honor of Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, there are a ton of events happening this month getting dogs out into the community, having a good time, celebrating the wonder that is shelter dogs. There's one tomorrow, the Muddy Paws block party in Hell's Kitchen. We've got some pop ups on the 24th and the 25th with Boris and Horton and free people. So I encourage people to get out there, have some fun and maybe fall in love.
- [21:32]
C
We have got Aurora Velasquez. She's from Best Friend Animal Society. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.
- [21:43]
B
Oh, thank you. This was great.
- [21:44]
C
And thanks to everybody who called in. We couldn't get to all of you. If you want to send us a picture of you and your dog on Instagram not to the phone number but to Instagram, our number isl of it or sorry, our handle is olivenyc. They'll get their 15 minutes of fame.
- [22:03]
J
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- [22:31]
I
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- [22:45]
C
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