Inspiring Good

Rob LaRoy on rescue, rehabilitation, and rehoming animals in Elkhart County

• Community Foundation of Elkhart County

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In this episode of the Inspiring Good Podcast, hosts Marshall King and Kevin Deary engage with Rob LaRoy, Executive Director of the Humane Society of Elkhart County, discussing the organization's mission to rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome animals. The conversation delves into various aspects of animal welfare, challenges in the nonprofit sector, and innovative programs that support the community and its pets, highlighting the critical role of passionate volunteers, effective leadership, and community engagement in overcoming challenges such as animal overpopulation and fostering a culture of care.

00:27 Meet Rob Leroy: A Journey in Nonprofits
00:54 Mission and Impact of the Humane Society
03:22 Community Engagement and Responsibilities
05:58 Programs and Initiatives at the Shelter
10:59 Challenges and Success Stories
19:43 Building a Strong Organization
26:21 Future and Hope for Nonprofit Leadership


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This show is a production of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County. It is powered by equipment from Sweetwater and recorded in The Riverbend building in Elkhart's River District. Editing is done by the award-winning communication students at Goshen College, home of one of the best college radio stations in the nation. Listen to Globe Radio at 91.1 FM. Learn more about the Community Foundation of Elkhart County at inspiringgood.org You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Music is provided by Sensational Sounds. Thanks for listening. We hope you are inspired and inspire good and your community.

Marshall King:
Welcome to the Inspiring Good Podcast. This podcast is brought to you by the Community foundation of Elkhart county, which serves a vibrant community in Northern Indiana, known for its generosity and strong network of nonprofit organizations. I'm Marshall King, your co host with Kevin Deary, a veteran nonprofit CEO who now coaches others. Rob leroy is executive director of the Humane Society of Elkhart County. He is our guest today. This job for Rob is his third career, having previously overseen a Big Brother's Big Sisters organization and worked in YMCAs. Rob, good to have you here. Welcome. 

Rob LaRoy:
Thank you, Marshall. I'm very glad to be here today. 

Kevin Deary:
So glad to have you. My friend, one of the veteran CEOs here now in Elkhart county done such a good job, and somebody I know I can call on anytime. But we're here to talk about Humane Society of Elkirk County. And why don't you talk a little bit about the mission and what you guys do over there? 

Rob LaRoy:
Yeah, we're excited to have the opportunity to talk about the Humane Society and animal welfare in general. Just kind of what changes we've seen, especially since COVID you know, the Humane Society. Our mission is to rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome animals. And we also advocate for the compassionate care of of animals just in our community. 

Kevin Deary:
So what drew you to this job? 

Rob LaRoy:
Well, you know, I had spent some time at Big Brothers, Big Sisters and at the Y, and, you know, had really spent a lot of time with children and people and really had the opportunity to see what animals do for people in our community. You know, more so than even 20 years ago. Animals are becoming part of our families. You know, maybe sometimes people take it too far with some of the outfits that I see people put their pets in. But, you know, I think that they can definitely do some good in bringing children up and giving them some responsibility and adults as well. 

Kevin Deary:
My wife's a retired dog groomer, and she will tell you that people will take better care of their dogs than they do themselves. In times of when money is tight, they'll push off their hair and appointments, but their dog will go every two weeks on time. 

Rob LaRoy:
Yeah, absolutely. There's a book out right now, and it's titled My Dog Always Eats First. And it was a social psychologist who went into the homeless population and talked to people who have pets with them while they're homeless. And it's providing them with something to live for, is providing them for responsibility. And they have said, I'll go without eating before something happens to my dog. This is who I'm here to take Care of. 

Kevin Deary:
Now. I recently put my dog, Clemson. His name's Clemson. He's a little mini schnauzer. I put him on a performance improvement plan at home. Just sat down, had a talk with him about incessant barking and taking his food and throwing it all over the carpet, eating two pieces and going back to his bowl. And you got any advice for me on that? 

Rob LaRoy:
Well, you know, you're the coach here, Kevin, and I would suspect that, you know, your behavior modification has worked very well in your home, and I'm sure it will work for Clemson as well. 

