Get ready to be inspired by Joe Elmore, the charismatic president and CEO of Charleston Animal Society, as he recounts his fascinating shift from engineering to the helm of a leading animal welfare organization. Through engaging stories and invaluable insights, Joe exemplifies how strategic innovation and heartfelt compassion have skyrocketed the society's success in saving animal lives. Our vibrant discussion not only highlights the triumphs but also the trials of transforming a time-honored institution into a beacon of hope and education for both animals and the community.
Our conversation with Joe Elmore takes a deep dive into the essential programs shaping future generations to become caring and responsible pet owners. We explore the complexities of animal law, the seasonal kitten surges, and the heartening tales of families learning life's delicate lessons through animal fostering. Moreover, we dissect the often misunderstood aspects of animal rescue, sharing crucial advice on when to intervene – and when it's best to step back – to ensure young animals' best chance for survival.
Wrapping up this enlightening episode, we dissect the logistics behind Charleston Animal Society's record-setting vaccine event and how it served as a vital preparedness exercise for potential disasters. We then switch gears to provide actionable tips for small nonprofits to bolster their fundraising and operational effectiveness. Closing on a whimsical note, we muse on the superpowers of shelter animals and celebrate the remarkable 150-year legacy of Charleston Animal Society’s unwavering commitment to advocacy and the welfare of our four-legged friends.
Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Studio Sponsor: Charleston Radio Group
Production Sponsor: rūmbo advertising
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC President
Michael Cochran | Co-host | Foundation Chair
John Carroll | Co-host | Member at Large
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Scott Labarowski | Co-host | Membership Chair
Tammy Becker | President Elect
Jennifer Maxwell | Co-host
Darius Kelly | Creative Director | DK Design
Get ready to be inspired by Joe Elmore, the charismatic president and CEO of Charleston Animal Society, as he recounts his fascinating shift from engineering to the helm of a leading animal welfare organization. Through engaging stories and invaluable insights, Joe exemplifies how strategic innovation and heartfelt compassion have skyrocketed the society's success in saving animal lives. Our vibrant discussion not only highlights the triumphs but also the trials of transforming a time-honored institution into a beacon of hope and education for both animals and the community.
Our conversation with Joe Elmore takes a deep dive into the essential programs shaping future generations to become caring and responsible pet owners. We explore the complexities of animal law, the seasonal kitten surges, and the heartening tales of families learning life's delicate lessons through animal fostering. Moreover, we dissect the often misunderstood aspects of animal rescue, sharing crucial advice on when to intervene – and when it's best to step back – to ensure young animals' best chance for survival.
Wrapping up this enlightening episode, we dissect the logistics behind Charleston Animal Society's record-setting vaccine event and how it served as a vital preparedness exercise for potential disasters. We then switch gears to provide actionable tips for small nonprofits to bolster their fundraising and operational effectiveness. Closing on a whimsical note, we muse on the superpowers of shelter animals and celebrate the remarkable 150-year legacy of Charleston Animal Society’s unwavering commitment to advocacy and the welfare of our four-legged friends.
Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Studio Sponsor: Charleston Radio Group
Production Sponsor: rūmbo advertising
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC President
Michael Cochran | Co-host | Foundation Chair
John Carroll | Co-host | Member at Large
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Scott Labarowski | Co-host | Membership Chair
Tammy Becker | President Elect
Jennifer Maxwell | Co-host
Darius Kelly | Creative Director | DK Design
Hello and welcome to the Building Business Podcast powered by the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. We're here, recording in the Charleston Radio Group studios. Thank you for being such a great supporter. Charleston Radio Group. I'm here, me Kathy Herman. I am the current president of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce and I am also the marketing director at Mount Pleasant Town Center. So I want to thank all of you for joining us today. My co-host, michael Cochran. Michael Cochran is the 2024 Chair for the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Kathy. Yep and Chamber's a wonderful organization. I've been involved for several years and love doing the innovative things that we're doing with this podcast and, Kathy, we're looking forward to a great year with you at the helm.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that very much, michael, and, of course, our very special guest, someone who I am so excited to talk with, who I look up to for all the work that he's done, not just in this area but across the country. I am so excited to welcome Joe Elmore, the president and CEO of Charleston Animal Society. Joe, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you, kathy, thank you, michael. It's a pleasure, it's an honor to be here, and working with you over the years has just been a delight.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I have you here for two reasons. One, because I personally love the Charleston Animal Society and, of course, professionally, Town Center does a lot with you. But I'm so excited to hear and hopefully be able to share with our listeners how perhaps some of our smaller nonprofit members can learn from you and you can share some of your secrets for becoming such a successful organization. But before we start there, for people who do not know Joe, do you want to give us a little bit of your background, Joe, and how you became involved with the Charleston Animal Society? Yeah, sure.
Speaker 3:Well, I was a young wet-behind-the-ears engineer with Mobile Oil Corporation down in the early 80s on the Texas-Mexican border drilling for natural gas. That's just not where my heart was, it's where my aptitude was. So anyway. But problem solving, it's all about problem solving. Engineering is, and I had volunteered for nonprofits since I was in high school.
Speaker 3:So, one thing led to another and I was in my 20s and I thought I wanted to go out and save the world, one cause at a time. So you know, I didn't think about bills and that kind of thing and what an engineering career would help, you know, in that regard. But I decided to take off. I went to I think I started out in St Louis, missouri and nine states, three times overseas, some of those states a couple of different times, but gravitating towards really kind of the most vulnerable, I don't want to say victims, but just the most vulnerable creatures, whether human or animal or that type of thing that you know I could stumble upon. And it was one thing after another. It was everything from a lot of disasters I think I've been in somewhere I stopped counting around 22 or 23 hurricanes, but earthquakes, you know those kinds of things, a lot of tornadoes, all that stuff, but eventually crisis management and organizational turnarounds.
Speaker 3:And that took me into a lot of different areas, whether it was HIV and AIDS during the 80s, when people were just dropping your friends, your relatives, folks you didn't know perhaps, were just dropping.
Speaker 3:It was so fatal and lethal that disease was at that time.
Speaker 3:And then you know, at-risk youth, the elderly, like I said, a lot of disasters, some biomedical services, those types of things, even, you know, refugees, prisoners of war, um, the persian gulf war, uh, and the first one, and then um, eventually, 2004, you know, went into probably what is the most vulnerable of god's creatures and that is animals, you know, and um started there and it's been. And so I started with a um, as actually I didn't. I started with a regional animal organization in the Caribbean to sort of build that up sort of a regional facility and grow its membership so it would be sustainable. And then when Hurricane Katrina hit I was actually down in Argentina when it hit it came back up and the ASPCA, the nation's first animal organization I had some contact with them and they recruited me to come up to the Gulf Coast and to head up that recovery operation for two years and then from there came over to Charleston for my second time in Charleston for a project with the ASBCA, for a, my second time in Charleston for a project with the ASPCA.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, in 2012, went over as CEO to Charleston Animal Society. Was it that big? Was Charleston Animal Society as big as it is now, when you took the helm?
