Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristin Sarkar.
Kristin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I have been involved in dog rescue in various aspects for over 14 years. After fostering for multiple rescue organizations throughout that time, I sort of accidentally started Releash Atlanta! It was started to be different than normal rescues because it was aimed to be fun, happy, relevant, educational and POSItiVE! Our goal may all be the same, to ultimately getting these urgent, at risk shelter dogs into their perfect forever homes, but we believe it’s possible to do it in a happy way! Unfortunately there is a huge need for what we do, and the more people out there helping, the better! So we became an official rescue, getting our IRS 501c3 non-profit status in November of 2014 and have been saving dogs ever since! We are in rural, Georgia shelters every week and we focus on getting as many dogs out as we have foster homes that can take them!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Every day is a lot of work and a lot of effort from our entire team. There is so much that goes on “behind the scenes” that no one can begin to fathom until you’re in it. When we first started as our own rescue, we had no expectations of ourselves and just wanted to do as much GOOD as we could, whether that meant saving two dogs that week or thirty, we just do what we can, when we can. We still stand by that mantra of doing what we can and not getting wrapped up in what we can’t do, because in this world, that can get to you very quickly.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Releash Atlanta – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are 100% volunteer run and 100% funded by people in our community that want to help make a difference. What we do isn’t cheap! Each dog we save goes directly to the vet for medical care and sometimes that’s $250, sometimes its $2,500, and we don’t always know what we are going to get. We are not breed specific, meaning we save every breed of dog and we also don’t judge who we will save based on age, medical needs, injury or illness. We differentiate ourselves because we try to shield our supporters as much as we can from the reality of the situations we are in every day. Rescue is not pretty, and it is not easy to swallow what we see every day, so we try and make our organization as happy, positive and upbeat as we possibly can. We want people to see what we do, but we don’t want them to be so inundated with heartbreaking, “grab the tissues” images that they ultimately block us and then we reach less and less people. We also aren’t your average rescue group that will stand at a pet store from 11-2 on a Saturday hoping to catch the eyes of potential adopters. We do adoption events at dog friendly bar patios at night time. We want to showcase these dogs in the most realistic way we possibly can, and what better way to do that than to see them in a real life scenario in a real world environment! Plus, who doesn’t love to get together with foster dogs and have some fun!
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Ideally it would be AMAZING if we could have our own rescue center, an actual location where the dogs are housed and people could come meet them in conjunction with our active foster homes! But that’s a really long term goal. For now, we just want to save as many dogs that need us and find them the most loving homes we can! We save more dog’s year over year and as long as we have funding and foster homes, we will keep doing what we do!
Pricing:
- Our average vetting costs to save a dog is ~ $500-$600
- Our adoption fee is $300 and includes vaccinations, heart worm and fecal exam, spay/neuter, microchip, flea/tick/heartworm preventatives and we treat any/all ailments they present at our vet with, which is usually something like kennel cough, parvo, heart worms, skin issues, upper respiratory infections, injuries, etc.
Contact Info:
- Website: releashatlanta.com
- Email: adopt@releashatlanta.com
- Instagram: @releashatlanta
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/releash.atlanta/
- Twitter: @releashatlanta
Image Credit:
Kristen Alexander Photo (for the one with the pittie and the flower crown)
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
