Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Bark: A Pet Podcast Unleashed dives deep into Tennessee’s animal crisis, exploring the real financial impact, community responsibility, and tough decisions behind the headlines. Presented by nonprofit Laws Saving Paws, this podcast connects the dots between public safety, tax payer burden, and the wellbeing of pets and people alike.
Whether you’re an animal lover passionate about advocacy and humane care, someone frustrated by the neighborhood impact, or a practical thinker concerned about how your money’s spent, this show offers honest insight.
Episodes will cover topics like:
• Why today’s pet climate demands responsible action
• The real effects of spaying/neutering—or not
• What every buyer should know about breeding
• Preventing costly, common pet health issues
• How your hard-earned money is enabling the crisis,
• And much, much more
The Bark: Raw, relevant, and unapologetic—because the truth affects all of us.
This podcast is meant to inform, entertain, and occasionally stir the pot in a good way. The opinions expressed are our own, shaped by personal experience and thoughtful research. They may not reflect everyone's views, and we may even offend you. We're just a couple of humans doing our best to advocate, educate, and elevate one episode at a time. Yours truly, The Bark.
Candy:PS, please don't sue us.
Meaghan:Okay. We are back by popular demand.
Candy:Ready to start for 2026.
Meaghan:Yes, we sure are. I'm Meaghan Thiede, Laws Saving Paws, and Candy Listz. Yeah. So welcome back. We're so excited to be here.
Meaghan:We had to take a little bit of a break because if you're watching, you may notice we're in a different space. Yep. We set it up ourselves. gonna show some grace. But honestly, if you're listening, you hopefully won't even notice, but we are going grassroots.
Meaghan:I mean, we really wanted to make sure we were able to still produce episodes and do it within our budgetary confinements. And so Right. Yeah. Here we are.
Candy:Here we are
Meaghan:So let us know what you think.
Candy:We're gonna do great things on a shoestring.
Meaghan:Yes. Yes. It's hopefully, it's a really long, long shoestring. Yeah. It's gonna be like a Carhartt, tough mudder like shoestring.
Meaghan:Okay. Alright. So we are gonna start in so we're Laws Saving Paws. This is The Bark. You can find us lawssavingpaws.org/thebark.
Meaghan:Find us on our YouTube channel. And you know what we're gonna do this episode, because it's been, gosh, probably a month since we recorded our last episode, we are gonna bring everyone up to speed because, Candy, we have had a lot of momentum, I feel like, right?
Candy:Yeah, I mean,
Candy:it was the holiday season, but I don't think we stopped. I mean, we stopped on the front end with doing the podcast, but behind the scenes, we've had a lot of development.
Meaghan:Yeah, no, and I'm so glad you mentioned that because I feel like it's hard to know that. I was thinking about, I love metaphors, and the other day I was like, okay, we wanna be transparent, but we don't wanna like show all our cards. Don't wanna like put out everything we're working on. So like, what if we're wax paper?
Candy:Yeah. Or parchment paper.
Meaghan:Starting off very lightly. And like, can't totally see through to everything we're doing. But just know Here's some highlights.
Meaghan:Yeah. I'm so glad you said that though, because like Candy said, like, just because we're not blasting it on social media and things like that, we I think, and, you know, you can chime in, but I think we've been establishing really meaningful relationships that are going to move some of our initiatives forward.
Candy:Right, absolutely. And I think this happens for everybody. Whatever initiative you're working on, it takes a lot of lead time and management and, you know, getting getting things set up. So and then you roll it out a little bit at time, depending on on all the initiatives and how they maybe coexist. But, you know, I know doing a podcast, everybody nowadays does a podcast.
Candy:It seems so easy.
Meaghan:Soo easy. Shout out to my brother-in-law, Diomar, who helped me.
Candy:Big shout out to him. Actually, for us, it takes a lot because the front end of the podcast is educating people. And we've started out with a lot of things that are quick facts that we can research online and everything. And now we're we still have some of that content, but now we're running into what are the future possibilities? What change can we make?
