The Human-Canine Alliance (TH-CA)

What does human-canine matchmaking actually look like inside a real animal shelter? Watch this episode on YouTube! 

In this behind-the-scenes episode, Stacie King visits Burke County Animal Services in Morganton, North Carolina—the first shelter in the nation to pilot the Human-Canine Alliance app.

Director Kaitlin Settlemyre and Operations Manager Stella Adcock walk us through the before: a chaotic kennel walk where kids cried, dogs barked, and potential adopters left without a dog. Then the after: a matchmaking station, a dedicated kennel tech, and a process so intentional that not a single TH-CA match (20+) has been returned.

In this episode:

• Why Burke County closed their kennels to the public — and what happened next
• How human-canine matchmaking gets integrated into an existing shelter workflow
• The “AI” language problem and why they now say matchmaking instead
• What 1,000 dogs euthanized per day and a 20% return rate have to do with better matches
• The results after 90 days: six matches, zero returns

If you work in animal welfare, rescue, or fostering — or you’re simply curious about what the future of dog adoption looks like — this episode is for you.

Burke County Animal Services
📍 636 Kirksey Drive, Morganton, NC
📱 Follow them: @BurkeCountyAnimalServices on Facebook and Instagram

The Human–Canine Alliance is a patent-pending platform that matches people in need with rescue dogs in need using AI-powered compatibility matching and personalized training prescriptions to improve loneliness and isolation and reduce dog euthanasia.

🌐 Subscribe to The Alliance Insider: JOIN OUR PACK!

This throwback interview with Kassidy King—dog trainer, prison program leader, and rescue advocate—is one of our most popular episodes to date. Once you hear it, you'll understand why.

Kassidy's approach centers on connection over commands, communication over control, and meeting both the dog and the human where they are. She shares how her own dog, Lana, pushed her into training out of necessity—and became her greatest teacher. She talks about the difference between what we want our dogs to be and what they actually are, and why closing that gap changes everything.

She also takes us inside the Pawsitive Change Program—a Marley's Mutts initiative that brings rescue dogs into prison yards and trains incarcerated men to train them. What happens there is exactly what you'd expect when you put the human-canine bond to work on purpose.

This conversation is about dogs. But it's really about people—and what becomes possible when we stop blaming and start connecting.

The Human–Canine Alliance is a patent-pending platform that matches people in need with rescue dogs in need using AI-powered compatibility matching and personalized training prescriptions to improve loneliness and isolation and reduce dog euthanasia.

🌐 Subscribe to The Alliance Insider: JOIN OUR PACK!

Americans spend more on our pets than we spend on beer, the gym, and streaming video—combined. How does the same society justify killing animals due to lack of space...at a rate of nearly 1,000 dogs a day?

Why is it that a rescue animal not lucky enough to be chosen as a pet ends up with so few options that euthanasia becomes the default?

In this episode, Stacie breaks down more real numbers behind America's loneliness epidemic and the science connecting dog ownership to real, measurable outcomes, such as:

• Dog ownership is linked to a 33% lower risk of death after a heart attack for those living alone
• Dog owners are 40% less likely to develop dementia

And the economics don't add up either—40% of the $158 billion pet industry is sustained by adopted rescue animals, yet those same rescues see less than .5% of it.

Plus: an update on The Human-Canine Alliance's live NC pilots, first media coverage, and a real match story showing exactly how this could work in your community.

Join us in disrupting mental health and rescue with solutions that have real impact.

The Human-Canine Alliance in The Morganton Herald.

Resources used in this episode:

• Surgeon General's 2023 Loneliness Advisory (HHS)
• Suicide as 2nd leading cause of death, ages 10–34 (NIMH/CDC WISQARS):
• Dog ownership & survival after cardiac event, 33% (Mubanga et al., 2019, Circulation: CQO):
• Dog ownership & dementia risk (Taniguchi et al., 2023, Preventive Medicine Reports):
• U.S. pet industry (APPA)
• Dogs euthanized annually
• Animal welfare foundation funding (Animal Grantmakers, 2022)
• UK social prescribing outcomes
• Canada social prescribing pilot
• U.S. beer industry (Brewers Association): 
• U.S. gym/fitness industry (IBISWorld via Sharp Sheets)
• U.S. streaming video (PwC 2025 Global E&M Outlook via Variety)

The Human–Canine Alliance is a patent-pending platform that matches people in need with rescue dogs in need using AI-powered compatibility matching and personalized training prescriptions to improve loneliness and isolation and reduce dog euthanasia.

