INTRO 0:00
Welcome to the Naturally Healthy Pets podcast. Let's get to it.
Dr. Judy Morgan 0:05
Hello everyone. I'm Dr Judy Morgan, your host of the Naturally Healthy Pets podcast. Today, we are going to talk about holistic dog rescues, and we have worked with quite a few holistic dog rescues over the years, particularly during our cyber week, when we work with rescues and donate to them. And so this is something that is near and dear to my heart. I've done a lot of work in the rescue world, and certainly anything we can do to come at rescue from a more holistic standpoint, we know that our pets have a better outcome and a better chance for a long, healthy, vital life when we get away from the chemical world that unfortunately we all live in. So my guest today is Amanda Jo. Amanda, welcome. Thank you for being here.
Amanda Jo 1:02
Hello. I'm so excited to be here.
Dr. Judy Morgan 1:06
Great. So besides giving them a second chance at life, Amanda Jo works hard to heal dogs from the inside out using a holistic approach. She advocates for her dogs to eat a fresh, healthy diet for annual titer testing instead of routine vaccinations, and for always opting for a more natural solution to things like fleas or ticks, heartworm prevention and more. She offers a wide variety of more holistic products in her partner business, Organic Bunny. So before we came on air, we were talking about where, where these dogs are, and what the shelters are, and who she's working with. So Amanda Jo, if you could give us a little bit of that background, because it's pretty fascinating the way you're doing this.
Amanda Jo 1:50
Yeah. So I was just a regular person. I was on Instagram, and I saw a video of a golden retriever being boiled alive, and I had two Goldens at the time from breeders. I just didn't understand this problem was even real. I rolled over to my husband, and we're like, we're starting a dog rescue. So I've had to just learn on the fly. It wasn't something that I planned for months and months and years. I just saw a problem and I couldn't look away. So yeah, we it was in China that I saw the video, so you can imagine that's pretty hard. We figured out a way to set up a team. We have partners that live there, so that helps a ton. So we focus mostly in China and then South Korea, but we've recently moved to a lot of local dogs too. So we save dogs. We've saved dogs from Chile. We've saved dogs worldwide. So we're just happy to help. And I love, absolutely love your content. It's helped our dogs so much, so it's just exciting to be here today.
Dr. Judy Morgan 2:44
Well, that's pretty cool. How long ago did you start this?
Amanda Jo 2:47
Gosh, I think we're on six years now, about six years.
Dr. Judy Morgan 2:53
And how many dogs would you say have gone through your program?
Amanda Jo 2:58
I think the last time we checked, it was a little bit over 700. we do focus on we focus on quality over quantity. So I could have saved 1000s by now, I'm sure, but we want to make sure they go into a really good home people that understand what they've been through. So it's not the most of any rescue, but we really try to do the best by each dog.
Dr. Judy Morgan 3:21
If you consider if you've done 700 dogs in six years, that's over 100 dogs a year. And with the logistics of saving dogs in China and then bringing them into the US, that in itself, is a nightmare. I used to do international health certificates. It's and unfortunately, they're not very holistic in what they want, in getting dogs from one country to another. So it just when you're trying to do everything more naturally, it throws this little monkey wrench into it that's just. And so explain the parameters for dog ownership in China, not not nationwide, Countrywide, but certainly in some cities. Because I found that to be fascinating.
Amanda Jo 4:11
Yeah. So a lot of people are like, where are you getting all these golden retrievers? Well, people love Golden Retrievers there, just like we do here. They're a popular breed. The problem is, China has very small houses. They don't realize these dogs are going to be huge hyper dogs. They're also illegal in a lot of parts of China. So in Beijing, for example, you cannot own a dog over your knee. The police can take the dog, kill the dog. So it gets these dogs into some really bad situations when they they're either just too big for their house, or the the police will come and take them, seize them. So we try to do our best. They don't have animal shelters really, like we do here. So these dogs have no help. And so people always ask, why China, well, these dogs don't have help. So that's kind of why we we started there.
Dr. Judy Morgan 4:58
And do you bring in other breeds, other than Golden Retrievers?
