Animal Shelter Change Makers: Inside the Mission to Improve Shelters with Pawsitive Change

Julie Marty-Pearson 0:00

Hello, my friends and fellow animal lovers. I'm excited to bring you a new episode of the Story of my pet, and we have a zoom room full of animal lovers and people supporting animal shelters out in the world today. So I'm very excited to welcome Adrian Carey and Zach to the podcast. Hello all of you. Thank you for being here.

Keri Lestage 0:21

Hi, Julie. Good to meet you. Nice. Hi. Nice.

Julie Marty-Pearson 0:25

A room full of people helping animals. Kind of my favorite kind of room to be in. Right? Absolutely. So I always like to start with asking my guests, have you always been animal lovers? Did you grow up pets? What has kind of been your journey to wanting to help pets now? So I'll start with you, Adrian.

Adrian Fulle 0:46

Yeah, that's a great question. I grew up with pets. We always had dogs. At one point I had a rabbit named dude that I brought back from college with me and my dad was, uh, not super, super pleased with it, but we built an outdoor pen for him and it was a, lasted a long time. It was really great. That was a good relationship. But mostly my wife is the animal lover. She's a dog trainer, and we, at one point, only just a couple years ago, were up to seven dogs, which I don't think is legal in our county, but, uh, nonetheless, um, we're down to three now, unfortunately. But, so she's been the really, for us, for my family, the driving force in the last 10, 15 years around the animals that we have.

Julie Marty-Pearson 1:25

That's great. Yeah. You know, sometimes there's one of us that does it and we pull the other one into it. Yeah.

Adrian Fulle 1:31

Yeah. But I

Julie Marty-Pearson 1:31

have also found dogs and cats. It's like once you get one and two and three, it just kind of, it's really easy to keep adding.

Adrian Fulle 1:38

It really is. We were, I, she called, what did she say? We were foster failure like four times over. And um, and then I gave it like, I had my, like no more than four dogs. And then we got a bearded dragon lizard, and then we got three more dogs and I, and I gave in on all, every one of 'em. So it's my fault too. But we love 'em all. I mean, don't get me wrong. Love them all. They're fantastic.

Julie Marty-Pearson 1:58

I love that we, I have a very eclectic fur family myself. We have tortoises, tarantulas, a scorpion. I never know what's going on in some of the rooms in my house, but hey, you know, and I remind my husband of that when I bring home a new kitten or puppy or something. What about you, Carrie?

Keri Lestage 2:19

So, we were dog lovers from the very, very early days. Grew up with dogs, always Dobermans were my, uh, my, my parents breed of choice. But, uh, and that's carried over our, my married life. So my husband was big into great Danes. So we've had great Danes all throughout the years, but most recently, and it's only been within the last. Four years or so, uh, a cat very unexpectedly came into our life. We, uh, scooped this little guy off the street. He'd been hit by a car and uh, that's kind of changed our pet life ever since. And so we are now a cat and dog household. So that's us.

Julie Marty-Pearson 2:57

I always love hearing those stories. I too grew up with dogs. Huge d dog lover, and the one, you know, as an adult I got a kitten and I'm like, woo. Cats are cool. They like naps and treats. They're my people. Yeah. Yeah. What about you, Zach?

Zach O'Shea 3:13

Yeah, growing up I had cats, dogs, uh, I mean, basically every childhood picture I have has a dog or a cat in it, which is pretty impressive. It ended up turning into, uh, turtles and hamsters and then, uh mm-hmm. I've graduated to, uh, during COVID, I got a blue tongue skin, which is, uh, whoa. Yeah, yeah. What, what is COVID? I like COVID was a wild time.

Julie Marty-Pearson 3:37

Yeah. I don't even know what that is. I don't even know what, yeah,

Zach O'Shea 3:39

so it's, uh, it's from Australia and they have blue tongues and they have fat bodies and tiny arms. So the idea is that they look like snakes from, you know, a bird's eye perspective. And, uh, yeah, so got one of those bad boys. And, uh, my dog now Callie, is, uh. Was a former foster. Well, we fostered her and then ended up, you know how that goes. So,

Julie Marty-Pearson 4:02

yeah,

Zach O'Shea 4:02

it's, uh, she's been my, my ride or die for nine and a half years. So

Julie Marty-Pearson 4:06

I love that. And you know, I, a lot of times we use that term foster failure, but I heard somebody one time on, so just say it's actually a foster success. It wasn't that anything bad happened, you just realized they were meant to be with you and your family. Right? Yeah. We have one of those, this little photo behind me is our pumpkin. It's a Calico who runs this house, so I get it.

