Inside the Rehoming Crisis: Breeders, Flippers & the Fight for Honest Rescue

Dixie: 00:00:00

Welcome back everybody.

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Today I'm excited to welcome Jami,

a dedicated animal advocate who's

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passionate about spaying and neutering

and making a real difference for

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animals in our community Hi, Jami.

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Thanks so much for coming on the show.

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Jami: No problem.

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Dixie: It sounds like you do a

lot in the animal rescue world.

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You've done a lot of volunteer work

with you said several organizations,

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and you're an animal advocate.-

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Jami: Yes

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… Dixie: to get started I'd like

to hear about your background.

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What do you do when you're not

rescuing or helping animals, and how

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did you get started in animal rescue?

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Jami: I'm an RN by trade, and

I haven't worked since COVID.

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I got COVID.

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So other than that drama, as far

as animals go I worked for a vet

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from age 16 until I went to medical

assistant school and went on and on.

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Anyway, I've had horses, dogs,

cats that I've done rescue.

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They're always the needy cases.

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And the three that I

have now one I found…

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Actually, I rescued two.

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My friend has another one.

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They were in a garage here in Florida

with no food and no water in a cage.

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And so now he's eight, and he

is adorable and spoiled rotten.

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And then I ran into this wonderful lady,

Dixie, and I've adopted dogs from her.

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And I have a German Shepherd

Great Pyrenees mix, and a German

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Shepherd Malinois mix from her.

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And the German Shepherd Malinois mix

was found on the streets and then

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taken to the shelter and adopted,

and then supposedly bit a child.

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And in my opinion, it was the family

that weren't paying attention.

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You don't have a puppy

around children unattended.

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And so she wanted the dog to be put

to sleep, took it to another shelter.

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And so Dixie came in and rescued

her and called me and said,

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"You don't have any children."

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Will you take this dog?

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So of course I did.

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So those are my three.

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And then I had a Presa Canario

that I adopted from Georgia

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that was in a dog fighting ring.

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His ears were chopped off at home, and

he was severely abused, and he lived with

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me for 14 years until he passed away.

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So dogs are just my passion, and I'm a

huge advocate of adopt, do not breed, do

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not buy from breeders, and definitely spay

and neuter and microchip your animals.

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Dixie: Of course, I would

like to talk more about that.

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But- … before we get started on that

you had mentioned that you are dealing

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with Dixie, which is not me, by the way.

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Jami: And she does not do rescue anymore.

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She's retired.

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Dixie: That's what I was gonna

ask, what rescue was she with,

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and if she was still doing that.

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Jami: She's not.

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Dixie: You also said that you had the, dog

that you got that was living in the cage

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in the garage with no food and no water.

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Jami: Yes.

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Dixie: How did that

one come on your radar?

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Jami: Okay.

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I actually went to buy one of

those exercise machines, the vib-

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I call it a vibration station.

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It's one of those things you stand

on and vibrate, and when I walked

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into the garage to look at it, I

saw these two little bitty puppies,

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and they had no food, no water.

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And one was the runt, who I wound

up with, and my friend wound up

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with the other one, and now my

runt is bigger than the other one.

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But I said to him, I'm like, do you

wanna find a home for the dogs?"

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And he's like, "I don't know.

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Let me think on it."

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And a day went by, and so I pestered him.

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And I'm like…

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He's like, "Okay, will you take the runt?"

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And I said, "Absolutely."

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So when I got there, he said,

"Will you take them both?"

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And I said, "Absolutely."

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So that's how I wound

up in that situation.

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It was by him- happenstance.

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And he looks like a Great Dane

lab mix, but he is a pit bull

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German Shepherd mix, and that's what

they told me he was, and I had his

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DNA done, and that is what he is.

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But he's just … I call him Panda

Bear, and he's just the sweetest

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dog, and he's had to have a couple

surgeries, and he's been my very

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expensive dog, but he's worth it.

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So they always have a

story, but they're worth it.

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Dixie: Yeah, definitely.

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That's very interesting too that you just

happened to be there, and as luck would

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have it, that you were able to help them.

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Do you know what the story is

on why they were in the cage?

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Was it an intentional breeding, or was

it just a situation- … where they

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didn't spay or neuter, the parents?

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Jami: The neighbors hadn't spayed or

neutered, and so this guy, I think

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he was trying to do a good thing, but

he had three or four kids himself,

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and took these two dogs on, and then

didn't give them the proper care.

