OUR INSPIRATION

Mark and Katrina Koop, co-founders of True Pals Animal Welfare Society, loved volunteering and participating in various activities and initiatives, and it was their life-long dream to one day start together a charity to foster great stewardship, and improve the well-being and health of people, animals, and the environment.  They thought starting and building a new charitable organization is something that they can really focus on later in life, closer to or during their retirement, when something extraordinary happened that changed all their plans.   Mark and Katrina loved taking walks around the lake across from their townhome, where they noticed a large colony of cats that appeared extremely friendly, coming up to people, giving them tail hugs and begging for love, attention and treats.  Mark and Katrina learned from the locals that the lake was serving as a dumping ground for people who chose to or for various reasons had to leave their former fur ball companions, knowing that it’s a pretty neat place to live year-round and that there are plenty of good Samaritans that will provide food and even medical care if needed to the abandoned animals.  And then the Covid crises and shut-downs happened.  People were afraid or not allowed to go out and many places, including parks and beaches closed or denied access to visitors.  Good Samaritans could no longer get to the needy, hungry animals and former pets who by now were completely dependent on human help.  Mark and Katrina would sneak out every day to the lake, rain or shine, to provide much needed nutrition to the starving kitties and other wildlife that was now venturing out to the nearby residents’ front doors.  Many residents would repeatedly yell at the couple, hurl insults at them and throw temper tantrums blaming them for bringing the animals to their yards despite Mark and Katrina’s futile attempts to explain they are trying to draw them away from people’s homes by providing care elsewhere.  The cats fared worse though, several of which were stressed out so much they chewed off patches of their fur, appearing mangy, sick or laced with parasites, and instead of insults had rocks or other objects hurled at them, or got kicked if they tried to get close to people for some love and kindness.  This is how Mark and Katrina met Ms. BB – the sweetest, friendliest little black Bombay.  She was in tremendous need of veterinary care, nutrition and TLC.  Mark and Katrina tried to adopt her but they were renting at the time and were not allowed to make her a member of their household.  Many charitable veterinary organizations were shut down and not performing any services and regular vets were not seeing new patients due to covid shutdowns and restrictions.  Mark and Katrina had an absolutely impossible time finding Ms. BB a placement in a shelter or rescue.  Despite many shelters advertising that they had record adoptions hence available space openings for new needy companion animals, they were unable to make new admissions because they were running out of volunteer help and other resources as they were unable to generate funding: many that had donation thrift stores had to shut those down, they were unable to hold in-person events for local supporters or donors and didn’t have the funds, the experience, the personnel or the proper nation-wide registrations (including costs to procure and maintain such nation-wide registrations), or the access to the technology or marketing resources to fundraise online.  Charities that were completely volunteer based and didn’t pay any salaries (which is the case for over 85% of charities nation-wide) didn’t qualify for any COVID assistance that was available to businesses or the biggest of charities who had paid employees and the budgets to further strengthen and expand their digital footprint, capabilities and dominance.  There was a complete break-down of the entire system, causing pain and suffering unseen for decades on a national scale and even though good generous people gave record donations during the pandemic, a disproportionate amount went to the biggest few charities while many of the local and smaller ones that provide critical services and programs in their respective communities went completely without.  Unlike many needy animals, BB’s story ended well, Mark and Katrina were able to get her accepted by a free-roaming cat shelter-of-last-resort, Adopt a Cat Foundation, who took wonderful care of her until Mark and Katrina found a house that allowed them to welcome BB into their extended family.  The pain and suffering brought on by the COVID crises shutdowns, but even more pressingly the disparity further widened during the pandemic between the digital technology “haves” and “have-nots” has exposed critical problems and solidified Mark and Katrina’s resolve to immediately start working on much needed solutions.