Kevin Deary:
Well, he's a project, that's for sure. Hey, let's talk about community. How do you balance your very busy and growing job at the Humane Society with all of your community responsibilities? 

Rob LaRoy:
Yeah, you know, this is something that, you know, as I left the YMCA and moved into my role at the. At the Humane Society, I thought, you know, at the ymca, you know, we had swimming and we had football and we had soccer, and, you know, every minute of every day, there was something happening at our. At the facility. And I thought, man, I'm going to take it easy a little bit. I'm going to go into this, you know, program where all we really do is adopt animals out. Man, was I wrong. I mean, there is a thousand moving parts, just like any nonprofit that you come across. But, you know, the number of people that we serve outside of the building is twice the number of people we serve in the building. And so it's been pretty interesting to see that how our work collaborating with others in the community has really worked towards serving more animals and more people. 

Kevin Deary:
You have completed a capital campaign just a few years ago and just have a beautiful, stunning facility, had a privilege of taking a tour, met with you in your office. How did that come about? 

Rob LaRoy:
Well, you know, the Pryor shelter, I came after the shelter was completed, so I was very fortunate. The Pryor shelter had been built in the late 50s and, you know, was. Was in need of repair. In the past, a lot of shelters, ourselves included, used bleach to clean everything. That was really how we could sanitize. And as you know, bleach will just destroy everything that you use to clean it with. And so, you know, it was time. Ann Real, my predecessor, one of her last acts, was to put together a team to really go out and raise that money and raised nearly $6 million to build this new FAC. And I think it's just a picture of our community. I think you've seen it over and over. Obviously, you know, that people want the best for both the people and the pets in our community, and went out and got that done. 

Kevin Deary:
I believe we used the same contractor. 

Rob LaRoy:
I think so, yeah. 

Kevin Deary:
Because we were building the same time Humane Society was building. So just what a tremendous community we have. So generous, so giving. They see a need in the community and they value their children, their elderly, their animals. So we're just blessed to live here. I came from New England, as you know, and I've never seen any place like this. I've been here 32 years now, and I don't plan on leaving because the people are that special. Let me ask a question about your programs. What kind of programs and initiatives do you have going on? 

Rob LaRoy:
So we have, you know, we have a lot of things going on at the shelter. You know, as I intimated a minute ago, there's always a million things going on. You know, we are the third largest shelter in the state of Indiana by intake. You would think, you know, that being really a smaller community or a less populous county, we would not be. But we served nearly 12,000 animals last year, and a lot of that is going through our small clinic right now. We're in the process right now of completing a larger space for our clinic, and we'll probably looking at about 6 to 7,000 animals getting spayed or neutered through that clinic next year. So certainly a big part of what we do there. We are also animal control for the. For the county. You know, as we got post Covid and law enforcement became more and more stretched, and it's become more and more difficult for law enforcement to fill all of the spots that they need to have. One of the largest number of calls they get is for animal complaints. And so the animal control officers that we employ are not law enforcement by any means, but we've taken on a larger share of that. Where the county sheriffs and local deputies and local municipalities have taken on calls in the past. We're doing the majority of that now. So that's a very large program for us. And it's really changed over the years from more of a enforcement or controlling part of our services to really working with people, to discovering how can we keep your dog at home. Okay, so your dog has gotten out. What's the issue? Well, the kids were on spring break. They left the gate open. We let the dog out and ran. Okay, well, that's an easy fix. Two, you know, we let the dog out. There's a hole in the fence. It got through the fence. Okay, well, let's figure out how we can fix the hole in the fence rather than bringing your dog back to you three times, you know, so our animal control officers are really becoming more in field social workers, working with people to understand what's going on with their pets and how to work with getting them home. The other bigger. The bigger programs that we do is we do return animals in the field to people. Used to be we'd go out, pick the pet up, bring it back to the shelter and put it in a kennel, and if they showed up, they showed up. And if not, then we, you know, we took the animal and we adopted it out or sent it to a rescue. And we're. We're spending a lot more time now trying to return the animal in the field. 

Kevin Deary:
I see your trucks everywhere. So do you have any funny stories about. From some of your officers that are out there that whether it's raccoons or snakes or. You gotta have just a. A lot of those stories? 