Candy:And that really takes some digging in because it's not a matter of research, it's a matter of movement.
Meaghan:Absolutely. And that's why so many things fail. I think a lot of people have these ideas and then they just wanna like throw the spaghetti against the wall, see what sticks. But if you're not doing that intentional work
Candy:Or with, you know, day jobs and and, you know
Meaghan:Oh, you work? Yeah. I mean, it's like
Candy:Oh. And, you know, family life.
Meaghan:So do I, for the record.
Candy:And holidays and everything.
Meaghan:Yeah.
Candy:It's also about you might have great ideas, but can you execute? Can you get it done?
Meaghan:And that's not a hit against anybody. Life is busy. It is. So you just choose. And, you know, I do think you chew like, we're often, we gotta choose what's important and sometimes that's choosing between two really important things.
Meaghan:I wanna back up for a really quick second because in our new space, I wanted to mention we are at the Awaken House in Spring Hill, Tennessee. So just wanted to shout them out because they have this beautiful space and it's just one of our favorite places to come, I think, and do some work together.
Candy:We'll grab a coffee and do our research here, compare notes, and then kind of organize our self. Who's working on what next?
Meaghan:We give the illusion that we're very well organized.
Candy:Yeah. we're pretty organized.
Candy:Right.
Meaghan:So and and also just wanted to let you guys know we are even though we're in a new space and we're kinda going the grassroots way on this, you certainly can still donate exclusively to the podcast.
Meaghan:Our sponsorship levels are kinda being worked out right now. So if you go to the website, you'll see a message that says that. But certainly, if you still wanted to make a donation you know, because we still often have to pay for these spaces, so we would still appreciate it.
Meaghan:So we're gonna start off with... it's called the Better Boards Campaign. And if you guys have not heard us talk about this, so I think Candy and I both recognize, it kind of...
Candy:It started organically.
Meaghan:It did. Yes.
Candy:You want me to...
Meaghan:Go ahead. You've got this.
Candy:So what happened is at every Tractor Supply, at every Tractor Supply I've been to, on your way to the the back of the store toward the restrooms, they have a community board where anybody can post anything. Mhmm. And for my for other purposes, for my day job purposes, I went in there and was posting flyers for an upcoming event. But I also noticed that there were breeder flyers. There were breeder flyers that you could tell, I mean, there was no mention of vaccination or genetic testing.
Candy:They it was just like a $100 a dog. I mean, there's there's some up there that are like $1,200 a dog, so on and so forth. Some of them mentioned AKC, some of them do not. And I've tried to compare if there's 10 postings and they say AKC, how many of them are really AKC certified breeders or dogs?
Candy:Right?
Meaghan:And even if they are ... That doesn't doesn't really mean that it's the same thing as they used to.
Meaghan:And that led me
Candy:down a hole. I mean, it's a whole
Candy:web of confusing spaghetti because then as I was re trying to compare apples and oranges, what I realized was the I couldn't find all of the breeders.
Meaghan:Mhmm.
Candy:Now that can be if they don't have a current offering because some of those postings were old. Yep. If they don't have a current offering, they're they might not have a listing on the AKC website.
Meaghan:Mhmm.
Candy:Some of them, as I was looking on the AKC website and I was just toodling around, I would click on Toodling.
Candy:And toodling.
Meaghan:That's cute. I wanna toodle.
Candy:That's a different show.
Meaghan:Not for children.
Candy:I thought I as I was doing best streaming, I was clicking on different postings that had nothing to do with the the better boards. And what I was noticing is they do have a category where the breeder can list what genetic testing has been done.
Candy:And then I compare that to for that breed, what genetic testing is recommended. So for example, Labradors, hip dysplasia is a big one. Okay? So I clicked on I think you and I discussed this. There was a Siberian Husky
Meaghan:Mhmm.