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Hell is paved with good intentions, we all

think we're doing a good thing, but if you

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can't follow through with it, then don't

even start the first step, in my opinion.

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Dixie: Yeah.

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No, I can agree with that, 'cause,

I see that every day with the people

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that'll pick up strays, and- Yes

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they'll pick 'em up with a good intention.

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They want to help, but they're not

prepared to be the one to help.

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Yeah.

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And so then they get stuck if they

can't find a foster or if they can't

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find a rescue, which is very difficult

because, it's hard enough for rescues

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to find fosters, and then let alone

dependent on the time of the year that

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you're in, most of the time they're full.

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Jami: Oh, absolutely.

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And that's … I am sorry

I put it back on breeders.

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And then now, if you look at Facebook,

there's all these, especially in Florida,

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Doberman Pinscher, Great Dane rescues,

and I'm probably pronouncing it wrong,

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I don't know if it's Cane Corso or Cane

Corsos, but the Italian Mastiffs, rescues.

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But they're breeders, and people

don't realize that they're breeders.

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And then, they want 3 or

$6,000 for these dogs.

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They're breeders.

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And then you can go to any shelter, and

you can get any breed of dog that you

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would like and rescue one that's been

spayed, and neutered, and microchipped.

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So that is a huge pet peeve of mine, is

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And then, okay, my other pet peeve

is people aren't educated on the

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breeds that they choose to adopt.

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So a Doberman is not for everyone.

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A Mastiff is not for everyone.

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A pit bull is not for

everyone, and I love pit bulls.

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They're probably my favorite breed.

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A German Shepherd is not for everybody.

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A Chihuahua is not for everybody.

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So you really need to research the breed

and research their background and see

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if it fits your lifestyle for the long

term, because it makes me extremely

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angry to read about all these dogs that

people are trying to rehome because

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it no longer fits their environment

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Dixie: I would like to go touch on

what you just said, too, about the

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breeders that are pretending to be

rescues that are selling the animals.

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Yes, ma'am.

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I, ended up getting this rehoming

group that was on Facebook.

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It was just pure luck that I ended up

becoming the administrator of this group.

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It was this horrible group, and

it was a rehoming adoption group.,

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And there were some legitimate

people that were actually looking

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to rehome their pets, but there

were a ton of breeders on the group.

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And-

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Jami: Yes, ma'am

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… Dixie: the prior admin

had no problem with this.

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I have a really big problem with this.

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So one day in this group, she

posts a thing, and she's like, "Oh,

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hey I'm gonna give up this group.

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If anybody is interested in taking

over this group, put down your name

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in the comments, and I'm gonna have

a raffle to give the group away."

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So right away- Oh my gosh.

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Yes.

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Oh my gosh is right.

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And this group was so- Red flag.

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Yeah.

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Red flag.

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It was so bad so I see this right away,

so I jump in and I'm like, "Hey, I

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have a couple other groups that I run.

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I'm big in the rescue community.

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I would love to take over your group."

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And I even private messaged her,

but I put this in the comment.

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When I put it in the comment, I had a

couple of other people who recognized

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my name popping up, and they're

like, " please give it to her."

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And I had so many people commenting,

to give it to me and their other rescue

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people, so I'm telling them, "Please

put your name down so one of us can

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win the raffle to get this group."

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She was gonna pick one

administrator and two moderators.

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As- Mm-hmm … … luck would have

it, I actually won . . she added me

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as the admin and added two moderators

'cause they won the raffle, too.

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And then she removed

herself from the group.

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Of course, first thing I go in and do

is I go look at the moderators that were

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selected.

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If they were okay- … I'm okay with it.

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But I go look.

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What are they?

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They're breeders I'm like, "Oh no."

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Yep.

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"Oh no."

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Moderators were both gone.

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I cleaned up that group.

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I'm still cleaning up the

group because that group had

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close to 10,000 people in it.

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And- Oh

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Jami: my

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Dixie: gosh.

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Yes, and it was horrible.

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And some of the members were

breeders, but some of them were

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just breeders that would be able to

post because it was a public group.

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I went in, I asked for a whole bunch

of friends that I knew in rescue,

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and I'm like, "Look," I said, "if

anybody wants to help me," I'm like,

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"breeders are not welcome here."

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I'm like, "We're gonna go in, we're

gonna clean the group, we're gonna

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check it out and make sure we don't

get any breeders going through."

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One thing that I noticed that they

started doing was they started putting

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posts on there that they're rehoming.