Speaker 3:In terms of the number of animals that were coming into it yes, in terms of the number of animals being saved no, no, not at all. But the organization has grown. It's grown significantly. Terms of the number of animals being saved no, no, not at all. But it's uh, but we've. But the organization has grown. It's grown. Um has grown significantly. It's got an annual membership of around 18 000 18 to 20 000 um.
Speaker 3:And that and it's really cool, I think, as a non-profit, because a lot of non-profits it's kind of old school base their memberships on something financial, like you become a member, you have a $25 annual fee or something like that. And I think that was similar with Charleston Animal Society and our board of directors, which is great. They really looked at this in 2015, 2016, and saw the upward trend that we were on and re-evaluated everything and I thought, well, it's kind of like the proverbial milk stool with three legs. You, you know, if you don't have one of those three legs, you know the whole thing is going to collapse. So, if you think about the seat as the institution, the organization, those three pillars that hold it up, one is going to be those who make a gift of their time volunteers. Those that make a gift of their income. Donors or those that make a gift of their income donors or those that make a gift of their home. The adopters.
Speaker 1:And all three are just as important as the next.
Speaker 3:Yes, without any of those legs, pillars, you know it collapses, the whole thing comes tumbling down, and so the board director decided to define our membership as that. You make a gift of, you know, your time, your money or your home, and you are a member of Charleston Animal Society. That's amazing, amazing, I mean. That certainly makes a difference.
Speaker 1:I know there's so many people out there that might not be able to donate money right, right but they can go up and volunteer their time or work an event or even share the word, whatever it might be, to get more animals adopted and or and or for them to help you raise more money oh yeah, it's all kind of that vicious circle that just keeps going. Well, yeah, yeah, you're a volunteer for us. I raise a lot of money for you too. Exactly, Exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know it's um. We have about 26 volunteers for every employee. Um, so we have about 20, between 25 and a hundred, about 2,500, 2,600 volunteers that are active.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's a lot of people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's a lot. So typically folks will ask me you know, how many employees do you have? I'll tell them, you know, probably around 90 employees give or take and it's oh, that's a lot of employees. I think we had 2,600 volunteers and then it just blows them away. You know 2, which is invaluable.
Speaker 1:Well, I know that the shelter's based in North Charleston, greenmount Road. If you've not been there, get there and go adopt a puppy or a kitten, but I know you still do a lot of work in Mount Pleasant and as working at Mount Pleasant Town Center, I know it's important our partnerships because you want to reach the people of Mount Pleasant, even though you're based in North Charleston. You want them to go over the bridge to go see you and see what you're doing there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's over a thousand residents of Mount Pleasant that we provide services to every year, over a thousand, and it's in Mount Pleasant, particularly the town of Mount Pleasant is just wonderful to work with, you know. I mean from, you know, mayor Haney to the city, the town council members to the town administrator, eric, everyone and Chief Arnold. I mean they're all just great people to work with. We have a very solid relationship with the town of Mount Pleasant and it's, you know, the Animal Society was. You know this is going to be the 150th year of the Animal Society anniversary Congratulations Yay.
Speaker 3:You know the sesquicentennial, and it took me about six months to practice that.
Speaker 1:What was that word again?
Speaker 3:The sesquicentennial. I could actually spell it now. I studied for about three months on how to spell this word after three months of trying to pronounce the word, but anyway, I was like God, could they come up with something shorter for the 150?
Speaker 1:Just say 150. No, that's all we did Say 150.
Speaker 3:But it's pretty cool because the organization was the first animal organization in South Carolina, so it was founded as a South Carolina Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and it covered the entire state and so it's one of the oldest in the nation. And then eventually it became the John Ancrum SBCA, so a lot of listeners are going to know it as John Ancrum SBCA. In 2008, it became Charleston Animal Society, really for the Charleston region and all and it's. But yeah, like we just you know, we're kind of finalizing our numbers, for last year it was about 9,500 animals that we took in to the shelter, actually took into the shelter. Now about another 11,000 we provided services to to try to keep out of the shelter. And of the 9,500 just in Charleston County, probably about 8,500 or so were from Charleston County. So that's a lot. It's not the largest physical shelter in the state but it's the largest by number of animals that we bring in and move and save.
Speaker 2:Now, Joe, is that strictly that 9,500? Is that strictly with the animals, dogs and cats?
Speaker 3:No, let me tell you again everything from michael, everything from hamsters to horses uh, that's what I say wildlife, sometimes injured wildlife, brought to us and we'll triage it and then get it to the right folks, because wildlife falls under federal regulations, dnr and everything. But it's um, but with companion animals and exotics, like the other day you know some in there and I have this phobia I mean I I'll swim with sharks, but snakes, keep me away from snakes. So everybody, everybody.
Speaker 1:So somebody brought in their pet public instructor, everyone in the facility knows this.
Speaker 3:Well, they're always pranking me with snakes and I'm, like you know, jumping and jittering, walking down the hallways and stuff, because someone's always pranking me with snakes and everything. And then you know they'll. We'll have these veterinary students from the veterinary schools, you know, do internships with us and everything. They'll be in surgery and we do. You know, we do 10 000 surgeries a year. So they're all back there, you know, and then they'll hear this crazy man screaming and yelling and everything I'm like who's that?
Speaker 3:what is it? You know, an active shooter, what you know, and it's like. They're like.
Speaker 3:No, that's the ceo yeah, it's like so anyway but so, um, so um, my assistant, which is called my wingman, um, she came out of the office and she shut the door behind her and there's this glass panel next to the office and we share an office. It's uh, and she just, you know, closed the door behind her, you know, with her, you know, put her hands behind her back. She said I wouldn't go out right now or in the next few minutes.
Speaker 3:And, uh, I said what I said what is going on? And she, I said it's a snake. And she said, yes, well, someone's um parent um, had to be placed in the hospice and the kids didn't want to keep four pythons. Well, who wants to keep four pythons? Right, I don't want to keep four pythons. And so so I see, through the glass panel, somebody bringing down this big glass aquarium, which is, you know what? You try to keep pythons in. Right, it's um. And immediately and immediately, what's going through my head are visions of south florida and the burmese pythons and the explosion of that everything. And it's, uh, it's so. And they say we have four, and I say no, we don't have four. You know, call the serpentarium down in Ravennail. It's a great facility, it's great, you know. God bless them. They bailed us out on that one because they have the environment for four pythons.
