Latest / Buying Local Podcast / Veterinarian’s Fight for Shelter with Kyra Haring | Buying Local S3E50

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Veterinarian’s Fight for Shelter with Kyra Haring | Buying Local S3E50 · Buying Local Podcast

0:00
Before we get further into it, why why don't we just just real
0:03
quick, you want to just take a minute and and kind of introduce
0:06
yourself and your practice and you know who you are and what
0:08
you do and kind of give a little context to our listeners for
0:11
things. OK so my name is Doctor Kyra
0:14
Herring. I have been practicing vet
0:18
medicine since 1997. I graduated from University of
0:23
Florida. I have my own private practice
0:25
in Glens Falls. I've worked at a number of
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different practices in the the region down to Albany.
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When I've done a lot of per diem work prior to owning my own
0:39
practice, a lot of times they come to my house, but other
0:42
times they may go to my counterparts here in my office.
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You know, a lot of times they'll adopt them as well, but that's
0:51
my, my favorite thing. The only, the only reason I, you
0:56
know, well, let me back pedal. The reason I loved having a
0:59
private practice was I could also mesh that aspect of what I
1:04
love to do, along with having the the client communication.
1:09
You lack that when you're doing solely shelter type medicine,
1:13
you, you're not getting that relationship with your clients,
1:16
which is wonderful. I love to, you know, get the
1:19
context of, you know, who are these people that love these
1:23
animals and try to build relationships.
1:26
It's really, you know, incredibly rewarding.
1:31
And so I've had this practice since 2006.
1:35
I work by myself, soon to be with two young, eager new
1:41
graduates, which is going to be amazing.
1:43
Something that is lacking has been lacking, and I'm always
1:48
told it's because the funding isn't there.
1:51
So I've done a little bit of my own legwork to kind of look into
1:54
the reality of that. And it really comes down to,
1:58
unfortunately, I need the town board members to jump on board
2:04
with the concept of at least acknowledging you've let these
2:08
animals down. Unfortunately, when you do this,
2:11
you're complicit indirectly in animal neglect.
2:16
You know, you haven't provided these animals with the framework
2:19
to stay safe. You don't allow people who may
2:25
be less unfortunate financially to care for animals to surrender
2:30
those animals into a safe space. And so we end up with these
2:34
animals that may be dumped on the street or worse than that,
2:38
maybe they're abused as well. So I've come to be aware that we
2:45
need to get the acknowledgement from the town board members that
2:49
there is an issue here. Let's open our eyes to this.
2:52
Let's work together. Let's talk to law enforcement
2:56
officials, talk to the sheriff's, talk to the troopers.
2:59
What's really going on? What is the the safety network
3:03
that these animals have? And you're gonna find it's very
3:07
poor structure and they're very frustrated.
3:11
They have nowhere to turn when I say they, the law enforcement
3:14
officials. And if the town board members
3:19
allow things to move to the next level, I'll say where, Where
3:24
they acknowledge, yeah, we have a need.
3:27
Where there's a need, there will be financial backing that we can
3:32
apply for through both the federal and state level.
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So it's not accurate or acceptable, I guess I should say
3:43
or kind to say that the funding isn't there.
3:46
We need to 1st open our eyes that there's a problem and then
3:50
do something about it, get to the next level and then figure
3:54
the other parts out. But the first part takes
3:57
awareness. Awareness on the part of the
4:00
community. People I come across in my vet
4:03
practice that are just blown away when they are told that.
4:09
And as a vet for years and years, I have been working with
4:14
three counties, Saratoga, Warren and Washington for
4:20
investigators, different law enforcement.
4:23
I've testified in grand jury for neglect cases, abuse cases, and
4:30
it's crazy the number of abuse cases that are really coming to
4:34
the forefront right now, which is good to get a little bit of
4:38
traction here, but I just don't want it to just die.
4:40
I don't want this to be for nothing that these animals were
4:44
abused and, you know, they're part of their stories, brought
4:48
forward and landed three of them in my office.
