We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cara Achterberg. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cara below.

Alright, Cara thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

The first time I visited an animal shelter in the south, I had already fostered over 100 dogs and written a book on fostering and dog rescue. And yet, I was shocked and stunned by the situation and the conditions, but mostly by the fact that I had no idea it was like it was. There were so many animals, living in harsh conditions. The shelter had limited staff, not enough resources to care for the animals, and were not able to treat the simplest of medical conditions. Staff (and volunteers) were working ridiculous hours trying to save an overwhelming number of animals, with nearly no support from their government or community. I realized that if someone like me—someone up to their eyeballs in rescue—had no idea it was like this, the majority of the people in our country didn’t. I decided that day, that I would work to raise awareness and resources to help the incredible people fighting so hard, and the dogs they were trying to save.

Cara, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Before a foster dog changed the trajectory of my life, I was an author and a creative writing teacher who dabbled in organic farming. Over two hundred foster dogs later, I am the president and co-founder of Who Will Let the Dogs Out, a national nonprofit whose mission is to raise awareness and resources for homeless dogs and the heroes who fight for them.

Together with photographer, Nancy Slattery, I travel to shelters and rescues all over the southern United States to learn and tell their stories. As an organization, we share those stories through writing, photography, and film. We gather ideas and solutions in our free online resource guide for shelters and rescues. We offer assistance with grant-writing, our own Instagrant program (thanks to a grant-to-regrant from the ASPCA), and network with other organizations to offer support.

We invite people all over the country to get involved in the solution. We believe the problem of so many adoptable dogs suffering and dying in our country doesn’t happen because people don’t care, but because they don’t know, or they don’t know what they can do about it. Our mission is to tell them, and then enable them to get involved in the solutions.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Anybody in animal rescue knows that for every few steps you take forward, there are always the moments that knock you on your butt. Maybe that’s true for everyone, actually. The key is to get back up and let the hardship/set back be just a fact and not the dictator of what comes next. It’s easy to get stuck in the drama of what went sideways, but that doesn’t help; and it only burns through the energy you need to move forward.

I could share a thousand stories of the resilience of dogs. On every shelter tour we meet dogs who have suffered horribly at the hands of humans – dogs that arrive to a shelter with a collar embedded in their neck, or dragging a heavy chain or pregnant for the tenth time, skeletal, sick, and/or terrified. And with a little care they bounce back up and ultimately get adopted. They forgive times ten and move on to find the joy they deserve. We could all learn from their example. And it’s one that inspires me again and again.

One specific story of resilience I witnessed started in a dog pound in Tennessee. I met Fanny Wiggles when she was a dull brown, emaciated, pit bull living in the harshest of conditions. Lying on hot cement, in her own waste, waiting out her ‘legal stray hold’ in a cement bunker type building with just a nearly empty five-gallon bucket of water. Her destiny, if not for the rescue organization that I traveled with that day, was to be euthanized at the local vet (or shot by the dog-catcher if he was too lazy to drive her there). Instead, she was rescued. I eventually adopted her and now she is a beautiful red-coated athlete who can catch any frisbee you toss, zooms around the agility course, and swims better and faster than most people. To see this happy pup wiggling her butt (hence her name) with joy on a daily basis is a constant reminder of the potential in every dog I meet at the shelters we visit.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The pandemic, the housing crisis, the economic uncertainty, and the lack of veterinary access has created a perfect storm for animal sheltering in the US. It has set us back years in our efforts to meet the challenge of saving every adoptable dog and creating shelters that are sustainable. The challenge is greater now than when we first began this organization in 2019. But that just means we have to be more creative, more determined, and more open-minded in how we meet that challenge.

My goal is to put our organization out of business. If we follow our mission, and do it well, that’s exactly what should happen. There should be no need for Who Will Let the Dogs Out. I believe we are a dog-loving nation and given the information about the situation, the knowledge of solutions, and the resources to carry them out, we will solve this crisis. There is no reason for any shelter, anywhere, to euthanize adoptable dogs.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://whowillletthedogsout.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whowillletthedogsout/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WhoWillLetTheDogsOut
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WhollLetDogsOut
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/whowillletthedogsout

Image Credits
Nancy Slattery Ian Achterberg