The Animal Control Report

Daniel and Ashley are joined by Nicole Navarro from Pawsitive Beginnings to talk animal rescue, advocacy, and the realities of working in animal welfare. From helping vulnerable animals to supporting the community, Nicole shares the passion and challenges behind the work being done every day to make a difference.
The conversation covers rescue efforts, public perception, collaboration in animal welfare, and the dedication it takes to keep showing up for animals in need. Honest, insightful, and fun, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

Ashley Bishop takes over the mic solo for this episode of Keep it Humane: The Podcast as she sits down with the team from Anti-Cruelty, Chicago’s oldest and largest open-door animal welfare organization. Founded in 1899, Anti-Cruelty has spent more than a century evolving alongside the animal welfare profession while staying committed to the bond between people and pets.
Ashley and her guests dive into the realities of modern sheltering, including access to care, community outreach, veterinary affordability, pet retention, and what sustainable animal welfare really looks like in 2026. The conversation explores how organizations can move beyond statistics and focus on helping both animals and the humans who love them.
From the challenges facing shelters nationwide to the importance of collaboration, innovation, and compassion fatigue awareness, this episode offers an honest look at where the profession has been — and where it needs to go next.
Whether you work in animal welfare or simply care about animals and the communities they live in, this episode is packed with insight, perspective, and a few laughs along the way.

What started as a classroom demonstration about how quickly cats can reproduce without spay and neuter somehow turned into the CATTOO challenge, 27 tattoos, and now a Forbes article.
In this episode of Keep it Humane: The Podcast, Daniel and Ashley break down the story behind the article, why the CATTOO challenge was created, and the bigger conversation around cat overpopulation, access to care, and responsible animal welfare.
They also discuss the real impact of spay and neuter programs, the strain shelters and rescues continue to face, and why community-based solutions matter more than ever.
Sometimes the best way to start a serious conversation is with something people will never forget.

In this episode, we sit down with the team behind Journey Home Animal Control, a community-driven organization redefining what animal control can look like. Built on compassion, education, and real-world problem solving, Journey Home is filling critical gaps in traditional services—helping keep pets with the families who love them while supporting communities in practical, humane ways.We dive into their innovative approach to lost pet recovery, including the use of trail cameras and behavior-based strategies, and explore how programs like Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) and their Home-to-Home rehoming model are reducing shelter intake while improving outcomes for animals and people alike. Founder Rachael shares how a background in veterinary medicine and a passion for community outreach led to the creation of an organization that blends animal control with empathy—challenging outdated perceptions and proving that enforcement and compassion don’t have to be at odds. This conversation is a must-listen for animal control officers, shelter professionals, and anyone interested in the future of community-based animal welfare. If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to meet people where they are—and keep more animals out of the shelter system—this episode delivers.

In this episode of Keep it Humane: The Podcast, we sit down with Deborah Felin McGaldi from Helen Sanders CatPAWS to talk all things cats, community, and compassion.Deborah shares how CatPAWS is transforming feline welfare in California through their trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs, low-cost spay/neuter clinic, kitten fostering network, and community outreach efforts across Southern California. We dive into the ethics and realities of TNR, including the often controversial topic of spay-abort procedures for pregnant feral cats, and discuss the legal challenges surrounding TNR practices in California.The impact of their work is undeniable—Deborah explains how their programs have helped reduce kitten euthanasia rates at local shelters from roughly 1,000 per year to around 100. We also talk about the barriers that keep people from fostering, from time commitments to financial concerns, and why community involvement is essential to saving more lives.If you care about cats, animal shelters, and practical solutions in animal welfare, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. 🐱

In this episode of Keep it Humane: The Podcast, we sit down with Genevieve Frederick, the founder of Feeding Pets of the Homeless, to talk about a mission that’s saving lives on both ends of the leash.Genevieve shares how a simple moment of compassion sparked a nationwide movement dedicated to providing food, veterinary care, and essential resources for pets belonging to people experiencing homelessness. We dig into the real challenges faced by this often-overlooked population, the powerful human-animal bond that persists through hardship, and how communities—and animal welfare professionals—can step up in meaningful ways.This conversation challenges assumptions, highlights innovative solutions, and reminds us what it truly means to meet people (and their pets) where they are.Learn more or find ways to help: https://petsofthehomeless.org/This is one you won’t want to miss.