4:51
Like, I want this to actually be for something like for me as a
4:55
vet, you know, that as part of the community, but also as a
5:00
vet, as also as an animal lover, also now as an animal advocate,
5:05
I kind of really want to start to get actively seeking the
5:14
attention from the town board members to make a change.
5:17
And they cry poverty. But that's not a good excuse.
5:21
That's a terrible excuse for the lack of a shelter in these two
5:27
counties. So it's it's kind of all of
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that. And so the petition was started.
5:35
It in particular for a Whitehall, Washington County
5:40
case that came on my doorstep when a trooper had nowhere to
5:45
turn. He had, it took over 400 days
5:48
for this to come to light, 400 days of this man's property with
5:53
animals being abused. It took 400 days for anything to
5:56
happen and they brought the three worst cases to me and
6:02
those 3 animals are still under my care since August 30th.
6:06
That's because there's no shelter to take their to take
6:10
them from the injured phase. Taking the call from law
6:15
enforcement, doing something with that phone call, being able
6:19
to place those sick animals in a shelter, let those animals
6:23
rehabilitate and then get proper homes.
6:27
When you say the animals are being abused, I mean, that could
6:32
obviously could cover so many different things.
6:35
You and, and it's interesting 'cause I mean, I think I
6:37
literally just today saw a case of a guy with, with some animals
6:42
in Corinth that the state troopers had to get involved.
6:45
Or maybe it's the Sheriff's Office, I'm not sure which.
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But, you know, you hear animal abuse, but you don't always know
6:51
what that means, you know, so, so could you maybe just maybe
6:56
dive into that a little bit? So animal abuse can, you know,
7:01
this is where I think also the laws really need to change.
7:04
I think the DA's prosecutors have to change what they see as
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abuse versus neglect versus, you know, what's going to be a
7:13
misdemeanor, what's going to become a felony because cats are
7:18
literally not even dealt with by the counties whatsoever.
7:23
Dogs are deemed property. So as property value.
7:27
That's a really, really ugly notion.
7:32
To think that, for instance, dogs that were in this boarding
7:37
facility in Argyle, all those 21 dogs that died and, you know,
7:45
the DEA slapped them with just a misdemeanor.
7:48
All these dogs that died because it was deemed that there wasn't
7:55
intent to harm these animals. Well, if you're going to care
8:00
for animals, you better darn well know how to provide them
8:05
with a sustenance, the safety that they need.
8:08
If somebody's paying you to care for their animals, you better
8:11
know how to do that. So if a trooper or an officer is
8:17
called and they go to a home and somebody has noted this dog
8:24
looks like it's starving, it's so skinny.
8:27
If the officer goes there and they find that the dog has a
8:32
food bowl, has water provided to it and a shelter of some form,
8:37
it could be, you know, 10 below 0.
8:41
But so long as it has a dog house, that's the shelter it
8:44
needs. And so then walk away and to try
8:48
to get them to follow through and say, can't you see if
8:52
there's something wrong with that dog medically is very
8:56
difficult. It's difficult for law
8:57
enforcement because they don't know where to turn.
9:00
So they don't really even have the proper support and sequence
9:06
of support to know, OK, I have a call.
9:09
This is a starving, you know, mother cat has kittens.
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Where do I go? Well, OK, so in Warren and
9:17
Washington County, you only have dog control.
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You have animal control. But what is really their task?
9:25
They don't have a facility to have seized animals that, for
9:31
instance, in this Whitehall case, they were the three that
9:35
ended up here. This kitten had severe facial
9:42
wounds and teeth that were knocked out.
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It had so it's it it has oral trauma.
9:50
The leg was so swollen the poor thing couldn't stand.
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I was confident the leg was broken.
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Fortunately not. So these three animals were so
10:00
severely flee infested that I kid you not, when they stood up
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from their white bedding, it was blood tinged pink and like even
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some of it like red from the mass number of fleas that were
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chewing on these animals. They're open sores, but also
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what we call flea dirt, which is digested blood.
