Welcome to Brazos Matters.

I'm Jay Socol.

Co-hosting with me today is campus student content contributor and senior journalism major at Texas A&M.

Macey Litterst.

Hi, Macey.

Oh.

Hey, Jay.

Welcome back for another episode.

Thank you.

So here we are once again discussing something that you feel particularly passionate about.

You kind of identified it at the beginning of the semester.

So give us a little bit of a clue of what today's topic is.

All about and why it means something to you.

Yeah.

So a couple months ago, I think it was in the summer.

I saw either an Instagram post or a Facebook post about, from y'all's website about overcrowding.

And it kind of piqued my interest because I had originally bought a cat, not adopted a cat from y'all my freshman year of college, and then we had to give it up again.

So I saw that and I was like, I completely forgot I did that and I am so interested to know more about your side and what goes on in reality there.

So yeah.

Okay.

Well, let's explain who y'all is.

Our guest today is, Savannah Gaines, development director for Aggieland Humane Society.

Hey, Savannah.

Hey.

Thanks for coming in.

Thanks for having me.

So, Macey and I have, a good number of questions for you, and we hope it covers, pretty broad spectrum of what happens at Aggieland Humane Society.

So, Macey, take it away.

All righty.

How long have you been working at the Humane Society?

And what is your specific role there?

Yeah, I've been working at Aggieland Humane for about five years, and I'm in charge of fundraising and marketing, just overseeing all of that.

You know, we're a nonprofit, so we depend on, the community to make sure we have enough money to take care of these pets.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

And Jay had brought up to me that this has been your longest career stop.

Is there a specific reason for that?

Is there a passion behind it that you've found?

Yeah.

I mean, I remember back in the day when I was working in television, the, the director at the time, he said, what what do you where do you see yourself?

And I said, well, you know what?

I see myself doing something with animals, actually.

And so that was 15 years ago.

And, when this, this opportunity came up, I took it and never looked back.

And I can't imagine doing anything else.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

There are two shelters in this community.

Explain what the.

Excuse me.

Explain who the Humane Society serves in the community, and they don't serve.

Yes, yes.

So Aggieland Humane is your local.

Sorry.

My headphones on.

Okay.

Yeah.

Your local nonprofit animal shelter.

So we do spay neuter services, microchips, pet food pantry, all kinds of things like that.

So when we're doing these programs, we serve everyone.

But when it comes to if you found a lost pet or something like that, we serve called station and the rural area at this county.

Now, if you found a lost pet in Bryan, you want to make sure it goes to that Bryan Municipal shelter.

The city shelter, because you want to get it back home.

So if my dog got out, I live in Bryan, I would go look at the Bryan shelter for my pet and do the two shelters do y'all are y'all friendly?

Do y'all work together and do stuff together?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, we'd love to do more together, but as of right now, we just kind of communicate on on certain things.

If maybe a pet's coming their way or something like that.

So if or if there's a lost pet, just anything like that does help get pets home.

Yeah.

Oh sorry.

I was your question to.

My gosh.

Yeah.

And what is your pet population like today?

We are looking really good today.

But that is because we've had a couple of major adoption events where people, our communities really come in, you know, stepped up.

And also because we are doing, transfer right now.

So our transfer bus is headed all over America.

I think I just saw a message that they crossed over the Hoover Dam recently with, I don't even know how many dogs like 20 dogs.

So yeah, shout out to Carrie and Ruth for driving, the van across the country.

Wait, what is the capacity of your transfer van?

So our transfer van, you know, it's this is a newer one.

It's definitely over 20.

There's a lot of kennels in there at the RV.

You can sleep in there.

Yeah.

So we're trying to do a lot of transfer, so he's got to find partners.

You know, it's.

We're cold calling a lot of shelters, being like, hey, so, okay, I am hyper focusing on this because I find it fascinating.

It's cool.

Do do the staff members, the driver and the passenger also sleep in the van?

Yes.

How does that work?

Well, I haven't done this new transfer van.

We haven't had it that long when I did, when I did it, we straight up we had a small little van and we just put up little blinders and kind of slept sitting up.

So that wasn't good for me.

This is like a new thing where you can pull down a bed and everything and there's like a little kitchenette and they're like, it's a true RV.

So everyone stays in there and the dogs and they there's certain, gas stations that have little dog parks and take the dogs out, do a little mini playgroups with the dogs so they can get enrichment.

It's it's all yeah, it's fun, but it's a lot of work.

And so is there a predetermined place for each one of the animals in the van before the van leaves town?

Yeah.