🌐 Subscribe to The Alliance Insider: JOIN OUR PACK!

There's a new way to adopt. And it starts with compatibility matchmaking.

There's a moment every impact-maker dreams about: the moment you make real impact, in real life, for a real person.

Less than two weeks after Burke County Animal Services opened its doors to The Human-Canine Alliance, that moment happened. Someone walked in, got matched, and walked out with their dog.

Not a demo. Not a projection on a slide. A real match, in real life, in under fourteen days.

That's the headline of this episode, but it's not the whole story. This month has been a stack of milestones, each one pushing The Human-Canine Alliance closer to the thing we set out to prove from day one: that compatibility, not chance, is what makes a rescue adoption stick.

Here's what's been building toward that first match:

• TH-CA accepted into SEA Change Accelerator — a nonprofit cohort built specifically for social enterprises that have to prove two things at once: real revenue and real, measurable impact. The program kicks off August 5th and ends with a pitch contest.
• Burke County Animal Services didn't get it right on the first try — and that's exactly the point. Staff tried introducing TH-CA after adopters had already fallen for a dog in the kennels, and it didn't land. So the shelter director flipped the process: now every walk-in starts at a repurposed kiosk out front — the "Matchmaking Station" — before they ever see a dog.
• Our advisory board is officially stood up — a cross-industry team in healthcare, pet care, and nonprofit operations, brought in because TH-CA isn't a pet adoption site. It's intended to be a digital public health solution, and it needs expertise Stacie doesn't have alone.
• We're closing in on 9,000 dogs across all 50 states — real dogs, waiting to be matched, not just browsed.

Plus, a free 15-minute webinar for any rescue organization ready to put this to work, and a first look at TH-CA's next live demo event — August 1st at Burke County Animal Services in Morganton, NC.

We went from beta, to pilot, to a real dog in a real home. This is the stage we've been waiting for.

Resources for this episode:

• Free Webinar for Rescues: https://youtu.be/XISihiekLzw?si=QAKSI9VmCqut5I68
• SEA Change Accelerator — seachng.org
• Take the compatibility quiz: app.humancaninealliance.com

The Human–Canine Alliance is a patent-pending platform that matches people in need with rescue dogs in need using AI-powered compatibility matching and personalized training prescriptions to improve loneliness and isolation and reduce dog euthanasia.

🌐 Subscribe to The Alliance Insider: JOIN OUR PACK!

Every cafeteria had a cool kids' table. You knew exactly who sat there and what got you a seat. Well, society has one too—and in America, money talks. The bigger the boat, the more houses, the more lavish the vacations, the higher you climb. But then what? 

Here's the thing nobody tells you on the way up: people reach the top and so many of them report still feeling empty. Restless. Like something's missing. It's a thread that runs through study after study on wealth, meaning, and wellbeing—the stuff we're sure will complete us keeps leaving people wanting.

This episode marks part three of the Impact Spending series, and in it, Stacie asks: what if we changed what the definition of success looks like? What if the real flex was how much impact one can make with their wealth before they go instead of  how much one person can stockpile and show off. 

What if our goal in life was to create a legacy? A legacy people could use and build on for generations to come.

To see how upside-down our priorities really are, Stacie follows the money—and the numbers tell the whole story. 

• $10 billion on political ads in one election cycle, versus the $11–30 billion a year it would take to house every person on the street. 
• $152 billion flowing through the pet industry, while a rescue dog brings in just $150–500 at adoption. 
• Billions to treat anxiety and depression, almost nothing to build the connection that keeps people well in the first place. 

The pattern is always the same: we fund the crisis and starve the prevention.