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That's the fleas poop. That's how badly infested these
10:27
animals were. And so those animals came to me
10:31
with a, a bunch of issues with skin infections, malnourished
10:38
and injuries and trauma. So that's one example of an
10:43
abuse case I dealt with. Plus there were a number of
10:46
other puppies and dogs there, lots and lots of stray cats.
10:52
But I've also testified on a on cases such as Dalmatian that was
10:59
shot to death when somebody went up to a front door and just
11:03
started to shoot through the front door thinking they were
11:08
going to get a human, but they got the dog instead.
11:12
I had to evaluate kittens that just just, I'm sorry for the
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graphics, but their heads were dislocated from their bodies.
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I, I had the nicest, you know, one of the nicest breeds of dog
11:28
is a Boston Terrier. And these two grown men who were
11:32
drunk as skunks decided to say that they were terrified this
11:37
Boston Terrier was going to hurt them.
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So instead of walking away from this vicious Boston Terrier that
11:44
would only probably lick you, they took a hammer to this dog
11:48
and bludgeoned it to death to the point where the poor dog had
11:52
aspirated its teeth into its lungs from acting.
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So I've seen the most horrific of things.
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I've seen dogs burn to death, you know, left purposefully in a
12:05
home, you know, that was torched left.
12:08
It's it's pretty graphic. And yeah, it, it's, it's awful
12:15
because, you know, I'm here to heal animals.
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And then when you see that I have clients that lovingly are
12:23
trying to do their best for their pets, then you see that
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there's this whole other population of animals that are
12:30
living under this, you know, horrific abuse, starvation,
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freezing cold. I've had cats that, you know,
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froze to death on manhole covers.
12:44
It just case after case after case.
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And a lot of times when I have troopers, sheriff's, police
12:53
officers who are clients of mine, they'll come in and
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they'll complain about the fact that they have nowhere to turn,
13:00
that there is no official chain of command or that they're told
13:05
not to engage on something. Or more alarmingly, if they go
13:09
to a call and they want to do something with it, it just falls
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on deaf ears as it gets to prosecution phase.
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And the people that did these harmful things to these animals
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just get away with it. And so it's just a perpetual
13:24
issue. And what we all know and you
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know, we've all heard stories about, you know, the, the person
13:30
that's abusing these animals, they're likely also abusing
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humans, children, elderly and that's it.
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It's really sad. Let me let me go back to this
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one abuse case that kind of really got me steamrolling.
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And a lot of people in Washington County are very aware
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of a case that just transpired, the white, this case in
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Whitehall, which took over 400 days for a trooper to be able to
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actively get the three most badly cared for, or I should say
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the most abused if if we want to even talk about, you know, which
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are more abused and which to leave behind.
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It's sad. But he had to take and select
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the three worst, bring them to me.
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And then again, they're still with me under my care.
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And then the rest were left for a period of time again until he
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could get further support, I think through the court to go
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back onto the property to seize the other ones, the other
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animals. And it was a problem to figure
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out where to place these animals.
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So it was with the help of a bunch of of people and I'm not
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sure really, I can't say their name, who they are because I
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don't really even know what that network amounted to like which
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people I just know that dog control got was involved
15:02
directly. There may have been animal
15:04
control, but also your humane association did a wonderful job
15:11
as well. So several different agencies
15:14
had to come forward to figure out what do we do with these
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other animals. Another local area that ended up
15:22
evaluating, I think it was over 30 more animals that were on
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that property. Now when I posted about this on
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my social media it was sad that a lot of stories came out as to
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what people would see driving by this property that they're
15:40
always constantly signs outside looking to sell puppies, puppies
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and and young dogs that were starved being dumped over a
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fence line. I I not I didn't witness this
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but this is what I'm informed of.