The goal is that we have one shelter that we're kind of paired up with it wherever, whatever state will take extra pets.

But, for this particular one, we couldn't get one shelter to take a bunch.

So I think they're making like 2 to 3 stops.

And this is a multi-state endeavor.

Yes.

And I guess this happens multiple times a year.

Yes.

When that there's been times where they there's not enough space up north for them to take anything.

And they're like, we can't take anything.

But yeah, now we're we're in it.

So is there a state too far away that you won't go to?

No, we will go anywhere.

Texas has a major overpopulation crisis where one of the major states, that's constantly dealing with it.

So we will do anything to save the lives.

As long as we have the money and the resources.

We'll take a pet, not a pet.

What?

We'll take, you know, a couple dozen beds.

So I was about to ask, is the north the northern states?

Are they less populated and less crowded than the southern states, or do you know just Texas?

Yeah.

So they're definitely less crowded.

California and Texas.

Louisiana were some of the major overpopulation states.

So, yeah, they they're just not as crowded.

They don't have the same issues that we have down here, different spay neuter laws and things like that, that.

Yeah, yeah.

So tell me more.

Say more about Texas being a crisis state.

What does that mean?

So at Texas, our save rate, how many pets are getting brought into shelters and things like that.

The save rate is not great compared to other states.

Some states are considered no kill, which means they're saving over 90% of their populations.

But overall, in Texas, I can't remember the numbers, but it's very, very low.

We're not there yet.

So trying to focus on getting those saved more pets, you know?

Yeah, I, I am assuming because the cost of everything is going up for households, which equates to financial strain and economic uncertain that, you guys are hearing about it or experiencing it indirectly at the very least.

What were the kinds of things that you're hearing from people who come in?

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people just are struggling.

If they are struggling to feed their pets, maybe they've lost housing.

We do see that sometimes.

So just trying to keep those pets with their people, food is a major thing.

And that's why we recently opened the pet food pantry, because people will feed their pets before they'll feed themselves.

But we don't want that.

We want your family member to stay with you.

So doing that, doing free vaccines right now, we're we just had a big, vaccine clinic and people are coming in to get their second round.

So just anything we can with that vet care and that food to make sure that their pets can stay with them and they don't need to get them up because they're going through a hard time.

Tell me a little bit more about the pet food pantry, because when you first told me about that, I had no idea what it was and I did not know that was even a thing.

And so I'd love to hear more about it.

Yeah.

So I think we've we've only had it for about six months now.

We would give out pet food previously, but it wasn't as official.

So, basically we have this big drive thru thing once a month and you can come and get pet food for your pet.

So if you lost your job, you don't have a job right now.

You can come in and get pet food and don't need to worry about that.

No.

No judgment, nothing like that.

Or, I mean, or even if it's three months in a row or whatever, you know, it's an older person.

Your grandma, who she is, doesn't have maybe the financial flexibility like she used to.

Right.

We want we want these pets to stay with people because they're so important to to us and bring us so much joy.

Yeah.

So it doesn't necessarily have to be a pet that was adopted from Aggieland humane.

It can be any pet, any pet in the community, surrounding counties.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

That's amazing.

And, so do you give out just food or is there, like, supplies, like toys or anything else like that that you'll give out?

If you need something, we're going to help you.

You know, one of my passions is long dogs, a short leg.

So if I see a long dog with short legs come through, I'm going to give you some stairs to help make sure that your dog can get up and down and doesn't jump off the bed and actually hurt themselves and things like that.

So whatever you need.

Yeah, you're struggling with your fence.

You know, if we have some supplies for that, we'll help you with that.

If you need a sweater, you have a little Chihuahua.

You're too.

I was not handling any cool weather at all, even if it's just a breeze.

Well, we'll get you.

We're trying to get you whatever you need.

So it's a nonprofit.

I imagine your, your budget is kind of razor thin on what you're able to do.

And now having this community pet pantry, is offering even more.

Do you have corporate sponsors that help you make this happen?

Well, we try to find as many sponsors as we can to help.

Costco is so great.

They give us so much food.

Yeah, just looking everywhere we can.

But majority of our, our money comes from individual donors and, foundations.

Fortunate that the Adam family, like to support Aggieland Humane.

They're an amazing family.

So we're very fortunate.

Well, and and I know, you know, we talked about the costs of everything going up for everybody.

And I have to think the cost for you guys have gone up as well.

How do you make up for those cost increases that you're starting to experience?

You know, what we're doing is we're just letting trying to let everyone know where we're at.

You know, costs are going up.

Here's how much money we have.