Zach O'Shea 4:29

There you go.

Julie Marty-Pearson 4:31

So it's obviously I didn't expect it to be otherwise. We are all animal lovers for many different reasons, but we're all here to really talk about an amazing. Process program company that you guys are all involved in that is specifically looking to help animal shelters in the United States. Many listeners know we are in an overcrowded overpopulation crisis in our country and other places in the world, and our shelters are overcrowded. They are maxed out, they don't have enough staff funding, volunteers, all the things. And one of the things I learned firsthand. Being on having this podcast got me out in my shelters, volunteering and working, and I realized what the staff has to do every day to keep the shelter clean and we can all think about our own homes. How often do we have to clean up after our own pets? And you magnify that by. Dozens, if not hundreds of animals in cramp spaces. You know, one of my local shelters has dog runs that were meant for one dog. They have now made half runs and multiple dogs are in each half run. A lot of puppies who don't know that they should not be going to the bathroom wherever they are. So there is a lot of cleanliness and also health concerns when it comes to the. Animals and their care. And I remember the first time I was in the shelter on Sunday, which was the day off, where they were literally hosing the entire shelter down, like there was. Foaming soap everywhere, and they literally just washed the whole thing out. And it was, you know, eye-opening to me because I never really sat back and thought about how do they keep it clean? Like how often are they having to clean? And it's literally twice a day and then super clean at least once a week. And our shelters have been through rampant illness spreading. I mean, that's one of the issues in our shelters, especially with young puppies and kittens, is illnesses can spread so quickly because of the cramped environment. So let's get into talking about positive change and where this idea and whole process kind of started.

Adrian Fulle 6:46

Oh, I'll jump in if you guys want. Yeah so the three of us plus others work on the human health side of the world, uh, in our day jobs. And our founder of our company uh, is, uh, Rick, OSHA and Rick has this massive heart for animals just like the rest of us do. And so he had. Came up with this idea of like, how can we take what we know on the human health side of things when we talk about cleaning, disinfecting, you know, all of that, that that goes into that world of sort of, whether it be in the commercial, it's a janitorial world or into, um, consumer like your own household cleaning products, or how do people clean their homes? How can we take our knowledge and experience in that world? Bring it to help animals and really animal shelters was a no brainer right out of the gate. 'cause we all know exactly what you just described. It's, it's a, it's an unfortunate situation where you've got a bunch of volunteers that ultimately, because of all the constraints. Spend more time cleaning and disinfecting every day than they do actually caring for the animals. And that's no knock on any shelters. It's just the way the situation is. Right? So what could we do? We can write big checks, maybe. Okay, that's a start. But what I mean, ultimately, could we do something that's more in our wheelhouse? And so that's where we came up with this idea, basically biosecurity and how can we. Donate biosecurity kits that will help extend the health and wellness of the animals in the space and ultimately the humans 'cause it all kind of works, uh, sort of in a synchronicity. Um, and so that's sort of where it all began. A little grassroots movement of only three of us out there, just literally. Dialing local shelters in our areas, and the three of us live in different states and, seeing, Hey, would you want this? Do you want, uh, some eco-friendly, pet-friendly, friendly cleaning supplies and disinfectants? Um, because the ones you're using right now, and I'm, I'm not gonna mention brand names, but the ones you're using right now are effective at killing viruses. But they're also poisoning the air. And we know that from the human health side. And as we see in the human health world, this shift and this trend, you know, let, whether it be your local gym or a restaurant away from those toxic chemicals that do a really great job at killing the viruses. But they also cause cancers, they poison our, uh, respiratory systems and there's all the data in the world that proves all of that. So. So the animals, particularly dogs, have even more sensitive systems in their bodies. So you bleach out a a, a stall and you gotta wait two hours. You should, before those dogs go back in. 'cause that air is poisoned for two and a half, two, two and a half hours. And if they breed that in over long period of time, you see respiratory illnesses increase across all the shelters in the United States. So, so it began as a way like, hey, we can bring what we learned over here into the shelter world and maybe we can. Help the health and wellness of these animals while they're in that care and that facility, and maybe it will help them find a forever home. And so there'll be less euthanasia. And that's just sort of where it began, kind of out of this passion and. Over time, it, it, it grew. It's, we're still a grassroots group, but we did form a partnership with, uh, Merck, uh, animal Health, the animal health division of the pharmaceutical firm. Uh, which is great 'cause that gives us a bigger, you know, they'll pick up our calls if they don't know us. So, so that's really nice and. So, um, we have, uh, donated these biosecurity kits to, I don't know, almost 200 shelters now. We're estimating another thousand by the end of the year. And it comes with some great things from Merck, such as vaccines, et cetera. So I'll stop there. Carrie or Zach, you want to jump in?