Candy:Pups for sale. And there's some ophthalmologic issues that they recommend. And there was two other things that they recommend checking for when you're breeding those huskies. And they did the ophthalmological test. That breeder showed that they did that ophthalmological test, but they didn't check for the other two.
Meaghan:Right. Right.
Candy:So there's no guarantees. . I mean, you can have another breed that does not commonly have hip dysplasia issues. The breeder tests for hip dysplasia.
Candy:It sounds good. The buyer's like, yeah. Great. And when that dog might have something else that's common, bird or, you know,
Candy:other things.
Meaghan:But but the average Joe who's going back to that community board Yeah. And seeing those things again, they would never, in my opinion, not know a lot of these things that we've since researched. And so it was ironic to me. So I also you know, we're going to TSC and we love them.
Meaghan:We think this was just an oversight. We've said it time and time again. But I used to go and hang up posters for adoption events when I was volunteering with And a I'm like, there are so many dogs. And so we started to look into the partnerships. We knew we were very familiar with MuttNation Foundation, who partners very strongly with TSC.
Meaghan:And then we just started to peel back the layers and we're like, why for an organization that stands so strongly behind animal welfare and supports rescues. Rescues and shelters and donates, and even Petsense. Petsense is a tractor supply company, and they have a lot of adoption events, but we just, we thought, gosh, what a misalignment. I wonder if they even know what's happening. We did do our due diligence.
Meaghan:You know, for instance, I personally walked into some stores and asked if they have rules or guidelines and have been told no on multiple occasions.
Candy:Right. I went on a road trip. And as I was driving back, I was texting Meaghan the the TSC locations I was stopping at and the posters that were at each location. You know? And sometimes it's not... there was one store that had none.
Meaghan:Mhmm.
Candy:Proud of them. But the other stores had, you know, two, three, four, five. I mean, there were some stores that Some had a of them are AKC, some of them are pretending to be AKC, some of them are not at all.
Meaghan:So we did reach out just to kinda go through the timeline. So we, you know, in November is kind of when we bumped heads and we're like, we need to create a dedicated campaign about price. So that was, like, the end of November 2025.
Meaghan:We mailed a letter to the president, I believe his name is Hal Lawton, the president of Tractor Supply. We sent them two emails to their board email address, which really just gets funneled into their customer solutions team, to that team. I personally called them last week and said, Hey, we tried reaching out. Is there someone we can speak to to escalate this? They were very receptive.
Meaghan:And you know, that is when Candy... she was in another state and she's like, I'm gonna go find these flyers.
Candy:I didn't say it with that voice.
Meaghan:No, that was my voice. But, because the response that I got, and maybe it was the way that I presented this to the team when I called is, well, it sounds like a district problem. I'm gonna put you in touch with a district manager. So that's when we reached out to advocates across the country because it's not limited to a district.
Candy:That was one reason that while I was in North Carolina, made a point to stop off to show it's not a district thing. We've asked friends and family, and we have some boots on the ground, people are trying to get out. I mean, there's a snowstorm on the way,
Meaghan:Well, if you're watching, this has already happened and we hope you're okay!
Candy:Yes. That's true. That's true. But we have recently brought it up to friends and family. And I mean, we're getting some support back and everything, but we do wanna check across the nation and see how far is this impacting?
Candy:Like how many locations?
Meaghan:It is hard to say too. We didn't wanna speak for areas where we don't live. For instance, we see a lot of posts that are like, oh, these dogs were for sale in the parking lot. We can't say that the manager of that store didn't come out and kick them out.
Candy:Or that they even knew. The transaction could have already happened through an app payment system and online contract, and they're just there to swap the dog. And you don't know if they're swapping because, hey, you're babysitting my dog this week or that it's an active sale.
Candy:So that's a we're not trying to put, you know, just because their parking lot is being used for any of those means, we're not trying to put them out under the gun, for example. But what we are saying is we don't think that Tractor Supply itself realizes this misalignment, and we wanna make them aware.
Meaghan:Yeah.
