Petfinder Blog

The Obama family has a new pooch! According to the Washington Post, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts gave a six-month-old Portuguese water dog to the Obama family as a gift.

Malia and Sasha named the pup Bo because their cousins have a cat named Bo and Mrs. Obama's father was nicknamed Diddley. Get it? Bo Diddley.

Although the Obamas did not get their pup from a local shelter as they'd said they hoped to, they say they plan to make a donation to the Washington Humane Society.

According to the Chicago Tribune: "The puppy was purchased from a breeder and then given back to the kennel soon after the Obamas expressed interest in a Portuguese water dog, a source familiar with the adoption said."

In previous weeks I've written about young recipients of Dosomething.org Animal Action Grants, including 17-year-old Amanda Smith, who is helping to save abandoned horses in Minnesota, and 10-year-old Maggie Maxwell, whose Project H.O.P.E. is raising awareness of homeless pets in Texas.

This week, meet 14-year-old Texan Hayden Whitt, who not only volunteers at his local shelter, but raises money for critical supplies and places adoption ads in local newspapers. (Read more about Hayden's project here.)

What is your project?
I organized a supply and money drive to benefit my local animal shelter. The drive yielded three truckloads of supplies, money to help care for medical attention for the shelter animals and money to help fund ads for pet adoptions.

How did your passion for animals start?
My family and I have volunteered at the animal shelter for over two years now.

Maggie Maxwell, another Dosomething.org Animal Action Grant winner, amazes me. The 10-year-old Texas native helps organize Project H.O.P.E. (Helping Our Pets through Education).

Below is my interview with Maggie. Check in later for my interview with 14-year-old fundraising dynamo Hayden Whitt, and in the meantime, check out Maggie's Project H.O.P.E. page on dosomething.org.

How did your passion for animals start?
When my family got our first dog.

How did you come up with the idea for Project H.O.P.E.?
My Socrates [gifted] class all decided this
was a good idea for a [community service] project and we are all doing the best we can.

What are some obstacles that you have with your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
Money is an issue we need money to help with our project. We could help that with fundraisers. Some of the things that we wanted to change involve our city government and that makes it harder to get things changed. Talking to everyone we can will help change that.
 

Dosomething.org helps teens who want to make an impact in their community by offering information and resources to do so.

Recently, they offered Animal Action Grants of a whopping $500 to young people working to help animals! I was lucky enough to interview three of the winners: Amanda Smith, Hayden Whitt and Maggie Maxwell. They truly are inspirational! (Meet all the winners here.)

This is my interview with Amanda Smith is a 17-year-old from Rochester, Minnesota. I'll post my interviews with Hayden and Maggie in coming weeks.

What is your project?
My project is to help promote RIDE of Rochester. RIDE stands for Rescue/Recreation Involving Deserving Equine. It promotes the rescue and rehabilitation of horses in need, safe and responsible horse ownership and the advancement of animal-assisted therapeutic programming for humans.

RIDE's hard work is entirely volunteer-driven and donor-funded. RIDE's network of foster homes, care providers, therapists and other volunteers help humans and horses in a variety of situations with many levels of need.

A problem is commonly occurring throughout the Rochester area: Neglected or abandoned horses are being left to starve and die. When this happens, RIDE steps in to save these horses on the verge of death. An example is a pony named Grandma. Grandma was left to die and was in the nastiest body condition. RIDE was there to rescue her and rehabilitate her to increase her weight and to get her health back.

A major problem for RIDE is that the public is unaware of its existence! I started an Animal Welfare Club at my high school and we will get together to do the project. 

Hello all pet lovers! I'd like to make this blog completely dedicated to a topic SUPER close to my heart (besides pets): the environment.

Okay, hearing about going green and being eco-friendly is getting kind of old, but I recently learned about the impact our adorable critters are having on the planet. Our pets may be small, but because of humans, their footprint is HUGE.

I'm addicted to a new channel called Planet Green, and was amazed to see a show hosted by who else but Bill Nye the Science Guy. It's called Stuff Happens, and it explores where exactly things come from. One recent episode was about pets. I was amazed at what our care for pets is doing to the earth.

First of all, pets poop. We pick up that poop in very eco-villainous ways. Do not leave poop on the side of the road. Pick it up -- and NOT with a plastic bag. Scientists have created amazing compostable pet-waste bags that are getting better and stronger every day.

The animal cops on TV are heroes to animals -- but so are vets, humane educators, volunteer coordinators and others who work in animal welfare. So how do you break into the field?

I interviewed Ed Powers, Petfinder's vp of strategic planning (and my dad), to find out. He's been working in animal welfare for 26 years, and has been an animal caregiver, animal cruelty officer, director of humane education and director of operations for the Animal Rescue League of Boston.

This is his advice:

1. Volunteer
Ed says anyone can begin by volunteering at their local animal shelter or veterinary clinic. "Start out by getting some good hands-on experience with animals," he says. (You can even sign up in Petfinder's volunteer database.)

2. Do your homework
While you're doing this, do some research online, at the library or at your local animal shelter. This way you can get a good feel for what you are doing. Research types of jobs, what they do and what it takes to get there.

Teens, especially girls, love animals. I've noticed there are lots of young people, again mostly girls, who volunteer at animal shelters and boycott products that were tested on animals.

But when it comes to adoption, most of my peers give me a frightening wake-up call. I've heard of many teens who got their pet from a breeder, pet store or, in one case, for $10 at a flea market.

Sometimes we have debates in class that give me a pit in my stomach. One time, some girls were saying that they loved their dog and bringing it to the groomer, where they put the little bows in the dog's fur.

Somehow, this led to that ASPCA commercial with Sarah Mclachlan. "That commercial makes me feel so depressed," one of the girls piped up. "Yeah," said the other, "I change the channel when I watch that because it makes me guilty about my animals."

Kristen Powers, 14, is the daughter of Petfinder VP Ed Powers. She is the founder of the environmental group Green Teen Clubs.

I was recently working as a counselor-in-training for Piedmont Wildlife Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.
It amazed me at the dedication kids there have for learning how they can respect and learn about the nature around them.

These kids, ages 4 to 11, have a desire to learn about anything and everything related to animals. Watching them was brilliant because I knew that I could make a difference in their lives.

While I was at the summer camp, I was carrying my Petfinder.com lunch bag. A little girl in my group came up to me and looked at my lunchbox. Suddenly, her eyes popped and she exclaimed, "I have that same lunch box. Petfinder is awesome!" It's always a wonderful feeling to know that Petfinder has not only reached people looking to adopt, but it is helping to mold the way young children are seeing animal adoptions.