In this episode, Daniel and Ashley sit down with Dr. Kevin Tillman, a veterinarian with over 40 years of experience, to explore what it really means to help pets live longer—and better—lives. From the four pillars of pet longevity to the role of diet, early diagnostics, supplements, and emerging longevity drugs like rapamycin, Dr. Kevin breaks down practical, evidence-based strategies that challenge traditional approaches to veterinary care. The conversation dives into breed-specific health risks, the impact of exercise and injury prevention, and groundbreaking advances in feline medicine, including new treatments for heart disease. Dr. Kevin also shares a candid perspective on the current state of corporate veterinary medicine, raising concerns about profit-driven care models, limited appointment times, and the loss of relationship-based practice. Daniel and Ashley round out the episode with real-world discussions on vaccination protocols, spay/neuter timing, and dog park etiquette—blending expert insight with relatable stories from the field. This episode challenges listeners to rethink how we define quality of life for pets, emphasizing healthspan over lifespan and reinforcing the mission to truly help people help animals.

What if the challenges we’re facing in animal welfare today aren’t new at all?In this episode of Keep it Humane, we sit down with Audrey Lodato—Senior Director of Regional Programs at Best Friends Animal Society and creator of the animal welfare history blog Barking at the Knot—to uncover how the past continues to shape the present.From the early 1800s “War Against Dogs” to the fear-driven policies surrounding rabies and hydrophobia, Audrey walks us through how societal pressures, public health concerns, and even misinformation helped build the foundation of modern animal control. We explore how practices like intake-driven systems and strict impound policies didn’t just appear—they evolved from a very different time.But this isn’t just a history lesson.We connect those origins to today’s biggest challenges: rising intake, public accountability, humane education gaps, and the ongoing push for transparency in shelter operations. The conversation digs into what needs to change—and what we may still be getting wrong.We also look ahead, exploring how technology and AI could reshape sheltering by improving decision-making, reducing length of stay, and helping more animals find positive outcomes.Plus, a quick look at what’s coming next with Best Friends’ national conference in Utah—and a live AI demo that might just change how you think about shelter operations.If you’ve ever wondered why we do things the way we do in animal welfare… this episode connects the dots.

Daniel is out this week… which means Ashley Bishop and Ashlee Bishop have taken over the podcast.That’s right—no supervision.In this episode of Keep it Humane: The Podcast, the Ashleys talk about something that isn’t always easy to discuss in animal welfare: compassion fatigue. They dive into the emotional weight of the job, the stress that comes with working in animal control and shelters, and why even the most dedicated professionals sometimes feel completely drained.Along the way they share real experiences from the field, talk about how this work affects people behind the scenes, and discuss resources and strategies that can help professionals take care of themselves while continuing to care for animals.It’s honest, it’s real… and with Daniel gone, it might even be a little less controlled than usual.

A recent large-scale animal seizure in Los Angeles County—where more than 300 animals were removed from a single property—serves as the backdrop for this episode. But this isn’t a breakdown of that case.Because the truth is… we don’t have all the facts. And neither does anyone else—yet.Instead, we use this moment to talk about what really happens when a large-scale impound hits an agency.From the outside, these cases look like heroic rescues. And they are. But behind the scenes, they’re also complex, messy, resource-draining operations that can push even the best-run organizations to their limits.In this episode, we dig into:

• What it actually takes to mobilize for a seizure involving hundreds of animals
• The immediate strain on staffing, space, and decision-making
• Why these cases are rarely as clear-cut as the headlines suggest
• The ripple effect across shelters, rescues, and communities
• How agencies balance enforcement, animal welfare, and public perception in real time

We also talk about the uncomfortable reality: sometimes these cases involve people who believed they were helping animals—and situations that evolved beyond their capacity to manage.With shelters across the region scrambling to create space, transfer animals, and call on the public for help, this case highlights something bigger: large-scale impounds are not just enforcement actions—they are system-wide events. Whether you’re in animal control, sheltering, rescue, or just care about animal welfare, this episode gives you a real-world look at what happens when “too many animals” becomes everyone’s problem overnight.Because when 300 animals walk through your doors… everything changes.