Karen passed away from complications of surgery. She was a friend to the community in general, animals in particular, and respected by everyone who dealt with her. Oreo's was blessed to have her on the blog as a commenter and even when disagreeing on some parts of animal rescue, there was a strong bond. Like many of Oreo's friends there was never a physical meeting, but her constant support during some very difficult times meant alot.
It's ironic our last conversation was about transport. She supported it strongly in rural areas, and we were in agreement on that. There is a time and a place for it, but some of the people are getting carried away.
She cared deeply for animals in need and wanted them to find a home, but agreed with Oreo that nice did not mean adoptable. She was not one of the nut jobs who wanted an animal to live out it's life going from shelter to shelter. Her comments will be missed, although she sent a great deal that was informational and thought provoking, she didn't post so much as I wish she could have.
Sometimes discretion is needed to move between the groups. We first connected on a puppy mill operation in Silver Springs and she took some of the leftovers after Cindy and the other AC from that county shut them down. Nice lady.....
Pictured is one of my favorite Iris cultivars, and I actually dug it up in Indiana in 1969 and have been dragging it's progeny all over the world since then.
6 comments:
I didn't know Karen; however, any time an animal advocate is no longer fighting the fight, they are missed greatly.
She was well respected, even by those of us that don't think transport is always a good idea. We shan't devulge her moniker, but we will miss her comments.
She truly loved animals and would do anything for them, even support Oreo when it was not the popular thing to do.....
Not being in rescue or animal operations at all doesn't keep the sadness from being there. She apparently did a lot of good things and if she was a friend of Oreo that's enough.
I wish there would be a person to come forward and help with the coordination. My wife had met her several times at the SPCA and thought she was very genuine. I know we are off the transport thread, but I don't suppport it either. I doubt the numbers of sucesses against the numbers transported would show it as a high use of resources. Except in rural counties, very rural counties, and even then I think most city shelters have enough animals already.
Karen was very nice, I told Shel she is one of the few non-nuts in rescue. I think she was taken advantage of by some segments of the animal groups, and we spoke a few times about Oreo. I gave her the link and she loved Advice from the start, she asked a couple of times who Oreo was. When a rescue from NHS gave an opinion about who really lived in Oreo's Bat cave Karen had a good laugh. she had no idea. From that time on, Karen became a staunch supporter of Oreo's alter ego. She never took on any of the heavies because she was afraid NHS would retaliate, but she refused to participate in any gossip.
I was reading somebody's facebook who is very active in sheltering. They got an email from Kern County saying there were 200 dogs to be pts the next day, all nice all adoptable....Could our area help ? Then Mark posted an email from Fallon saying they had to put down several in their shelter due to over full conditions. I fear the economy is doing damage even more quickly.. This is very sad and perhaps only the tip of the iceberg. Kern County is a paralel to our Churchill County, no limits on anything so lots of puppy mills and hoarders...
I didn't know Karen, but I think like Sheldon. I disagree with shelter to shelter transport, and maybe if I were more informed I would feel differntly. I saw one dog that had been on 5 different shelters in 8 months and that was when we were looking. It was listed on a local blog and had a long sad story. Like most people we felt bad for the dog, but wondered if the moving from place to place was good for the dogs sanity. Mate had been adopted twice when we got him. That was as far as I ever want to go with a screwed up dog. It took a year to get him settled in.
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