Here's what we need.

For example, this weekend, we know we need more pet food right now because people need pet food right now with with everything that's happening.

Right.

So we did a big drive in the community stepped up and listen.

So we're trying to be honest and transparent about what we need and hoping that people will want to come forward.

Yeah, well, I didn't know this, but when you told me originally I had the misconception that college students were the main reason why, the pet population is so high at the Humane Society.

But you said it's not.

Can you give me an example of who that could be?

Or why?

Yeah.

I mean, so really, it's it's anyone, anyone can be, you know, I don't want to say a more responsible pet owner because we don't know what people are going through.

So it's not necessarily responsible being responsible or not.

But we don't we don't know why the pets could end up in the shelter for many reasons.

It's not because you're an irresponsible college student, you know, like I said when we were talking before, I've had my oldest dog since I was in college.

He, would like to go tailgate with me, go, go at a party.

So it's not necessarily a college student thing.

A lot of the pets that are come to the shelter are from out in the county.

And those aren't those aren't college students.

Or when pets get reclaimed, those are their families that are reclaiming them.

So we also know that because we have some new data, within the past few years, that other animal shelters can all submit to a website, we know that our influx matches up with other shelters in Texas.

We know that it's not people.

I think we've had a correlation causation type thing in the past where people say, oh well, the students are leaving.

That's why the pets are.

Yeah, the population has gone up.

Well, we know that everywhere the pet population increases during these times, it is not just here locally.

So so what are some of the main reasons that people surrender their pets?

So as far as surrendering their pets, a lot of it is just financial resources or not really understanding how to take take care of the pets, maybe like a life change, something like that.

But, most of the pets that we get and since we have been a little overcrowded, our pets that are found on the street, let me do a quick reintroduction here.

If you just tuned in, I'm Jay Socol, Along with Macey Litterst you're listening to Brazos Matters.

Our guest today is Savannah Gaines, development director for Aggieland Humane Society.

So your title of development director and you handle marketing as well.

That's an interesting combination because not only do you need people to know you exist and how they can step in and help and the opportunities you provide and so forth, you're out there trying to raise money.

How difficult has it been to embrace that role of development director?

Yeah, that's an interesting question because my background is mostly marketing.

So I do always want to lean more towards marketing just in general.

So definitely like getting in the habit of getting out there and raising money.

But, we've really found out that combining those two things is really beneficial because of the messaging.

You know, it just so critical to get everyone on the same page with raising and raising money, getting adoptions, getting fosters, spreading the word about community resources.

And when we know that, you know, it just it just meshes better.

Yeah.

What do you find that people are most interested in donating to?

Is it, is it facility?

Is it a program?

Is it a specific kind of animal?

Like how do you make that connection?

What do you see?

Yeah, we definitely have people who are driven by different things.

A lot of people just want to give to the general fund and say, hey, we just want you to have money to do with what you want.

Yes.

But then we have a lot of people who are very passionate about spay neuter services because, you know, it reduces unwanted litters and so it helps keep that population down.

A lot of people are really interested in the pet food pantry.

Recently we've seen so but then we also have people who are really interested in medical.

So I just like to talk to people and see, you know, what their passion is, what drives them?

Are they cat people?

Are they dog people?

What are they?

Previously dogs were dominating in the past couple of years.

Cats.

People love cats.

Cats are.

We can hardly keep cats in the kennels.

People want cats is their, you know, a fashionable pet of the moment.

It seems like they're.

There is some breed or, I don't know.

So, like French bulldogs, you know, which, seem like a good idea.

But then I have a friend who has one and who says I love her, but not a good idea.

Yeah.

I mean, for me, yes.

Frenchies are the number one breed right now.

For me, I wouldn't get a Frenchie either.

They're adorable, they're lovable.

They have breathing problems.

They they can have back problems.

Doodles as well.

Very hyper.

You know, people say, oh, I want a hypoallergenic dog.

Well, I don't know if the, you know what, but also, they're they're really smart.

They're really energetic.

So you got to keep them really entertained, right?

So, I mean, I can't say that I've seen.

Well, I mean, they're certain we get in Huskies a lot.

We get in Australian cattle dogs a lot.

We get in German shepherds, Great Pyrenees things like that.

We get those in a lot.

We have had some Frenchies lately.

We had a pug recently.

But, I would say the hot pet of the moment is when we get in guinea pigs are cats.

Really?

Yeah.

People know about the guinea pigs.

What's guinea pigs?

There is interest in the guinea pigs.

I don't know if people love guinea pigs.

