#WCW & Elina Kaufman

“ I feel that until we can treat our animals right, we can never treat each other justly, which was most well said by Gandhi.” – Elina Kaufman

Very few things in life make you smile like a pet does. I’m pretty sure that’s why the internet was invented; so we could watch cute animal videos all day while occasionally working between videos.

And while our pets are always there for us with unconditional love, we sometimes forget they don’t have a voice to warn us when they are hurt or in trouble. Luckily there are people like Elina Kaufman, founder of Forever Fido Rescue, out there advocating for pets and working countless hours to find them a loving forever home.

As this week’s #WCW Spotlight, Elina shares how pet rescue found her and what keeps her motivated to dedicate her time to finding these lovable animals a home where they will be a loved member of the family.

Me: Why did you pick animal rescue as your give back focus?  

Elina: What connected me to the true loyalty and companionship that an animal can bring you was my first dog, Hershey. My parents brought her home when I was eleven years old and I remember that day like it was yesterday. I came home from school and they told me to close my eyes and open my hands. I was expecting a piece of candy or maybe a new dress, so when I felt the warmth and soft fur in my hands, I immediately opened my eyes and just started crying. It was the best day of my life. Hershey, our stinky, crazy, and snappy Dachshund, is now seventeen years old and will always be my first love.

I remember one bright summer day, my mom and I were walking somewhere, when we noticed a few young ladies standing outside a pet store with brochures. My first instinct was, “oh boy, run, they are trying to make us sign something or join a cult.” I reluctantly grabbed a brochure and kept on walking. As I looked down, the face of a little, scared, and sad puppy mill breeding dog looked back at me and the title read, “The Truth Behind Puppy Mills.” My first question was, “what the hell is a puppy mill? Did Hershey come from a puppy mill?” I started doing a ton of research. I watched videos, documentaries, and tons of articles. Hershey was bought from a pet store at the Beverly Center Mall (which, thank God, no longer exists), so it then hit me that she probably came from one of these horrid places. This explained why she had so many issues when we got her, like fear biting and separation anxiety. This was my first very depressing and eye opening view into the world of puppy mills, which then led me to educate myself on other horrifying statistics, such as the number of companion animals that are euthanized in this country due to over-breeding and lack of space in our shelters.

I then decided to start volunteering with the West LA Shelter and the Lange Foundation. I never even thought about starting my own rescue group, until one day, my boyfriend and I found two little scruffy terriers living homeless under a dirty broken down van. We both had no idea what to do with them – all we knew for certain was that we were not going to take them to a shelter, where there was a chance of them being euthanized. We took a photo of them, posted it on Facebook, asking for help and, within hours, we had a foster home, pledges, and a lot of support. This was when I realized that with the help of other caring and amazing people, I can make a huge difference and my rescue career officially began. So, I would really say that animal rescue picked me.

Me: Do you remember a specific moment along your journey where you said to yourself, if not me, then who?

Elina: I find this question very sad, and it’s something that I battle on a daily basis. Growing up, everyone I was friends with had a family dog. You always hear that dogs are “man’s best friend”. There are tons of sayings about how dogs are so amazing, selfless, and devoted. People get angrier when animals die in movies than when people die. I constantly hear in my conversations, “I couldn’t watch that movie, because I heard the dog dies.” The pet industry is a billion dollar a year industry in this country. Almost everyone has a companion animal, had one at some point in their lives, or knows someone that does. So, why is it that 5-6 million companion animals have to be euthanized in this country every year for lack of space? That means innocent animals who did nothing to deserve the fate they were dealt are being killed and discarded like garbage simply because there is no space for them. I never ever felt it was a choice, and sometimes, that is a frustrating feeling. I look around and think, “how do all these people go about their daily lives complaining that their mocha latte wasn’t made the right way and worrying about what they will do on the weekend with their friends, while animals are suffering and being killed every day for no good reason?” A part of me has to believe that it is ignorance (how often do you hear about animal issues on the daily news?) and the other part of me believes that people are just selfish and think it’s not their issue, so they don’t need to deal with it. Let someone else clean up the mess. So if not me, then who?

Me: Everyone who meets you now, knows you as the founder of a non-profit. However, your volunteering and rescue work began long before Forever Fido Rescue. How did you transition from a volunteer to non-profit founder?

Elina: I first began helping with animals by volunteering at the West LA Shelter and other non-profit organizations when I was about sixteen years old. I did not last very long working at a shelter, because it was too hard to bear the thought of helping a dog a one day and then coming back to find out they were euthanized and no longer there. It was heartbreaking for me. I then moved on to helping non-profit small rescue groups, because they never euthanized an animal, unless of course it was in-humane not to for medical reasons.