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And you could tell by the

photos most of the time.

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Jami: Exactly.

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Dixie: 'Cause they're

very professional photos,

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Jami: yeah, the Dobermans have

their ears already wrapped and, from

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getting cropped and it's like no.

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Dixie: These

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Jami: aren't rehoming a rescue.

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Dixie: Yeah, and it's not somebody who

adopted, that may have adopted the wrong

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type of dog that is looking to rehome

either, because you could tell it didn't

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look like a family photo of a dog.

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So sure enough- … if you would go

click on their name, you could see 'em.

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And they would try everything, and they

still try, and every once in a while we

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might have one or two slip through, but

we try to get 'em as soon as they do.

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And what we do is we go in, if they post

and we see 'em, we ban 'em immediately.

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And even I'll go through and look

at the comments, 'cause you'll

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see some of them even commenting

on people looking for dogs.

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We go through that way and we'll ban 'em.

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But they just started getting really

slick with the, "Oh we're rehoming.

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We're gonna have a rehoming

fee associated with it."

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I do my research on 'em.

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I'll go look at their pages and

of course most of the time you'll

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see multiple dogs, so you know

right away that they're a breeder.

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And multiple dogs- Oh,

definitely … seem breed a dog.

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So I'll go remove 'em

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But we really cleaned up

the group, like a lot.

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I don't even know how

many people we banned

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Jami: No, that's fabulous.

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Another thing that I ran

across, and I'm not a private

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investigator by any means, but I…

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And maybe you and I can team up, and

I can help you, and you can help me.

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But I reached out to people that

said that they were re-homing, and

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then, they'll send you a message back

of, "Oh, yeah, and we want, $800."

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So I would just test them and say, "I

can't afford $800," "i'm unemployed.

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I'm this, I'm that."

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So of course, then they don't care

that you can't afford for the dog.

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Now, that's not my case, you just pose.

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And then they'll say, "Okay $200 and

we'll bring it to you from Georgia.

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You just need to pay a fee."

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Those are all little things, and

people are just scamming people.

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Dixie: Yes, absolutely.

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Jami: When there are legitimate rescues

out there that are trying to just re-home

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dogs that need homes, then you have all

these backyard breeders that are doing

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these devious things, and they're preying

on people because they don't know that

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they can get a purebred, whatever they

want from a shelter and save a life.

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And then, you pay this fee.

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Do you really think that

they're gonna deliver a dog from

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Georgia to Florida for $200?

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No.

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You've given them money

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that's the other thing that

I've been looking into and

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I would like to try to help.

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You can't save the world, but, if

we can at least save the animals,

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because I would never rehome one

of my animal- one of my dogs.

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They're on their routine, daily.

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But if I came across a dog that

needed a home, I would wanna

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know, do they have a fence?

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How tall is the fence?

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Do they have padlocks on the fence?

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Those are questions that any

reputable person would ask before

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they adopt out a dog or, God

forbid, sell a dog In my opinion

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Dixie: Yeah, and like another

thing that I noticed on the site

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that I had, 'cause I'm members of

a whole bunch of other groups too.

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I have the one site that I'm

the administrator for that is

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the rehoming and adoption site.

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And I've got to the point too, when

people are even rehoming a pet I don't

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care if you don't like it, you need to

tell us why you're rehoming that pet.

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That's a requirement that I make.

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I need to know everything.

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I won't approve a post if you're

not telling me why you're rehoming

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it, the age of it, if it's spayed

or neutered, if it's vaccinated.

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'Cause people who are looking

to adopt a pet, they need to

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know all that information.

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Why are you getting rid of the pet?

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Oh, absolutely.

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Is it a behavioral thing?

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Because I've seen people where they'll

put in the comments and they're like,

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"Oh the dog's aggressive to my children."

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And it's but you're rehoming it to

go to a home with other children?

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'Cause most of the time they

don't care, you know, as long as

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it's not their problem anymore.

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And- Exactly … then another thing

that I saw on these rehoming sites, and

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the other groups that I'm a member of,

is I have come across a pet flipper.

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And this one's really good ' this guy

and his friend, and then they created a

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third profile to pretend to be a rescue.

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And what they're going and doing

is basically they're looking,

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oh, we're looking for kittens.

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Oh, we're looking for puppies.

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And that first off was a red

flag to me, because it's like-

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Of course … you're looking for

kittens, you're looking for puppies.

