Foster Heroes provide the gentle, consistent support the pets need to feel comfortable and get healthy. By providing a safe space, you are changing their lives and preparing them for a successful adoption. The Arizona Humane Society is taking in new pets all the time, and they need your help to give them a second chance. Sign up today to be the hero for a pet who desperately needs one. For more information visit Azhumane.org
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 The Arizona Humane Society does so much to help out the furry friends in our community.
00:07 But they also have amazing programs that can help the two-legged Arizonans as well.
00:11 Here to talk about their community programs is Joe Casados.
00:14 Welcome Joe, thank you for being here.
00:15 Thank you for having me, it's good to be here.
00:17 And I want to do a little introduction for our star, which is Sasha.
00:21 She is so beautiful and you guys, she's doing so good.
00:24 Remind me a little bit about her story.
00:25 Yeah, so Sasha is a 14-week-old German Shepherd puppy.
00:30 She might have a little mix of something else in there, but obviously she looks mostly German
00:33 Shepherd.
00:35 She was brought in by a good Samaritan when she was a very tiny puppy, underweight, and
00:39 our trauma hospital was able to get her some medicine and then we got her into foster care
00:44 so she could gain some weight and get a little bigger.
00:47 And now she is healthy weight and ready to be adopted.
00:50 She's ready to go, yeah.
00:51 And she has a lot to say.
00:53 She does, oh my goodness.
00:54 Yeah, she's going to tell us all about it.
00:56 But that's just some of the amazing work that you guys do there at the Arizona Humane Society.
01:01 But aside from the actual work you do with the animals, there are so many fun programs
01:06 that you do through the community as well.
01:07 So tell us a little bit about some of the things when you bring the dogs out to events
01:11 and just kind of walk us through that.
01:13 Yeah, education and outreach is a huge part of our system of care.
01:16 So a lot of people assume that all we do is adopt out pets, but like you said, we like
01:19 to educate a lot.
01:21 So our wagon wheels, mobile adoption unit will actually be at the Brewers game this
01:26 Wednesday at American Family Fields.
01:29 So you can go to the game, maybe find a new best friend.
01:33 We also have some spring camps going on for youth.
01:36 They'll start March 12th through the 14th and then the 19th through the 21st.
01:40 And it's for ages nine through 12.
01:42 So they can get to hang out with these guys.
01:44 They participate in our enrichment activities, helping make treat puzzles and just really
01:49 learning what it means to care for a pet and to be a good pet owner and a steward of
01:53 animal welfare.
01:54 What a great thing for if you have, you know, young kids at home who maybe you already have
01:59 animals or you would like to have an animal in the house.
02:01 This is a great way to get them started and to not only see that when they give back,
02:06 they're helping, you know, actual living, breathing things, but then learn a little
02:10 bit about being a pet owner and giving that care.
02:12 Something else I was reading that you guys do that's so cool is you will actually bring
02:16 some of your sweet animals to events so that people can do team building.
02:21 There's something like a wedding thing that you do.
02:24 Tell me about that.
02:25 We do puppy and kitten cuddle bunches.
02:28 So anybody can have three puppies or kittens from the same litter come to their party.
02:33 We've done wedding receptions, birthday parties, any sort of gathering work events.
02:38 And it's three hours of just cuddling with puppies and kittens.
02:42 So what can be better than that?
02:43 Absolutely.
02:44 And it's recently proven that spending some time with animals brightens your mood.
02:49 It just makes you have a slightly better outlook on the day.
02:51 So that would be so great for a team building.
02:53 I mean, if you want to just bring in Sasha and a couple other sweet pups here, we'll
02:58 hang out with them all day.
02:59 But that's fantastic.
03:00 I love that you do it for weddings as well.
03:02 That's really, really cool.
03:04 All the proceeds from that go right back to helping the animals too.
03:07 So it really is full circle.
03:08 That's great.
03:09 And something that you were talking about in Sasha's story is that she was brought in
03:13 by a good Samaritan, but then she was taken care of in a foster home for a little while.
03:17 Tell us about fostering and how people can get involved that way.
03:20 Yeah, our foster heroes are absolutely incredible.
03:23 Most people don't realize at any given time, we usually have more pets in foster than in
03:27 our shelter.
03:28 Oh really?
03:29 Because we handle sick, injured and abused pets.
03:32 A lot of times they need somewhere to go to recover for a little while after their surgeries
03:36 and things like that.
03:37 So our foster heroes really are just an amazing extension of our team.
03:41 And they take these guys in.
03:43 They care for them for a few weeks at a time.
03:45 And then they come back to us when they're ready to find their forever families.
03:48 Definitely.
03:49 That's so vital.
03:50 That kind of stepping stone to getting them into a home.
03:53 Because some of these animals come from, like you were saying with Sasha, slightly traumatic
03:57 histories.
03:58 Maybe you don't even know exactly what she went through.
04:00 So having that time to really be in her foster home, kind of getting that love and attention
04:05 so that she's totally ready to be adopted.
04:07 And Sasha is ready to be adopted right now, like you were saying.
04:10 She is.
04:11 And our door will be open at 11am.
04:13 Anybody can come in and meet Sasha.
04:16 Yeah, tell us a little bit about the adoption process for people who want to come in and
04:19 maybe adopt Sasha or some of the other beautiful pets that you have there.
04:22 Yeah, all you have to do is go on to azhumane.org/adopt and you can see all of our pets that we have
04:27 available.
04:28 It will also tell you which location they're at, whether it's our Old Town Scottsdale or
04:33 our South Mountain Campus and then soon to come our brand new Papago Park Campus.
04:38 So you can see exactly where the pet is you want to meet or you can just come down and
04:42 walk around and see which one calls your name.
04:44 Oh, that's so great.
04:45 And I assume that that website they can also go to to learn about the fostering opportunities
04:49 or volunteer opportunities.
04:50 Yep, everything is right on our website.
04:52 Okay, that is so, so, so great.
04:54 Well, Joe, thank you for being here and thank you to our star Sasha.
04:57 She did so good.
04:58 All right, guys, stick around because we have more of the mix coming up right after this.
05:02 Or maybe Sasha and I can...
05:02 [end]
05:04 1