Eye on the Triangle

Erie Mitchell 0:00
The views and opinions expressed during Eye on the Triangle do not represent WKNC or NC State student media.

Erie Mitchell 0:15
Your dial is currently to Eye on the Triangle and WKNC 8.1 FM HD one, Raleigh, thanks for listening.

Ellie Feaga 0:22
Good morning. I'm Ellie Feaga with Eye on the Triangle. And I'm here today at Second Chance pet adoptions. Who am I here with?

Mia Xavier 0:40
My name is Mia Xavier. I'm the Director of Development and communications.

Alex Barker 0:44
I'm Alex Barker. I'm the volunteer manager.

Ellie Feaga 0:46
How did both of you begin to get involved in this program?

Mia Xavier 0:50
I have been with second chance for only four months, I have a fundraising background and came to second chance. They're looking to grow their fundraising and their sponsorships. And so that's what brought me here, excited to be here.

Alex Barker 1:03
And I came on as their volunteer manager a couple years ago, back in 2022. In February, they were in need of a volunteer manager we'd hadn't had one before it second chance. And so I think as the organization continued to grow, they were looking for someone to kind of help provide some direction and some management over that program. So I ended up seeing them kind of advertised that applied and came into here to work with them a little bit.

Ellie Feaga 1:27
How would you say the program has grown since it first began?

Alex Barker 1:32
I would say in a couple of different ways, honestly. I mean, we now have obviously a facility where we're able to house most of our cats here. Most of our little guys that are under six months are obviously in foster homes. But this is the adoption center. And this is where we keep most of our cats for adoption. And, you know, we're also against kind of stepping out into the transport world with our hearts, the home transport program, you know, taking in dogs that are from local county shelters and getting them up north because we know that the South is very overcrowded, you know, at this point with homeless animals. So to be able to kind of not only run a local adoption program with the dogs, but also get some of these guys transported up north to where there's a doctor's waiting for them there as well, is a huge, I think piece of growth that this organization has seen. We've also done a lot with spay and neuter initiatives. We know that adoption is not the only answer to helping reduce the homeless animal population. We know that spaying and neutering is absolutely crucial. So we've done a lot of work around, y ou know, not only spaying and neutering of the own animals that we take into our programs, but helping with like community cat projects, and folks like they're some of the feral cats that are out there in the world that need taken care of as well.

Ellie Feaga 2:43
Awesome. And we talked a little bit about two programs ahead of time. But if you guys wanted to give a little bit of an explanation to the Healing Hearts program and the fit positive program, I mean, I can

Alex Barker 2:54
talk a little bit about healing hearts. We know that you know, a lot of times there can be barriers to adopting hearts who are considered heartworm positive, especially for folks that may not have all the resources to be able to treat heartworm a heartworm positive dog. So we've made it kind of a mission to you know, treat dogs that are heartworm positive and still bring them into our programs. We take care of the heartworms within the protocols that are set forth by the veterinary partners that we work with. And then once the dogs are in good shape, and they're able to kind of you know heal from that, then we work on getting them adopted out

Mia Xavier 3:30
for SIV program. It's not similar to HIV in humans. It is something that animals can get, and it can't be passed from animals to humans, but it can be passed from animal to animal through deep bites. So with treatment, these animals can live long and healthy lives. So we bring them in, and a lot of shelters don't. And so we bring them in and find places that can be, you know, live a happy life happy, healthy life like other cats in a home, either with other SIV cats or just as their solo cat.

Ellie Feaga 4:01
We talked a little bit as well about how the canine flu affected some adoption rates. How has the program recovered from that and is recovering Currently,

Mia Xavier 4:11
we are recovering the canine flu, it hit the bottom middle of last year. canine influenza, it can adopt an animal during that time. And so our numbers of animals available decreased. But it's something that is treatable and the animals recovered. And so we're back to adopting as many dogs and cats, as many cats as we can.

Ellie Feaga 4:36
Talk a little bit about the adoption process. Is it more difficult than it used to be? Is it better than it used to be? And could you walk me a little bit through that process of someone who's interested in adopting a pet from here?

Mia Xavier 4:48
We're gonna bring on one more person from our staff. This is just Martin. She's in charge of our cat program and has history with the organization

Ellie Feaga 4:57
Hi Jess Martin.

Jess Martin 4:58
Hi. So I've been here almost seven years, our adoption process has not changed. With our dog adoption. It is there's more entailed in it, because it's a dog versus a cat. So with either dogs or cats, there is an online application. Obviously, with dogs because there's more that goes into it, it takes a little longer, usually five to seven days. You apply online since everybody lives in Foster. And then we go through landlord check. We'll contact the vet if needed. And we also require personal references, as well as a long term caregiver. If the adopter were no longer able to take care of the dog. We do. We used to do home visits, and then COVID happened. So now we do virtual home visits. With apartments we don't because they're apartments. And then with cats, it's pretty straightforward. Cats really don't care where they live. So it's an online application, but it's a lot faster, I can usually get them processed within 48 hours. So it's just where do you live? Is there have that reference needed? And that's pretty much it.