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Okay, why are you looking for kittens?

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Are you gonna be a dog fighter?

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Yeah.

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And then puppies.

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That was a first red flag.

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Then they start trying to rehome them.

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So it's like, okay maybe

they got in over their head.

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They ended up getting their puppies or

their kittens or whatever, and so now

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they're looking to find homes for 'em.

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So I seen one of 'em, and I

actually had room at my rescue.

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And so I'm like look, you're

in the same city I'm in.

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I can help you.

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I can take them."

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I end up getting blocked right away.

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Jami: Yep.

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Dixie: Then they start in all of these

other groups 'cause they ended up

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getting banned out of mine Because I

noticed that's what they were doing.

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They were basically taking them

and they were selling them.

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They would get kittens,

"Oh, we got this kitten.

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It's ready for adoption."

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Okay, what has this

kitten had done for it?

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"Oh they're not spayed or neutered yet.

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We didn't get to do anything,

but they're three months old.

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They're ready to go to our home, and

it's gonna be a $40 adoption fee."

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If they kept doing that and they were

spaying and neutering them, I really

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could care less, as long as they're

making sure- … they're going to a decent

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home and they're spayed or neutered.

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Okay?

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I wouldn't care.

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But I care when you're taking

cats and kittens and puppies from

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people that are giving them away

all over social media, and you're

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: 00:17:49

evidently turning them for a profit.

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: 00:17:53

Jami: Absolutely.

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: 00:17:55

Dixie: And so they all ended up

getting blocked out of my groups.

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: 00:17:58

I still see them.

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: 00:18:00

Some of their profiles will pop up

in the other groups, and then it's

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: 00:18:03

I don't know if they think that you

don't see this going on, like you

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: 00:18:06

can put two and two together that

it's the same person, but whatever.

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: 00:18:10

Jami: Oh, yeah.

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: 00:18:11

And I've gotten where I delved

in some of these we're looking to

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: 00:18:16

rehome," blah, blah, blah, blah.

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: 00:18:18

And it's like, "Okay, can you

give me more information?"

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: 00:18:23

And they skirt around, i'm

like is it spayed or neutered?"

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: 00:18:27

Temperament.

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: 00:18:29

They don't give you anything.

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: 00:18:31

They just want money.

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: 00:18:33

Yep.

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: 00:18:34

Yes.

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: 00:18:34

So to people who are listening,

if they want money, and they

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: 00:18:38

don't care about where the dog's

going, that is a huge red flag

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: 00:18:46

Same thing with kittens.

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: 00:18:47

There are, in

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: 00:18:49

my community we've got

Snippet and the feral cats.

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: 00:18:58

Most people are pretty good,

and then we've got like food and

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: 00:19:01

water 'cause I live in Florida.

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: 00:19:04

It's hot, and we try in

our community to take care.

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: 00:19:11

You can't take care of everybody,

and you can't get everybody spayed

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: 00:19:15

and neutered if you can't catch them

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: 00:19:19

And I wish every cat got a home.

335

: 00:19:23

I don't have any cats.

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: 00:19:25

I like cats, I'm just not…

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: 00:19:27

I'm more of a dog person.

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: 00:19:31

And my dogs are all spayed and

neutered, microchipped, and

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: 00:19:35

they get their Simparica Trio.

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: 00:19:37

And I will go without food and

anything else for myself so

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: 00:19:42

that they get the best of care.

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: 00:19:45

And that's how you have to be, in my

opinion, if you're going to have a pet.

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: 00:19:52

It's your family, and you

have a responsibility to

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: 00:19:55

put their needs above yours.

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: 00:19:58

Dixie: Yeah, absolutely.

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: 00:19:59

Absolutely.

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: 00:20:00

I can totally agree with that, too.

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: 00:20:02

If it came down to me not being

able to afford food for myself

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: 00:20:06

or food for my animals, I am

gonna think about my animals.

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: 00:20:10

Jami: Of course

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: 00:20:12

Dixie: With some of these groups a

lot of people, they just don't care.

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: 00:20:14

When you tell 'em to get references, it's

like they just wanna give it to the first

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: 00:20:18

person who says, "Oh, I'll take 'em."

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: 00:20:23

And I've even had it where I'm

a rescue and I would make the

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: 00:20:26

offer, "Okay, look, I've got room.

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: 00:20:28

I can take 'em all," and I'll get

the responses to come back, "Oh

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: 00:20:32

you weren't first to comment."

