Regina Mendoza became involved in rescue in 2014 after I read about how they barbarically euthanize dogs in overcrowded, underfunded, under-staffed shelters across the country. In particular how a pregnant mama dog was euthanized via heartstick, unable to protect her unborn babies, then thrown into a trash bag and discarded.I knew that if I wasn't part of the solution, I was part of the problem. Aside from running Camp Happy Tails NYC, I am a single mother of a beautiful 23 year old daughter, a licensed massage therapist, and certified animal aromatherapy specialist.
Camp Happy Tails NYC Rescue is NYS recognized 501c3 non profit dog rescue organization. At CampHappy Tails NYC Rescue, we work tirelessly to provide a safe haven for rescued puppies and adult dogs, some requiring extra love, healing and care.
Rino DiMaria - The rescue I help out is Camp Happy Tails NYC. It is the most amazingly run rescue I've ever seen
Joannes Gourmet Pizza: We get asked all the time, "Who's Joanne?" The simplest answer is that she's our mother. She was and always will be the inspiration behind our success as the matriarch of la famiglia.
Tune in for this heartfelt conversation at TalkRadio.nyc or watch the Facebook Livestream by Clicking Here.
In the premiere episode of Professionals & Animal Lovers Show one of the co-hosts Tommy D, explains what the show is about, and how the focus will be on the advocacy of animals and the non-profits and professionals that work with them. The other co-host, Valerie Heffron, continues the discussion of the themes behind the show as well, and thanks the sponsors of the podcast. Valerie explains the journey through working with animals, and how she was raised as an animal lover, and gives the example of as a child, her father renting records of bird recordings so she would be able to tell the different bird songs apart. She continues to explain how animals and animal advocacy has been such a large part of her life, and she has met many of her closest friends through protests and many other events. Valerie continues to explain that animal lovers are a huge community, and that animal lovers love to help each other help animals. She then introduces one of the guests of the episode, Rino DiMario. Rino volunteers at the Camp Happy Tails NYC animal rescue, and had met Valerie at a protest against a puppy mill. Rino tells his story about how he got assaulted by the “puppy mill thugs” as he was recording the puppy mill vans in an attempt to expose the company that was operating the puppy mill, as well as what about the vans tipped him off that they were puppy mill vans. Regina Mendoza, the other guest of today’s episode explains what puppy mills are for anyone who is unaware, as well as puppy mill statistics for the United States.
Rino continues retelling his story of when he was assaulted trying to expose a puppy mill, and how the employers and owner of the pet store that was making use of the puppy mill was encouraging Rino’s attackers to continue to assault him. Rino continues to explain how the pet store was shut down shortly after his assault, and explains that he would do it all again if it would shut down another store that makes use of puppy mills. Valerie discusses the anti-puppy mill bill that has been progressing through the government, as it made it to committee on the assembly floor in New York and everyone is waiting for the next session to see if the bill goes through. She continues to explain that the anti-puppy mill bill is not a party issue, it's a right or wrong issue and everyone from across all parties and political beliefs need to come together to get this bill to go through and ban puppy mills in New York. Rino discusses his personal experiences with rescue animals and how he often utilizes Facebook to post adoptions, and continues saying that Facebook has done so much for the animal rescue community. Rino details the different types of Facebook groups people can go to learn about animal rescue and animal advocacy. Rino introduces Regina and how the two of them met.
The four discuss Camp Happy Tails NYC, the animal rescue that Regina operates, with Valerie bringing up how difficult it is to run a rescue complimenting Regina on how well she operates Camp Happy Tails NYC. Regina discusses the issue of euthanization among shelter animals, as well as animals in homelesses, and abused animals. Regina retells a story she reaw on Facebook that got her into animal advocacy. The story was about a pregnant dog that was euthanized in an incredibly cruel way, which is a common way of euthanization among rescue shelters. Regina then continues to explain her journey through animal advocacy, and how she got into fostering animals. Valerie discusses fostering animals, and how fostering an animal works, specifically foster based rescues. Regina gives a quick overview of her rescue operations and gives a tour of her grounds. Regina also explains how many dogs she is able to foster in her rescue at a time, saying she can hold about twenty at a time.
Regina gives a detailed history of several of the dogs present in her rescue, as well as how she came across each of the dogs. Valerie discusses how important it is to adopt animals through rescues, and how this is one of the messages she wants to get out through this show. She explains how when someone buys an animal from a pet store they are supporting a horrendous industry, and are actually supporting people who genuinely care about animals when adopting through a rescue. The four discuss Rino’s restaurant, and Rino gives an anecdote about how he was challenged to create a pickle pizza. The four end the episode with giving their messages to the listeners that they want them to take away from the show.