Rob LaRoy:
Well, one. That. One that comes to mind immediately. So, you know, you think of the Humane Society, most of the time you're thinking of dogs and cats. However, we do, we see about 50 different species every year. You know, skunks, deer, turtles. I think we have two rabbits in our facility right now. You know, so there's just a whole range of animals that we're supposed to be the experts for, you know, well, you know, we're not Steve Irwin by any means, but a few years ago, we got a call in the city of Elkhart that a neighbor swore she saw an alligator in the neighbor's backyard. And we thought, well, this. I mean, what is this person on? First of all, well, go over there. Let's check it out. Sure enough, there was an alligator in this person's backyard. They had one of those little kiddie pools half filled with water, and they had an alligator in the yard. So just in case any of your podcast listeners are wondering, it is illegal to own an alligator in the city of Elkhart without the proper documentation. And so our officers brought that alligator back, and it lived in our shower at work for about three days. And believe it or not, there is an alligator rescue in Athens, Michigan. And so we put the call out to our volunteers. We need someone to bring this alligator up to Athens, Michigan. And surprisingly, we didn't have any takers on that. So my wife said, you know what, being the good wife, I'll take the animal up there. I'll take the alligator up there. And so she loaded up our four younger children, and, you know, we we did the best possible thing we could do. We put the alligator in like a four foot rubber tote and poked some holes in the top of it and put it in the van and she took off to Athens, Michigan. Well, about halfway there, that alligator raised its head up and popped the lid off of the, of the top of that tote. And so my, my 10 year old daughter screams, gets out of her seat and goes over and sits on top of the tote the rest of the way to Athens to keep that alligator in it. And so my wife reminds me frequently that, that sometimes she's kind of done volunteering for us. 

Marshall King:
That's a great story, Rob. What you see the full range of animal health in Elkhart County. I mean, you see animals that are pampered, you see animals that aren't. What do you know about our community because of what you see related to the health of the animals in our community? 

Rob LaRoy:
So I think the best way to look at that is that people truly care about animals in particular, and mostly about their pets. But even when we see hoarding situations where people will have 30, 40 cats in their house, it all started because they loved these animals. You know, they started with two, three, four cats. You know, weren't able to get them spayed or neutered, either didn't have the means to do so, or couldn't get in to get it done. And before you know it, you've got 30 cats in your house. They never intended to have that happen, and it can turn into a real health issue for them as well. But I would say, you know, more than anything else, you know, the, that people love their pets in our community. And I'm not sure that that's necessarily different than a lot of places, but in our community we have people that are willing to help them. You know, we work with about 30 different rescues, most of them right here in Elkhart County. Without the rescue work that's being done, we would be inundated with animals. And I always say you can never build a shelter large enough to house all the animals that need help in your community. But without these rescues, there would be a lot more situations going on that we would need to make drastic steps with. 

Kevin Deary:
You know, how many rescues do we have? 

Rob LaRoy:
I think that we're anywhere from about 15 to 20 rescues in our, in our county. We work with a lot of rescues in Lagrange and St. Joe and Kosciusko county as well, having the clinic at our shelter. A lot of our rescues come to us to do the surgery for their animals and, you know, even just provide rabies shots or vaccinations or whatever. And so we have the opportunity to work with a lot of different people. 

Kevin Deary:
I live in a neighborhood that is populated by a lot of feral cats. So how did that situation happen and how does it keep on happening? 

Rob LaRoy:
Well, overpopulation in our county is crazy. You know, we have overpopulation of both dogs and cats. You know, the difference is that dogs can be seen as public nuisances and safety issues. And so, you know, we don't allow them to just run around. And I mean, we, as in a community, whereas cats, you know, people think, well, you know, they're kind of taking care of themselves. They may be a barn cat or hunting and keeping mice out of our yard or whatever, but, you know, one of the things that we really need to consider is really being able to spay and neuter the majority of these community cats so that we don't just see this population continuing to grow. We did a pilot project with Timberbrook Mobile Home park, which is across the street from the shelter, and trapped in 2020 and 2021, we trapped over 180 cats in that trailer park. And we've seen that population continue to dwindle just in the last two, three years. And so we know that this is something that will work. The problem is that the problem is so large, it would be. Would be difficult to be able to spay and neuter enough of these cats to be able to really make a dent in it. And also there's the, you know, the situation that there are just some people that don't want cats in their yard. And I completely understand that. You know, if. If your neighbor has 20 cats that she's feeding in her backyard, you don't necessarily want them over on your deck and, you know, scratching in all your plants and everything else outside. And so it really is an issue. One of the problems that we have right now is that we're not doing anything to combat it, you know, other than people who, out of the kindness of their heart, are capturing these. These cats and. And paying out of their own pocket to spay or neuter. We're not making a dent in the population. 