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One said picture that I posted was of a female dog that had
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literally starved to death the poor thing after giving birth to
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two sets of puppies and only three out of 16 of them
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survived. The photos taken that look like
16:17
third world element and the the property looks so in disrepair
16:25
where these animals were kept sleeping on rocks.
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Puppies sleeping on rocks, broken pieces of wood, eating
16:33
out of boxes. They were eating trash, dried up
16:39
empty water bowls. People took to get proof they
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were taking photos of what was going on there.
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And that is coming up on November 10th, I believe.
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Let me just the. Town board meeting is.
16:56
No, this is going to be this case.
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It's going to trial and that will be this Whitehall case that
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I'm Speaking of. And it's going to be on November
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10th at 2:00. It's a Whitehall hearing.
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And I think we need to have a lot of people show up to that.
17:18
A lot of people are very angered and there needs to be massive
17:22
consequence for this individual because this is not the first
17:26
time there and he needs to just be stopped.
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You know, this abuse has to stop.
17:34
But there are county board meetings that I think are really
17:37
important for people to come to, to support the animals that
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can't show up to these meetings themselves, that would otherwise
17:45
probably love to show up for themselves.
17:48
The Washington County Board meeting, there are two of them.
17:51
One is on November 13th, the other's on December 11th.
17:57
And they placed that at a very inconvenient time of 3:00
18:03
potentially. Maybe that should be an issue
18:07
that they need to realize. A lot of people work, but
18:10
hopefully people can make that those meetings.
18:14
Excuse me. And then there's a Warren County
18:16
Board 2 meetings. One is November 21st, the other
18:21
is December 19th and again at the inconvenient time of 10 AM.
18:26
So hopefully we can get a showing there.
18:30
We don't need to have permission to come.
18:33
They will have to hear stories, and I hope other people show up
18:36
with their own personal stories of, you know, the countless
18:41
things I hear. I found a cat on the side of the
18:44
road. It had been hit by a car.
18:46
I had nowhere to turn. I footed the bill myself.
18:50
I rehabilitated the cat myself. These are, you know, very common
18:56
themes that I see coming through my practice.
18:59
And sometimes they are just surrendered to local area vets
19:04
and veterinarians are forced to field these these calls for what
19:11
should otherwise really be the shelter's issue.
19:15
They should be manning these issues at a local animal
19:19
shelter, county animal shelter. So in that scenario, and like in
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the scenario where you've taken on these three animals, is the
19:28
is the burden of care placed entirely on you?
19:30
Like do you have to pay for the food, pay for the medicine and
19:34
you know, obviously your time, which it sounds like you're
19:36
happy to give, but at the same time, you only have so much time
19:40
and you still do have to run a business.
19:41
So there's no, there's no support whatsoever for folks
19:46
when it comes to helping these animals.
19:50
So I what I what it it sounds like to me your your overall
19:56
objective would be to get a shelter.
20:00
At least one in place to service Warren and Washington counties,
20:04
which to me that's like a monstrous footprint for one
20:07
shelter. But but, you know, start
20:10
somewhere, right? At least get.
20:11
Yeah, absolutely. One's better than none.
20:13
But the the challenge to that shelter is the perceived lack of
20:19
funding. But it's not so much that there
20:22
isn't funds available, it's just that the, the, the counties
20:25
themselves have to decide that this is an issue that they want
20:28
to fix. And then that starts the process
20:31
rolling to be able to start to request funding through grants
20:37
or whatever it is that that's a fair assessment.
20:41
Yes, definitely. And I've spoken to a senator's
20:44
office, Elise Stefanik's office, and they have people that are
20:51
willing, you know, once this gets going, can assist with, you
20:56
know, the next phase. And also me, I'm going to be
21:00
meeting with Kelly Duvall, who's part of Saratoga Animal Shelter
21:05
to talk about, you know, what did it take, you know, to bring
21:08
that facility forward? And I've, I've heard the story
21:14
from both Warren and Washington County town Board members, I've
21:18
spoken to them before that that it's a very wealthy county and
21:24
it's very different. Well, yes, that still does not
21:31
take away the reality that animals are being abused and
21:35
neglected. As you said, start somewhere.
