Big Dog Ranch Rescue: Inside America’s Largest Cage-Free Dog Rescue

0:00Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door, expertly cleaned and folded, so you can take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you. Like tea time you. Mmm. Or this tea time you. Or even this tea time you. So did you hear about Dave? Or even tea time, tea time, tea time you. Mmm. So update on Dave. It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rinse. It's time to be great. That's why I love Florida. Governor DeSantis was here about what, maybe a month ago signing two bills? Two bills. Two very important anti-cruelty bills. So the big thing with these two important laws, prosecutors, the individual sheriff's departments, to enforce these laws and protect these animals.

0:48The amount of abuse that we see, ribs broken with fists, they've been starved to death, they've been kicked, they've been burned. And what still amazes me most is these dogs' willingness to forgive and to learn to love again. This guy's a disruptor. Look at him. I think he's going home with you. Are you going to come home with me? I think he's in love with you. He's already picked you. I know. I feel that. And he wants to go home with you. Call my wife.

1:21We're here at the Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Luxahatchee, Florida. the largest no-kill shelter here in the United States of America. What an amazing thing you've built here. Well, we can't do enough. They're just so, the need is so great. There are so many incredibly wonderful dogs out there that need a home that are either abandoned and starved to death or they end up in a overcrowded high kill shelter and being senselessly euthanized. All these puppies that are being born that people don't want because they failed to spay and neuter their pets that are ending up being dumped or in kill shelters.

2:10So every day here at Big Dog Ranch Rescue, we fight to save lives. And it is so incredibly overwhelming how many animals need homes. And we just do as much as we can. We're growing every day. We're fighting for each one of these souls.

2:39When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp. The secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. Trying to open up in multiple states to make a bigger difference. it's it's it's amazing to me because you know if you look at um the the issues out there due to you know uh lack of being spayed and neutered it creates an overpopulization and these poor animals they end up getting into no kill shelters right what are some of the reasons do you think it's a lack of education for for dog owners and people in general that's making these decisions to create such an issue?

3:35I think there's a lot of factors. Pretty much the Hispanic culture has grown up believing that if you spay and neuter a dog, that it takes away their drive, it takes away their protectiveness, all these falsehoods. So a lot of culture from in the worst areas of overpopulation throughout the United States. Miami-Dade, areas of Texas along the border, all of that. It's kind of a cultural thing that people have grown up believing that it ruins the dog, which in case it has no effect on any of that. The other major factor that's happened in the past few years is many people have experienced financial difficulties trying to make ends meet.

4:39during the last four years of the Biden administration. Dog food was 35 % more. Groceries were 40 % more. Fuels was 100 % more. Rent skyrocketed. People were struggling to put food on the table for their families. Right. So being able to spend$600 to spay your dog or$400 to neuter your dog was not an option. So you're about to make a trade based on a friend's text. But which you do you listen to? Is it, we could buy a house in Tulum. Get optioning those options. We could lose everything. Or let's do a little research. Get your head in the trade and make the investment decision that's right for you.

5:35Learn more at finra.org slash trade smart. And so a lot of people put it off. Therefore, accidental letters happen. The third reason for all the homeless dogs overpopulation is corporate has gone into the veterinary world. They figured people love dogs. It's lucrative. And really about five to six major corporations, private equity groups have bought out 60 percent of all the veterinary clinics throughout our country and about 70 percent of all the specialty hospitals. meaning when your dog has a broken leg or something more serious than a normal vet can do you have to go to a specialty hospital or an emergency clinic for something um 70 percent are order owned by these corporations mars being one of um amerivet medvet interesting so these private equity or corporations that went in and bought out all of these veterinary clinics and specialty hospitals paid a lot of money for them.

6:57A lot of people don't want to work for corporate, so they're paying the employees more to stay. That has affected pricing for veterinary care, spay and neuter, pet emergencies, fixing broken bones to more than double over the past seven years. So what used to be$300 max to go spay a dog or$150 to neuter a dog is now anywhere from$600 to$800 to spay a dog and over$500 to neuter a dog. So just extra funds people don't have. They don't have. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because it's something that, that, I guess that perspective isn't something that you would think about on the outside, right?