Marshall King:
So, Rob, if somebody encounters a situation like this, do they just call the Humane Society? Like, part of the. The larger question is, how do people best engage the Humane Society or get involved, whether it's. It's in their neighborhood, you know, with an unfortunate situation, or helping the agency itself? Like what. How do people engage you? 

Rob LaRoy:
Yeah, so we do A lot of education pieces outside of the shelter, but obviously making a phone call to us first, especially in a situation where you would have, you know, a lot of feral cats in your community, there are things that we can do to work with the neighbors to help with that, as far as some deterrence to keep them out of your yard. You know, we don't trap the cats ourselves anymore, but there are several rescues that do, and so we can work with those rescues to work on that. We provide a lot of our education online now, too. Just, you know, I think it was one of the good things that came out of COVID was that we realized there had to be a different way for us to get the word out of how to work with your own pet or work with neighbors that are not necessarily taking care of their pets the way they ought to. And so being able to provide that information either through social media or online has been a good step for us to get more of the word out. I do think, though, that myself, as I came into this position and as I talked to people in our community, there's a lack of understanding of just how big of a problem animals are in our area. You know, the running at large dogs and the community cats that we talked about. You know, just the thought that the shelter is there to take care of all of these situations. Shelter ought to be a place for animals that don't have a home or don't have, you know, have. Have behavioral issues or are sick or injured. And we're taking in animals that have an owner, and we're. And we're trying to find the owner. And so a lot of that should be done in the community with our guidance where we can help. But we spend a lot of time taking care of animals that already have an owner. 

Marshall King:
You mentioned that you do animal control for the county and Elkhart City. Do you do it for all the municipalities or do like. I know that sometimes there are arrangements needed there. Like what? Can you come to the city of Goshen or the town of Millersburg and help someone in need? 

Rob LaRoy:
Yes, we work with every municipality. Until about three years ago, we did not serve. Napanee was actually serviced by Kosciusko county, but we brought them in about three years ago. So we work with every municipality, which is, you know, a challenge in itself, that our animal control officers have to have at least an officer, a law enforcement officer, or the chief that they're able to make contact with and be able to work with in situations that are dangerous. You know, sometimes our animal control Officers are put in some pretty dangerous situations. You know, if someone is barricaded in a home and there's a pit bull in there with them, the officer. The law enforcement officers are not going in until we have that pit bull. And so we work hand in hand with. With law enforcement, and of course, they're there to help keep our. Our employees safe. But it's becoming more and more of a dangerous situation to work in that type of role. 

Kevin Deary:
So one nuisance that you'll see over social media a lot, and I know you have no control over this, but maybe it's something you can speak to, and that is Canadian geese. They are everywhere. I mean, like, almost Alfred Hitchcock birds level. Why are there so many? And why are they. I know they're protected. 

Rob LaRoy:
Yeah, it's a difficult situation because they're federally protected. However, and we'd have to talk with Jamison Czarnecki to get the exact language on this. Those that are. And I might get this backwards, those that are transitory, we cannot do anything with. But if they're. If they are geese that stay in our area, we're able to do something with. And just because they're federally protected, we just kind of stay away from them, you know, but they. They are. 

Kevin Deary:
So we need to check their documentation, Is that what you're saying? 

Rob LaRoy:
That's it, yeah. We need to check their passport, see where their. Their home is located. And, you know, most of them are banded, and we. We get geese occasionally. You know, it's not something that there's a whole lot we can do with, but, you know, all the. You know, all the wild animals become somebody's issue at some point. And so, you know, Canadian geese are. Are one that I think we'll continue to see be an issue for some time. 

