A Place for Pets & Animal Lovers
One of the nations top animal welfare chiefs takes us to the mean streets where more than people are homeless and where homeless people try to provide for their pets. Read this gripping saga as one man tries to fight the system to effect change for America’s Other Homeless
I was southbound on Interstate 10 approaching the northern suburbs of Tucson. The western sky was ablaze in the red hue of another spectacular Arizona sunset. I had been to the Sams Club in Tucson and bought food for 35 ranch hands. I was heading for the White Stallion Ranch and I was burning daylight. I was also caught up in the notion of Christmas and some cowboy poetry I was preparing for a gathering I was to recite at. As I began my decent onto the Cortaro Farms Road Exit, I saw him standing there. He was a wrinkled man with tattered clothes and a cardboard sign that read "Homeless Veteran, Hungry, Need Work." I made some crack under my breath about him getting a job or spending the money on booze. I also noted that standing next to this "bum" was a beautiful yellow lab. The dog had a vest on which I recognized as belonging to a service dog.
Before I had come to this part of Arizona, I had been the CEO and COO of two of the nations most progressive animal welfare and protection organization. I had hit the wall, I was burned out. Having worked months on end without a day off and seeing any and everything a person can do to their pet and each other, I needed a break. Growing up a working cowboy and ranch raised I found my hiatus at the White Stallion Ranch here in Tucson. Now, as I drove past that old man with his dog something jarred my senses. I made a U-turn and pulled up near the off ramp. As it turned out, the old man had lost his hearing and Charlie was his hearing dog. Vincent, the man I was speaking too, could read lips well enough and could speak enough to tell me a fascinating story. He had served our country during World War II and suffered disabling injuries. But it was mental illness or at least a state of mental decline that found Vincent standing here in the desert with Charlie this Christmas Season of 1995.
Vincent could have been any of our fathers, or uncles, or a brother but one thing was for sure, he was a hero, now cast away and relegated to an empire not fit for hero’ s in the concrete world of this interstate off ramp. I walked back to my truck and withdrew a bag of dog food. Vincent was a decent old man who, like millions of Americans, is only one paycheck away from being homeless. Unfortunately for him, that one paycheck failed to materialize and now his home was in the vastness of the Sonoran Desert for as he explained it was here he felt safe. Two day’s later, I drove off the ranch and found Vincent in his usual place. I had made him some home made cowboy salsa and some tortillas as well as a chicken still hot and wrapped in tin foil. I brought Charlie a box of dog treats and a new leash to replace the bailing twine that had been somehow fashioned into a lead.
I wish I could tell you that Vincent and Charlie are OK. I don’t know how they are. After a period of time on the ranch, I was recruited to take the top post at one of the leading animal welfare centers in the US. I moved to Oregon to answer my new calling and often wondered what became of that pair. But there is a reason for everything and my time with Vincent and Charlie taught me a valuable lesson about homeless people and their pets. I didn’t know it but the opportunity to make a lasting and significant change for homeless people with companion animals was only around the next bend.
In Eugene, much like Tucson, you don’t have to look far for the disenfranchised of society. Homeless people with dogs in tow line the street corners much the way they do in almost any city from here to Mexico. Unlike Vincent’s dog Charlie who was well groomed and kept, I began to take notice that many of the pets belonging to homeless people are in ill health or subject to disease as the result of not being vaccinated. There was a common feeling at our agency and among many people that homeless people shouldn’t have pets. I could hear the comments and remarks all too often. "Why should he have a pet if he can’t even take care of himself" or, "how can that poor dog or cat live with him" or, "someone should take their pets away" At the same time this was all happening, I was also hosting a radio talk show between 4:00 and 5:00 PM. The show could be heard by most anyone in Eugene, Roseburg, Salem and other places in Oregon. I decided one afternoon to produce a show on the topic of pets and homeless people. I asked callers for their opinions about homeless people and pets and when the phone lines were opened, we were inundated with calls. It was clear that there were a lot of strong feelings on the subject both pro and con and I shared mine with the audience. I said that it was my belief that taking pets away from homeless individuals or families was not the answer. These people already own pets and taking the pet away is not the solution. Instead, I was determined to develop a program that would provide access to basic veterinary care and vaccinations for these animals.
During the coming weeks, my staff and I brainstormed and mapped out a plan. We would enlist the aid of veterinarians who would donate their time and set up a weekend clinic in a mutually convenient location. We would distribute flyers to homeless people with pets and rely on their network of communication to spread the word. The program needed a name that would be easy to market and remember. One night while having dinner with my Board President, Susan Hilton and Vice President Mary Blackburn, the name came to me. "We’ll call it the HALO Program" I announced. It was done. HALO, or, Helping Animals Living Outdoors would begin its inaugural service in the parking lot of a church in the Whitaker Neighborhood of Eugene, Oregon in April of 1999.
The week before we started the program, I received my first threat. A letter with no return address or signature blasted me for enabling the homeless to own and abuse pets. Similar calls and emails came in prompting me to make the HALO Program my only topic for the next radio broadcast. I knew in my heart what we were doing was right. How could anyone say otherwise? I found out that there were plenty that could. Miss Oregon 1999, Melody Mihevc, happened to be my administrative assistant at work. She also strongly supported the HALO Program. I asked her to Co-Host the show with me. As we opened the phone lines we were again flooded with calls, both pro and con. I asked people if the animals already belonging to the homeless had any choice or say in who their owners were. The answer of course is no. Should we deprive and animal of care, food, medical attention or other necessary services simply because his owner happens to be without a roof over his head? My answer is absolutely not. One called suggested that we go out and round up all of the homeless people’s pets. "Sir, the homeless animal population in America is already many times greater than the homeless human population and yet you suggest we take the latter away from the first?" He had no answer. Indeed, there is no magic formula or quick fix. Many homeless people see their pet as their only source of companionship and even sanity. Many homeless people will feed their pets before they themselves eat. No, the answer is not in seizing dogs from homeless owners so that we have more animals crowding our already over crowded shelter. The answer is in making the community effort to effect a lasting positive change for both the animal and the owner.
The HALO Program can be quickly set up anywhere there are veterinarians and an animal welfare organization. This world of ours has enough woes. Only good will come from fulfilling our mandate to aid or fellow man and animal. The HALO Program is one easy step in mending the fabric of a tearing society. We cannot fix all of our societal ills with the sweep of our hand but we can chip away at the stone to the extent that it is broken into smaller pieces.
I received extensive opposition and support for the HALO Program. In every instance I remember a disabled veteran and his service dog on the side of Interstate 10 near Tucson and I hope that Vincent knows somehow what a change he effected in the hearts of so many that day.
There are hundreds of thousands of human beings in America; men, women, children, without a place to sleep tonight and there are millions of homeless pets on our streets as evidenced by the seven million dogs and cats euthanized last year in our country. There is no greater deed we can do than to assuage the tears of hunger, cold and loneliness for both man and his best friend through the outreach of human warmth and understanding. Be a torch for change in your community. Give a bag of pet food to the homeless person standing on the side of the road with their pet. Help push for programs that will make a change and don’t be discouraged. Sure, there will always be those who can yell "get a job" from their car window but the truth is, we are all in this together. Homelessness is not going to fix itself nor will it magically disappear now will companion animals owned by the less fortunate members of our community vaccinate themselves or mend their wounds. The answer is not in the curse of a passing motorist but rather in the collective effort and compassion born in the hart of mankind.
The Author travels the US speaking on issues pertaining to violence and the link between violence against people and animals. He also assists various communities in setting up programs such as HALO.
Copyright © 2000 Kimball Lewis. All rights reserved.
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