Julie Marty-Pearson 10:21

Well, I will say, and then I'll let Carrie jump in, is I think people don't realize, like you said, how much time staff and volunteers spend in shelters cleaning. Like there are shifts, like there are shift morning shifts, afternoon shifts, and then there's separate ones that are more even more specialized, like for the puppy kennels and things like that, because the, the younger pets are more susceptible. But what I think so much when you were talking is that you think about if we clean our own. Stuff. Imagine that smell. Well, imagine not being able to leave the room and have to be forced to breathe in all those chemicals. And people don't really realize what is happening in shelters. That has to happen to keep them safe. And people also don't wanna walk into a dirty shelter to adopt a pet. But it's like this constant cycle of having to do it over and over again. And we don't always think about the impact on the pets themselves 'cause they're forced to be in that environment.

Adrian Fulle 11:15

Yeah, and I'll just double click on that. That good clean smell that we associate with clean, that usually is a signal that you're being poisoned because that smell is the smell of bleach and other things that are not good. And no, none of us look at the back of the bottle. It says, don't reenter the room after you've sprayed this stuff for a couple of hours. But I will tell you this, I'm in the Denver area. There's a great shelter out here called Max Fund. And that was the first one that I connected with. And the interesting thing there is before we started donating to them. They had a parvo outbreak and that same time a COVID outbreak. So the staff was decimated, the dogs were decimated. They couldn't find anybody to come help. It was a total disaster, and I thought, okay, if, if we could just help that 1%, you know, it will be doing so much good for the animals and for the people and the, the overall situation.

Keri Lestage 12:06

Absolutely. Yeah. One other thing I wanted to comment on. You know, Adrian talked about, a little bit about the chemistry, but part of our day job as well is that we manufacture a particular type of sprayer, uh, that is used in, you know, on cruise ships and in hospitals, uh, to be able to, uh, spray surfaces. And what makes these sprayers really special is that they're, uh, they're called electrostatic sprayers, and they're able to spray really complex shapes. So, just as example, like if I wanted to cover my, the front of my phone, I would spray the front of my phone. In a non electrostatic sprayer, you'd have to like walk around and spray every side with our sprayers. Once you spray the front, it will also. Spray the back as well, just by virtue of the way that the sprayer is designed. And so what that means is, is that staff can disinfect the entire facility incredibly quickly. And so I think that's another piece of it, is that it's not just eco-friendly and dog friendly, cat friendly chemistry. But it's the way that we apply it and we talk a lot about process and how to clean and disinfect properly so that we can really minimize the amount of time that shelter folks are spending in this capacity and get them back to actually looking after the animals again.

Julie Marty-Pearson 13:26

And that is so important. We say this a lot, we don't know what we don't know. Right? And we've all been taught to clean a certain way because we think that's how you're supposed to do it. And like you said, we're that smell means, oh, we're cleaning. No, that's not a good thing if we can smell it. I mean, I even found this myself with, one of the things I've had an issue with cats is fleas. It is so hard. Once they're there, it's like they're everywhere. And I really worked to find a product that I knew was safer. And has a nice smell, but then I know it's working because I've seen it work. And so I think there's so many things, little things like that when it comes to cleanliness and even safety that we often don't think about because we don't know. We think that's, it's supposed to smell this way, we're supposed to clean this way. And so even staff and shelters have only been shown what they've been shown. They don't know that this maybe isn't the best way to be cleaning.

Keri Lestage 14:20

That's right. Absolutely.