Kevin Deary:
Yeah, just a lot. So let's talk about building an organization. So when you came in to the Humane Society, you took over an organization that had been around for a long time, had been run well, but you knew there were some needs and some opportunities, and you went. You started with, I believe, looking at the staff and making sure we had the right staff. You wanted to have a higher level clinical, technical ability to take care of animals. So I thought, you know, one of the things when we first met, when you first got here, was you just wanted to bring a higher level of care to the animals, but also you started working on transformation of the board. So. And that's something that we talk a lot about in our nonprofit circles, but maybe you can talk about that journey of While you're building your team and volunteers, you're also building the board. 

Rob LaRoy:
Yeah, actually today happens to be the Humane Society of Elkhart county's birthday. We're 86 years old today. And so, you know, over those 86 years, our board and our volunteers have looked very different. You know, started in the early years. It was mostly for dogs, really concerned with rabies at that time. You know, there was. Most animals were not vaccinated by any means and was really a situation where it was a public safety issue. You know, over the years, our board has transformed and changed. You know, I mentioned my predecessor earlier. You know, she walked into a situation where the Humane Society was in pretty dire need of leadership and, you know, had some great partners come alongside her. Tom and Sarah Elkin came on the board and, you know, really gave a lot of credence to the board of directors and to the Humane Society. That kind of evolved into a few more people who were very caring and had some good sense. Bernice Sims came on our board with her time at the bank, and from there grew into Lana Schultz and Kim Welch coming on our board and. And really just starting to kind of build that business sense and sense of being connected in our community. And so, you know, they've continued to bring in these professionals who not only have prior board experience in other areas, but really have the connections in the community to go out and talk about the Humane Society and the programs that we're doing and really garner support for it. You know, we've always had kind, caring, you know, compassionate, animal minded people on our board, and we still have that. But that's not been the first thing that we ask someone before they come onto our board. Now, now we know, okay, you know, we're looking for an attorney. And so we go out and we talk to Joel Duthie and, you know, are fortunate to have Joel come on our board. And Chris Potrates from Warwick and Boyne. We've been able to bring some of these very talented people onto our board of directors that then make it so much easier for me to be able to work with our leadership team and build that. 

Marshall King:
You mentioned Bernie Sims. We'll put a link to the story in the show notes. But in our last annual report, we did a story about Bernie and her legacy gift that she left to the community foundation after her death. That will help. That helps the endowment of the Humane Society and some other organizations. A great story of leaving a legacy and inspiring generosity. And so I'm glad that you brought her up. 

Rob LaRoy:
Yeah, we miss her every day. You know, not only was she a great supporter of the organization, but she also went above and beyond working in that red barn countless hours, you know, tagging, you know, things to be sold garage sale style with all the proceeds coming to the shelter. You know, she was also. She was just a lot of fun. You know, even. Even when she was at Brentwood, she would. She would have their drivers bring her back over to the Humane Society just to talk. And so we'd all. If you've ever ridden with Bernice, you know, first of all, you're lucky you're still around. She drove 80 miles an hour everywhere she went and pulled in on two wheels, you know, and so when she came the last time I saw her at the shelter, she came in and I asked her if they. They had let her drive the bus over there. Oh, no, they won't let me drive that. And it wouldn't go fast enough anyway, she says. So, you know, it's just a really great lady and did a lot for our community. 

Kevin Deary:
She lived life to its fullest. Loved her community. Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about volunteers. So you mentioned the red barn. My wife has volunteered for a couple years at Humane Society. Loves it. She's darling from dog grooming. She came home one day, told me she was going to Illinois because she was delivering a dog to Illinois. So I know she's done transport. She's folded 1,000 towels or more because of the nonstop laundry. And she's worked at the red barn. And so she's really kind of had a. Oh, she's also walked dogs and did all that, but she's really enjoyed her experience. But what are you looking for, for volunteers? If somebody wanted to volunteer? There's so many opportunities. Tell me about your volunteer program. 