Candy:And and it's up to them to see what they wanna do about it.
Meaghan:And that's why asking the employees was the simplest way. Hey, do you have rules?
Candy:Right.
Meaghan:You know, I kind of, you know, acted like I was gonna post something. Hey, do you have rules?
Meaghan:And again, for them to say no. So whether they do, I've found that they don't, just with some online searches, but then just to have that information verified.
Candy:By site management or employees.
Meaghan:Right. And I do wanna say as well, gosh, well, a couple of things, but we also reached out to MuttNation Because we really admire everything they do for our shelters. I mean, who doesn't? Wrote them a mailed letter.
Meaghan:Why did you reach out to MuttNation?
Meaghan:Because of their strong partnership with Tractor Supply.
Candy:so we're following the connection.
Meaghan:Yeah. We thought someone who partners so heavily with them, we wanted to make sure they knew what was happening. And and truth be told, we we were kinda hoping that they could be more influential in conversations with Tractor Supply.
Candy:Absolutely. Yeah.
Meaghan:So we reached out, mailed a letter, sent two emails. I called and left a voicemail. I did finally get an email back. And I'm gonna be honest, I was a little disappointed with the response, and maybe that, you know, that's just my personal gripe, but, their response was, thank you for the information. And so I think I was a little like... So not that I expected this grandiose thing.
Candy:Yes.
Meaghan:But I just didn't I think I don't know. I just wasn't expecting that, I suppose. So who knows what's happening behind the scenes? I don't know.
Candy:Flip flopped. I would have expected that from a large corporation like TSC and not from smaller organization like... that foundation is big.
Meaghan:Yeah.
Candy:But it's definitely smaller than TSC. Right. And I was very happily surprised that we connected with TSC.
Meaghan:Yeah.
Candy:And then surprised and...
Meaghan:Because again, we don't know. Maybe they're having these conversations in the background and just didn't wanna include us. That's fine. I'm just saying the optics of that, though, we were like, oh, okay. Well, you're welcome.
Candy:It's a little deflated balloon kind of thing.
Candy:Like we were saying earlier, it takes us time to do our research and
Candy:put things together. Maybe they're working on it.
Meaghan:Exactly. So we can't say that. And I will say, just, and we can move on to our next initiative in a couple minutes, but, you know, I presented this on a radio show a few weeks ago, just a local one in Columbia. And not even just there, they're in other places where people, the general response, and I'm paraphrasing is, what's that gonna do?
Candy:Right.
Meaghan:It's not going to end our animal welfare crisis. We are not saying it will, but what, I mean, honestly, we're not gonna get a breeding law in place for years. That is not, in my opinion-
Candy:I don't think we're trying to stop breeders.
Meaghan:We are not.
Meaghan:there is
Candy:There's responsible breeding, but when you leave-
Meaghan:It's so easy to do.
Candy:When you leave it up to a community board to not filter what is responsible versus what is not, at least Right. The AKC, when I was looking on their website, I see that they're trying to make it where there's responsible reading because they have that section of testing.
Candy:So they're trying to add some consumer awareness of what are you getting into? Are you making sure that this animal has been genetically tested, properly breeded as much as I would say as much as possible because really, you have to do a lot of matching for traits when you select the dogs. It's not just about, oh, this dog doesn't carry genes for issues, and neither does this dog throw them together. There's more to breeding than that. There's looking for the physical characteristics.
Candy:So that's the point of breeding. It's to preserve that breed.
Meaghan:Right.
Candy:The AKC on their website, it it provides some guidance for the consumer. Some out it makes it easy for them to shop a little bit more responsibly, but you can't have it on a community board.
Meaghan:Well well, and the thing is you can have I would say, in my opinion, you can have it on a community board. Not if your organization though is advocating for, for rescues and shelters who are combating that problem.
Candy:Combating the overpopulation problem.
Meaghan:Yes. That's my issue. We wouldn't walk into, I don't know, I'm not gonna walk into a local coffee shop with a community board and say, why are you allowing this?