7:47But you being involved in it every day, see it as, you know, when we were talking off camera and we talked about inflation the last four years and how it's impacted these, these puppies and these dogs, that, that to me is, that is a tremendous amount of impact, right? So how have you seen things shifting or things start to shift a little bit and uh people have more confidence now i feel like they feel the economy is starting to turn around um and they have more confidence um we're starting to see a minute change in owner surrenders because you know pretty much most people that are owner surrendering their dog because they can't afford it they're moving They're moving into a smaller apartment.

8:33They're selling their house because they can't afford it, and they're renting. And pet deposits are high, anywhere from$1 ,500 to$3 ,000. And a lot of renters' policies don't allow a dog over 30 pounds. So that's our number one. We can't afford the pet deposit. We can't afford to feed our dog. And number two is we can't afford the veterinary care that our dog requires based on the prices of veterinary care. Yeah. Today. Well, they're sweet. I mean, I got this beautiful little puppy on me. We got some big ones. We got, what, Blue. We have Atticus. Do you know who else do we have here? There we go.

9:23We have Hunter. Hunter. So these four dogs right here that are sitting here so perfectly well-behaved are because of our trainers. So we train dogs. Not only do we save dogs here at Big Dog Ranch Rescue to the tune of thousands and thousands a year, but our other passion here is giving back to the people that keep our country safe, our deserving veterans. Come on. And so many of these veterans that have suffered traumatic brain injury, PTSD, some of our veterans have no legs. They need help. And what I have found through almost 20 years of rescuing dogs, dogs are healers. And they make a tremendous difference in these veterans' lives.

10:21So many of our veterans that have severe PTSD have told me after we've placed them with a dog that they've completed their training with, these dogs saved my life. Every day I felt like I wanted off myself. Every day I couldn't stop my anxiety and I just didn't want to go on living. living and these dogs have are such healers and they've made such a difference for these veterans their families given them that stability to be able to go back out in public giving them a reason to live and you know dogs are incredible healers people do not realize the gift of a dog and what it could do for you. You know, I have a buddy that I see in the gym every morning.

11:17His name is Denny and he's an older gentleman. And, you know, he's been in combat and obviously a veteran and has that PTSD and he's got a little chihuahua named Tony. And anytime you see Denny, other than the gym, Tony's with him and you do not go up to Denny when Tony's there. He better know you. and he's Denny's got to say hey Tony he's cool and but you know I see it in real life and I see I see how our dogs are in our house you know my wife is very in tune with dogs like she she loves she loves dogs more than people I think sometimes and you know those are her those are those are her moments like she can go to our puppy our animals and our dogs and that she can have moments and it It heals her through anything that she has going on.

12:05And like, even right now, I'm sitting right here and, you know, I'm not stressed or anything, but this little guy's making everything, you know. It makes you happy. It makes me happy. He's like chewing on me. It's cool. You know, I love it. And I can feel he's at peace too. They just want love. Yeah. They will give their whole heart and soul to a human and they treasure every minute they're with you. And all they want to do is please. They just got to be given that chance. And, you know, it's just amazing to see the difference in some of these veterans that come in here and their anxiety is so high.

12:47Yeah. And they're so afraid for people to even walk up to them. And like you said, your friend Tony, that dog keeps people at their distance because many of these veterans suffer from severe anxiety when people are coming at them. And every single dog is trained specially for that veteran and what their needs. And if they need a dog, we call it cover. and the dog put space between the people walking up to him and the veteran to give him a sense. They still feel this stress when people are coming at him or whether the dog needs to pick up packages or keys off the floor, open and close doors or turn on and off light switches or just stop an anxiety attack or wake them up in the middle of the night during traumatic nightmares.

13:48And each dog takes about a year to train. And we train them for the first six months for these veterans just for obedience. And then they're paired up with a veteran. And every veteran reacts different to each dog. So you want to make sure it's the right mental match for that veteran and then finding out that veteran's needs. And they're all different. And it's six to nine months of more training for those specific tasks and for the veteran also. So they know how to get the most out of their dog and bond with that dog before it goes home. I think it's amazing because it's not just a cookie cutter quick thing, right?