Amanda Jo 5:02
yes, yes. Pretty much any breed you can think of, there's ton, there's just, there's a lot of Goldens in China, just because the breed's so popular South Korea, we do a lot of the smaller dogs, the Pomeranians, the Maltese. They have tons of puppy mills there. They get raided. We work with local groups there, so you can get, you know, a toy Pomeranian the same way, from a breeder, but it's a rescue, because it was saved from a really bad condition.
Dr. Judy Morgan 5:31
Amazing, amazing. I you know, it's hard enough to start a rescue here in the country, but doing things from 1000s of miles away. So certainly you must have some good people on the ground. So let's talk about some of the unique challenges of rescue dogs. And you know what, what they have been through, and why changing over to holistic is even more important for these guys?
Amanda Jo 6:01
Yeah, it's extra important for the dogs from China, because, as we know, their air pollution there is terrible. The tap water is a really big problem. The kibble they do. Not only is it bad kibble, but it's fake kibble. So these these people will knock off kibble like Purina. It will be fake Purina. So you can imagine how the quality just drops even lower.
Dr. Judy Morgan 6:26
wasn't good to start with.
Amanda Jo 6:29
We'll have dogs just literally fall over and die. It's actually it's terrifying. So when they get here, we do our best to work with the holistic vets. All of our doctors get 24/7 support, access to our holistic vets. We really hit home on, you know, like you said, the get them off the kibble immediately, titer testing. We we hold their hand when they go to the vets. No, we don't need more vaccines. So we will literally text them as they're at the vet, because people get pushed into things they don't understand. They'll be like, Oh, I don't see the rabies vaccine here. Yes, it is. It's right here. It's on the second page. So we really hold their hand make sure they're not getting pumped full of anything else that they don't need. But yeah, the air is really bad. We actually got a water filter installed in the the Beijing shelter. People gave us a hard time over that, saying it was a waste of money. But like, no, the water is really bad. So we do our best given the really bad situation.
Dr. Judy Morgan 7:26
I've been to China, oh gosh, quite a few years ago, maybe 2012 to study acupuncture, and we were there for two weeks, and I can attest to the poor air quality and just sanitation quality, particularly in the cities, it is. It's, I don't know how people live there. Frankly,
Dr. Judy Morgan 7:49
it's, it's pretty atrocious in some areas. So I can imagine, especially for the street dogs, who, lord knows what they're being exposed to. So how, what kind of things do you do to detox these dogs once? And are they? Are they being detoxed? And because you don't have a shelter to bring them to here in the US, so I assume you're holding them in China, trying to make them healthier, find their adopter, and then bringing them in.
Amanda Jo 8:19
It depends. So when they're in China, you know, we don't have access to the same things we do here. So if they're in China, we do our best. We'll do a lot of Chinese medicine. We do a lot of herbs. Like most rescue dogs, never get fresh food at all. So a couple times a month, our rescue manager there, he'll actually give them fresh beef, fresh vegetables, to try to boost what we can. It's really hard. When you have we have 80 dogs, so really hard to give 80 dogs that care. Once we get them here, sometimes they'll go into a foster home, and that's when we'll really start the detox. They'll see the holistic vets. We'll get them on things like super cleanse. I love that. I think it's Glacier Peaks Super Cleanse, get the heavy metals out, obviously, immediately, off the kibble diet. And it kind of depends on the dog. If the dog has hot spots, we have different tests we'll run to remove the stressors from their environment. And really, you see them drastically turn around. So when they're in fosters, I have way more control here. I can get them all the tests and all the fancy things, but in China, it's a little bit harder. So once they're here, that's when we really work with the adopters. Hey, is are they having chronic ear infections? Let's try this. So then our vet will work with them one on one once they're home. So it kind of depends.
