community
august16
2018
9
Jackson Galaxy Makes Unexpected Visit to Columbia County
TV star and animal behaviorist
helps save animals and spread
the message about the pet
overpopulation problem
Television personality Jackson
Galaxy, star of Animal Planet’s reality
TV show My Cat from Hell, made a
surprise visit to the Columbia Humane
Society (CHS) in St. Helens on August
9.
Galaxy flew to Oregon from Los
Angeles with Ric Browde, President
of Wings of Rescue, a non-profit
providing desperately needed air
transport for thousands of pets from
overcrowded, high intake animal
shelters, to shelters with empty
kennel space and adopters waiting.
Galaxy and Browde transported 126
cats and kittens to Oregon the day of
Galaxy’s visit, delivering 111 cats
to the Portland Humane Society,
and then bringing 15 more to the
Columbia County shelter.
“Today we’re here as part of
what’s called “Operation Homeward
Bound,” said Galaxy in an interview
during his visit. “Along with Wings
of Rescue, the Jackson Galaxy Proj-
ect is putting together trips that fo-
cuses on the overpopulation prob-
lem. We’re looking for partners to
get cats out of Los Angles, and Co-
lumbia County and Oregon Humane
Society stepped up and said, yes, they
would take these cats. This all started
when a friend of mine who works in one
of the most overpopulated shelters in LA
called me and said they were just so full
with cats and they were all going to be
euthanized tomorrow. So we decided to
jump in Ric’s plane and bring them here
and now we’re going to start doing it na-
tionally.”
CHS staff scrambled to alert
volunteers and supporters of the shelter
about Galaxy’s surprise visit, so they
would have a chance to meet the popular
star. About 60 fans turned out for
Galaxy’s visit.
“In conjunction with Wings of
Rescue and the Jackson Galaxy Project,
we agreed to take in some cats from
California that were set to be euthanized,
so Jackson agreed to spend some time
with us,” said Lisa Beggio, CHS’s
Director.
Galaxy said he was thrilled with
the turnout at the event. “This is amazing
and makes me so happy, not because I’m
any kind of a celebrity – I love it because
this is a community that rallies around
their shelter and that makes me really,
really happy. Everybody that came in
here spent some time with the cats and
I’m sure some adoptions will come from
this.”
Galaxy says he does his work
for a simple reason. “When I go on
Facebook or the news to talk about what
we’re doing, there’s the subtext under-
neath, that this is because cats are dying,
because no one is spay or neutering, be-
cause they’re not practicing TNR (Trap-
Neuter-Return) for feral cats, because
they’re not holding up their end of the
bargain. We have to realize that these
are not vermin. They are a problem,
but they are a problem that WE made.
Humans made this issue and we are the
reason why we are killing millions of
animals every year in shelters. We have
to take responsibility. This community
here is doing a huge part, which is why
we’re bringing our cats up here.”
Galaxy has worked in animal
shelters for the past 25 years. He learned
about cat behavior through his work
with rescue cats, originally with the
Humane Society in Boulder, Colorado.
He later went into private practice as a
cat consultant, working with cat owners
and focusing on the connection between
physical and behavioral health. In 2007,
Galaxy moved to Los Angeles, where he
continues to maintain a private consult-
ing practice, working one-on-one with
cats in their homes and working with cli-
ents to improve their cats’ behavioral is-
sues. He has appeared as the official cat
behaviorist expert on several television
shows and in media. Since May 2011 he
has starred in My Cat From Hell, help-
ing cat guardians resolve conflict and be-
havioral issues between them and their
cats. He is also the author of several
bestselling books about cats and creating
cat-friendly spaces in homes. He cur-
rently serves on the Board of Directors
for Stray Cat Alliance, and Fix Nation
in Los Angeles, as well as the Board of
Advisors for Neighborhood Cats in New
York City.
CHS was one of 47 shelters that
was selected by Galaxy’s foundation,
the Jackson Galaxy Project (JGP), to
participate in the Summer 2018 Semes-
ter of Cat Pawsitive, a life-saving initia-
tive created by Galaxy, that introduces
positive-reinforcement training to cats
in shelters and rescues. The focus is on
fun, positive reinforcement-based train-
ing sessions that help cats connect more
quickly with potential adopters.
“The Cat Pawsitive Program
helps show that cats can be more
adoptable, but it also decreases stress,
allows cats to not go as kennel crazy,
and also helps them stay in homes once
they are adopted,” said Galaxy. “It’s
working really well. At the end of this
year we should have over 100 programs
that have learned this method.”
“We have two volunteers who
are working to become certified as Cat
Pawsitive Trainers,” explained CHS Di-
rector Beggio. “We’re working with a
number of cats through the program to
teach them to sit, give high fives, jump
through hoops – basic tricks to make the
cats more appealing to adopters. This is
helping us expand our cat program and
help people see the value in what we do
here.”
Galaxy says, while he’s not a
big fan of teaching cats tricks so they
can be entertaining, it does help them
get adopted. “If you walk by a cat in a
shelter and it gives you a high five, that
cat is going home,” says Galaxy. “I
learned all this from working with dogs,
but the first time I taught a cat to give a
high five, it left the building ten minutes
later. It was a cat who would have been
euthanized 24 hours later. It’s an amaz-
ing feeling to know that, 25 years after
starting this, where all we knew was put-
ting cats down, that I can be part of a
program that is stopping that from hap-
pening.”
“One of our problems is that our
Cat Pawsitive cats keep getting adopted,
so we have to keep starting over again,”
said Beggio. “Which is a really good
problem to have.”
Wings of Rescue, which trans-
ported Galaxy and the cats to Oregon,
flies pets from all around the world,
including rescue missions to flooded
and other disaster areas. “We work
very closely with them,” said Beggio.
“They’re a wonderful organization.”
Wings of Rescue President
Browde lives in Beverly Hills and has
been helping transport animals from
overcrowded shelters for the past five
years. He says he has saved about 30,000
pets during that time. “We’ve been pro-
gressively growing,” said Browde. “We
do two types of transports, ones like this
today with animals from overcrowded
shelters, and we’ve taken over 4,500 pets
out of hurricane zones. When we went
down to get those animals our planes
never went empty, we always took hu-
manitarian aid and supplies. We’re an
all volunteer organization and it’s a labor
of love. I always feel like we still don’t
do enough.”
Galaxy says this is his second
trip to the Pacific Northwest with cats
– he helped bring 158 cats to Seattle
several weeks ago. “We’re helping cre-
ate a culture and we feel like we’re turn-
ing a corner now,” said Galaxy. “It’s no
longer an assembly line, where the only
thing we do in shelters is put animals
down. Now we’re seeing the tide turn
and it’s an amazing feeling when you see
humans finally getting to the point where
they recognize their responsibility.”
Galaxy ended his visit with these
parting words, “Please spay and neuter
your cats. Please educate yourselves on
Trap-Neuter-Return for feral cats, and
tell your neighbors to do the same thing.
At this point there is no reason that any
cat should not be spayed or neutered.”
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