Rob LaRoy:
Yeah, we have a lot of areas for people to volunteer, and we have a lot of volunteers. Some of them we may see once twice a week. Some people we may see once every six months. But what they're really doing is they're allowing the animals a time to socialize in many cases, you know, so we have four outdoor runs for the dogs to play in, and then we have a one acre play yard where we actually host playgroups for the dogs that are in the shelter. And a lot of our volunteers are really doing that work. Our staff are involved in, you know, cleaning the kennels, feeding the dogs, giving the cats, giving them what medications they need. It doesn't leave a whole lot of time to socialize any of the animals. And so These volunteers are coming in and doing that. And then as you mentioned, you know, our laundry, you know, we run 17 commercial loads of laundry every day. Every animal gets a towel or a blanket, gets a bed. All of those things need to be washed every day. And so, you know, most of the animals are going through two, three towels or blankets a day. And our volunteers are stepping in and taking care of some of those roles that probably aren't the most glamorous thing, you know, when you're, you know, shaking what ends up in those blankets out and washing them. It's probably not the most glamorous task in the world. 

Kevin Deary:
I do know that my wife and I obviously share chores, but she would fold the laundry, but not the towels. She left those for me. She had folded enough towels that week. So let me ask a question. There's a lot of young folks that want to get into non profit work and they want to be a non profit leader, executive director, CEO. They want to lead their organization. And you remember when we were young in our career, that's what we were going to do. We just couldn't wait to get in the seat of authority and make things run. Then we got there and we realized there's a lot of late nights and early mornings and weekends, and it's a lot of work. And most importantly, it's a tremendous responsibility with the authority. But if you could give advice to today's young people that are coming up and are applying for these roles of community leader of any nonprofit, what advice would you give them? 

Rob LaRoy:
So, first of all, I'd say I continue to be impressed every day with the young people that work for me. You know, and young people that work in nonprofits in particular in our community, we see the work that they're doing. And it's one of the things that, you know, as the veteran, as you call it, you know, I think that just means you're old enough, you've been around for a while. You know, you see these young people who are really starting to feel their way through nonprofit leadership. We have a lot of young leaders in our facility. It's one of the things that really gives me the strength. I think the thing that worked for us as we were coming up is what will work for them as well is really being a servant leader, rejecting passivity, that you can't just let things happen. You have to make sure that it's happening in the right way, which means you need to accept responsibility and lead courageously in what you're doing. And so, you know, I think as our young leaders look at the direction that they're going, I think it serves them well to look at themselves as a servant first. 

Kevin Deary:
I love that, being a servant leader, but lead courageously and know how to find that balance that in between road. That's such great advice. What are the biggest challenges facing Humane Society right now? 

Rob LaRoy:
So I think, you know, our growth becomes a challenge. You know, we have tripled our budget in five years. We're just finishing an addition on our facility. But the biggest challenge overall is the overpopulation in our community. You know, we have a lot of commercial breeders in our community. We have a lot of backyard breeders. Whether if it's by accident or on purpose, you know, it's a money maker for people. And. And to be quite honest, there are people that want certain breeds of dogs, and so they. They kind of look at that as an opportunity to, you know, get a doodle. I have a doodle myself, you know, and. And he's one of the best dogs I've ever had. So I understand the desire to get a certain breed of dog. You know, I think that's. That's the challenge going forward is. Is how we continue to work with our commercial breeders, many of whom are doing tremendous work and doing it well, doing it right. They're working with veterinarians. All of their, you know, puppies are getting all the shots that they need. They're seeing vets and getting all of the work done correctly. A lot of times people ask me about puppy mills, you know, and I would say, you know, we do have a challenge with that in our community. In any type of business, there are going to be people that don't do it well. I would say it's similar to kind of our hoarding situations where they get into it because they really love these animals, and it's what they want to do when they're providing a service. They get in over their heads, and that's where it really becomes a problem. But for me to sit here and speak poorly of commercial breeders or the work that they're doing would be ingenuous, because I know that it's a service that people want, and most of them are doing it very well. 