Plus a first look at TH-CA's newest app feature, the rescue-specific matching pathway, and a free webinar teaching rescue organizations how to put this new tool to work.

Because making money shouldn't be the flex anymore—what you do with it matters more. It's time to start making legacies by leaving this place better than we found it.

Resources for this episode:

• Free Webinar for Rescues: https://youtu.be/N7sg2Fe-b24?si=j2-55whm-hfrbJ4D
• Real Impact by Morgan Simon
• The Financial Activist Playbook by Jasmine Rashid
• Impact Spending Pt 1 — "Your Dollar, Your Vote: The World We're Funding"
• Impact Spending Pt 2 — "Society Regenerated 2.0 — Follow the Money"
• Political ad spending, 2024 cycle (~$10.2B) — AdImpact
• Cost to end U.S. homelessness ($11–30B/yr) — Scioto Analysis
• U.S. pet industry spending ($152B) — American Pet Products Association
• U.S. weight-loss market (~$90B) — Marketdata LLC
• Corporate vs. individual charitable giving (1% vs. 2–3%) — Chronicle of Philanthropy
• Loneliness epidemic advisory (2023) — U.S. Surgeon General
• Shelter euthanasia statistics — ASPCA / Shelter Animals Count

The Human–Canine Alliance is a patent-pending platform that matches people in need with rescue dogs in need using AI-powered compatibility matching and personalized training prescriptions to improve loneliness and isolation and reduce dog euthanasia.

🌐 Subscribe to The Alliance Insider: JOIN OUR PACK!

The science behind human-canine bonding just got stronger — and more urgent.

In 2023, the Surgeon General declared loneliness a public health epidemic. Now, with 57% of Americans reporting loneliness and an estimated $6.7 billion in excess Medicare spending tied to social isolation, the stakes have never been higher.

This episode unpacks the newest research: dogs that detect stress from breath samples at 90% accuracy, a 2025 Cambridge study linking canine genetics to human mental health, and a clinical trial where therapy dogs outperformed human contact for reducing loneliness in psychiatric inpatients.

The Human-Canine Alliance was built at the intersection of these two crises — loneliness and shelter euthanasia — and this episode shows you exactly why the science says it works.

This is not a pet adoption story. This is a digital public health solution backed by peer-reviewed research.

🔗 Try the beta app: app.humancaninealliance.com

Resources used in this episode:

• 2025 University of Cambridge, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• 2025 Dr. Nancy Gee, Virginia Commonwealth University, Frontiers in Psychiatry
• 2025 — Cigna Loneliness Survey (7,500+ adults): 57% of Americans report loneliness
• 2025 — National survey: dogs already deployed across NHS, private healthcare, and educational settings for anxiety, depression, and autism — England
• 2024 Scientific Reports
• 2024 Frontiers in Allergy  
• 2023 — U.S. Surgeon General Advisory: Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation

The Human–Canine Alliance is a patent-pending platform that matches people in need with rescue dogs in need using AI-powered compatibility matching and personalized training prescriptions to improve loneliness and isolation and reduce dog euthanasia.

🌐 Subscribe to The Alliance Insider: JOIN OUR PACK!

For decades, rescue adoption has relied on photos, proximity, and gut feeling. The Human-Canine Alliance app does something different — and this episode breaks down exactly how.

TH-CA's AI scores every potential match across four dimensions: energy alignment, lifestyle fit, wellness goals, and home environment. The result is a real compatibility percentage — not a feeling, not a guess. A number. With specific reasons behind it.

In this episode, Stacie walks through a real sample match — Jamie and Koda score a 91% — and unpacks what that number actually means, why each dimension matters, and how the app generates a purpose-built training roadmap for that specific pairing.

You'll also hear the data behind why mismatch is the leading cause of dogs being returned to shelters, what the Surgeon General's loneliness crisis has to do with rescue dogs, and why the research says intentional choice changes outcomes from day one.