Speaker 1:And well, aren't we glad that they dropped them off at the shelter instead of just letting them loose to run around or everything we're going to run around, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I mean everything. We have a horse now, michael. If you need a horse, we've got a horse for Dasha now. But a lot of these animals come to us and many are injured, many are ill from, you know, not having the care or from being strayed or lost for a significant amount of time and become malnourished. So you know, we treat them and the staff and volunteers are phenomenal at treating these animals and making them whole again. So you know, and then some of them are going to have a little cork here, a little cork there.
Speaker 3:You wouldn't believe that it's whenever we have a lot of animals that are hit by vehicles and they come in and sometimes those animals' legs have to be amputated. That kind of thing. Particularly with dogs, which are great, I mean you would never believe the demand for three-legged dogs, tripods yeah, never believe the demand for three-legged dogs. It's uh, yeah, yeah, I mean people love three-legged dogs, regardless of what kind of dog, what breed of dog, that type of thing it is, and they'll just come in and adopt these three-legged dogs. Like we can't keep them on the adoption floor. We don't have a whole lot of them by any means, but once in a while we do and it's just. It's just, it's just humors that people and what they, you know, kind of gravitate towards. But it's almost like the dogs know, it's like the dog kind of struts down the adoption hallway with like you know, oh man.
Speaker 3:I got it made. I got it made. You're going to be here for a while.
Speaker 1:Do you have an update on the pythons? Were they adopted?
Speaker 3:They are down at the serpentine.
Speaker 1:They're where they should be Out of my shelter.
Speaker 3:That's where they are, yeah yeah, there's a lot of legalities with animals and everything because by federal law they're considered property. So you have all kinds of laws that apply to that and state laws can't really. They can enhance, but they can't usurp federal law and all, and so most almost entirely across the United States, I mean, animals are classified as property and so a lot of legal entanglements with those things.
Speaker 1:Another thing I at the shelter. I know about the summer camps. If you want to tell us a little bit more about that, because there's so many opportunities for our local children to learn more about not only what you do how to carefully take care of an animal right, how to take care of an animal if you run into one. I mean all those types of things that maybe, as mom and dads, don't want to have to teach. I know you offer those amazing programs at your shelter.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, being 150 years old, a number of the animal societies back in the late 1800s and early 1900s when they formed, also addressed the plight of children. This was before child labor laws. This was before, really, when you had before departments of social services and all of that. You may have had a town orphanage or that type of thing, but it's so. A number of these animal societies address the needs of children. In fact, I believe it was in the 20s or 30s perhaps that a gentleman from Charleston coined the term be kind to animals and that just kind of was adapted across the entire country and across the world and everything that just originated right here in Charleston and we're going to release all the kinds of little historical tidbits this year in the sesquicentennial year.
Speaker 1:That's right, because 150 is important.
Speaker 3:And so the whole idea of this education that we do with children is teaching compassion, because it's a learned behavior, a value however you want to frame it, it's learned and it has to be reinforced over and over and over again. And we see, and we all see it, you know, it's clear. I mean South Carolina, based on the 2022 FBI stats eighth most violent state in the country. North Charleston, most violent city in the eighth most violent state. Charleston, the third most violent city in the eighth most violent state. So and much of this are young people and everything.
Speaker 3:And so we teach compassion because we've got a great tool animals. And so the whole idea of teaching compassion is that you're compassionate towards living creatures, whether they're animals or they're humans, and so we hope that there are benefits out there with kids learning compassion, having it reinforced through our programs at the Animal Society, that they will go on to become, you know, basically humanitarians, because how does one become a humanitarian? It just doesn't happen overnight. You have to basically grow kids into humanitarians and as a, you know, as a family, as a community, as a school, as institutions, churches, faith, community, that type of thing, children have to be grown into humanitarians and that's the whole idea and that plays into or supports what the animal society is trying to strive for, is a kind community, kind to animals, kind to people, you know, just a kind community.
Speaker 1:That's perfect. I love it.
Speaker 2:One thing that comes to mind with the children and training and education for kids. I mean, a lot of parents are like you know. They want to get their child a puppy or a kitty and you know they're like all right now, this is going to be your responsibility and a lot of times you'll see the kids get tired of the animal after about six months or a year and then that animal goes somewhere else. So is there a lot of training and education on that to help prevent some of that?
Speaker 3:yeah, there is. There's um. I need a lot of education, training.
Speaker 3:Probably more is needed with the parents uh the adults but it's probably better right yeah, yeah, but but with the kids it's, it's you, it's all structured and they're so hungry for it and they learn all of the responsibilities of this. But I'll tell you, one of the great learning experiences with the animal society is in the late spring and summer is when everybody across the country has the explosion of kittens. You just feel at times they're just falling from the sky, and particularly where there are there's rapid development, like our area where we live. You know lots of development and everything.
Speaker 3:Feral cats that have always been in these places. You know well they're being developed. You know trees are being and buildings are being torn down, raised, and then all of a sudden people see these feral cats with their kittens and that type of thing. So a lot of folks are scooping them up, bringing them to us. We have such a caring community, michael, that parents it's a good time They'll bring their kids in to foster a kitten. There's no way we could keep all these kittens at the Animal Society.
Speaker 1:There's just no way.
Speaker 3:Sometimes we've had as many as 600 or 700 at one time. Sometimes we've had as many as 600 or 700 at one time, you know, and it takes time for them to basically grow and make their weight to, you know, be processed for adoption, like spayed or neutered. That's surgery and all. However, once the kitten, or any neonatal any creature before it's weaned, basically, is separated from its mother, the survivability, you know, basically is cut by more than half. So it takes 24-7 of constant nourishment. It's not a pretty job or anything but constant nourishment. Well, some of them are not going to survive, you know, except around 50%. But the kids come in, they have their parent with them to guide them through this process. You're going to lose some, but most more than likely will survive in this fostering environment, but you're learning just how fragile life is. It's a valuable, you know, experience for not only the parents but really for the kids to learn that.
Speaker 3:And we have, you know, we've had kids. You know there's a couple of brothers that we had a video of this, probably about 10 years ago. They probably have already graduated Clemson, I think. They went to Clemson and everything and they were explaining it on video what they were doing and why they were doing it. You know how it works and everything Much better than any of us. You know any of us professionals could explain it and everything. It's just like, yeah, that's exactly what happens. That is the experience.