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: 00:20:35

. You can only- Yeah … try

to help so much sometimes.

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: 00:20:38

Jami: You can, and, our local shelter

I think does a pretty good job, but

360

: 00:20:44

I think they need to do a better job

of educating on breeds and fitting

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: 00:20:50

them properly with the families.

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: 00:20:52

But they're so overwhelmed that

they just need to get the dogs out.

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: 00:20:59

And that's, that's all across the

United States, and I hate to see

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: 00:21:05

shelters put animals to sleep.

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: 00:21:07

And I came from Illinois is

where I was born, and I had

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: 00:21:14

a house I miss on five acres.

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: 00:21:17

Now I live in a neighborhood in Florida.

368

: 00:21:19

But I do have a six-foot privacy

fence, and they have a nice yard.

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: 00:21:24

But at any rate, I went into

the county shelter and I said,

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: 00:21:29

"Who really needs a home?"

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: 00:21:30

They're like they all do."

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: 00:21:31

And I said, "No, and

they're like, "Blockhead."

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: 00:21:37

I renamed him Bear, of course.

374

: 00:21:39

He was a Lab Newfoundland,

huge and a big black dog.

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: 00:21:45

He'd been there forever, and he

drug my ass down the driveway to

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: 00:21:51

try to get him in the car 'cause

he'd been in the cage for so long.

377

: 00:21:55

But, when I said that, I knew, I wanted…

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: 00:21:57

Who are they gonna euthanize first?

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: 00:22:01

And he was a wonderful dog, and I

think he made it 15 years, which is

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: 00:22:07

pretty good for a Newfoundland mix

381

: 00:22:11

But it's just, you need to…

382

: 00:22:16

I appreciate our volunteers, but I believe

that you need to educate people on breeds.

383

: 00:22:21

And if you don't know your

breed personalities and what

384

: 00:22:25

requirements are, 'cause, just

not anybody can own a pit bull.

385

: 00:22:30

Pit bulls are the

sweetest, wonderful dogs.

386

: 00:22:34

But you have to know that

they're gonna be a lap dog.

387

: 00:22:37

A Great Dane is gonna be a lap dog

388

: 00:22:42

A German Shepherd needs brushing.

389

: 00:22:45

All of those things.

390

: 00:22:46

A Doberman, certain breeds need jobs

and they need something to do or they

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: 00:22:52

will cause destruction in your home

392

: 00:22:57

And I think that dogs wouldn't need to be

rehomed if people were educated better.

393

: 00:23:04

But that's just, again, I could go

forever on how to try to save the world,

394

: 00:23:10

and it may or may not do any good.

395

: 00:23:13

Dixie: Yeah.

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: 00:23:13

I agree with that too, 'cause,

I'll see that even with cats, and,

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: 00:23:18

we do get, purebred cats a lot.

398

: 00:23:20

Like one of my jokes is, when people

are always looking for a Maine

399

: 00:23:24

Coon, I'm like, "Go to the shelter."

400

: 00:23:26

And a Persian and a Siamese- Yeah

401

: 00:23:28

go to the shelter.

402

: 00:23:29

Yeah … but that's another

one of those things.

403

: 00:23:31

One of the, easiest things for me to

adopt is a fluffy long-haired kitten.

404

: 00:23:39

A lot of the times people wanna go

strictly on their looks, and they

405

: 00:23:44

miss out on some really great animals

406

: 00:23:47

Jami: that's unfortunate, but I do

agree with you that is what people do.

407

: 00:23:54

They're uneducated, and they go in for

that flair of that, "Oh, this one's really

408

: 00:24:00

pretty," instead of, "Oh, okay, and on

just a side note, my mom has never been a

409

: 00:24:08

cat person, but she is such a cat person.

410

: 00:24:12

And so she has Junior, who was a feral

cat, and she used to go out with snow

411

: 00:24:22

gloves on, and she tamed him and got

him spayed, or I'm sorry, got him

412

: 00:24:28

neutered and all of his shots and

everything, and he is her lap cat now.

413

: 00:24:34

Now, this other cat came along, and it

was in the middle of winter in Illinois,

414

: 00:24:38

and they had a really bad winter.

415

: 00:24:41

And her name is now Riley.

416

: 00:24:44

She's a calico.

417

: 00:24:47

And Mom worked with her and worked

with her and worked with her and

418

: 00:24:52

got her spayed and brought her in

'cause she would've frozen to death.