• Try the beta app: app.humancaninealliance.com 
• Jamie & Koda sample match: app.humancaninealliance.com/demo-match

The Human–Canine Alliance is a patent-pending platform that matches people in need with rescue dogs in need using AI-powered compatibility matching and personalized training prescriptions to improve loneliness and isolation and reduce dog euthanasia.

🌐 Subscribe to The Alliance Insider: JOIN OUR PACK!

The Human-Canine Alliance beta app is officially live — and you can test it right now at app.humancaninealliance.com.

In this special announcement episode, Stacie shares what just launched: the first-ever AI-powered human-canine matchmaking platform designed to connect people with rescue dogs based on personality, lifestyle, wants, and needs. Not photos. Not guesswork. Intentional, personalized matching.

At launch, the beta features over 1,200 real rescue dogs from more than 15 states across the U.S. Try it now at app.humancaninealliance.com and share whether you found it helpful or confusing.

This isn't a concept. It's live infrastructure — built in public, for the public. Your feedback is essential.

The Human–Canine Alliance is a patent-pending platform that matches people in need with rescue dogs in need using AI-powered compatibility matching and personalized training prescriptions to improve loneliness and isolation and reduce dog euthanasia.

🌐 Subscribe to The Alliance Insider: JOIN OUR PACK!

In the U.S., we spend roughly $140–$150 billion every year on pets. And yet euthanasia is still a daily reality for thousands of rescue animals.

So the question is: Where does all that money go?

In this episode, Stacie continues the Impact Spending series by following the money through the pet industry and animal‑welfare world — from corporate pet brands and philanthropy to the leaky buckets that keep shelters and rescues barely afloat.

You’ll hear about:

• How much money actually moves through the pet industry — and how little reaches rescue and shelter work
• Why charity so often functions as a tip jar instead of creating structural change
• The “four leaky buckets” propping up rescue and shelter funding
• How corporate impact, foundations, and consumer spending intersect in animal welfare
• What it would mean to treat impact spending as part of public health for both humans and dogs

Stacie answers these questions drawing from financial activists like Jasmine Rashid and Morgan Simon, along with hard numbers traced from corporate reports of major beneficiaries, including:

• Mars (Pedigree, Royal Canin, Banfield, VCA, BluePearl)
• Nestlé (Purina)
• General Mills (Blue Buffalo)
• Colgate (Hill’s)

Every dollar we spend reinforces something — not just in the market, but in which dogs get saved, which humans get support, and which communities are left behind.

Sources for this episode:

• Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change – Morgan Simon
• The Financial Activist Playbook – Jasmine Rashid
• American Pet Products Association (APPA) – U.S. Pet Industry Expenditure Reports
• Shelter Animals Count – U.S. shelter data
• Analyses of U.S. shelter & rescue funding
• CDC provisional drug overdose data (2022–2024)
• “Fame and Fentanyl” (A&E documentary special, hosted by Ice‑T)
• Economic Policy Institute – CEO pay reports
• National Academy for Social Prescribing – International Programme

The Human–Canine Alliance is a patent-pending platform that matches people in need with rescue dogs in need using AI-powered compatibility matching and personalized training prescriptions to improve loneliness and isolation and reduce dog euthanasia.

🌐 Subscribe to The Alliance Insider: JOIN OUR PACK!

Your dollar isn’t neutral. It’s building something. The question is: is it building a world you want to live in?

In this episode, Stacie kicks off a new series on Impact Spending — the idea that everyday consumers hold more power than we realize.

Drawing from Morgan Simon’s Real Impact and a recent interview with Congressman Ro Khanna on Pablo Torre Finds Out, this episode explores:

• Why markets respond to revenue, not opinions
• How “palliative” change differs from structural change
• The hidden limits of philanthropy
• What the “social contract” really means in a modern economy
• How supply and demand quietly shapes culture and even public health

Every dollar we spend reinforces something. If loneliness is now a public health crisis, what role do our spending habits play?

The Human–Canine Alliance is a patent-pending platform that matches people in need with rescue dogs in need using AI-powered compatibility matching and personalized training prescriptions to improve loneliness and isolation and reduce dog euthanasia.

🌐 Subscribe to The Alliance Insider: JOIN OUR PACK!