Speaker 1:I have been in your kitten neonatal ward and I've put on my gown. I've been blessed. I've been honored to do this and, you know, bottle fed a little this big and, trust me, it affects me. I can't even imagine what it would do to a child. You know I just leave there crying and wanted to take home every single kitten there is because I'm a huge cat fan. Brian Cleary knows that.
Speaker 1:But, it's such an experience to me, like I said, as an adult, and to bring kids into it, I'm sure I love the idea of teaching them from a young age to be able to have the respect for animals and how to treat animals, because it's something you don't forget.
Speaker 3:And you know it's because we love you so much, kathy, I actually, and we know you love cats and everything. We actually have a basket of kittens for you.
Speaker 1:Yay, that's the best gift ever, michael. You've never brought me a basket of kittens.
Speaker 3:I have not, but that's all right. That's all right. I've already made a call.
Speaker 1:We're going to bring the horse to Michael. That's right. That's right. You better get a bigger backyard, Michael.
Speaker 2:Well, to that point. We've talked about kittens and puppies and things On the equine side. There's a big difference in health care and care for an animal like that. Yes, can you address?
Speaker 3:that there is. And again, I can't give more credit to our fosters because we can hold a horse or a pig or goats, chickens, you know anything up there in our barn area, you know for a while. But usually we need to, you know, as quickly as we can get them out to foster homes. It's a better environment. You know horses need pasture, and so that's what we do. We've had, in recent memory, the largest local horse rescue that occurred was, I think it was probably about 10 or 11 years ago and it was out on John's Island. There were 11 horses at one time that had to be seized by law enforcement, and so we were able to take those and place them directly into foster homes and we were very close with law enforcement agencies. But you're absolutely right, michael, it's much more costly.
Speaker 3:The feeding Anyone who raises livestock or horses, let's say that are feeding them these days, I mean, like everything else dog food, cat food, feed for livestock it all has skyrocketed in cost, and so what we do with our foster support families is that you know we provide for any kind of nourishment, let's say, for the animals. That might be food, it may be medications, it may be some kind of treatment. It may be some type of rehabilitation and sometimes horses are neglected in various ways and also they're not horses. Some horses are, like you know, other animals can be aggressive and other folks that will are willing to take in a horse to adopt it along with their horses as a companion horse. You know, just really can't do it because it'd be aggressive towards them. So sometimes we work with, you know, rehabilitators, trainers basically, on some of the animals, give them their best chance, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Joe, can you address maybe the vetting process for some of the fostering, because that would be really good for our listeners.
Speaker 1:That's very helpful. Yeah, that's very helpful to share.
Speaker 3:Sure, well, we have an orientation for our foster families and when I say family, I mean family could be one person, family could be whatever you imagine it can be. You know it can be whatever you imagine it can be. So we try to be as honest and transparent as possible in terms of what to expect with fostering and based on the type of animal and everything With kittens, and we launch a Let them Be campaign each spring, early spring.
Speaker 3:A lot of folks don't, you know, really hear that, internalize it. They see newborn kittens and don't really understand that they don't see the mother with them. Well, the mother's not going to be with them. The mother's probably going to be feral. The mother's probably going to be out there foraging for food and things, but probably also is watching you, as you're watching those kittens and coming close to the kittens. But they'll scoop them up and bring them to us and we try to explain. The best thing you can do is to take them back because you, because it's separated from their mother now, you know, and without a mother's milk, without fresh air animals, you know, young animals don't have um a great chance of survival and everything. But of course folks look at us like we have a third eye you know what do you mean.
Speaker 2:You want to take, take all the facts.
Speaker 1:But we explained everything.
Speaker 3:So we place them in the fosters program and we have lots of fosters.
Speaker 3:We sometimes will be in a real jam where we've had so many kittens or animals come in at one time and it's kind of a fast-track orientation.
Speaker 3:But we want to set the foster family, we want to set all the volunteers, we want to set our staff up for success and, you know, orienting them, being as transparent and straightforward and giving them, you know, what they need, the tools they need to do that life-saving job we want to provide to them and we tell them, you know, typically, you know, with the, you know, kittens, it may be two to six weeks, you know, depending on their age. With other animals it could be as much as three months. I think the horse that we have right now, it's probably been, you know, you know a couple, you know at least two good months we may have possibly looking at, you know, three good months. But the horse, some of those animals, like the horses, where they have pasture and that type of thing, you don't have the rush at getting it out into a home like we do with the dogs and cats, because they're so overpopulated.
Speaker 3:And about you know, the proverbial 99% of our animals are going to be dogs and cats, and then that 1% or so it could be anything Birds, fish, you name it. You know roosters, the whole thing.
Speaker 3:The pig you remember from a few years ago the big pig on the interstate 26 that went off the truck and another car came by and hit it and everything. You know law enforcement goes in. You know tries to get this. You know 500 pound but it's 500 pounds. It was for 400, 500 pounds and um brought it to us and everything and it's um. It's like, and that was doozy. That was a doozy, but you know 500 pound pig and yep, somebody adopted it and you love your forced to failures too, don't you?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, yeah, so many of my friends are forced to failures I'm a foster failure are you Proud, proud, right? Yeah, you should be proud. You get attached.
Speaker 1:You get attached to everything and sometimes you just continue to foster and some foster failures continue to fail and you need both of those types of people right the ones that can actually just focus on getting those puppies and kittens ready for adoption and actually feel better and feel more loved, actually giving them to somebody for another home, and then the other half that are complete foster failures, which I would be, I'm sure, and our fosters have evolved into.
Speaker 3:Our program has evolved so that we trust our fosters to adopt out those animals because they can share with a potential adopter more about that animal than we could ever share because, they're focused on that animal 24-7. Because they're focused on that animal 24-7. And so we've given them, or have enabled them to go out there, empowered them rather, to go out there and adopt those animals.
Speaker 1:And we talk about volunteers that are needed, right Fosters.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, always, always Critical.
Speaker 1:There's always a call for that. So your time, your money, like you said, your adoptive home and fostering yeah Right, all ways of helping yeah, like you said, your adoptive home and fostering yeah Right, all ways of helping yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, if you think about it, we've had, like I said, 600 animals, 700 animals in foster at our peaks, and that's twice as many animals as the shelter can hold. Right, right, so they're all in homes. You're really operating the equivalent of two more animal shelters out there, right?
Speaker 1:But you don't have the physical plant costs, the labor cost, the overtime, and you know the older dogs were seven and they're getting love and attention, right right in a loving home and learning all the important things about becoming part of a family I find that to be, you know, really important when you're getting fresh air and fresh air because, again, that herd environment, um, you know, it's kind of like with the outset of cove on the onset of um, um covid back in 2020.