Candy:Right.
Meaghan:unless they have a very public partnership
Meaghan:with a rescue, it's, you know what I mean, to each their own and we can educate. But, so we're just, we're just trying, and the thing is like, kind of going back to what's this gonna do, it's the small actions that add up to meaningful impact. We are trying to chip away and truth be told, if Tractor Supply, you know, if our conversations go well and they're like, oh, wow, yeah, we didn't see this, thanks for bringing it to our attention, Their response can set a massive precedent for other organizations.
Candy:Not only that, when we go to these stores and we see how many breeder flyers are posted, clearly that's driving a lot of business for a lot of people. And as we've talked about before, and that first of all, there's a I'm gonna say it again. Is it responsible breeding? Some of those are, some of those definitely are not.
Meaghan:Right.
Candy:There's also the part where we talked about before how this impacts the taxpayer. Are these people who are side breeding dogs and selling for thousands of dollars, and they have multiple males and females? So I saw on the AKC website where there was a breeder, they had dogs available as of early January and then dog another litter that was gonna be available as of mid January. And I was like, wow.
Candy:You're really rotating the the situation. I don't know how many dogs they had total, so on and so forth
Meaghan:so that's a flag.
Candy:that's a flag. But if this is really popular on these boards, how many dogs are you selling for a thousand, a few thousand at a time? And is your company are you as a breeder, are you paying your taxes on all this? I mean, you can make a pretty penny.
Meaghan:Well, that'll be a whole another...
Meaghan:Candy's been like putting on her accountant hat and doing some math stay tuned for that. But anyways, the Better Boards, if you wanna learn more, we're still even in our conversations, they're ongoing, but still if you wanna get involved, still write letters, you could visit lawssavingpause.org/betterboards. Yeah. We have all the information there.
Meaghan:Send us examples, send an email, send a mailed letter. They just, they, mailed letters just stand out more, which is why we recommended that. And also send it to MuttNation. And again, not aggressively, just kindly.
Candy:And if you could drop a note to us to tell us what action you've taken, we can bring, that gives us a little bit of backup when we're having these conversations.
Meaghan:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So, so that is the Better Boards campaign, stay tuned for that. Next, we are going to talk about something that three cities in Tennessee have already done.
Candy:Right.
Meaghan:I learned today that Memphis used to have this ban, and it got reversed.
Candy:I thought they still did, and I yeah.
Meaghan:They do not.
Meaghan:So this is the Humane Pet Store or Humane Pet Sales ordinance. And I wanna back up for a second. So the Bissell Pet Foundation defines a puppy mill as puppy mills are unregulated facilities that breed dogs for profit without any consideration for their health or welfare, which we've spoken about. a Commercial breeders are large scale breeders, some licensed by the USDA, and those are the ones you often see in, like, pet land and Puppy Dreams, Dreamy Puppy, I don't even know what it's called.
Meaghan:Those folks, they may have some care standards, but they also breed solely for profit. So, in the puppy, the pet stores we're talking about...
Candy:And let me take can we just pause there?
Meaghan:Yeah, of course.
Candy:When we say just breed for profit, those are the people who are not breeding to preserve the breed. It's not checking that the dog has the right, you know, perkiness or droopiness of the ears, the right coat length and texture, the right, you know, structure in their body and and this and that and the other. So that's the that's where you're getting a purebred dog, but you're not because you're not getting those traits that are properly brought through The breeding process.
Candy:So that's the that's one signal of the breeding for profit is that you are you're just trying to make money.
Meaghan:Your intent is totally different.
Candy:Yeah. Are not checking for traits. You are not checking for genetic diseases. You just want the dollar.
Meaghan:Yep, exactly. I'm glad that we're talking about this now because we just mentioned the Better Boards, the Better Boards stuff and the Tractor Supply Community Board. That's one part of the pipeline, right? That's like one exit point. I don't know.
Meaghan:That's one way- I don't know. I'm not a Plumber.