Adrian Fulle 14:21

Yeah. You know, that's interesting you say that, Julie, because a lot of the bigger shelters and rescues, you know, they have a decent sized staff and they have the ability to, to remove the animal from the space, clean and disinfect, and then put the animal back. But there are, and I didn't know this till we got into it, there are rescues and shelters. That are, I forget the term, but they're open space, you know what I mean? And there's one in mut, Muttville Mu Muttville in San Francisco. It's a senior dog rescue. Um, but it's just a big open space. They're not yet separated. And so how do you clean when you can't remove. The animals, you have to just shift them over to this side of the room, but you can't blast that with peroxide or, or, or a bleach. It's not safe for anybody. You're in an enclosed environment. So there's the turns out our biosecurity kits are a great solution for that type of, uh, shelter as well.

Julie Marty-Pearson 15:11

I think that's an important thing because every shelter, rescue, whatever type of organization, it is different based on the space they have access to. You know, one of my shelters, the city and county used to be together years ago, and then they branched off so that we have a city shelter and a county shelter run separately. There was very little time for the county shelter to find a new facility, so they're actually in what used to be a car. Warehouse for fixing breaks and things like that. So it's not even a facility that was meant for animals and they had to make it work, and they still make it work, but they've had outbreaks of parvo and other illnesses. It got so bad they had to set up fem. Female like tents, move all them into cages outside so they could clean the entire thing and then bring 'em back in. And you think about all the time and cost that went into that process that could have been used helping the animals find homes, but they couldn't get 'em homes when there was, they were at risk of being sick. And so for me, being able to be in the shelter and see a lot of this opened my mind to the issues that shelters face every day that people never see. And I think a lot of it is what you guys are talking about.

Adrian Fulle 16:24

Yeah, it's interesting. What we have found is the shelters who don't accept our kits, it's not in every case, but in some cases they'll say, no, we're good. We've got, this brand, or We're good buying this thing. And we're like, well, this is a donation and it's healthier and safer, um, for the animals. Let's just forget the people for a second. Let's, for the animals, it's way better. They still say no. And what we're discovering is it's unfortunately really hard to change human behavior. Um, we're at the shelter and we're used to doing things this way. And yeah, we know it's probably not the best, but we're just gonna continue doing it this way because we don't want to change. And that's been not a huge roadblock for us as far as getting as many kits out there as we can. But it is one that just continues to baffle my mind as an animal lover and as a person. It's like. If someone came to me and said, Adrian, you're doing this thing that's killing yourself. If you just did it this way, you'd be safe and healthy. I, I would shift, but maybe I'm on u maybe I'm unique in the world. I don't know. You know what I mean?

Julie Marty-Pearson 17:23

Yeah. I think what a lot of what I've learned is it depends on how the shelter's being run and who's in charge of it ultimately, and what I saw from being behind the scenes a little bit was that, you know. A county run shelter has to answer to the county and the people at the county and how they decide where the money's spent and all of this as well as a city or a local shelter, or one being run by a certain nonprofit organization. And there are roadblocks just because of that structure that you think, well, if you did this, it would be so much better. But we're like, we can't do it. We have to have, they have to say, we can do it. And I think that there's so much politics involved in running organizations like. Animal shelters, people don't realize, and they like to blame the staff when the staff has zero control over how they have to do the things in the actual organization and on site.

Zach O'Shea 18:15

And, and from our experience, a lot of the, uh, shelters are also understaffed and underfunded, so they're already stretched thin. And then you're adding another element to, to what they need to do in their day to day. And they're just like, we don't even really have the bandwidth for it. Right? So it's not even really on them.

Julie Marty-Pearson 18:31

Yeah, and you know, if. What I've also seen is any kind of natural disaster in the area or nearby impact shelters. I live about two hours from where all the fires were in LA earlier this year, and our rescues and shelters were impacted by it because we were trying to transport a animals out of the affected areas, but we already were full and the rescues were already. You know, people were saying, we need more fosters. We need to be able to help these animals, but we can't bring 'em here because we already have too many who need help here in our local community. Yeah. So there is this domino effect in a lot of places too.