Dr. Judy Morgan 9:39
How long do these dogs normally spend in foster care. I mean, I know it's variable, but
Amanda Jo 9:45
yes, it depends. I don't know if you followed the China actually shut down to import from the or to the United States. So USA said no more imports from China. So we actually got shut down for almost a year and a half during COVID, and now the whole system is messed up. So now you have to vaccinate them for rabies there, then they fly over again. You have to vaccinate them again. So that whole system got really messed up. So we've had dogs stuck in China for we just posted a dog yesterday that's been with us all five years of his life. So we can't really find flights. Flights are really hard. We used to send them cargo. Cargo used to be $4000 now it's $12,000 so these dogs are really stuck. So we have, I think we found one flight coming up here for a dog that's been adopted since July. So it depends. I stopped taking dogs in China because of this. You know, they're just sitting at our safe house. They're happy and they have a home, but it's it's really been hard after COVID and all the lockdowns and the flights disrupted. So yeah, if they're here with us, it depends on the breed. If it's a golden retriever and it's cute, it will be adopted within a week. If it's a German Shepherd that maybe has some reactivity, which I have two right now, those take longer. So it unfortunately does depend on the dog, the breed, what help they need. So it can be anywhere from a week to five years, depending on the situation.
Dr Judy Morgan 11:20
Sadly, yes. And I think there were just more recently, more changes in imports for dogs. And it they don't, they certainly don't make it easy. And I sort of get it, because there's enough dogs languishing in shelters in this country that need help. It's sort of like maybe we should help what we have here before we're, you know, broadening out even from there. But the dogs are definitely at higher risk in some of these other countries for sure.
Amanda Jo 11:59
The way I see that, though, is a lot of people are not open to rescuing, like they just, they won't. And so the way I thought was is, hey, if I can get someone to rescue a golden retriever, it's kind of like a gateway, like, then they understand rescue. So I do get it, and we do help dogs locally, and I 100% agree. But there's some people out there that are never going to rescue. They're never going to rescue the German Shepherd, so the Golden Retriever was kind of like my way to say, Hey, look at there's still ways to help animals that you probably were going to buy. And then I really work to change their mindset, to not just limit their help to Goldens. So I think once they get that dog home, they understand, like, wow, it touches their heart, and then they are going to change their mind, and maybe they're going to be more open to a dog in a shelter here.
Dr. Judy Morgan 12:48
Yep, that would be amazing. We need to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors. Stay tuned. We'll be right back.
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Dr. Judy Morgan 14:00
welcome back. I'm Dr Judy Morgan, and this is the Naturally Healthy Pets podcast. My guest today, Amanda Jo runs a really unique rescue operation for dogs, mostly Golden Retrievers from China, but other breeds and from other areas as well. So this is this is fascinating that. And this is almost everybody that you that you talk to, that does anything with animals. There was this, you know, aha moment. You know, whether it's a a bad thing, a good thing, it's just sort of like, you know, my husband and I both ended up on the school board once because we got our sample ballot in the mail and there was no one running for our district, and there were two vacant seats, and I just looked at him and I said, that's really a shame. Somebody should do something about that. Somebody should run. And we, you know, as soon as the words came out of my mouth, we went oh poo, and so we were, both were wright in candidates for the. School Board, and both ended up on the school board for three years. So be careful what you wish for, because, but you had that aha moment where you said somebody should do something about this. Oh, no, it's me. well, and over 700 dogs are very thankful for that. So okay, once you get these dogs either at your shelter there, and I understand the difficulties of feeding 80 dogs fresh food, particularly in China. When I was there, they eat everything, like there's, I mean, we went and climbed Mount Hua and there was no wildlife. It had all been like, everything is eaten. A lot of mouths to feed, and so I understand the difficulties of that, and the prices that you're quoting for flying these dogs over are astronomical. But once you get them here, what are these dogs fed? Once you get them into foster care or they're being adopted out, like, do you tell people who are adopting these dogs, like, Hey, you're gonna have to follow this protocol. Or if they want to go back to feeding kibble, can they do that?