Candy:The abundance of pets are being created.
Meaghan:Yes. And now or or it's giving them a channel to advertise them. Right. These pet stores, same thing. That is another part of the pipeline.
Meaghan:So you're gonna begin to see a theme. We're trying to attack the different pipelines that are really driving the sale of puppies.
Candy:Because it ties back to the pet overpopulation.
Meaghan:Yes.
Candy:And when we're euthanizing dogs prematurely. I've said this in other episodes. If you go on Facebook and follow a page called Critical Memphis Animals, the majority of dogs that are posted for adoption or rescue pool or whatever, I mean, that is a page that's like, emergency, come help us with these dogs, they're gonna be euthanized in a day or two.
Meaghan:Yeah.
Candy:And if you look at those dogs, the majority of them are a a little over a year to like, I should say, from puppy age to a little over a year. It's not the sick, old dogs that you think, but we are putting down young, healthy, sweet, very well behaved dogs while we're making, know, are several dog factories
Meaghan:There's just not enough room.
Candy:Churning out more and more dogs. It's so sad. And it's like, we're just like recycling, you know? That's horrible when you're talking about something that's living and breathing. Let me just turn out your light while I make 10 more.
Meaghan:Yeah. Yep. Yep. No. That's a great point.
Meaghan:And so these pet store ordinances, like I mentioned, three areas in Tennessee are already doing it, and I think a few other states are doing it. But Nashville has an ordinance. Franklin and Smyrna also do. And that ordinance, again, it it just prevents the stores like this from moving into their cities.
Candy:Retail locations.
Meaghan:Absolutely. Yeah. And so our you know, we we've started working closely with people who have experience in creating this ordinance. And we're asking, even if your state doesn't or even if your area doesn't have one, this is, like, this is the proactive part. Let's not wait till we have to react. If you don't have one yet, this is, like, the best time to contact your local officials, and all you need is, you know, the county commissioner can often get this done. Your county mayor, your city mayor.
Candy:Yeah. If if they themselves can't do it, they can get in touch with the right people who can.
Meaghan:Right, right. But this doesn't have to be, again, because this is all dealt through, like, the local ordinances, you don't have to involve your state legislators. Right. And that is, so, and that's kind of, it's a double edged sword because of course we want state legislation, because then you wouldn't have to like attack all these individual communities. But the truth of the matter is the state changes take a really long time and it's harder to get those done.
Meaghan:So the likelihood of you getting something passed locally is just higher.
Candy:Once we get multiple municipalities buying into this, depending on how many we can get bought into it, then it's easier for the state to say, well, we already have so many counties that have this law, might as well make it a state
Meaghan:And it's easy for them, and so that's what I wanna say too, like we're, you know, like I said, if there are people who are interested in this, if you're listening and you're like, oh yeah, I don't want these in my city, reach out to us, we have resources on our website that we will point you to. We have a contact who will put you in contact with the people you need to speak to in your area. And then also our contact will have conversations with your local officials to help, like I said, just kind of like answer any questions they have, address any concerns. Like we have a team that is supporting us on this and we're just kind of playing like the vessel.
Candy:Yes.
Candy:The difference is we could reach out to all the municipalities in Tennessee, but We don't live there. And those, the people that work in those city or county governments, they wanna hear from their constituents. And so if you are a constituent in whatever county that you're in, and this is a change that you wanna see, let us help you to make that impact. And and that, you know, we we love it. We love to help, and that's what we wanna see happen in these different especially areas that are really struggling with a lot of strays on the street and things like that. You know, you wanna have strays on the street, and then next thing you know, next time you go to some mini mall, there's a pet store.
Candy:It's just gonna turn out even more and more and more.
Meaghan:Listen, guys, I know I got my favorite dog from a pet store in 2013. Okay. This was a long time ago. I'm gonna admit it. If I had known what I know now I would not have done it. So we don't know what we don't know.