Adrian Fulle 19:07

So, you know, I think one thing I like to say, Julie, is that the disinfectant that we have in our kit is such a cool, I I would love for Zach. Zach, if you could just jump in and just explain. I think it's really important 'cause it's also something that that company offers. For people in their homes. Mm-hmm. Uh, and it, and it's the same as buying any other disinfectant as far around price rise, but it's way better for the animals. And I, I don't know if Zach, you wanna mention to that? I mean, I wanna get too deep. Yeah,

Zach O'Shea 19:33

Julie. So we have a disinfectant called Clean Republic. It's a multipurpose disinfectant. It's EPA approved. It's safe on food contact surfaces. It's not corrosive or toxic. It doesn't poison the air. We were speaking about what, what's typically used, uh, as far as disinfectants in the shelter before. Um, but when you smell that bleach, obviously pets are much more sensitive to, to smells than, than we are. And so, you know, they're feeling that on a much higher magnitude than we are. So, going back to Clean Republic though we've, uh, been working with this disinfectant for quite a while. We've gotten great feedback on it, especially from the shelters as well. Just as an alternative from accelerated hydrogen peroxide or bleach or whatever they're using before.

Keri Lestage 20:15

Yeah, and one thing I'll just, I'll mention is that on the, he, you know, Zach talked about food contact surfaces. So what that actually means is, is that when you're using bleach or you're using accelerated peroxide or whatever else, you're there, if you actually read the fine print on the back of the label, it'll tell you that if an animal is going to lick a surface or potentially lick a surface, they have to be rinsed with water after you disinfect it. And I. Guarantee that is never happening, right? So the product that we're using that is not a requirement. So you can spray it and leave it, and even if the animal licks it, it's not a problem.

Adrian Fulle 20:54

Yeah, and it has huge, the same, same efficacy, same kill claims list that kills COVID and all the other things you need to kill. It's not some fruitful little, like, you know, tea tree oil and yak poop and, you know what I mean? Like it's just as powerful. Uh, it just doesn't have all the bad side effects. That's pretty much the way I describe it to people and, and it's great. And by the way, there's no scent added. It has a slight little chlorine scent to it, but it has a clean scent just naturally, which is pretty cool.

Julie Marty-Pearson 21:24

Well, and I think so much of what you guys are talking about, it's like, oh my gosh, I don't even think about it. And where, what I claim with in my own home on the kitchen counter, like, geez, and you know, bead in shelters, I see that, even though they're in bowls, their food bowls being put on the same place that was just cleaned with that. And it's the same. I've seen it in the dog runs in the cat kennels, wherever it is, that's where their food goes. And so you. There is no way to keep it off if that's what you're cleaning with, but not actually cleaning it properly with what you're using. So all of what you're talking about makes so much sense to me as you're explaining it. Thinking about when I even volunteered just to clean out the cat kennels, you know, we would move them to a clean one, clean it, move them back, but it wasn't a big period of time in between and their food was there, right away. That's right. So that's a, that's a huge thing alone. Yeah.

Keri Lestage 22:14

Yeah, that's exactly right.

Julie Marty-Pearson 22:16

Yeah, so I'm like, oh my gosh, I gotta think about how we're collating. And I will say, you know, people forget pets are so sensitive to smell and odor and food and all of that. Our oldest cat, Charlie, is 16. He has always been super sensitive. He actually will not eat wet food because of odor. Like if we. Oh, he like literally does that and we're like, okay. And he'll actually, if he smells something he doesn't like, he'll throw up because of it. And having him has made me realize, like, I forget, they're so much more sensitive than our own human noses. And if we smell it, imagine what they're smelling and what they're getting impacted by Just the odor of cleaning or food or whatever may be affecting. Affecting them.

Adrian Fulle 22:59

Exactly. Yeah. And they have also, um, my wife, you know, being the dog trainer she, like, she would come home from work and about three, four minutes before she would arrive, the dog start barking. For the longest time I couldn't figure out what the heck. And then I'm like, how do they know she's gonna arrive in five minutes from now? You know what I mean? But they can hear, the dogs can hear a quarter mile or something like that. I mean, so there's so many other aspects to their senses that we can't even relate to. You know, I'm just dying for the AI app that'll come out. That'll be able to translate what they're. What they're saying and thinking so I can have conversations with my animals. It be so great.