14:33Okay. You're a veteran. You need some assistance with a beautiful dog. Here you go. Make sure that the dog's personality and the individual's personality match up based on needs and wants and everything like that. I think that's pretty amazing. And that's why our program here at Big Dog Ranch, our veteran service dog program, is so successful. Because we just don't go, here's your dog. It's a trained service dog. We actually work with that veteran on every single one of their needs. And then they go through the end of the training with us to make sure that dog is doing every task they need, waking them up from nightmares, stopping an anxiety attack, whatever they need.

15:19So our success rate is like 99.5 % success. That's amazing. We only had one that, you know, it didn't work out, but this veteran had such severe PTSD that we were concerned for the dog. Oh, wow. But we've had great success. I think we've trained over 180 successful dogs for our veterans, and we're getting ready to expand that program. when we first started this and we built this 3 ,000 square foot building specifically to train these dogs and house these dogs and for our trainers we had no idea just how great the need was and there's so many deserving veterans that would benefit from a dog so we're now building a new bigger building about five times that size.

16:17And thanks to Ken and Elaine Langone, they're sponsoring that building. And it's almost complete. And we will be able to triple that program. It's amazing. And another need we found out, we really didn't know this until a few years ago is how many soldiers have to give up their dogs to kill shelters when they don't have a family member or wife or parents or friend to keep their dogs when they're deployed. And, you know, with how bad things have gotten, dogs got in so many animals being surrendered and the shelters throughout the country being so overcrowded, when a soldier surrenders that dog, if he has no other choice to a shelter, it's got a 50 % chance of making it out alive.

17:12So that is no way to send off our soldiers to serve our country, knowing that their dog had to make the ultimate sacrifice for them to keep our country safe. You know the other thing too. So we keep those dogs now for soldiers for no fee. We take care of their medical, we feed them, we care for them, just like they were one of our own, and return their dog to them when they come back from their service. That's beautiful, because the other side of it too, right? Absolutely, the soldier going to overseas and thinking about what's happened with the dog, the dog's also missing their owner. Absolutely.

17:55But then that soldier, he or she could be sitting there and that could impact their ability to survive. Absolutely. And we do. Our soldiers that are serving right now overseas, we send them pictures of their dogs like every couple of weeks, a short little quick video. And you know that keeps their morale up and their reason to come home. and also we've even got two dogs here for the second time for the israeli defense force that was called back a soldier that is from israel but was called back for service we've got his dogs right now for the second time wow and he just said every single day all i can think about is getting back to my dogs and having a reason to come home it's amazing it's amazing is there There's something about, you know, dogs, they're special.

18:48And, you know, they are part of the family, right? They are. You know, and it just, that's why, you know, it's funny, and I want the audience to really just follow me on this one, but I'm going somewhere with it. That's why I love Florida. Because we live in a state where our governor, and even down to local sheriffs, like in Lee County with Carmine Marcino, that are so against animal cruelty and abuse. You know, Governor DeSantis was here about, what, maybe a month ago, signing two bills? Two bills. Two very important anti-cruelty bills. So Governor DeSantis and his wife, Casey, love dogs. They know the importance of dogs.

19:26Dogs are part of their family. They actually just adopted a dog a little over a year ago from us. and it was a puppy. It was unfortunately from a breeder, but the mom had attacked the puppy because she was living in a tiny, tiny pen with eight puppies in such a crowded environment when the puppy's got seven weeks and they're still trying to nurse off the mom and they've got full sets of teeth. And his puppy had some pretty big scars on its back. We had to do some work and he'll always have a scar, but they chose that puppy to adopt. But they understand rescue and how important each dog's and animal's lives are to family.

20:16But signing that legislation for trooper's law and Dexter's law were so important because people, you know, judges right now would say, well, animals are property. You really can't make it a felony. Even though President Trump signed five years ago a law in making it a felony to deliberately abuse an animal, but each state had to adopt that, and each county has to enforce it. So the big thing with these two important laws that Governor DeSantis just signed into law is enforcement. So it's the individual prosecutors, the individual sheriff's departments to enforce these laws and protect these animals.