Candy:And I think that's what people they they don't realize it when they're going to those stores. They don't realize what's going on. They don't realize. I mean, and I've had a dog in a shelter a few years ago that was from a pet store.
Candy:And this pet store's policy was in a different state, a neighboring state. And the pet store's policy is that if a dog ever needs to be returned, they take that dog back on. They made every, oh, yeah. We're working on it. Working on it.
Candy:Yeah. And they never came for that dog.
Meaghan:Yeah.
Candy:They, I mean, that dog almost got euthanized several times, and we fought for that dog.
Meaghan:Yeah.
Candy:And finally found him a good home. But that one was scary because they never came for the dog.
Meaghan:Yeah. Well, and I cautioned... I know someone who very close to me just got a dog from a pet store. And listen, he's stinking cute.
Candy:Yeah.
Meaghan:Of course he is.
Meaghan:Yeah. But they, they said to me, they're like, yeah, he was super discounted because he's been there for four months or something. And I'm like, what? And then I thought Candy, I asked you this, but like, what happens to those dogs when they age out of the pet stores? I don't know.
Candy:There's what's posted online, and then there's what really happens. I don't know. I have not done an under cover expose on It really happens. All I know is that one experience where I reached out and they were supposed to be responsible for that one time, and it never happened. They didn't even say, "hey.
Candy:We're gonna post the dog and try to find an adopter locally to where you are or even where we are, or we're gonna help in any way" they didn't do anything.
Meaghan:Yeah.
Candy:And and that dog was, by then, a full grown adult. I was afraid to send him back.
Candy:What are you really going to do with him?
Candy:Are you just gonna take him to the local shelter and dump him?
Meaghan:Yeah.
Candy:Are you gonna euthanize him yourself?
Meaghan:I don't know what happens. And and then even my, you know, my person who I'm not naming, you know, they still paid like a thousand bucks for this dog
Candy:Right.
Meaghan:It was like originally 4,000 or something. And, yeah, I just I don't remember where I was going with that...
Candy:Well, I'd like to connect where the first part of what we were talking about connects to the second part, our experiences with Smyrna.
Candy:Oh, yeah. Yeah So the impact of having a humane pet store ordinance, and again, nothing against Tractor Supply, but Smyrna has had postings on their Tractor Supply Community Board. We got in touch with a fellow rescuer, or the fellow rescuers saw what we were doing and said, hey, I work for the city attorney.
Candy:Can I name names here?
Meaghan:I wouldn't. To err on the side of caution.
Candy:So they got in touch with the city attorney, and what that city attorney was able to do is to say, hey. We have this retail pet ordinance law. They you know, legally, nobody is supposed to be or Tractor Supply is not supposed to allow anybody to sell or make that sale through their store. Even if they're not coming on the property
Candy:There should be no advertisements, no nothing at a retail establishment for a pet.
Meaghan:Right.
Candy:So I think that's the one that I returned to recently that had no breeder postings.
Meaghan:And we don't know. And I just wanna be clear, like we did not, you know, we reached out to this advocate cause we were like, can you just go to Tractor Supply and help get flyers? Then that she was the one who kind of initiated the conversations with the city attorney.
Candy:We didn't know it was possible.
Meaghan:Yeah. And I still don't know. Think they're looking into it, but I just wanna make sure we're not speaking for them and looking, because again, we want to give Tractor Supply a chance to respond to this, you know, without bringing in other people. So I just, but you're right.
Meaghan:There may be other local ordinances that we don't know that are being broken. I just I don't know.
Meaghan:Right.
Candy:And it's not just the spirit of us trying to make these connections. These cities, the people in these cities, the municipalities, you know, they have sent a they're sending a message that this just doesn't work in our city, we don't want it. So when we have shown them the oversight, they're like, oh no, no, no, let's clean that up. And we really appreciate that.