Julie Marty-Pearson 23:36

Yeah. A lot of people like to make fun of the people who use buttons with their dogs and some cats, but it's literally, they know, they're telling you, and I see this all the time. I'll walk simply in the, I work from home, so I walk in the kitchen to fill my water. I turn around and my cats are all at their bowls. They're like ninjas. I don't know how they knew what it was. And they're all sitting there like, hi, you're here, so you must be wanting to give me something. Right. And you know, they're very aware of our routines and the noises and the actions we make to do certain things. And they associate it with being fed, getting a treat, going on a walk, whatever it may be. And so in a shelter, animals are. Overstimulated. They're literally hearing the noise of people and food and you know, being open and shut and all of the dogs and cats meowing and barking. Like sometimes I've gone in and I'm overstimulated. They don't get an escape from it. Then you add the cleaning products on top of it. It's a very stressful environment for them.

Zach O'Shea 24:36

Absolutely.

Keri Lestage 24:37

Yeah, it is. And the other, the other piece that makes it really challenging in these environments where you've got a lot of animals in one place and we, you know, we talked about parvo parvo is transmitted through the air. Quite often and so, so is kemmel cough. So you end up with these viruses that are floating through the air. And so even though you're in the case where you've got a shelter where they basically evacuate all the animals, do a deep cleaning, come back in. As soon as you bring an infected animal back into that space, you're reinfecting that. Area very, very quickly in the air in particular. And so one of the other benefits of the equipment that we're using in the chemistry, and we've got data to show this. So if anyone's interested and wants to be a total dork with me and go down that rabbit hole, I'm happy to do so. But uh, what we've been able to show is, is that we, you spray with our sprayers and our chemistry that we're actually able to knock out those viruses actually out of the air completely. And so it's a bit of a one-two punch. It's not just surfaces, but it's also air as well. So we'll improve the air quality in the shelter.

Julie Marty-Pearson 25:42

Right. And I think that's so important because I saw this firsthand. I was helping with dog adoption events offsite, and we had, uh, a kennel full of puppies. One of the puppies threw up, which is not uncommon when they're in a car. Like I get car sick too. But then at the event, they kept getting sick and so I had to take them back to the shelter. They. Tested the puppy and they had parvo. And you know, I saw the look on the face of the shelter person that was gonna have to put the puppy to sleep. You know, it's a heartbreaking thing that they're having to see. But like you said, where was the puppy already been in that short period of time, and how many other animals could have been potentially infect? And so a lot of shelters have like isolation wards. Yes. The idea is to put them somewhere where other animals aren't there, but they're still in a space with other animals being isolated. That's right. So people don't realize, I think how fast these diseases move. And how many animals have to be euthanized just because of that, right? Because they don't have space to separate them or give them somewhere to go and even fosters. One of the things I was thinking about Zach, when you were talking about how you, we can use them in homes is. So many rescue organizations are foster based, so they're sending these animals out into homes, and yes, they're giving them supplies and telling them how to keep things clean, keep them away from their own pets, but it nothing's foolproof. And if there's ways that we can give fosters better supplies to not only keep the foster animals safe, but their own pets and their own self, I mean, that's a huge, that can be a very positive domino effect in the world of animal rescue.

Zach O'Shea 27:19

Absolutely. And it, uh, kind of brings us to our, uh, another cog in our positive change bundle. It's a product called Arm Rex, and it, uh, it forms an anti-microbial barrier on the applied surfaces. So basically your, your protocol would be, you would treat the surface with Clean Republic and you would remove all of all of that, uh, that organic soil, and then you would apply the armor trucks on top of it. And then that would, uh, that would prevent the growth of bacteria, fungi and all of that for up to 60 days. So not only are you disinfecting, but you're also being proactive in a sense by preventing further colonization through that.

Julie Marty-Pearson 27:58

And you know, that's really big, especially when it comes to young animals like puppies and kittens. I fostered kittens, and it was a litter of six. They had upper respiratory infections. You know, some had gunk in their eyes, some had gunk in their nose, and I was doing eye drops and antibiotics orally with them. We had to go through two rounds because the six of them were together. I actually ended up getting three playpens to separate, but it's like you can't only do so much. They're babies. They're rolling around. They're chewing on each other. They're sucking on each other like it. It's so hard to keep something from spreading within animals in that case. So I can see how important these supplies could be for the shelters and the Fosters and the small rescue organizations. So I am a science nerd. I could go down the science rabbit hole with you guys, I think for hours. Let's get back to everyone listening is hearing this, hearing how great this is, how we want our shelters to get access to this. So what is the process for someone to be able to donate, spread awareness, whatever it may be, to help their own local shelters and rescues may get access to these supplies?