Speaker 3:Um, well, you know that was I mean we kind of thri with the onset of COVID back in 2020. Well, you know, that was. I mean we kind of thrived in COVID, because that's all we do is herd health.
Speaker 1:And it's like, oh yeah, everybody else gets to play at it now.
Speaker 3:You know, it's like you know well, I mean with no disrespect, with all the losses, you know that occurred during COVID and everything, but it was you know. But we're masked up, certainly in a large area of the animal shelter and everything. More of the outreach administrative areas are not masked up and everything. So it's just a matter of OK, we're going to mask up and, you know, just basically expand the protocols to the rest of the facility and everything. And it was so funny. It's so funny because we were going to try, like so many employers did and I know you know the chamber memberships, you know listening and everything will appreciate this, I'm sure, and I'm sure there's been similar stories.
Speaker 3:Well, in April, okay, well, more of the, you know, administrative type of employees or the employees that are not direct hands-on with the animals, what we'll do is we're going to try this remote, you know working for, you know, april, and it was. I'll never forget this. And so on day two, I had two employees come back or call me and they said we want to come back. And you know why. And they said, sorry, I'm not being sexist, but they said my husband home too. I can't stand it, I'm begging you, let me come back, let me come back.
Speaker 1:And I thought it was going to do the dog, but you're right husbands, let me come back.
Speaker 3:And so they came. I was like, well, sure, yeah. And so they all started just gravitating back. They don't want to work remotely, they want to be around the animals around the environment and away from the husbands.
Speaker 1:And who got to sit home also. I also want to congratulate you. Tell us a little bit about the Guinness Book of World Records that you set. Oh, that was how exciting.
Speaker 3:That was so cool, it was exciting and it was difficult. It was a real challenge, but there were several objectives for doing it, and so what we wanted to do was we were thinking about a pet vaccine type of world record and we were checking into it. Well, unbeknownst to us, the city of Corpus Christi, texas, was checking on it at the same time.
Speaker 3:But we were both in touch with Petco Love formerly Petco Foundation about, you know, sponsoring that type of thing, and they were the ones that told us. They said, well, corpus Christi's doing theirs in December and we're planning ours for February. It's like, okay, well, at least they're going to do theirs. And so with Texas and the way the state veterinary requirements, regulations are written and everything, basically you could do it with. You know a couple of veterinarians and one overseeing parking lot A, you know one overseeing parking lot B and you'd have you know basically anybody. You know the brother administering vaccines and all. Well, there's a couple of things. Guinness World Record won't allow an invasive procedure like a medical procedure as a world record. So it's more of like you know well, how many pledges do you get? Well, to get the pledges you basically need to give the vaccines to get the pledges in there and go through all of the requirements they have. They send out somebody to you know, observe you and monitor you and all that kind of stuff, and they're dressed in their little you know doodads and stuff with a Guinness insignia and all that kind of thing. And you know it's kind of like the IRS coming in or something you know, you don't know how to read them and all that you know they're monitoring everything. So so we had some, we collaborated, the city, north Charleston, peckel, love, subaru, I mean different ones, and if they were all great, but for the regulations here in the state of South Carolina it's much harder. Every single animal, before it gets a vaccine, has to be assessed by a veterinarian. So for us to break their record, we had to have 30 veterinarians, 30 plus veterinarians. So we reached out to our area veterinarians and said look, this is a Guinness World Record once know, once in a lifetime bucket list item. And so they really supported us, came out.
Speaker 3:We had stations, all set up, multiple objectives with this. One was it's always good to do something like this for employee morale, test yourselves. But also, this is a large operation. We did it in the Coliseum parking lot parking lot and we were able to you know, similar to the COVID vaccines meander the traffic flow up through the garage and back to the floor level where there are multiple stations that they could get the animals could get vaccines, and you had all kinds of dogs and cats. It was limited to dogs and cats, but you had all kinds of vehicles, all kinds of families. You know grandma, grandpa, bring uncle Joe. You know, sally Mae, you know, and Fred, bring them all you vehicles, all kinds of families, you know grandma, grandpa, bring Uncle Joe. You know, sally Mae, you know, and Fred, bring them all. You know, the whole family.
Speaker 3:Sometimes we'd have, you know, one animal and seven people in the car, or sometimes we'd have seven animals in the car and one person in the car. It was a fun day, it was cold, it was February. But so another objective was, you know and we were talking earlier about Hurricane Hugo and everything we had, you know, thank God we haven't been hit directly by a major hurricane since. About Hurricane Hugo, you know what is the community? How is the community going to respond? Regardless of how much we do these exercises and things on paper, you know, until you just roll up your sleeves and you get into it a real, real training type drill, you just don't know how you're going to respond. So this helps us in terms of helping in a disaster scenario, of mobilizing quickly and mobilizing a number of animals. Well, we administered, I think, over 3,000 vaccines that day. What?
Speaker 1:was the record.
Speaker 3:Oh, it was far below that. I don't even know what it was.
Speaker 1:So you blew Texas out of the water, basically.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, well, you know me. It's like there's no difference between second and last place.
Speaker 1:It's either on top, or you're not Got to blow you away, or I didn't win. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're on top or you're not.
Speaker 3:You got the record or you don't. And so our staff asked me. They said are we going to do another one of these vaccine events in 2024? I said, well, it depends on if somebody breaks our record Right. But it also raised another objective was that it raised awareness about the critical need to have your pets vaccinated.
Speaker 3:And we were able to get some good data. People were coming from all around around and we were able to find out. You know, when was the last time your animal saw a veterinarian and a number of folks? I think it was like at least a third of the animals that came through had never seen a veterinarian at all, and so veterinarians were there to help them. You know, if they saw something in the assessment, you know they could talk to the family also about whether you know. Look, you can call my office on Monday or you can do this, you can do that, and we had different resources for them and all. But we got a lot of community animals vaccinated that day.
Speaker 3:And it was just good, it was just coming out of. It set the world record. Everybody felt good about it, but there were multiple objectives that we were able to achieve, and we're also better prepared as a community in case of emergencies that impact animals as well.
Speaker 2:So, joe, do you think that process that you went through and all the lessons that you did learn, can you bottle that and use that package that to help share with other places that have disasters that come up? Is that something that could be in the future for that?
Speaker 3:Well, absolutely, if there are disasters that come up and getting ready for disasters now, if they want to break our record, I don't know if I'd share with them.