I became, what we call in rescue a networker, spending many hours on Facebook sharing dogs with rescue groups and independent rescuers, arranging transports and helping raise pledges. There was a high that came with working on a dog for days and then seeing that “freedom photo” once they were rescued, knowing your hard work just helped save a life. But, the other side of the rescue world that many people also end up dealing with that try to get involved is that there is a lot of drama that goes on. You have to understand that this is highly emotional work for many people, so tempers and emotions run high, causing lots of miscommunication, anger, and outbursts. Another thing that I began to notice, was that many of the rescues I was helping did not do everything quite the way I would have in terms of ethics and operations. Again, this is high paced high emotion work, so it’s understandable that mistakes are going to be made, but I could never seem to find one group where I agreed with their mission and morals 100%. I then decided to do things my own way with an ethic of quality over quantity, which is quite odd in the non-profit sector, but it’s just who I am, and I cannot change that.

Me: Has volunteering and giving back always been a priority in your life? Or something that developed later?

Elina: I would not say that volunteering in a professional way was always a priority in my life, but ever since I was a young child, I would find myself feeling an exorbitant amount of compassion to those less privileged or suffering in any way. I remember looking to see if others felt as strongly as I did about seeing injustices in the world, and it would never seem to faze them much. I’ve always been a bit angry that I feel so much for others, whether it be people or animals, because it feels like you can never truly feel happy or content in your own life. I feel selfish buying a $3000 purse while there are people in the world who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. I understand not everyone feels this way, and honestly, I am a little jealous of people who can live in blissful ignorance. Some days, I wish I could be like that, living in my own little bubble, worrying about the bills and where I should take my next vacation, but it’s just not in me to live that way. Giving to animals is my way of giving back to the world, because I feel that until we can treat our animals right, we can never treat each other justly, which was most well said by Gandhi.

Me: A major focus of your organization is not just rescue, but putting in the extra effort to find each dog a forever home, where they won’t end up back in “the system.” What are some of the extra steps Forever Fido takes in adopting your rescues?

Elina: Something that sets us apart from larger animal rescue organizations is that we have a very thorough process for every dog that comes into our care. We follow a protocol, and if we do not have the time, money or resources to follow that protocol, we will not take in any more dogs until we do. We can have higher rescue numbers by pulling hundreds of dogs a month and sticking them in boarding, but we do not believe in doing rescue that way. Every Forever Fido Rescue dog goes straight to our vet for an exam and full vetting until they are ready and healthy enough to move on to loving foster homes that have been pre-approved and had home checks completed. Our fosters then work very hard to make the dogs in their care more “adoptable”. You have to understand that most of these animals have been abandoned, abused, or neglected in some way. That is why sticking them in boarding and adopting them out at an adoption fair without a thorough screening and home check is not a wise idea. Our fosters are able to help train our dogs, find out more about their needs and personalities, which then helps us match them to the right home. Without this valuable info, we are blindly adopting out dogs and hoping it works out. We do not believe in that. We also offer a five day trial period for all our adopters to make sure it is a good fit, and we remain available to them throughout the entire adoption process and beyond to help answer any questions, guide them and provide them with support. Our return rate is extremely low and the quality of the homes our dogs get is very high. This is something we take great pride in. It takes much more effort, time, money resources to run our rescue this way, but we feel it’s the only way.

Me: Do you have any advice to offer to people interested in fostering rescues? Or to those who are considering adopting a companion animal for their first time?

Elina: My best advice to those thinking about fostering a rescue animal for an organization is to remember the bigger picture. The main response we get when asking people to foster our dogs is that they cannot do it, because they are afraid they won’t be able to let them go. If you think about it, that is a very selfish way to look at things. It’s not about you and your feelings. It’s about saving a life that will otherwise be killed, because we cannot rescue without foster homes. You have to look at it as doing a selfless good deed for another living being and take your own feelings out of it. Fostering is extremely rewarding, and most fosters actually end up feeling amazing when their foster dog gets adopted, because they were part of their entire journey and get to see the wonderful home they go to and how much they are loved in their new home. It’s not always easy saying goodbye, but knowing that you were a huge part of that life being saved and they are alive because of you is pretty darn special. Also, many of our fosters keep in touch with the new adopters, which is always really nice.

To those considering adopting a companion animal for the first time, it’s really important to think about all the responsibility that comes with it. We almost joke sometimes that we try to scare people off, and only adopt to those that stick around after all our questions and advice. Haha. Many people get a companion animal on a whim or because they felt an emotional connection, but many times, they end up being returned or neglected even, because that person did not sit down and think about all that comes with the responsibility of getting an animal. It’s almost like having a new child in the home. They depend on you fully, and if you cannot commit 100% and be there for them for the next however many years of their life, then it may not be the right time. You should never make an emotional decision when adopting, so we like people that are rational and really think it through. We have a page on our website that we refer first time adopters to called, “Ready To Adopt?”