Yeah, even our Halloween costume contest, we should at virtual Halloween costume contest.

And, the winner was a cat with the guinea pigs.

The cat was dressed up in, like, a little devil costume, and the guinea pigs were little angels.

It's so funny.

Wow.

How how is the, cat population at the shelter?

At the Humane Society?

We hardly have any cats right now because people are adopting them left and right.

I mean, we see a big influx during kitten season where we're like, please come and adopt a cat but people are just there loving cats.

People want to adopt cats.

What is the reasoning for that, do you think?

I have thoughts.

I think that, you know, they're maybe a little easier for some people.

You can leave them for longer periods of time.

They have their litter box.

So maybe a little easier than a dog.

True.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, speaking of that, I want to talk about fostering.

Have you seen an increase or decrease in people's interest in fostering animals, cats or dogs or guinea pigs?

I think that we've personally this is anecdotal, seen an increase.

And that's because of Dog Day out, because of that newer program that we have where you can take a dog out for a day.

I think that that has then turned around and people want to foster.

Yeah, because I see how fun that is.

Now, I would say during, these kitten and puppy seasons during the spring, we're definitely struggling.

We need people who can feed these little babies.

They that have no mom or maybe their mom protected them.

Things like that.

Like we that's where we see the most need for these fosters or have these short term like overnight or over the weekend opportunities sort of cut into the the more traditional fostering scenarios?

I don't think so, because most people are taking them out because they want to kind of test it out.

So we see a lot more people that just turn around and adopt the pet.

Or like they, they just don't want to keep it overnight.

That's why they do the day.

Or they can only keep it that weekend.

So I don't think it's cut into the more traditional fostering at all, where as some of these pets that go to foster, they need some long term medical care and things like that.

So I think it's kind of a different subset of people.

Yeah, I agree with that.

I signed up for Dog Day Out a couple weeks ago, and my reasoning behind it was, I just I don't want to raise a dog in an apartment because I feel too bad.

And I love big dogs, so if I ever got one, I would never.

But just being able to spend the day with the dog is just like life changing.

And to be able to actually take them out and be able to like, let them go play and take them to a park and get them out of the environment or used to is special.

So I agree with that.

It's therapeutic to have a dog, especially like for the college, it's, you know, you're in the dorm for the college kids who may bring their family pet to school with them.

There's some things they really should do legally.

Regarding that pet.

Correct.

Yes.

You do need to register your pet.

Dogs, cats and ferrets all need to be registered with the Brazos County tag.

What if ferrets do to deserve that?

You know, I, I didn't ask questions.

I just know that it's ferrets and yeah we have had some parents come in lately.

By the way.

We get we've had some parrots lately.

All kinds of stuff.

Well, can you mention taking a parrot if I'm a weekend?

Yeah.

Parrot day out.

I mean.

That's right.

Are there consequences, though, if if you bring your pet here from somewhere else and you don't do the legal registration.

Like what?

What happens to you?

What are the consequences?

Yeah, I you get a citation from animal control.

But also the benefits really outweigh that because let's say your pet somehow gets out and gets hit by a car.

Well, we're going to cover that.

Brazos County tag helps cover part of that medical and things like that.

So I'll say your stray hold is extended.

And, let's say your friend was watching your dog and it got out and your friend didn't tell you that it got out.

And then you come back five days later.

Well, your pet has an extended stray hold to a longer period of time that it's all in lost and found.

So there's just all kinds of benefits of why you really need that.

You think a lot of students that move and bring their childhood dog that they know, that know, because I've never heard of that before.

And my one of my friends bring her dog from her house and I don't think she ever heard of that.

You need to talk to somebody marketing.

I'm just bring that.

Yeah.

We do.

Also because we have new tags coming, they're going to be really cool.

We haven't even really announced them yet, so I'll tell you all about them.

The new county tags will have a QR code on them, and you can scan the QR code and get the contact information for the person right then and there.

Oh that's great.

That's really cool.

Change.

Yeah.

Everything.

So this will be announced in January.

But is there any kind of legislation that that shelters like yours sort of try to get introduced or you feel like would be helpful to Texas pet owners or shelters?

The maybe we don't think about or have no idea that, you know, if I did that kind of stuff, I would push spay neuter.

But yeah, because, you know, just people say, oh, we had a website litter without one.

Website litter has major consequences.

So for me, I would just pitch that spay neuter.

Yeah.

But so do you have families, people that have those oopsie litters.

Do they give them to y'all?

If they can't take care of them?

What you do, do you need to surrender them?

Technically, but we do get puppies and kittens that, you know, definitely have to be someone's.