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You don't need to have the same, you know, type of building set
21:44
up immediately. You just need to do something
21:46
like start the process. Once the process is started.
21:51
I am, I fully know that people would volunteer in great numbers
21:59
to try to see, you know, these animals get the proper care that
22:03
they need come, you know, to help care for them.
22:07
That donations would be able to be sought for if, you know,
22:16
again, if there was awareness. Now, I know the other issue
22:19
that's going to be a big issue is right now Washington County
22:24
has a big pickle financially that they're planning on
22:29
increasing the county's overall individual taxes the the
22:37
community people. And that's a problem, you know,
22:40
and it's it shouldn't be a problem for the animals.
22:43
That's not whatever happened with the mismanagement of the
22:48
budget should not hit the residents as far as I'm
22:53
concerned, but it also shouldn't hit the animals.
22:55
Like that's not fair to still ignore a big problem that has
23:01
been an age-old problem. It still needs to be something
23:04
that's addressed and bring awareness and be open minded to
23:09
this problem. Has there never been a shelter
23:12
in either county? No, Washington County has had
23:17
none. There was a number of years ago,
23:23
I again, don't ask me the year, the the time frame, but there
23:27
was a Warren County operation that was started and something
23:34
was not quite appropriate with how the finances were allocated.
23:41
And it was squandered somehow. And that put a very bad taste in
23:49
the mouths of the the town board members.
23:53
They saw this mismanagement. And at this point they have a
23:57
contract with the SPCA of Upstate New York.
24:03
I'm not sure you know what their title is.
24:08
It's not an animal shelter. A shelter is 1, which takes in
24:13
resident community animals, let's them house their
24:17
rehabilitate there, and then they're adopted out.
24:21
There's an adoption program. They, I believe, again, somebody
24:26
would need to, you know, do the legwork to figure that out.
24:31
I think they're open on a limited basis and they work on
24:35
some abuse cases for Warren County.
24:41
So I'm, I'm curious, obviously the shelter, I think it's a no
24:47
brainer that it helps with taking in animals,
24:51
rehabilitating them if needed, and then helping placement and
24:55
find new homes. When we first started talking
24:59
though, some of the things that you said, it sounded to me like
25:02
you feel that having that shelter could also be
25:06
preventative in some cases for abuse.
25:10
Help me understand that. So it's not so much that it
25:14
would be, well, I mean it could be in the sense that it could
25:17
help with there could be educational programs, there
25:20
could be low cost spay neuter programs.
25:23
There could be vaccine clinics. Again, there could be situations
25:28
where somebody gets down on their times and financially
25:32
doesn't have the ability to afford their pets care or food
25:37
for their pet. And maybe they either seek some
25:42
support, you know, in, in that from that direction, or they
25:46
again, surrender the pet to get a better, you know, a better
25:53
opportunity. So in in that aspect, it can be
25:57
kind of preventative, but also preventative in the way that
26:03
it's not, it's not so much that is preventative.
26:06
It is a network for a proper network.
26:10
When a shelter, the the shelter board people should have the
26:16
proper education into the proper laws that surround animal abuse
26:22
cases so that law enforcement officials that they're not
26:27
that's not their training that they have some place to turn to
26:31
when it's, you know, this is type of case like Whitehall
26:36
where they were called by a Good Samaritan who says, I see, you
26:40
know, puppies abound and they're running into the street and dogs
26:44
that are skinny and cats everywhere help.
26:47
And a lot of times they are kind of stopped in their tracks.
26:52
They don't know the law enforcement agents themselves.
26:56
They don't know where to turn. Where do they turn when they
26:59
when they have this? I have been told by numerous law
27:05
enforcement agents when I talk with them that 9 out of 10 times
27:10
when they have a situation of concern and they call dog
27:16
control, 9 out of 10 times their phone call isn't addressed or
27:20
picked up. So what do they do then?