Adrian Fulle 29:07

It's a great question and it's super easy. You just go to positive. That's with a w positive change.org, and you can donate whatever amount you want. Those donations go directly to purchasing the supplies for the kits. Um, we don't really have much overhead. Nobody's getting paid. It's an all volunteer team, so. Nice thing is, unlike some of the other nonprofits in the world, you know that your donation is going a hundred percent to the kits, which are going out to the different, uh, shelters. That's the easiest way to get involved. We have an ambassador program that we're launching so people can be more involved at the ground level and their local shelters if they wanna be. And there's information on the website about that as well. But yeah, positive change.org is the way to do it.

Julie Marty-Pearson 29:53

And I'll have that link in the show notes so you can click and go right there. And I think that's important. You mentioned about ambassadors. You know, one of the reasons I keep this podcast going is I've learned that people learned by hearing the stories, but also the education is key. People understanding why you should adopt, why you should foster, why you should volunteer and support all of these organizations. So I'm sure there are also people listening to this episode who do volunteer, who do work in rescue, who do work in shelters. How can they work with your organization to help their own organizations?

Adrian Fulle 30:29

That's a, another great question, Julie. They, they can reach out to us through the website that we, we have a form there they can fill out. And one of the things I would encourage your listeners to think about, even if they don't volunteer at the shelter or they don't work there, this is not our donation isn't something that has to. Be a transaction between us and the shelter manager. You know, any person can come go to that shelter and say, please take this donation and help sort of facilitate that for their local shelter. A lot of times we don't get in, we, you know, it's hard to get in touch with shelters at times. 'cause they're, like you said, there's so inundated. They don't know what we're saying on the call or what, who we are, and they don't call us back. And so it takes three or four calls to finally get through. It's really helpful if someone lives there and is like, I heard this podcast. You gotta go, here's the website. Go, just they contact us and then we'll, we'll contact the shelter on their behalf. Um, so anyone that wants to just get in and on, that sort of grassroots level is, is very helpful to us and to the animals, of course.

Julie Marty-Pearson 31:28

Yeah, I think that's a really important point because another thing I learned literally sitting at behind the desk at a, at a shelter is they don't have time to answer the phone. A lot of them don't have time to listen to voicemails because the staff they have has to be cleaning, has to be. Caring for the animals and manning the front desk when they're open and answering all of the hundreds of different call, you know, questions that come in, people in person. And I heard people get mad at the staff. It's like it's not the staff's fault. They're doing what they have time to do. And so many of the people I have learned that work in shelter and rescue, take it home with them. They're also fostering at home. They're also rescuing at home. You know, they're doing it 24 7. So if you reach out to an organization in your community and you don't hear back. Via phone or email, walk in and say, Hey, I wanna help you. I wanna connect you. They'll be like, great. Give us the info and we'll tell the right person. Because they don't always get the messages, and it's no fault of their own. It's just the overwhelming system that is set up right now. So I think that's a really important point to make. If you know there's an organization in your community that could benefit from this, yes, go to the website, fill out all the info, donate if you can, but also take that information directly to the people working with the organization.

Adrian Fulle 32:44

A lot, a lot of times, Julie, we get this response, wait, you're, you want to donate this biosecurity kit with, you know, there's a, there's a value put on, we have to always have to put a value on it. Right? And then the sprayers themselves are like $2,000 if you just bought 'em up street. And so the value is very high and they are dubious. And so then they'll call myself or Carrie or Zach and then we say, no, there's no strings attached. We are, we've raised the money, we've got these kits put together. The kit's growing every day with other new things. Um, we want to give this to you, we want you to have this. And so once we get on the phone with them, it's helpful, but a lot of times at first they're like, people call all the time to try to give stuff or donate or what have you. And it's usually things that the shelters don't need. Um, right. So it, it is really helpful to have local advocates.

Julie Marty-Pearson 33:29

Yeah. And you know, I think that is important because there are a lot of scammers and spammers in the world in general on social media. I question all the time when I get reached out by people even to be on the podcast. It's one of the reasons I do pre-calls with people I don't know anything about is because like, I need to make sure you're not trying to scam my listeners. I need to make sure you're not trying to raise money, but you're gonna use it for yourself. And so it is important for shelters and rescues to be very weary. But there are organizations like yours that are literally just there to help. And so there is that education piece in the process too.