Amanda Jo 16:08
Yeah, I wish. I wish I could regulate that. We're already really, really, really strict with the mindset we look for. So we don't let people choose their dog, which is also unique. We get to know your home, and we compare it to our dogs. We get to know your dogs and if you have children, and so we look at our dogs your environment, and we match you with the dog. So right out the gate, most people are not open to that. So we we've had probably 17,000 applications, and we've only approved 700 so we eliminate a lot of people because we're looking for people that want to help. We don't want to we don't want to appeal to the people that just want a cute dog, because the second that dog has behavioral issues, health issues, back, the dog's gonna go. We actually didn't have a single surrender this year and last year we had one. Year before we had zero. So if you know anything about rescue that's unheard of, you know most dogs are a revolving door. So we're really, really, really picky with who we adopt to, because we want to get it right for these dogs. We want the trauma to stop, as you know, stress, depression, emotional, you know, stored in their body. Those cause bad health problems too. So we really want to stop the cycle of trauma for them. So I would love to say you can't use kibble, but we just instead, we strongly, strongly advocate for why they shouldn't. We tell them all the things. Hey, this has links to cancer, hey, it's sugar, hey, it's inflammatory, it grows mold. We tell them all the things. So I do my absolute best to get them, but I understand people run into budget issues down the road, so we do our best to promote it. We give them a lot of discount codes, different fresh food brands or better options. So we try to do our best to educate and then we do leave it up to them. I would love to regulate that, but I think I would eliminate whoever we had left.
Dr. Judy Morgan 18:03
Yeah, I only know, off the top of my head of one rescue adoption group that their rule is you have to feed raw. They I've opened their mind up to gently cooked. They're actually doing a feeding trial with us right now on a gently cooked formulation, and, you know, monitoring the dogs very closely and doing comparisons. So, you know, it would be great if we could get everyone, you know, my My thing is just whole food diets instead of highly processed foods. So whether it's raw, whether it's gently cooked, I'm fine with home prepared, as long as you are at least making a really, really good attempt to make sure that you have all the vitamins and minerals and necessary nutrients that are, that are needed. So, you know, I think there's a lot of ways that we can come at it, and kibble definitely comes in different stratas. You know, we could we could we have bottom of the barrel all the way up to there's actually one that I would consider feeding my dogs, and a lot of people like, kind of the baked or air dried foods now, which have the convenience of the kibble, but they're still a very different level. So I think that's great. And you're right. I mean, if sometimes, if you make things too restrictive, then you don't get the home for the dog, but, but this, you matching the dog is, again, very, very unique.
Amanda Jo 19:29
Yes, yeah, we had a lot of hate over it. People don't get what they want, so they get very mad, but it's what's best for the dog. And that's kind of our motto with everything, what's best for the animal. That's what we're gonna do,
Dr. Judy Morgan 19:42
sure. So how, how do you I? I'm guessing that the funding for this comes from donations?
Amanda Jo 19:52
yep, we're entirely donor supported.
Dr. Judy Morgan 19:57
I was gonna say that takes a lot. I mean, so if somebody wanted to adopt from you, are they? Is the adopter paying the airfare to get those dogs here?
Amanda Jo 20:06
No, nope. We use all donations. We have very low cost considering all we do. So our big dogs, like a golden is only $850 which I think is great. I've seen a lot of other groups adopt a golden for $4000 so people doing similar work to us, their their prices are about $4000 so you know, $850 for getting, you know, a dog that at the end of the day they still want, I feel like it's a great price, especially for all they're getting. You know, with the 24/7 support, we do a lot of support with integrations. So we're going to tell you how to bring the dog home, what to do with your dog, baby gates, pack walks. So we really are more of like a boutique rescue. We're going to be so involved if your dog's sick at the vet, we're going to be on the phone with you when our dogs die. I'm crying on the phone. So we really are like a family, so $850 I feel like is more than fair for all that they get, and then anything extra, we rely on donations.
Dr. Judy Morgan 21:05
How, how many, um, volunteers do you have involved with your organization? Like, who are they? If they're at the vet and they have a question, who are they calling it? Can't always be you.
Amanda Jo 21:16
I have a team. So we do have a paid team that I can rely on, which is really important. So we have different categories. I have just a handful of employees that are like my rock solid team been with me for years, because I need them to have, I need people to have real support. You know, volunteers, they're flaky. Oh, I can't I'm at school. So we'll use volunteers for certain things that aren't putting the dog at risk. You know, a lot of volunteers will go get dogs from shelters or take dogs to the vet. So we use volunteers where we can but for my team, I have to have, like, an A team, and so that's another big perk of adopting with us, you're gonna get real solid help. If you text someone, I'll be in the chat. But like, if I'm busy, you're gonna have two other people that will respond instantly. So, yeah, I do have a team
Dr. Judy Morgan 22:08
that's that's amazing. How long did it take you to get that team together?
