A Social Worker Finds a Pet Cause in Rescuing Animals

I grew up just outside New Haven, Conn., where my father was a professor at Yale University. My mother had been a professor, but retired to raise her children. By the time I was 14 I had a job running a stable and teaching horseback riding to children, which really gave me a sense of responsibility for the safety of both the horses and the children.

I went to the University of California at Berkeley, where I majored in French and took a number of psychology courses.

SARAH COHEN Age: 42 First professional job: Teacher, Early Childhood Mental Health Services, Richmond, Calif. Current job: Executive director, Hopalong Animal Rescue, Oakland, Calif.

My family had originally come from California, and in the Bay Area it was much easier to go riding during the winter months. I had gotten pretty tired of freezing in New England.

During my last year in college, I had an internship with a mental-health program for emotionally disturbed preschool children. On the first day I went in and a kid came up and punched me in the stomach. I immediately knew I was at the right place. I loved the children, and in spite of the abuse they had suffered we could really have a positive impact on their lives. After graduation I was hired as a teacher there, and after a couple of years I went to a residential center in Sacramento for teenagers with serious problems.

It was at this time that I began using animals to teach the children how to be responsible for other creatures. I showed them how to take care of the ponies, taught them riding skills, and then had them teach other children. We also raised a litter of orphaned kittens. Of course, we had to be careful that these children had not previously been abusive to animals.

We know that petting a dog, for example, slows one’s heart rate. What we found was that these children, who would not directly tell us what happened to them, would often begin telling the animals what their experiences had been. Of course, although they were talking to the animals, they knew we were listening.

In 1989, I went back to Berkeley and got my master’s in social welfare, graduating in 1991. Then I worked at a day-treatment center on a public-school site. I sort of became an expert in therapy for very, very disturbed families, but I still wanted to work with animals.

So, after talking with the Oakland Animal Shelter, I was referred to Helen Hill, who was one of its volunteers. At some point our local newspaper had featured a cat as its “Pet of the Week.” Helen, after hearing about this cat that had been hit by a car and that had a paw that never properly healed, adopted him and named him Hopalong.

In 1993, Helen began Hopalong Animal Rescue by building a group of volunteers, of which I was one of the first five. Our mission was, and remains, to eliminate the euthanasia of cats and dogs through rescue, spay-neuter, and educational programs.

By 1996 we had an all-volunteer board, had our 501(c)(3) certification, and I was president of the Board of Directors. Hopalong Animal Rescue began bringing animals from the shelters into the community to find homes for them. Sometimes it was just a matter of days from the time they came to the shelter to the time they were euthanized.

Of course, to pay my bills, I was also working a full-time job as a program director for a Healthy Start program, a state initiative to help needy children succeed in school.

Three years later, the Hopalong board knew we had to do some serious fund raising and try to have the organization become better known. So I quit my day job and worked as a freelance consultant, which gave me a flexible schedule. One day I went to a vet with a stray kitten. He told me, “I’ve been watching what Hopalong is doing, and I’d like to give you some money.” I thought great, maybe he’ll give us $50.

At the time our budget was $14,000, so you can imagine my excitement when he wrote Hopalong a check for $50,000. In 2000, two vets, who had established the Paws for Life Foundation and who had designated $1.5-million for Hopalong, merged that foundation into us because they liked what we were doing and because they felt we had the capacity to build a program to help homeless animals.

One of the reasons we received the $1.5-million was that we were really trying to establish a standard of care for our animals, which was not much of a priority in rescue groups at that time. Today we have an annual budget of $800,000, a staff of eight, and more than 600 volunteers. The $1.5-million allowed us to make the critical move to hiring staff. We have our annual Fur Ball Fundraiser, and we have a development director, but I still have to raise money all the time.

Last year we merged with another animal-rescue group, Second Chance Rescue, which enabled us to have more of a regional focus. If you merge resources, you are stronger, more efficient, and better able to maximize even more resources. Between Hopalong and Second Chance, we estimate that since 1993 we have managed to save 15,000 animals.

Today I still very much use my background in social work. I go into the community and develop relationships with people. As a social worker I have learned to appreciate people who are in very difficult circumstances, in a nonjudgmental kind of way. I’ve also learned that there is a close similarity between animal welfare and social welfare. When animals are in trouble or have been abused in a home, there are most likely women or children who are also being abused.

Without a doubt my most powerful experience was after Hurricane Katrina. When the hurricane hit, I called the Humane Society of the United States, and they told me they really needed people who were skilled in working with animals.

The San Francisco ASPCA lent me two vans, which some of my volunteers drove to Louisiana. I flew down to begin trying to get through the red tape — that is, getting permission to bring these animals back to California because they could not be adequately taken care of after the devastation left by Katrina.

We went into one house where a dog had floated on a mattress for two weeks, while a second dog stayed on top of a floating dresser. These animals were absolutely terrified, but after we got them some food and water, they began to relax.

We also took photos of animals and posted them on Petfinder.com. Prior to the hurricane, Petfinder was a Web site that tried to unite lost pets with their owners. In the aftermath of Katrina and Hurricane Rita, it became the Web site for hurricane victims seeking their lost animals.

One of the photos we posted was of a three-legged terrier. A few weeks later I got a call from a woman who said, “I think you have my dog.” Sure enough, we were able to reunite them. It was wonderful for the woman — who had lost everything — to finally have her dog back.

It’s things like this that explain why I do what I do.