It’s not every day that you hear about a 501c(3) organization that is rescuing over 250 dogs each month. A stunning number of animals for any dedicated group of all volunteer individuals to relocate from kill-shelters to loving homes.

Co-founder Karen Talbot has spent 15 years working diligently to change the lives of unwanted animals. She describes the hardest part of her noble work:

“The desperation, the urgent pleas of life and death situations, the heartache in realizing we cannot save them all. The frustration in {knowing that} breeders continue to breed them faster than we can rescue them. The notion that people don’t adopt rather than shop. There is so much heartache in rescue.”

Karen and her son Matthew, alongside her stalwart husband Dante Lassaso, operate the Georgia-based Animal Aid USA, and their story is an amazing one. And no fairy-tale, but certainly we hope for every dog or cat that comes to them a fairy-tale ending is achieved. If not, it won’t be for lack of effort.

Talbot’s co-founder also contributes to the success of rescuing such as princely sum of animals, and perhaps the new and much welcome ‘royal’ treatment these dogs and cats receive once in the care and control of Animal Aid USA, is not a story where you’d expect to find hands-on involvement from a bona-fide member of human royalty, an Italian prince named Lorenzo Borghese who is also President of the organization.

Prince Lorenzo has an impressive line of more than just royal birthright. He also has an impressive retinue of animal advocate organizations he has worked for over the years. Many of which are high profile.

These include the North Shore Animal League, the ASPCA, the AC&C of NYC, in which he is co-founder of NYC4ACC, a group of young professionals who organize fundraisers for this city shelter and is an Ambassador to the American Humane Association. Along the way he also found time to create a pet line aptly named, Royal Treatment, that honors his beloved black Labrador Retriever, Belle ( a breed this author is particularly fond of also, with Monte and the late Carlo as canine litter brothers being much part of my family).

Karen Talbot, Dante Lasasso and the hands-on team at Animal Aid USA, regularly caravan ( a monthly undertaking and not one month missed in all that time – talk about dedication on the next level!) rescuing the unwanted innocent souls of rural Georgia.

The last 15 years plus has been a rewarding experience for Talbot, who ventured to provide an exceptional level of kennel care during her stewardship of animals, however temporarily they may be in her care, by investing in superior quality kennel housing.

In 2023 Karen Talbot and her team determined it was time to upgrade the kennel housing at their facility and discovered the modular commercial kennel line of Horizon Structures.  In fact, the experienced and knowledgeable leadership at Animal Aid USA, were so impressed with the kennel build that they opted to buy not one, but two, 12’ x 36’ kennels, that included dog boxes and runs and a center aisle in each.

As with all the Horizon Structures kennels, there are always customizations on the table. And the Animal Aid USA purchase took advantage of some of them. These included:

• A pre-hung 6-Panel person-sized door
• 6-gauge welded wire
• Deluxe 24” dog doors and guillotine dog doors
• Interior continuous stainless floor drains
• Polyurea floors in run area ( versus standard decking)
• Exterior continuous floor drains with drain pipe
• Sloped interior and exterior floors
• 100 Amp electrical package – roughed-in w/breaker box and switches/receptacles
• Extra lights and receptacles
• Interior and exterior heavy-duty solid divider panels with 3/16” thick welded frame

All the standard features that Horizon Structures’ clientele know and love were obviously also included, such as full insulation and LP Smartfloors, 11.5-gauge chain-link enclosures and the pressure treated lumber, windows and Trusscore lined walls and ceilings for easy-cleaning.

“I found Horizon Structures online, and the deciding factors in choosing their products was we loved their quality, loved their website and especially loved their customer service! Loved their quick responses to all my inquiries. Everything was perfect from start to finish. And the quality is top-notch,” Talbot enthusiastically explained.

There were a couple of aspects that Talbot opted to modify on the kennels based on her dogs’ steep learning curve when it came to the mostly young dogs using the doors. Animal Aid USA rescues a large number of puppies from puppy mills and the doors were a challenge for them to operate. Talbot used her own innovative ideas as replacements.

“ We decided to change the doors and replaced them with vinyl strip curtain refrigeration panels. However, the dogs do chew them, so we are constantly repairing them. We also discovered a piano-type hinged acrylic dooring which we mounted from above as opposed to the side. I would suggest you {Horizon} could mount the doors from above the doorway instead of being hinged on the side.”

A piece of advice that the experienced canine care-giver Talbot had for other folks purchasing a kennel was to opt for a polyurea coated solid pen floor as she did, rather than the standard slatted variety decking ( though there is an option to add a removable ‘pan’ option to slatted runs for the ultimate hygienic clean up).

Having said that although Talbot did make some specialist modifications, she is extremely pleased with her Horizon Structures kennels and when asked if she would recommend Horizon to others and/or buy another one, both questions received an emphatic, “Yes!”

As if rescuing dogs by the hundreds each month is not enough, Animal Aid USA’s team is always looking for ways to improve life for humans and their pets and are working on building an evacuation center to house animals that find themselves in the line of catastrophic events.

“Our rescue/relocation and ‘tiny home’ village is the only one of its kind in the country. We have the entire ten-acre complex set up on emergency generators. During catastrophic weather events we have the ability to house humans as well as evacuated animals in our area here in Georgia.”

This activity is all in addition to their extensive efforts at educating the public to make better decisions when it comes to choosing their family pet. The two million pets that are euthanized each year is a staggering number. By working as a clearing house Animal Aid rescues animals, heals them as necessary and spays and neuters before releasing and distributing for adoption via recognized regional rescue organizations. They take requests from their regional rescue organization partners’ who obtain them from their prospective adopters for particular dogs selected by viewing online, that are headed to or already are, on list for euthanasia.

This is a clever method that helps ensure long-term homes for the animals. It provides an  opportunity for prospective adopters to meet and greet the pets in a professional environment before making a final decision and also to be appropriately vetted themselves as being able to provide suitable homes for the adoptees. A win-win situation, that also helps fund rescues with adoption fees being collected.

“ The most rewarding experience is knowing we had hands on in saving 45,500 unwanted animals and educated the next generation to make change in their world for companion animals. We may not be making a significant dent in the overpopulation however we hope our next generation will live in a world where every dog and cat have a home and are loved!”

Copyright Rights Reserved 2024 Nikki Alvin-Smith
Works for publication at Horizon Structures website.