27:23
They can't just, you know, start throwing a bunch of animals in
27:28
their trunk and drive around with them.
27:31
They need to have a place to go. They need to know that, you
27:34
know, when I have a search warrant that once I get these 30
27:41
animals, I have a facility to bring them to.
27:44
So it's, it allows action to be taken swiftly there.
27:49
There should be just a sequence, a chain of, you know, one phone
27:55
call leads to this phone call and not this wild goose chase.
27:59
And then before you know it, 400 days later, these animals have
28:03
been suffering because nobody could address the issue.
28:09
And that's the problem. Yeah, 400 days sounds like a lot
28:13
of time, you know, it's and, and I and it, I know you're not
28:19
faulting the law enforcement here or it doesn't sound far at
28:22
all, just sounds like their hands are kind of tied as far as
28:25
what they're able to do, resources that are available.
28:28
And it sounds like you feel that just having the shelter would be
28:33
at least a a first step to being able to create that support
28:36
system for law enforcement. Right.
28:38
Absolutely. And, and so it's just, it's so
28:44
surprising to me that we don't have a shelter.
28:46
We don't have, because obviously this is not a new problem.
28:50
You know, like I said, I, I literally just saw a post on
28:54
Facebook about someone local to me that I think it involved a
28:57
couple of a few dogs or something along those lines.
29:00
And it seems like it's a lot more common that than you would
29:04
believe. I, I, you know, it's interesting
29:07
because I know, like, I mean, we have 4 dogs, 2 cats, we have a
29:10
farm, so we have lots of room for all those animals.
29:12
But like I, I'm an animal lover. And most people I think I know
29:16
that have dogs treat their dogs like they treat their kids.
29:19
And it's always so it's always surprising to me because I live
29:22
in the world where people just love animals.
29:24
And why, Yeah. Right.
29:25
And to think that there's this other side, the dark side.
29:30
Of the dark side, yeah. Yeah, that it is just
29:32
absolutely. It's wild.
29:34
I yeah, fathom and. That's a big exactly.
29:38
It's a big dark side, which is really the heart wrenching
29:41
thing. I mean, it's it's sad and you
29:43
know, I guess because I'm a vet, this is what I hear.
29:46
You know, I'm, I'm, I'm unfortunately privileged to or
29:50
unprivileged. I guess if you know, in my mind
29:54
to know of these cases, you know, everybody would want to
29:58
stay naive that this is going on because it's it's a horrible
30:03
thing to think of. Nobody wants to think of animals
30:05
or children being and it's sad. It's terrible.
30:11
Yeah. And when you were mentioning the
30:13
meetings before, you know, it sounds like you're really trying
30:17
to get people to go to these meetings and to speak up and
30:21
have their voices heard. What, what impact will that have
30:25
with people going to these meetings?
30:27
And and you know, I don't want to say raising their voices
30:31
because, because that may sound like yelling, but just by people
30:34
going to these meetings and showing a community presence,
30:38
what, what do you, what's the outcome that you would hope for
30:40
with that? You know what, I guess the
30:44
outcome I hope for is that we have agreement, you know, that
30:48
the town board people can, you know, unite and finally say
30:53
you're right, enough is enough. It's about time that we listen
30:57
to the community and thank you community members for bringing
31:01
this to our attention. You know, I, I wasn't sure where
31:07
to start. So I started as just throwing
31:11
this out there on Facebook and Instagram and now I have over
31:15
1500 pledge signatures. I have people out there walking
31:19
door to door getting signatures. Again, it's just all about
31:24
awareness and and really letting our counties know that, you
31:30
know, at this point I don't want to stop.
31:31
I don't think you know that we as residents here should stop
31:36
until we finally have a safe place for these animals.
31:41
I'm. Glad you brought up the
31:44
petition. So it, if you're listening or
31:48
watching, you know we're going to include a link to the
31:50
petition in the show notes, whether it's on YouTube or Apple
31:53
or Spotify. How many?