Me: What is a common misconception about adoption and rescue that you’d like to see changed in your lifetime?   

Elina: The most common one is definitely that you can only find sick, old, or aggressive dogs in shelters or in rescue. We find that the majority of companion animals in shelters are actually puppies and younger dogs. People are always telling us how cute the dogs we rescue are and ask us where we get all our puppies, almost waiting for us to tell them we robbed a pet store, but they are in fact all from the shelter. Nowadays, you can find any type of breed, age, and personality in rescue when looking for your next companion. Amazing sites like AdoptAPet and PetFinder make it easy to search for animals by location, breed, age, etc. There are many breed specific rescues, groups that focus on certain types of dogs, like puppies or seniors, and even ones that turn rescue dogs into service dogs. There is no reason not to get your companion animal from a rescue, especially since your adoption fee is going back into saving more lives. Remember that every time you purchase a dog from a breeder or pet store, that money is going back into breeding more dogs, which is the last thing we need right now. We hope to be out of business one day, which is why education is so important.

Me:  Beverly Hills recently passed a law stating pet shops can only feature rescues for adoption.  Do you feel this is a positive step forward in the adoption world?

Elina: It is absolutely a positive step in the right direction and sets precedence for other cities and states to hopefully follow suit. A number of other U.S. cities including Phoenix, Austin, Chicago, and San Diego, also have banned certain retail pet sales and anti-puppy mill ordinances. Without laws to protect our animals, there will always be monsters and selfish people out there trying to make a buck on their misery. The animal laws in this country are a joke, and the way our constitution is written basically states that companion animals are property, which of course, anyone who is the proud parent of a companion animal would disagree. To most people, they are family, not a pair of shoes. I hope that over time, more pressure is put on law makers to strengthen our animal welfare laws. I am proud to live in Los Angeles, where we are setting a good example for other cities. I hope we can start to do the same with our shelters. Too many shelters around the country are continuing with horrible and inhumane practices, like using gas chambers to euthanize dogs and not vetting dogs properly while in their care. We rescuers know they are more like death camps than shelters. We have a lot of reform and waking up to do in this world when it comes to our animals and the way treat them.

Me: In addition to your work with Forever Fido Rescue, you work a full-time day job? What keeps you motivated and energized to do both?

Elina: This is something that is most certainly a daily balancing act. I do work a full time corporate job right now, as our rescue organization does not bring in enough funds for us to have a staff or pay anyone a salary, but we are certainly working towards that. It’s tough to get much done and grow our organization when we are at work all day. By the time, we get home, we barely have enough time to feed ourselves, spend time with our loved ones and run our personal errands. We are rescuing on our lunch breaks, in the wee hours of the night, and on weekends. It is not easy, and we always feel like we are playing catch up. For me, running a non-profit organization and trying to work a full time corporate job has proved nearly impossible and exhausting beyond words. I am working very hard right now on getting our organization to a place, where we can fully dedicate the time we need to it, without having to pray we have enough time to save a dog on our lunch break and make it back to work in time.

Me: What has been the most surprising part of this journey? The most inspiring part?

Elina: The most surprising part for me has been the amount of amazing and wonderful people I have met along the way. Working in animal rescue can make you a very jaded individual. You see all the horrible abuse cases, people dumping their dogs like garbage at the shelter and constant awful scenarios of people mistreating animals, so you do start to resent humankind a bit. I feel incredibly lucky to have the pleasure of constantly meeting inspiring, caring, and like-minded individuals. Most of our adopters become our friends, they care so much and it’s amazing to be able to meet other people on a daily basis that feel the same way you do. It makes you feel like you are not alone and have support for what you care about. My team of hardworking and dedicated volunteers inspire and touch me every day. They are all giving their time freely just because they care enough to, and to know that they would rather come spend a Saturday at an adoption event than go to the beach or to the mall with their friends, means everything. I love my team so much, and I am lucky and honored to have them not only as colleagues, but as friends too.

Me: What is the one piece of advice you would share with others who want to follow in your footsteps of using their talents and unique life experiences to give back?

Elina: The absolute best piece of advice I would offer to someone looking to give back would be to surround oneself with like-minded individuals, who share your same passion and commitment to the cause. For a long time, I tried to do everything on my own, and I learned very quickly that it’s not wise to be overly controlling. There is no way you know how to do everything on your own, so finding people who will have expertise and skills in other areas will not only help grow your organization, but it will also free up your time to do other more valuable things. Working as a team, you will always accomplish more than on your own.

Connect with Elina and Forever Fido Rescue on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.