Amanda Jo 22:13
Honestly, I've had most of them for years and years, some from the very beginning, I'd say, you know, couple years, a couple don't work out, you know, you gotta, you gotta find your people, but most of them have been with us for, you know, a long time now.
Dr. Judy Morgan 22:33
And do you find that the people who are applying, or, well, certainly the people that you are approving for adoption, because, if you've, I mean, you're approving a very small percentage of the number of applications that you get. Do you find that most people are open to the holistic practices that you're promoting for these dogs?
Amanda Jo 22:54
They say they are. I think the main deterrent is price. I think if it was more affordable, 100% would be open to it. I think the price is really, from what I can tell and what the feedback we get is really a budget issue. They want to do better. So many of them are open to it, though, but I think price is the real I guess issue,
Dr. Judy Morgan 23:17
and which things do you find are, are are the things that you get the most complaints, about the price of?
Amanda Jo 23:23
about the what?
Dr. Judy Morgan 23:26
So, you know, they're going to the veterinarian, and there's, you know, doing it doesn't cost any more to do natural flea prevention versus traditional flea prevention, which, frankly, with all the new super chemicals that are so horrible, they're very expensive sometimes. So where is the biggest pushback in price holistic versus traditional? Is it titers?
Amanda Jo 23:51
It's the food, the titers. Yeah, food and titers is probably the most important. Water Filters, all the extra tools that maybe an average home doesn't have air filters. Of course, we don't push those on people, but people want an air filter, and they just maybe can't afford it yet. They want a water filter, they maybe can't afford it yet. So they do what they can. we do give discounts to my for profit store so we map out their healthy meals. Here's how to detox. You know, we do the what is it the Rebalance or Adored Beast? After their rabies vaccine, we send that to them, get them detoxed. So we do our best to do what we can. Each dog gets a goodie box. I like to put, like, Four Leaf Rover supplements in it. So we do our best to give them healthy things. But I think it's definitely the price good quality supplements, you know, cost a lot more than China cheap, you know, lab made synthetic vitamin supplements. So it's just the little things, the quality just costs a little bit more.
Dr. Judy Morgan 24:54
Yeah, yeah. And I do get, you know, complaints from people about food being more. But you know what you save in health problems and veterinary bills? I think once, once people kind of go that route, and get away from all the synthetics and the processed things, and get away from all the chemicals, and get away from the over vaccination, then they find that they're, they're not at the veterinary office every month with a new health issue. So I think once people kind of move into that space and see the difference it makes, just in, you know, health, vitality, longevity, attitude, you know, everything, the energy level of their pets, I think that they see such a huge difference. So people can get more information. Now this your Instagram and your Facebook is Bunnys Buddies. Is that the rescue group?
Amanda Jo
Yep, yep,
Dr Judy Morgan
all right, Bunnys Buddies. And then your website is or TheOrganicBunny.com and there is a pet product line on there. So if for people who are more interested, if you're like a golden retriever lover, and actually, I have a couple of clients who are just golden retriever crazy, and may be very interested in this. So BunnysBuddies.org, is the website you're doing, and it's b, u, n, n, y, s, Bunnys Boddies. So really interesting. I love what you're doing. I think it's very cool. And I think more people need to wake up in the middle of the night and go, Oh my gosh, I've got to do blah, because we need, we need more of this in the world. So thank you, Amanda Jo, for everything that you do, we appreciate you. This is amazing work. And the dogs, thank you.
Amanda Jo 26:46
Thank you for having me.
OUTRO
Thanks for listening to another great Naturally Healthy Pets episode. Be sure to check out the show notes for some helpful links. And if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. We value your feedback and we'd love to hear from you on how we're doing. Visit DrJudyMorgan.com for healthy product recommendations, comprehensive courses, upcoming events and other fantastic resources. Until next time, keep giving your pet the vibrant life they deserve.
DISCLAIMER
The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. It is no substitute for professional care by a veterinarian, licensed nutritionist or other qualified professional. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Dr. Judy and her guests express their own views, experience and conclusions. Dr. Judy Morgan's Naturally Healthy Pets neither endorses or opposes any particular view discussed here.