Ellie Feaga 6:16
Well, thank you. Yeah, it was fun having a expert you've been involved here the longest, they told me, that is really impressive. And yeah, thank you for your insight, you're welcome. Next, I want to talk a little bit about who tends to have the hardest time getting adopted seniors.

Jess Martin 6:34
So senior dogs versus senior cats is very different. I can place our senior cats pretty quickly, seeing your dogs take a lot longer. Dogs, a lot of times have more medical issues. I mean, even with our cats, we have a few seniors now that have asthma, we have a senior that is diabetic, we can generally get them placed quickly, though, cats are just easier, and they live longer. So it's less of a I'm gonna bring this animal home and only get a couple of years with it.

Ellie Feaga 7:11
Yeah, and I have to say, I, they gave me a tour when I came in. And I'm extremely impressed by the facilities in the space they have for all the pets with different ailments, different treatment places, I was even impressed when I first came in to see the size of the the crates that some of the cats are held in, because I've seen a lot smaller before. All of these cats have either rooms or crates that have a significant amount of space, more than you see in some places. And it's very impressive. How can people volunteer or get involved without maybe adopting.

Alex Barker 7:46
And there's a lot of ways that people can get involved. I always tell folks, you know, there's something here for everybody, no matter what your skill set or your talent is, we need help in all the different areas. You know, sometimes folks like to come in and get, you know, interaction with animals. So they'll do like some cat care, or some dog walking or some things like that. Other folks, you know, like to pop in their earbuds and kind of, you know, delve into like the cleaning and organizing and all the copious amounts of laundry that we have to go through. And then we've got folks that sit on the back end, you know, folks that are talented and data entry, or folks that can really do a good job with a spreadsheet and keep us organized on some things, folks that help us with event planning, I mean, really, you know, there's no wrong way to get involved, there's there's always a place for anybody that wants to be a part of it. Getting involved is super easy, you know, the volunteer application form is on our website, we're just looking to get some basic information from folks. And, you know, after I usually get that first inquiry, I'm reaching out within a couple of days to talk about what the next steps are, you know, and how to get folks involved with us. Regarding, you know, what you said earlier about how this, a lot of students listen to this, especially from some of the college campuses around the area, this place is sometimes a hotspot for some of the students because it's just close to some of the local colleges, as you know, especially NC State down the road there. A lot of times they'll come in and socialize just with the animals just to kind of get a break from like midterms or finals. Others, you know, they come in because they either want to just like I said, get that break, or maybe they're looking for hours for a class or something like that, or for like a project. We offer volunteer hours to those guys, you know, as long as they stick around with us, and, and you know, help us out and help out the animals. And so yeah, it's a really good mutual benefit, you know, the animals get a lot out of it, we get the help that we need. And then those folks, you know, especially those students can sometimes get some hours for that.

Ellie Feaga 9:33
Absolutely. I think that's really important. And we talk a lot about the show with ways that we can improve mental health. And that's been a very big topic, at least at NC State for the last maybe six months to a year. And so I always like to, you know, bring forth ways that people can get involved in something that that gives them time to relax and get connected with the community. I

Alex Barker 9:59
mean, absolutely. You No, I mean, by history, I actually ended up working in social work and kind of brought that into here. And so, you know, and we know from the research that we've seen out there is there is definitely a connection in your whole health model about, you know, what happens when humans and animals interacted with each other, and what happens when you actually end up being of service to something as well and so that kind of brings out, you know, more of that self confidence to self worth. And of course, you know, being around an environment, you know, if you were that animal person and get a lot of healing from that is going to provide a lot of healing for both you and the animal that's here in our care, too. Absolutely.

Ellie Feaga 10:34
Well, is there anything else that either of you would like to contribute? I

Mia Xavier 10:39
would be remiss if I didn't add that we are not a government funded rescue organization, we rely on the generosity of our donors. Obviously our volunteers which make up a lot of staff time that we don't have as a small and mighty staff. And so other ways that people can make an impact is we take donations from other organizations and from people if you've got you know, a supplies that would work in our center, or you know, we're open to cash donations as well. To keep the center running. Absolutely.

Ellie Feaga 11:08
Thank you so much of the three of you for for having me in today and showing me around. I had a great time. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in this Monday morning. This has been Ellie Thank you Eye on the Triangle

Erie Mitchell 11:21
This has been Eye on the Triangle I'm Erie Mitchell your guest host right now. Thank you so much for listening to this. You can listen to back episodes of Eye on the Triangle at wknc.org/podcasts Under Eye on the Triangle or just any of the other podcasts we have on WKNC. Thank you so much.

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