Speaker 3:Sure, I'd have to do one of those. I guess I'd have to do one of those stealing signs thing, you know whatever. But of course we do that and we do that. We share basically what we call it is our recipe that works for us, our recipe that makes our community successful. We don't position ourselves to indicate or imply that we do things any better or worse than anyone else. It's just this is our recipe, this is how it works here. You know it's like you go over to somebody's house and you know, for a low country boil or frog meat or more stew or whatever, you know it may not look real pretty, it's going to look different every time you cook it, but you know, damn, it sure tastes good. You know that type of thing. But we very much share that and we actually have become a leading disaster responder across the southeast.
Speaker 3:During hurricanes and everything, we've had a number of states and animal organizations help us, particularly during that five or six-year period where we had so many near-misses a few years ago and animal shelters along the coast are all in jeopardy of flooding because they're all on low-lying ground and we're fortunate that we are not. We're over there, next to the airport in Boeing. We're on high ground. It's a real good situation for us, and so our board of directors back in 2016 also adopted sort of a mantra we have a disproportionate responsibility to others. If there's an animal in need and we have the ability to impact that animal in need, then we will do that.
Speaker 3:But we've had I mean the Florida shelters, north Carolina shelters, other particularly disaster-prone areas have helped us out, have had our backs during hurricanes, near misses that we didn't know were going to be near misses until it would be too late to evacuate animals out of harm's way. And so we do the same thing with them. And we've been, you know, down to New Orleans and southern Louisiana and Mississippi and then also down to South Florida and North Florida as well, with, you know, most of our rescues. But we also assist with large animal cruelty operations across the state. We work with law enforcement from the upstate through the PD region all the way down to the low country.
Speaker 1:I was going to say with the animal cruelty is, of course, Caitlin, who, if anyone does not already know, was adopted by her attorney and is living the best life ever. But that story went national. That made national news.
Speaker 3:International.
Speaker 1:International, well, I can say national, because I had just moved here and my friends were all texting me and everything. You know what's going on there. What's going on there, and you know because they're all animal lovers as well. I mean, that was something for that news to go and travel so far and then, of course, to have the most positive outcome. You know, he was convicted and she has a home right.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:And then everything that went from there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's going to. You know that perpetrator is going to really, you know, probably rot away in South Carolina prison system and then, if he doesn't, then the Georgia prison system is going to get him right after. And we see this with animal cruelty, heinous animal cruelty, intentional animal cruelty. Most animal cruelty is neglect and most of that can be addressed through education, intervention, that type of thing, not necessarily through punitive law enforcement, but the ones that are law enforcement and we do the forensics, the veterinary forensics and some of the case support working with law enforcement. We have the most experienced cruelty investigation folks in the state and we go from, like I said, lawrence County, pickens County Sheriff's Offices different ones that we work with, with Caitlin in particular. There have been copycats to that in recent years following that and it's where someone took the electrical tape and just wrapped it over the muzzle and tied it and constricted it and everything and Caitlin would have died had a good Samaritan not alerted law enforcement. You know it's like it's just. You know when you alert law enforcement something you know as humans. We just know when something's wrong and you don't have to be a cruelty expert of that type of thing, you just know when someone's something's wrong and law enforcement will check it out and if nothing's wrong, or if it's okay or if it, you know, they can always, you know, provide some education, get them in touch with us, that type of thing. But if it's intentional cruelty, then punitive action and a law enforcement intervention needs to take place. And what we try to do is and we do this complimentary, we don't charge law enforcement agencies for this we want them to have the best case moving forward that they can, because the solicitors are going to want that. The solicitors are not going to want something that's going to tie up you know court time and everything and then you're going to lose it. They'll know whether it's you know what they want to slam dunks for the most part of what we all want. That right, it's, but it's.
Speaker 3:There's a lot that goes into veterinary forensics and I mean we had a. We had a pup come in, you know, the day after Christmas 26, and look like had he had a little bit of an issue with his jowl here, his right jowl and a friendly pup came in and somebody brought him in as a stray. A citizen brought him in and the veterinarians were assessing it and everything and then it started to abscess a little bit and the veterinarians did a further evaluation of it and everything. And sure enough, the dog had been shot in the jowl and got the bullet right in there and was able to of it and everything. And sure enough, the dog had been shot in the jail and got the bullet right in there and was able to extract it and everything.
Speaker 3:But we'll have that dog up for adoption probably this week. But the sweetest, the sweetest dog and I was telling our cruelty investigator this morning as a matter of fact, I said, yeah, my understanding is that's a really sweet dog. And he said, yeah. I said it's just so phenomenal that the animals that come in that have been, that have been victims to this heinous cruelty, like a caitlin, you know, they just have the best disposition of that.
Speaker 1:Well, that's why dogs are better than humans. Yeah, if it were me, I'd be looking for someone.
Speaker 3:I'd be like, yeah, you know, no, I'm gonna go after somebody, all that kind stuff. These animals are just so innocent and so loving and I'm just so glad and appreciative that they have a new path forward.
Speaker 1:People always say people don't deserve dogs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think I do.
Speaker 1:I mean my dog is the best thing in the world and the way he looks at me with this unconditional love that just blows my mind. I think more humans need to be like dogs.
Speaker 3:Well, and the studies show I mean the studies you know demonstrate that people who have you know animals live longer.
Speaker 1:Right, now I could talk to you forever, joe um I really really could, so maybe we can have you back for another one um, but I wanted to, um, I wanted to see if there's any kind of business or fundraising tips, or what would you say to someone who is working in a smaller nonprofit about perhaps, like I said, fundraising or business or generating interest, anything like that, you could share with them.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I think and it's interesting because we're doing some we're going through a period of restructuring now and I told our group, particularly the what we've called the advancement group marketing fundraising group, earlier this week that what I'm really trying to look at is the you know, really the scale and scope of relationship management and sort of reassigning some particular different, some particular functions, because it's all about relationships, everything is about relationships. You know this and you know this. Michael, y'all know this is working with the chamber and the chamber membership and working with, you know, as marketing director with Town Center and all. It's all about relationships and relationships with the tenants and the customers and everything. Everything is about relationships. How many relationships can you effectively manage? And this is just real basic business customer service. It costs so much more to acquire a new customer than to steward or cultivate a current customer or supporter or member or whatever you want to say. So we look at things because we want to be successful, not from a business perspective, but from a successful business perspective, because we know whether it's nonprofit, whether it's government, whether it's any kind of entity of business, for-profit, you can. You can have some you know lousy ones out there and it's across the spectrum. So we really look at, you know, return on investments.