31:57
So you have 1500 signatures on it right now.
31:59
How many signatures do you need do you think?
32:02
I don't know. I you know, I really don't know.
32:05
Like what does how many signatures does it take before
32:09
somebody listens to you, a politician listens to you, you
32:12
know, or it hits the right person, sparks the right
32:16
conversation with somebody to say, let's blow this up like
32:20
we're done. I didn't know this.
32:22
So let's take this down to Albany.
32:26
And, you know, I, I sign, I submitted my petition to Kathy
32:31
Hochul. Didn't hear anything back.
32:33
You know, I'm hoping that eventually, if we keep on
32:37
growing this number, that we will become so many voices for
32:43
these voiceless creatures. I hate to, you know, use that
32:49
common term, but they are voiceless and they're, they're
32:54
innocent. But I'm hoping at some point
32:56
there are enough other voices besides my own.
33:01
When I've had phone calls with directly with the
33:05
administrators, you know, the county board member members,
33:11
it's it, you know, they don't want to hear what I have to say.
33:16
And I, I don't want it to be like that anymore.
33:19
I don't want it to be well, Doctor Herring.
33:21
She's complaining. She wants a shelter.
33:24
I don't want anything. This isn't for me.
33:26
This isn't about me. I, you know, I'm a vet, I'm a
33:31
mother. I have like so much going on in
33:34
my life. It's just this is my passion.
33:36
And right now I feel like it needs to be something that I try
33:40
to see through to the end with, you know, the outcome being so
33:46
amazing for the community where it'll be a safer environment,
33:52
where law enforcement feels that they actually have a place to
33:55
turn. My son is a canine sheriff and
34:01
he, he's spoken to me a number of times about, you know, his
34:05
frustration. But they can't, you know, speak
34:09
up for fear of you know what, what may come of it.
34:14
I guess politically. So it's going to take us as you
34:19
know, the common folk, if you will, taxpayers, you know, our
34:23
voices deserve to be heard and we we need to be there for the
34:27
animals to be able to speak for them.
34:31
So it's, it sounds to me like, you know, you're kind of a
34:37
single voice yelling into oblivion here, right into the.
34:41
Yeah, yeah. And, and it's just surprising
34:47
that, you know, I guess I, we obviously we can't put words in
34:50
the mouths of the Board of Supervisors or whoever it is
34:54
that you're getting in front of, but I just, I find it hard to
34:58
believe that they wouldn't want to help or solve this problem.
35:03
Do you know, like, are there like, are there reasons given as
35:07
to far as, as why like it's not a priority for them to have an
35:11
animal shelter in Warren or Washington County?
35:13
The reason is always financial. It's always financial and that's
35:18
the only reason they give. And that's not a sound or valid
35:21
reason. That's not a good, good enough
35:23
reason because again, there are ways for the county to have
35:28
support from the federal state level.
35:32
So I, I really don't think that's a satisfactory excuse for
35:38
them anymore. And I, I find it to be a very
35:40
sad, you know, reason And I, I just hope things change.
35:46
I'd like to see things change and I'm grateful for the people
35:50
that have signed the pledge so far who have listened to, have
35:54
taken the time to read my posts. I am not a political person in
35:59
the, you know, this kind of being this voice and getting
36:04
these ugly posts on my social media.
36:06
That's not what people want to see.
36:08
They want to see, oh, look at the new puppy that we have at
36:10
the clinic today. And I know that there are risks
36:14
for me to put this publish this stuff, but for me, the reward
36:19
far out far exceeds, you know, the the concern like I am most
36:26
importantly for me, I'm an animal lover and I always want
36:30
to have the backs of these animals that don't have anybody
36:34
else. And I just hope my clients and,
36:37
you know, followers appreciate that and they're proving that
36:41
that is true. Like I'm, I'm growing my
36:43
community, I'm getting people behind me.
36:46
And it's just been such an amazing feeling.
