On Wednesday, June 29th, HAS volunteer Sarah Thomas, a vet tech, wildlife rehabilitator, and activist, and I set out to locate three horses in Grenada County, Miss., reported to be starving. On our way, I got a call from my buddy Kevin Hodges, an animal control officer, water-meter reader, and part-time law enforcer for Charleston, [...]
The plight of horses is worsening. Some blame the economy; others say banning horse slaughter in the U.S. meant “owners” who couldn’t sell their horses let them starve. I say it’s both selfishness and ignorance. Horses are being overbred just like other companion animals. Those who think they can make a buck breed and then find out there [...]
There were 68 of us at the BarkWorks pet store in Thousand Oaks on Saturday, February 13. We marched back and forth directly in front of the store, inside the mall. BarkWorks has six of the 100 stores in Los Angeles that sell dogs and cats from puppy mills. IDA, the Companion Animal Protection Society [...]
On Thursday, November 18, Hope Animal Sanctuary Director Doll Stanley responded to a plea for help from Theresa, a Wyatt, Mississippi resident. Theresa was seeking help for an 86 year old neighbor, John, who had several momma dogs and litters of puppies. John lives in the rusted-out shell of an old school bus and is barely [...]
I spent nearly the entire month of October in Mississippi filling in for Doll at Hope Animal Sanctuary (HAS). Doll was on much deserved and much needed vacation and they needed an extra pair of hands, so I offered to help. This was not my first time at the Sanctuary, I’ve been down several times [...]
Just a few days ago Doll and volunteer Debbie McCool (awesome real name) transported 65 dogs and 5 cats from IDA’s Hope Animal Sanctuary to Every Creature Counts in Ft. Lupton, Colorado. This was our second trip to ECC in as many months. The last transport brought nearly 60 dogs to ECC – all but [...]
Yesterday I shared with you some of my experiences in New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina rescue. It will never be easy for me to revisit these memories. Since Hurricane Katrina, I have been translating some of the most painful and searing memories of my New Orleans experience into paintings. While most of these pieces [...]
Every year around this time I receive calls and emails from individuals I worked alongside or families I reunited in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Although it has been five years, the bonds that were cemented during our rescue work in New Orleans will last a lifetime. We will never forget the horrors we witnessed [...]
In the early morning hours of Thursday, July 22, Doll Stanley along with the rest of the Project Hope staff and with help from Lisa Martin, began loading a truck with 57 dogs and 12 kittens for another transport to Every Creature Counts (ECC) in Denver. Doll and Lisa would shoulder the responsibility of safely [...]
On July 10, 2010, Debbie Young, a friend of IDA-Project Hope, and three volunteers went to a Mississippi residence we had inspected on July 4. Debbie had discovered that one of our fellow rescuers was actually a hoarder. She’d tried the gentle approach to convince the individual that the animals she was keeping were in need of [...]