Speaker 3:What is the? You know we I see this quite a bit in you know sort of teaching fundraising and it's where you'll look at events, or some of the nonprofits will look at events and they don't include all of the real cost. Well, you know, we don't include staff time because our staff's going to be there anyway working. Well, yeah, but you really need to include that time. That's the correct way to do it, because what could that staff be doing with their time other than this event? And we all know that, and I'm not discouraging events, but events are the least effective way to raise dollars.
Speaker 3:That's the least effective way to raise dollars and for us, our budget, it's 60% is from contributions and fundraising. It's from those relationships 60%. So the majority of it and then about 20% is from our program fees and we keep our fees as low as we can because we want to be accessible and affordable for the community and we take in about 95% or more of the animals in the community throughout all of Charleston County. And then about 20% is our vendor contract with government to shelter or for the disposition of animals that are collected by government, basically, or by citizens. So you know, but also the credentialing.
Speaker 3:We value credentialing highly and if you're in fundraising or you know nonprofit management, there are credentialing paths you know to pursue In fundraising. There's one in, in particular, and we call that the certified fundraising executive credential. It's comprehensive, it's overseen by the Association of fundraising professionals. It's a well-established group. It's a good program. There's a local chapter here and just getting involved with that, you pick up, you know, you pick up, you know effective sort of leading practices from each other, I didn't even know that existed, so perhaps some of our members didn't know that existed either.
Speaker 3:So yeah, the local chapter is a good chapter and everything it's quite active. It's got an active membership. They bring in speakers in the fundraising field. I know they've got things going on in January, kicking off the new year, so a number of our staff are involved in that. We try to get our staff involved in as much as possible. But it all comes down to relationship management and when you say that you don't have time for relationships, you don't have time to fundraise, you don't have time for this, then it's. And for us we see this and like we have such an army of fosters that all they want to do is save animals.
Speaker 3:They don't want to fundraise or that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:What we're seeing as a trend is and this certainly is not every rescue group, but a number of rescue groups getting into trouble because they've overwhelmed themselves and they're kind of on that slippery slope to hoarding or other things, taking the law into their own hands or just ignoring the law or practicing veterinarian medicine without being qualified, which is against the law, and we're seeing this more and more and more and more folks are have gotten these animals from rescue groups and, you know, come to us and say something's wrong and they'll tell us what's wrong. You know what they ran into and that type of thing. But there's no regulations for shelters or rescue groups in South Carolina, something that we really have been trying to work on with the state legislature and it's. You know it's getting to a point where it's. You know it's quite sad, but it's kind of that power and control that folks want.
Speaker 3:Well, look, if you want to save animals, do it through us. We have a program, We'll cover all your costs, We'll do the fundraising. You don't need to do that, you just need to save animals, which is what you want to do.
Speaker 3:But if you want that power and control and you save them whenever you want to, I mean, you know it's your time whenever you want to. But you know some folks want all that power and control to just no, I want to do it my way, I want to.
Speaker 1:You know that type of thing, and it's, um, something that you know bothers us in the, uh, animal sector- that's great you've got a good recipe yeah sure, I do all right so before we let you go, all right we do have a couple of a little couple fun rapid fire questions all right. Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, all right michael's gonna help me out with this, okay, I can stay here all day with y'all.
Speaker 3:I know, um, if you were an animal, what?
Speaker 1:type of animal would you be, and why?
Speaker 3:I think, um, you know horton the elephant? Um, because I'm gonna date myself, because I'm sure a number of listeners probably don't even know who these animals are, um, horton the elephant from dr seuss, I mean, yeah, it was a compassion here's a who yeah just just the compassionate nature of so many of Dr Seuss's characters and everything Flipper I love dolphins, flipper was, you know, just such a hero to so many kids and everything.
Speaker 3:And just Flipper was always coming in to save the day. And dolphins are travelers and smart and compassionate also creatures, and so I'm just drawn to that. And then, of course, lassie I mean, if you grew up with Lassie, I grew up with Lassie, and it was like you know, you just fell in love and we don't see the American collie much anymore as a breed. There are a number of breeds that we don't see anymore, such as, you know, collies, irish Setters. Some of those breeds, don't forget Rin Tin Tin, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Rin Tin Tin. Now you're both dating yourselves. I don't know who those people are.
Speaker 1:That was way before my time. I remember Benji, yep, benji. There you go. I used to watch that on TV, yeah yeah, and that's what we just ask everybody.
Speaker 3:A lot of folks have this misperception that you go to an animal shelter and we're going to be full of binges. And we're just not, because binges are like the most desirable dog and most of those types of dogs get absorbed by family and friends before they even make it to an animal shelter and so a number of our animals will have, you know, they'll have a quirk here, a quirk there. A number of them don't, but it just gives them more character, more personality, and really we feel and a number of the testimonials from the adopters is that this particular animal just enhanced this person's life, just completed their life for them. So that's what you're going to find in an animal shelter. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:So I have a question for you. I'll put you on the spot, that's all right. So when I met the young lady that I eventually married, she was a cat person and I was a dog person and I had to very quickly learn to become a cat person. Now I have two cats and I love them. Are you a cat person or a dog person?
Speaker 3:both, actually both, it's. I love all animals except for snakes, most of the animals, I mean. We have bearded dragons up there now, you know, so I can take the basket of kittens back and bring a bearded dragon no, no, no, thank you, I'll take the basket, but yeah yeah, so both cat and dog, I love them both and everything I love them both.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So now, of course, everyone knows Charleston Animal Society. So if there was a celebrity spokesperson for Charleston Animal Society, do you have any suggestions on who you would like that to be?
Speaker 3:Well, I'll tell you, we've had different celebrities come through town and do things for us and we love them all.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I mean I remember Dan and Shay. You know the country group. They did a special thing invite us to backstage with them to do a little promo about animal adoptions and stuff and animal cruelty and those things. And then Bernadette Peters her entire life has been supportive of animals very much like Betty White, and Bernadette Peters performed at the Gilead Center a few years ago and this she was very close friends with Mary Tyler Moore, as a lot of folks remember well.
Speaker 3:She was performing at Gilead on a Friday night and what she would do when she would go to a venue she would ask a local animal organization to come in on that next morning and she would do a photo shoot with them. But because she was so close to Mary Talamore Mary Talamore died that week they were going to have the service that Saturday, so Bernadette Peters was going to have to get up really, really early on Saturday morning to make it to the service, as I remember. So instead of just canceling that after her performance at Gilead she was she wanted to do the photo shoot then Friday, late Friday night and everything. She was so classy and so giving that, that and that was so important for her to do for the animal society and we were, just you, mesmerized with her. The performance, everything about her. She didn't rush anything and she was, just as you know, just as genuine and classy and giving as you could possibly imagine, particularly with a celebrity and everything. So that's kind of my favorite, you know, celebrity spokesperson for animals.