Yeah.

And then, so what is y'all's responsibility then after that situation happens, well, we get brand new babies.

Yeah.

I mean, that's when they need to go to foster and potentially be bottle fed.

If they're with the mom, then that's good because they can mom can take care of them, but definitely we're trying to get them fixed.

I mean, the other day, someone came in, they said they saw some puppies running out of the the woods, and we're like, what?

And yeah, he saw some puppies running out of the woods and wrangled them all up.

Who knows where when those puppies were due in for they had to be like 3 or 4 months at that point, like the woods surrounding the the Humane Society.

No, no, no, they were oh, wherever they were.

Although that has that has happened.

But yeah.

Where they live.

Okay, okay.

Yeah.

And they wrangled them all up and brought them in and they were like four month old puppies that they you're like, oh, so yeah.

Interesting.

So I know you have individuals and families of all ages coming in every day.

Are there a few stories that kind of stand out to you about this was amazing.

This was sweet.

This was kind of magical.

I mean, yeah, there's a lot of stories that, I mean, I could go on and on, but one of my favorite stories I've recently been thinking about is a dog that we hadn't with that came in and it was actually paralyzed.

And, we were able to get it just treatment and pain medication.

So now the dog walks.

Oh wow.

Yeah, it came in.

It couldn't move its legs at all.

But we knew what to do pretty immediately, so that was really good.

Any time.

I personally love when families all come in together and volunteer together.

It's really, really sweet.

Yeah.

I mean, there's there's so many stories I, I'm like, I'm sure.

Yeah, sure.

I don't know if there were a couple that you really hang on to because they were just, so special.

They're they're kind of unforgettable.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that Percy's story when he came in, was really unforgettable.

Recently we had a dog that came in that for me, it's the dogs in the cats that have issues with their back legs or aren't walking.

And one came in, both hips shattered, able to get that fixed.

It's a tripod dog now, but one leg able to get surgery.

On to that.

That was really, really stick out to me.

And each one time we had a dog come in, this one, this one I think about a lot.

Some of my friends have the puppies, but you would think she was a corgi.

But those puppies came out.

Half of them came out like German Shepherds.

And I watched the I watched them, I watched her get birth.

So I was there, you know, with her.

And yeah, half of them were like 80 pound dogs.

Oh my God, she was like a corgi.

And the other half are like 30 pound corgi looking things I couldn't tell you.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

Who knows?

Okay, before we before we, wrap things up, any any information you want to share?

That we didn't ask you about?

I don't know.

I think just support the pets and support your neighbors pets.

You know, if you see someone who needs help.

But they need help fixing their their fans or something like that because their pet keeps getting out.

Oh, yeah.

See how you can help, you know, shame, blame all of that.

You know, you don't want all of the shame and blame to get it all mixed in together because everyone's just trying their best.

Yeah.

And how do people learn more about what we talked about today?

How to volunteer, how to help out tips about surrendering pets and just helping out in general.

Yes.

You can go to our website actually and humane.org.

We're on Instagram, Twitter, blue sky.

TikTok, Facebook, all of those things.

So or give us a call or stop by up Leonard road.

awesome.

And are there specific things that if people wanted to donate things, that you would most eagerly embrace?

Right now, pet food for the pet food pantry?

Any beds?

Blankets, things like that.

Dog toys, especially the hard dog toys.

And does all this need to be new?

Like, the bed doesn't have to be okay.

It doesn't have to be new.

It can be used.

And then, of course, money to make all these things happen.

Yeah, yeah.

And and is there, a particular way that you would like to take in, funds?

You can write whatever is easiest for you.

You can write a check and mail it in.

You can bring it by.

You can do it, do our website.

You can make a gift through our website.

Send a check through your bank, your bank will do it for you, however, works best for you.

We're here.

Support.

We'll take, gifts of stock.

You know, we'll work with you.

Whatever you have.

However you know you can give, we'll we'll work with you on that.

Perfect.

Savannah Gaines, thank you so much for being with us today.

We appreciate it very much.

Thank you so much.

Thanks.

Brazos Matters is a production of Aggielands Public Radio 90.9 KAMU FM, a member of Texas A&M University's Division of Community Engagement.

Our show was engineered and edited by Matt Dittman.

All Brazos Matters episodes are available on YouTube and on podcast platforms like Spotify, Apple, iHeart, and Amazon, also on the NPR app and on the KAMU website.

We'd love for you to rate and review and subscribe so you never miss an episode.

For Macey Litterst, I'm Jay Socol.

Thanks so much for joining us.