Kevin Deary:
Rob, if you could. Looking at pet. I mean, when I grew up, if you wanted a dog or a cat, you went to the pet shop. Now, I grew up in a city that was a long time ago, but much like puppy mills or people who are breeding animals, adoption, you guys have streamlined it, which I really much appreciate, because many years ago, people didn't want to take the time to do the adoption because of the amount of time when they could just walk into a barn or a store and buy it. But because you guys do your homework, you make sure they're spayed and neutered. But you have really streamlined and what's it about 15 minutes now? 

Rob LaRoy:
It's about 15 minutes now. It's one of the things that we're most proud of, that we've really reduced the barriers to adopting a pet. And you're right, you come in, it's already spayed or neutered. It's had all of its shots. If it's on medication, those medications are going home with you, you know, so you have the opportunity to come in, walk through, see a pet that sticks out to you. And, you know, quite often we'll hear people say, well, my, you know, my pet chose me. I didn't choose it. You know, as they're walking through this one just looked into my eyes and saw into my soul and knew that it had to go home with me, you know, and, you know, so many times we can see them as they're leaving the facility. And it's not just a tail wag on the dog, it's a whole body shimmer. You know, they're just so happy to be, to be heading out. One of the things in particular is that we really look at our length of stay for animals and there's, there's no time period for animals at all. You know, if they're in the shelter, they're, they're in the shelter and they're, they're being evaluated on things outside of how long they've been there, you know, so, you know, one of the questions I get frequently is the difference between a kill shelter and a no kill shelter. Just to give you the definition, a no kill shelter means that 90% of the animals that come in your facility go back out alive in some way. We do euthanize animals at times, and we always strive for that 90% mark. And some years we've hit it. We've been as high as 93% before. In other years, you know, last year in particular, we were at 87%. One of the things in particular that we've seen is we've seen a lot of sick cats. You know, and I think one of the reasons for that is what you, what you talked about earlier is that people that just have too many cats and these ferals that are in their community, they come into us and it may be thousands of dollars to medicate this cat and, you know, help it feel better. And at the end of the day, you could put all that money into this cat, and you still have a feral cat that no one's gonna want in their home. It's gonna eat your couch, you know, so we do end up kind of walking that line. We always try to make the right decision for every animal on an individual basis. It's not based on how long they've been in the shelter or how old they are, how young they are, anything like that. It's like, what's best for this animal. 

Marshall King:
Now, Rob, we always close with a question to our guests, which is, what gives you hope? 

Rob LaRoy:
Yeah, I think the, you know, the thing that I keep coming back to is the young staff that we have. You know, I'm sitting here now and, you know, knowing that I'm. I'm not going to be running the shelter forever. And I have, you know, quite a few years left, I hope. And of course, that's always up to my board of directors. I guess I work at their pleasure. But, you know, the young leaders that we have in our organization and those that I see in the nonprofits in our community, we're in good hands moving forward. You know, there's. There are a lot of good people working in nonprofits right now, and we see it in our. In our CEO roundtable group with the leaders that we have that come in. And I'm just so impressed with the, you know, 25, 30, 35 year old people that are coming in and running these organizations. 

Kevin Deary:
Full of energy. 

Rob LaRoy:
Oh, full of energy and doing a great job. Yeah. You know, I think that's the. I think that's the challenge is, you know, when you're. When you're 25 or 30 years old. I became an executive director at 27 years old. 

Kevin Deary:
I was 32. 

Rob LaRoy:
And like you, I thought I knew what I was doing, you know, and that's a scary thing. I was very fortunate that I had a. Actually, it was a past director of a Big Brother Speak Sisters that came alongside of me and, you know, kind of took me by the hand and it sometimes kind of whacked me in the back of the head and said, this is what you need to be doing, you know, you know, do this, do this, and really kind of guiding me along the way. So I hope I can be the person that kind of smacks people in the back of the head and helps there and maybe take them by the hand sometimes, too. 

Marshall King:
This show is a production of the Community foundation of Elkhart County. It is powered by equipment from Sweetwater and recorded at the Community Foundation's offices in Elkhart's River District. Editing is done by the award winning communications students at Goshen College, home of one of the best college radio stations in the nation. Listen to Globe Radio at 91.1 FM. Music is provided by Sensational Sounds. Learn more about the Community foundation of elkhart county@inspiringgood.org. you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We hope you're inspired and inspire good in your community.