Speaker 1:Well, how about Taylor Swift on the cover of Time with her cat? Oh well, there you go.
Speaker 3:I mean you want to talk about animal advocates?
Speaker 1:The number one person in the world has her cat on the cover of Time magazine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the Swifties. Yeah, just come on down, swifties. You can get your cat with us at the Animal Society and we'll take care of you, especially in the spring and summer.
Speaker 2:Michael, you're up. So if you could give one superpower to all the animals in your shelter, what would that one superpower be?
Speaker 3:I think I would give them the ability to adopt humans. Put it in their hands.
Speaker 1:Wow, so they get to pick us, don't? Some of them already do that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they do, they do, they do. Yeah, I'd give them that ability you go out and you pick who you want to be your human.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. I have to let. And then I'm going to ask you one more. So if animals could talk, Joe, what do you think they'd be saying about us? What is it?
Speaker 3:What is it? The proverbial see no monkeys. The chimpanzees, the see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. The three of us know, I hope the majority love us right?
Speaker 3:I think they would, and you all know this and the listeners know this, that the dogs or the animals, cats, whatever get real excited when someone comes into the house, that type of thing. Everybody gets really excited and everything. But then when you sit down you're stationary and you start carrying on that conversation that brings such an ease to them and typically you don't realize it until a few minutes into that conversation they're all lying around almost asleep, or some of them are sleeping, but they're relaxed, they're so chill and everything. It's just casual conversation, the interplay between people, none of the social media stuff you know and the calm that it brings to those animals. And we learned so much because animal behavior is so similar to human behavior in just countless ways and you can see that it's a yeah, conversation relaxes people, it brings a calm to living creatures.
Speaker 1:And that's yeah. I could see me hanging on my couch talking to my dog.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just having a whole conversation.
Speaker 1:What'd you do today? Well, I actually do it, but they don't respond to me. Like the first thing I say when I go home is when I go to feed my cat. I'm like hi, baby, how was your day today? What did you do? You know, I do that whole thing and I sometimes say to myself does she?
Speaker 3:think I'm nuts, or is she responding to me in her head yeah, it's um, you know there's's beauty to, you know animals' behavior and everything. But at the end of the day, this is all about public health and safety. And it's a public health and safety issue. Most animal shelters are government facilities. I mean, you know, columbia, greenville, horry County, myrtle Beach area, charlotte, atlanta, savannah all government facilities. It's a unique relationship. Here in Charleston County we are the vendor for shelter, for the disposition of animals, and so the local government outsources that to us. But it is all about public health and safety and I think that where we're missing the boat in our community is that we've got to look at public health and safety like we look at all public health and safety, like we look at all public health and safety. You invest in prevention and response and for us it's, you know this is not a complicated issue like like education, crime, domestic violence, hunger. Those are complicated issues. Affordable housing, complicated issues.
Speaker 3:Ours is know the overpopulation of animals is, I mean, it's clear, it's black and white spaying and neutering and at some point when you get, you know all of the low hanging fruit, like you do with any kind of advocacy, whether it's texting and driving, drinking and driving, litter the highways, all that you know that all started out as advocacy campaigns, but then at some point you had to marry it with public policy so that you had to put in some punitive measures for reckless behavior such as texting and driving, drinking and driving, littering the highways and those things, and we're really behind the eight ball on that. We need to move forward with that and get some incentivized registration processes in place and some mandatory spay and neut, some for the animals that are most overpopulated, because it'll enhance public health and safety, but it'll also Reduce the number of animals that eventually die because there's just too many of that particular animal.
Speaker 1:Well, I certainly cannot thank you enough on behalf of Michael and myself, absolutely and everyone at the chamber for your continued not only support of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce, because you are a member and one of our favorite things about the expo is when you come with the puppies One of the favorite we do love everybody at the expo, but just all the work that you do for these animals in our region, in our state, all of the initiatives that you've created, Joe, and all of the work that you've done and the staff that you've put together and the volunteers. Again, I myself at Town Center is a huge supporter, huge fan. We do so many events with you because we believe in you, believe in what you've done and what you continue to do, and then it's something that you should all be extremely, extremely proud of. So thank you so much for taking the time Well thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, kathy and Michael. I enjoy being here. As we always say at Charleston, we always say you are Charleston Animal Society. It really isn't any one person or group of people or that type of thing, it's the entire community. The community owns this institution for 150 years, say it again. It's a sesquicentennial it's uh, do I get a free shopping spree?
Speaker 3:a free shopping spree if I get a free shopping spree at a town sitter, um, and then just add something on the icing on the cake, if I can spell it and everything, the uh, that'd be great. But no, you all, thank you all, because it's your support, including us in things like this. The chamber, town center, it really is everyone. I am so fortunate, privileged to just be up in the air traffic control tower, but the folks that are flying the planes and the passengers on the planes and the ground crews and all that kind of stuff, they're the ones that make it happen. I just get to play air traffic control.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:You're doing a really good job though, what's the best thing we can do to help you?
Speaker 3:There's, you know, as I mentioned. I mean whether it's a you know gift of your time as a volunteer, a gift of your home as an adopter, a gift of your income as a donor. All three of those are equally important and crucial to the success of saving animals. But you can go to charlestonanimalsocietyorg and just kind of look around and everything. The animal shelter itself is open seven days a week. Come up, bring the family up, just look around. You don't have to leave with an animal We'd love for you to leave with an animal.
Speaker 3:But you don't have to leave with an animal. We'd love to leave with an animal, but you don't have to leave. Come up and see it and everything. But as we've entered spring, the critical need right now is for fosters, foster homes and to come up and learn it, and you can do this on your time. If it's too much for you, you don't have to do it. No one's going to guilt you or anything like that, but just reach out to us, charlestonanimalsocietyorg, and right now is the time where the kittens are coming in and they're just flooding in, falling from the sky, and this is the time that we need you. So please consider that and it won't cost you a thing.
Speaker 2:So instead of spurs up or fins up, I'm going to say paws up for the Charleston Animal Society. Thank you so much, joe. Thank you Michael.
Speaker 1:We also want to thank our sponsors again. Charleston Radio Group. Thank you for letting us be here today with you. If you want to be a sponsor or be a guest on our podcast, please reach out to us and we will get back to you on that. Be sure to like and subscribe to all of our media channels. We'll be in Spotify, itunes, youtube, instagram, facebook and LinkedIn. So thank you all. So very much for being with us today, and before I sign off, I'm going to do a Bob Barker spay and neuter your animals. Until next time, mount Pleasant. Until next time, listeners.