“That dog hated me,” Ridgway’s Elizabeth Kirwin remembers, “but I was determined to make her love me because she had no place else to go.”
The beginning of her passion for shelter work began with an animal that didn’t want much to do with her, an unlikely beginning for the woman who has now served as Second Chance Humane Society’s shelter manager since 2013.
Elizabeth earned a degree in business marketing and was on a traditional career path in finance before beginning her work in animal welfare. It wasn’t that she wasn’t good at her job – it just wasn’t as fulfilling as she hoped.
“I was successful, getting lots of accolades and making a lot of money, but the whole time I had this on path. I wasn’t proud of my life because I wasn’t giving back. There was nothing wrong with my job, but I wasn’t serving a purpose. And the more I rose in the industry, the worse it got. I needed to do something of value.”
One day, Elizabeth woke up and realized that her calling was animal welfare, not finance, and that she had to change her profession. This realization came partly from the dog Elizabeth was fostering at the time, named Sadie. That morning Elizabeth walked into her boss’ office and quit her job. “I was scared to death. I walked out of a very lucrative job with very little savings, but I had passion. I also was a pretty good speaker and writer, and I had been volunteering for shelters and working on a project to ban stores from selling pets from puppy mills. Mostly though, I just had to trust my own ideas and instincts, because there wasn’t a clear path for me.”
Elizabeth wanted to open an animal rescue shelter, but it was difficult to raise money because she had little credibility in the field. Nobody was going to give her money just because she loved animals, so it was a struggle. “A lot of people rolled their eyes, but then I met a real estate broker who specialized in dog kennels and I was able to begin my mission by buying a kennel in a little tiny town in west Texas, which I called Sadie’s Rescue.”
Elizabeth started Sadie’s as a nonprofit by borrowing against her retirement account and writing grant proposals. To further her professional experience, Elizabeth found support from national organizations like the ASPCA. Her specific mission became a “no-kill campaign” that grew in response to 15,000 dogs being euthanized annually at the local animal control facility. For this campaign, she built relationships with the city council and a number of other organizations, and developed a foster program. “We had to redefine the roles of animal patrol officers to be about problem solving and compassionate care. For example, instead of charging people a koo fine, they could use that money to fix their fence.”
Though her campaign was successful in reducing the local kill rate, Elizabeth still yearned to run a rescue operation instead of a kennel, so she moved on from Sadie’s and started applying elsewhere. That’s how she came to Ouray County’s Second Chance Animal Shelter. Elizabeth was particularly drawn to Second Chance’s emphasis on the human-animal bond, something it reinforces through not only adoption but also through low-cost medical care and other programs.
“Animal welfare work really begins with people and thinking about why we need shelters for animals in the first place. Our goal here goes well beyond just feeding and housing our animals. Every one of them has their own enrichment and training plan. They are given what they need not just to not be stressed, but to be able to excel. And humans receive just as much support from animals, as the animals do from humans.”
The career path she chose is one she doesn’t regret.
“Someone asked me the other day if I would go back to my old lifestyle and I thought ‘No, I would never give this up!’ I haven’t regretted my choices for a second. But you have to be willing to do the journey. It’s not easy work Animal welfare is mentally, physically, and emotionally challenging, but the rewards are amazing.”
A study we conducted in 2015 for our book, which had 2,50o respondents, found that 95 percent of people in compassionate careers say they are “proud” of their work and that it gives their life meaning and purpose. As Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great,” says, “In the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.”
We hope these stories will help you gain from what others have learned, and begin to understand how you too can navigate a path to purposeful work. Elizabeth recommends, “If you have an idea of what moves you, talk to people. Reach out to people that are doing what you want to do, and find out how they got there. Look online, do some research. Most importantly, settle on what it is, take a risk, and step out.”
Second Chance is looking for both volunteers and foster homes, so if you have an interest in the field of animal welfare, this would be a great place to start. Their phone number is 970-626-2275 and you can also visit adoptmountainpets.org for more information.
Joy of Purpose highlights locals who are making positive contributions to our community and beyond. Jeff Pryor and Alexandra Mitchell are teachers and nonprofit leaders, and are the authors of Compassionate Careers: Making a Living by Making a Diftrence (Career Press, 2015).