21:14Because seeing it every day is horrific. The abuse, the amount of abuse that we see. And we bring these dogs in and they've been, you know, abused. They've been ribs broken with fists. They've been starved to death. They've been kicked. They've been burned. All of the different horrific things we experience here every day. What still amazes me most is these dogs' willingness to forgive and to learn to love again. And many of them come in and their head's in a corner. They just don't want to be abused again. And they're just trying to be statues and be still. But with the love and care they get here, eventually that goes away and they forgive and they learn to love again.

22:11And I don't know how many humans can do that. Very few, to be quite honest. But dogs have an amazing ability to do that. I mean, we take these dogs out of these horrific puppy mills when the breeders discard them, when they're not useful to them anymore, unsold puppies that are 14 weeks that they didn't sell. So they don't want to continue to feed them until they're old enough to produce for them. So they discard them. and some of these dogs have never lived life outside a stack cage in a dark dark barn with urine smell so bad your eyes cry when you walk in there um and the way they're treated and abused at the bad puppy mills and i'm not saying all breeders are bad right of course many many good there's a bunch of different things out there backyard breeders only breeding to put money in their pocket, the massive puppy males that are only breeding just to produce dollars for themselves at the expense of these dogs.

23:19But, you know, these dogs have never been handled. Some of them have never walked on solid ground. They've only walked in a wire cage, stacked three high. And the abuse they've suffered, and they take a little longer, but they all come around. They all would love and trust and care, proper care. They all come around. You know, it's interesting because you see those videos, right, on social media of the capture. I saw one the other day. It says all of this, all he needed was love. And this dog, excuse me, didn't even look like a puppy anymore. Like it was so abused. I think it might have been homeless.

24:04and over the course of however long it was, right? It didn't give a timestamp, but there was bathing, there was feeding, there was love. And back to a normal, fun, loving, happy dog. And you know, dogs live for their humans. I mean, they wait. I look at the cameras in my own home and my 12-year-old Weimaraner and my 15 and a half year old golden retriever lab boxer mix. And when we're gone and I have a camera that looks down at the front door, they sit there. It's amazing. Hours. I don't care if I'm gone six hours. That's loyalty. They sit there and they wait. They live for us. All they want is to give us joy and love.

24:51And, you know, my dog, especially my cowboy, and I didn't get him until he was 10 years old. I picked him up on, I just lost my Winston, my wine runner. I was 14 years old about a month before. And I picked up Cowboy on Christmas Eve in the middle of the road up near Ocala, freezing rain. And, you know, reported him to the shelter. Owner never claimed him. Had obviously lived outside most of his life. and he's the most grateful dog in the whole world. He loves every person, every dog, every child, every baby. He's actually the best dog I've ever had. That's amazing. My whole life I grew up, I had purebreds.

25:39We had English pointers. My dad was a bird hunter and growing up and my mom always had a chihuahua and then we had Weimaraners. And he's the best dog I have ever owned. And he is so grateful and so perfect. And he's just thankful. You know, he lived out in the elements and his whole life and, you know, not being well cared for. and just the love and joy he brings to me every day whenever I'm upset, witness to cruelty case, I'm gone into a hoarding case or, you know, all the things that just tear me up inside watching what these dogs go through. And I'm putting cowboy Mike beside me and he makes it all okay.

26:33That's the thing, because I'm thinking about as we're going through all these things that you're talking about, different situations, like this place is amazing i'm walking around here with my team and and and looking around like wow this is really cool but there's a side of it that i don't see that the public doesn't see and you guys have the opportunity and also i mean i don't want to say the stress but of seeing some of these cases daily how do you deal with that um it's tough you know when i first got into rescue i was I was, you know, two very busy companies. I'm a custom home builder, built very high in homes and interior designer.

27:15And I had six superintendents working for me and nine interior designers. You do everything, don't you? Big houses going up on the ocean everywhere and doing ranches in Wyoming and houses in Aspen. And it was craziness. And I had no idea how many innocent dogs were dying in shelters just because of overcrowding and lack of space. I had no idea how much abuse and abandonment, neglect to dogs was happening. Because, you know, I was busy with my companies, raising my three sons. And I was at a dog show. We had gotten a Weimaraner from a specific breeder, and our contract said that had to be shown until he got his championship.