Adrian Fulle 34:04

Absolutely. And, um, they can rest assured it's not going to us. We, we have day jobs and, uh, you know, this is, uh, I mean, look, it's similar to the shelters like the three of us and some others. I mean, this is nights and weekends. It's a lot of hard work. So, the payoff is not about money, the payoff. It's about how many more animals lives can we save? And again, it's not just dogs. We talk a lot about dogs, but it's cats. It's, we we're in cat rescues and, it's, it's really just about, because they can't advocate for themselves. They can't, until that AI app comes out and can understand what they're saying. Right. You know, they can't, they're, they're just, they're stuck. So who the only. The only advocates for animals can be humans in this current state. And, um, that's just what we want to be. We wanna be able to help them. So.

Julie Marty-Pearson 34:49

Yeah, and there are a lot of sanctuaries. There are a lot of places that I'm like popping up in my head of people. I'm like, I gotta tell you guys to reach out to them. Because there are a lot of sanctuaries or places where people, they're literally bringing animals into their care to care for them for the rest of their life, however long that is. And they rely solely on donations. Donations for food for. Vaccines for cleaning supplies. So there are so many ways that these supplies could get to them and help and relieve the stress, and we're all feeling it right. Everything costs more now too. Dog food, cat food, supplies, everything costs more. So all of those rescues are that much more stress. So if you know of an organization in your area, whether you visited or volunteered or just followed them on social, see what you can do to help them connect to positive change because I, I know it'll make a big difference. And, and that connection between what you guys are doing and the organizations is probably the hardest part, I'm sure.

Zach O'Shea 35:47

Absolutely.

Julie Marty-Pearson 35:48

Well, I wanna thank all three of you for being here. You're all very busy with day jobs and doing this work. Is there any last piece of info or anything you wanna share before we wrap up the interview?

Keri Lestage 36:00

The only thing I'd say is that if there's any, um, folks that are involved in shelters listening to this, if they need help, just in terms of like, how do I clean and disinfect properly, please reach out. Or if you have an outbreak and you need help kind of figuring out how to solve it. Reach out, this is what we do as a, for a living. And we'd be happy to lean in and provide even just over the phone, information or expertise that may be able to relieve some of that pressure that they're always under. So we're here if they need anything.

Julie Marty-Pearson 36:32

That's great. Thank you for saying that. Anything else, Adrian or Zach? I'll leave it.

Zach O'Shea 36:39

We're, we're in 1200 shelters, uh, so far, and we're just getting started, so we're excited to, uh, multiply that as many times as we can.

Julie Marty-Pearson 36:49

Great. I love that. Yes. I think people don't realize how many shelters there are in your local commute. Uh, like we have three where I live within, you know, a half hour of where I live, literally. And so that multiplies as you. And I'm in California and that's one town in California. So you. Research if you don't know who might be of benefit. And one of the things that all of these organizations need is more visibility. So if it's you reaching out to them or posting about them on social, all of it helps. But anyway, we can connect organizations like Positive Change with the rest. Use on the front lines is, you know, a way we could impact animals every day. And I always love seeing a little cattail join us within the interview. It's like they know, they know what we're talking about. Oh, what a beauty. Thank you Adrian Carrie and Zach for being here. Thank you for what you're doing with this. Nonprofit organization, helping animals in your own communities and other places. You know, it takes a village and that's what we need right now in our current overpopulation crisis. And so I really appreciate your time and coming here and sharing your stories. Absolutely. Thanks.

Zach O'Shea 37:54

Thank you for the time, Julie. We appreciate it. Absolutely.

Adrian Fulle 37:57

Thanks, Julie.

Julie Marty-Pearson 37:59

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Story of My Pet podcast. I appreciate you listening and supporting the podcast, and if you haven't already, wherever you are listening to this episode, make sure you hit follow or subscribe and leave us a rating or review. All of that helps the podcast grow and get to even more listeners, and help us educate and advocate for animals in need around the world. If you haven't done so already, make sure to check out our new YouTube channel, Story of My Pet podcast. Again, hit the subscribe button, give us some likes and comments on our videos, and that will help the podcast grow on its, on YouTube. Thank you so much for being here, and much love to you and your pet