419

: 00:24:58

So now my mom has two cats,

and I kinda make fun of her

420

: 00:25:01

because they rule her world.

421

: 00:25:06

But it's all good.

422

: 00:25:07

My mom's a miracle.

423

: 00:25:08

That's a whole 'nother thing.

424

: 00:25:09

She got a kidney transplant in

her 70s, and she's walks 3.5

425

: 00:25:15

miles on the treadmill every

day, and her day pretty much

426

: 00:25:21

revolves around those cats.

427

: 00:25:23

And unfortunately, we can't

find homes like that for all

428

: 00:25:27

the cats and all the dogs.

429

: 00:25:29

And, one blessing from COVID is I've been

home with my dogs pretty much 24/7, and

430

: 00:25:39

they're emotional support dogs, so if

I have to go somewhere, they go with…

431

: 00:25:46

two of them go with me.

432

: 00:25:49

One at a time, of course.

433

: 00:25:50

And like I said, they get their minties

and their dental things in the morning and

434

: 00:25:58

their pills, and we've just got a routine.

435

: 00:26:01

And I wish everybody could

treat their pets like that

436

: 00:26:06

And they wake me up at the same time.

437

: 00:26:08

They don't care if it's

Saturday or if it's Monday.

438

: 00:26:13

So I wish that for all of the dogs in

the world and all the cats in the world.

439

: 00:26:19

But I appreciate what you're doing very

much, and it sounds like you're doing a

440

: 00:26:25

lot of wonderful screening and getting

rid of some of these obtrusive people

441

: 00:26:33

on these sites, and that's phenomenal.

442

: 00:26:36

That takes a lot of work.

443

: 00:26:38

Dixie: Yep, and we're still

working on it because they still

444

: 00:26:41

keep trying to slip through.

445

: 00:26:44

Jami: You let me know if I can help.

446

: 00:26:46

Dixie: Thank you.

447

: 00:26:46

I appreciate that.

448

: 00:26:47

I might take you up on that if you

like doing the work online, 'cause

449

: 00:26:50

That's one of the beautiful things

about social media- is whether you

450

: 00:26:54

want to try to be a voice for animals,

either through these groups and look

451

: 00:27:00

out for red flags, like what you're

doing, or even on these lost pet sites,

452

: 00:27:06

just trying to help pets get home.

453

: 00:27:08

That's something that you can

do- … in your living room,

454

: 00:27:11

so anybody could do that.

455

: 00:27:13

Jami: Oh, exactly.

456

: 00:27:14

Most definitely.

457

: 00:27:15

I wish ma- more people would.

458

: 00:27:18

Dixie: Before we end the call,

do you have any final message?

459

: 00:27:22

Jami: I really appreciate meeting

you through through the phone.

460

: 00:27:27

And I guess my message is please, to

anyone who's listening, be cautious

461

: 00:27:37

of who you get an animal from.

462

: 00:27:42

Local shelters are wonderful or

reputable rehoming sites are wonderful.

463

: 00:27:48

Rehoming through rescues are wonderful,

and you can always try to interact with

464

: 00:27:57

other people that have rescued from them

and make sure that they're reputable.

465

: 00:28:05

Don't buy from a breeder and make

sure however you acquire a pet,

466

: 00:28:12

make sure you spay and neuter.

467

: 00:28:14

Do not breed.

468

: 00:28:16

Do not buy.

469

: 00:28:18

Make sure that you microchip and please,

during thunderstorms and 4th of July

470

: 00:28:25

and New Year's Eve, keep your dogs in.

471

: 00:28:30

And if you have a fenced-in yard, please

put a padlock on it so that somebody

472

: 00:28:35

can't open it and get your dogs out.

473

: 00:28:39

And if you live in a hot climate like I

do in Florida, don't leave your dogs out.

474

: 00:28:47

I have a dog door where my dogs can

come in and out whenever they want.

475

: 00:28:52

They have food and water all over.

476

: 00:28:56

And just remember that the temperature

of the floor is hotter than the

477

: 00:29:01

rest of the temperature, and your

dog's temperature is about 101.

478

: 00:29:06

So don't let them get overheated.

479

: 00:29:09

Never leave your dog in a car.

480

: 00:29:12

And I've probably overstayed

Dixie all my stuff.

481

: 00:29:15

I could go on forever.

482

: 00:29:18

But just everybody please

be a responsible owner.

483

: 00:29:22

Thank you so much for your time, Dixie.