36:49
Yeah, yeah, sometimes, sometimes it just takes time, I guess,
36:53
right. But unfortunately that with all
36:55
the time that goes by, there's still animals being abused.
36:58
Exactly. And I don't, I don't know if
37:00
it's just the media landscape or what it is, but I feel like I
37:04
hear it more and more and more recently of case of animal
37:08
abuse. And again, they don't often put
37:10
any kind of description on what that abuse entails, but I do.
37:15
I keep seeing it. Yeah, yeah.
37:18
It's wild. Yeah, yeah, more and more for
37:22
sure. And I just hope that, you know,
37:24
all those animals that had to suffer, you know, at the hands
37:27
of these, I don't, I don't know what type of human does this
37:33
type of act, but I'll call them monsters because they, these
37:37
poor animals are at your mercy. And they just want love and
37:41
they're just so giving. But for these animals to have
37:46
gone through what they have for me to have done necropsies on
37:51
dogs that are burned to death. I just hope that I can try to
37:56
make a difference, you know, for all the future ones that the
37:59
ones that have died at the hands of this type of disgusting
38:06
abuse, you know, didn't do it for for nothing.
38:09
That there, there. There's a reason that we're here
38:12
having this conversation that unfortunately it took these ugly
38:17
cases to spark this conversation and we just have to keep going
38:23
with it. I think it's amazing what you're
38:26
doing. It's obviously needed, not just
38:30
from all the things we keep hearing about, but just knowing
38:32
that there's a, you know, look, no lack of support.
38:34
I, I was completely in the dark about that until you reached out
38:37
to me and had no idea. I actually did not know there
38:42
wasn't a shelter. I just always assumed there was
38:44
one. I just didn't know where it was.
38:46
Yeah, yeah. And, and because I don't ever
38:48
have a need for a shelter, right, You know, I, I just kind
38:50
of gets filed away. So I it's, you know, I hope, I
38:56
hope we're able to help you get some more attention on it
38:57
anyway. Thank you.
38:59
I appreciate it. Absolutely.
39:01
And it's been it's been great to know that there are some people
39:04
that again, like yourself, you know, you get the awareness and
39:07
it's like, OK, what are we gonna do about this?
39:10
Let's bring more awareness. And you know, the more one
39:13
person shares it, it's just that much of A gain that we have
39:17
each, each time. Yeah, just keep building on it.
39:20
Yeah. So I, we're obviously going to
39:22
put, you know, like I said, we're going to put a link to
39:24
your petition so other people can sign it everywhere we
39:27
possibly can. Thank you.
39:29
You're welcome. And but outside of that, if
39:32
people want to get in touch with you, they want to learn more
39:35
about you or what you're doing or how to help, but how do they
39:37
find you? They can e-mail me at Kyra
39:43
Herring FPS at Gmail. That's my personal e-mail if
39:49
they would like to do that. They can also go on my For Pet's
39:51
Sake Veterinary Center Facebook page or our Instagram, which I
39:58
think is For Pet's Sake that, but they can reach out that way
40:04
or by calling my office For Pet's Sake Veterinary Center,
40:08
518-745-1177. OK.
40:13
And then the what's the website for your business as well, just
40:15
in case that's helpful. It would be under For Pet's Sake
40:21
Veterinary Center I. What is that FPS dot vet?
40:28
Sure. Yeah, that's it.
40:30
OK, perfect. I'm sorry.
40:33
No, that's OK. Don't.
40:34
Don't ask me anything that has to do with the tech stuff, media
40:38
stuff. That's not me.
40:38
That's. Fine, that's fine.
40:41
We'll make sure all that stuff is in the show notes.
40:43
And thank you any help that we can offer Cairo, we're very
40:47
happy to do. All right.
40:48
Appreciate it so much. I hope you, I hope you keep at
40:52
it. Thank you.
40:53
Thank you. Nice to talk with you today and
40:55
take good care of your puppies and and cats.
40:58
I know. Oh, we do.
40:59
They're pretty happy. They're pretty happy.
41:00
Good.