Interview! Kay Stout, ED of PAAS Vinita

“What hurts us so often in rescue is that the passion gets in the way of progress.”

Kay Stout is the Executive Director of PAAS Vinita in Oklahoma, a multi-faceted group that grew out of the initial shelter that gives the group its name (PAAS stands for “Peaceful Animal Adoption Shelter”). Back in 2015, the shelter opened, but no one was coming in to adopt the animals. That’s when Kay realized they had to do something different. She reached out to animal welfare contacts and soon had a transfer program set up with Dumb Friends Animal League in Colorado.

Today, the group continues large transports of dogs, as well as occasional transport of cats, to Colorado, but it also serves as a local resource center. PAAS offers spay/neuter services to local cats, a TNR program, and is also helping many groups work toward 90%+ save rates through the Save Lives, Unite Oklahoma project.

Kay and Stacy talk extensively about the history of PAAS, including Kay’s successful early strategy of getting a handful of community leaders onboard with what she was doing. Having these people on her side made it easy for her to move her programs forward without encountering a lot of pushback.

Kay feels strongly that folks in animal welfare need to do their best to find common ground with the people they are trying to work with. If that doesn’t happen, she tells Stacy, progress stops, and may never start again—and that means that lives of cats and dogs waiting to be rescued may be lost.

To learn more, you can visit the PAAS Vinita website. To learn more about Save Lives, Unite Oklahoma, contact Kay at director@paasvinita.com.

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