28:08And I'm like, well, this can't be that hard. And pain in the neck. But went to all these dog shows while the handler trotted him around the ring to get his points until he got his championship. And I got asked to help out with Weimaraner Rescue. They said their person in South Florida had moved to North Carolina. And I'm like, why would these animals need rescue? And I was like, 85 % of Americans that have no clue how many animals are abandoned, how many are dying in overcrowded county shelters, how much suffering is out there. And I just feel like America doesn't know. And I was one of those people.

28:53I'm the same. I don't know. 19 years ago that had no clue. And I'm like, why would they need rescue? I said, every breed can end up in a shelter and we need you just to pick them up for us, get them out. Long story short, right after I got into that, I ended up taking over the Worm Runner Rescue because they weren't doing it right. and I'm a perfectionist and wanted the best and best chances for these animals. So I took that over and then the 2008 recession came along. I remember that. Yep. So I couldn't just go pick up the Weimreiners anymore and watch the other dogs' kennel cards being pulled as they were getting ready to go to the youth room.

29:41And I said, I can't. I can't. There's no way I can do that. I put 14 dogs in my car one day and said, we're going to all breeds and basically have just given it the whole, with everything I can, I can't save them all, but I certainly want to try. And I certainly want to bring in people that are animal lovers throughout the country to educate, to get involved, to stop this senseless euphemasia, to stop this cruelty and abandonment. And, you know, we got a had a dog couple months ago. And, you know, in the very beginning, I went to bed crying every single night. And I said, crying isn't going to fix this problem.

30:33I need to do something. I need to do more. And that led to Big Dog Ranch and where we are today. You know, we have to fight for these animals. They don't have a voice. We are their voice. And the more people that adopt and don't support the backyard breeders, that I've got every kind of purebred you want here right now. I have many more mixed breeds than I do purebreds, but mixed breeds flow longer. There's advantages to mixed breeds. Anything you want is out there in a shelter somewhere, whether it's been rescued by rescue and needs to get out of the rescue because rescues are not forever homes.

31:23We're meant to be a temporary home. And for every single person that adopts a dog, that gives us the space to go rescue another one on a kill list or out the starving field. But going back to what I started to say before I got sidetracked there, we had this dog. We got a phone call that was abandoned in front of an apartment complex down in Broward. and when we went to go get her literally she could not stand up she could not lift her head she was skin and bones um come to find out she was in such bad bad shape we couldn't tell what she was but she ended up being a purebred giant snauser um we brought her in i mean she was at death store so skinny she was 35 pounds underweight wow um matted um previous breaks to both sides of her ribs which were consistent with a fist breaking her ribs that were all healed and weird spots um definitely wasn't a hit by car it was definitely intentional original um she had a bullet in her right near her lung a bullet and i'm thinking this dog is never ever going to survive this trauma and we just worked on her and fought for her we had to feed her a little tablespoon of food every hour she was on fluid she had infection in her body so bad from all the sores all over and you know for somebody to do this and torture this dog to that point and we put out a reward for ten thousand dollars you know with pictures of her everywhere um nobody came forward i don't feel the broward shelter the police department did enough.

33:27We gave them all the information, you know. But, you know, I think about her every day. Now she's at full weight. She's living life. She's in a wonderful home. She's beautiful. She's happy. She's loving. She loves everybody. She forgave all that abuse. But what bothers me is that abuser is still out there and he's going to do it to another dog. And B.B. is just one of many. I can tell you stories every single day of what we see. And, you know, I'm proud of Governor DeSantis for signing this into law and the legislators and the people that brought these bills forward that will make a difference.

34:15and our next most important, very important law that we need to get passed in Florida because Florida is the number three kill state in the country. Is it really? And it's just strictly for overcrowding in shelters. It's wild. You know, when a shelter has 50 kennels and they've got 200 dogs coming in a week and they've got 50 going out to rescues and adopters, what do they do with those hunter dogs when they've got 200 more coming in the next week? So they don't want to kill the animals. They don't have a choice. Yeah, they don't have a choice. So how we stop that is by cutting out the bad breeders, the backyard breeders that are just doing it to line their pockets.