Meaghan:Yeah, a 100%. So yeah, so if you wanna learn more about that, lawSsavingpause.org/resources, that's where we have a one sheeter full of information about this ordinance, but also email us at info@lawssavingpaws.org. If you wanna speak to us about how we can help you work with your local officials to maybe just at least entertain some conversations about it. We can't guarantee it's gonna happen, but you don't know if you don't ask.
Candy:Right.
Meaghan:Yeah. So Next. Okay. Next. Moving along.
Meaghan:Okay. We've talked about this a little, but it's January. We're in session. There's a legislative session that's happening right now. This is where the bills go to the state house to be voted on and see if they're gonna become laws.
Meaghan:Look at me.
Candy:So informed.
Meaghan:I hope that was all right.
Candy:I think it was.
Meaghan:Okay.
Meaghan:So we've talked a lot about this. The Senate Bill 1475 which is an enhancement to the aggravated animal cruelty bill. So if you're convicted of aggravated animal cruelty, this will change it from a class E felony to a class D felony, which I believe and this is a big range, a two to twelve year prison sentence. Additionally, it includes language about juveniles being convicted of this... It would classify them as a serious, youthful offender.
Meaghan:And we will say there is another law that went into effect January 1, where if anyone is found guilty of these things, they do undergo a mental health evaluation. So, you know, I like that.
Candy:Yeah.
Meaghan:I really like that. It's able you're able to prosecute, but also, you know, it will- give a deeper resolution.
Meaghan:Yeah. Yeah. I I like it. And the reason so the reason why this bill, I believe, is so important is because of the human to human violence that is so often linked to animal cruelty.
Candy:Yeah. A lot of people start with picking on animals and then they go straight to-
Meaghan:::cough:: Jeffrey Dahmer ::cough:: I'm not saying everyone's gonna grow up eating people. Just saying though. They start off because animals are defenseless.
Candy:Right. We've seen animals are held hostage to make an impact on the person on the human.
Meaghan:Yes.
Candy:So it's tough. I've seen animals injured. You know, I'm the type I watch these fight crime shows and everything, and I've seen animals injured because of a partner threatening another.
Meaghan:Yeah. And so and even beyond the youth part of it, again, we know often times if there's, and this is why we encourage people, if you see animal cruelty happening, like next door, in your neighborhood, anywhere, if you see signs of it, report it because there's often other abuse happening in the home. So if we were to enhance this, if it would just... if you saw someone abusing an animal and they were convicted of the aggravated cruelty, it would keep them there's a stronger likelihood that it would that person would not be able to harm another because their punishment could imprison them. You know what I mean?
Candy:Right
Candy:It just stack up. And by seeing the whole picture and not dismissing the animal abuse, it shows a progression, it shows a trend, it shows a routine behavior, and allows the judicial system to more accurately assess the problem and provide sentences that are more in alignment with the behavior.
Meaghan:Yeah. It's not all about animals, and that's what we're constantly saying. We do it for the animals, but in investigating these things, I mean, for me personally, like, I also love to serve people. And there are a lot of vulnerable people in horrible situations that... it's all interconnected. And another thing too, so there's the stronger animal cruelty laws can indirectly benefit the economy too, because it addresses a form of violence linked to other crimes, which we just talked about.
Meaghan:So if you're spending less money prosecuting, regulating, do you know what I mean?
Candy:Right.
Meaghan:Responding to these other crimes
Candy:Right.
Meaghan:Those are your tax dollars ...
Meaghan:Yeah. Yeah. This this one was interesting. Regions with strong animal welfare reputations. I don't think we're in that list.
Meaghan:We may benefit from increased ecotourism, it generates more revenue for our state, which- I believe that.
Candy:Oh yeah, there's a sanctuary, I think it's in Costa Rica, that's this open dog sanctuary. So there's a lot of acreage and they just have all these dogs that get along with each other and they live out and I have seen people go and do an ecotourism kind of thing there because they wanna see.
Meaghan:Yeah. I mean, we don't wanna open up, like, a stray dog sanctuary in Tennessee.
Candy:Speak for yourself
Meaghan:No, Candy, we wanna confront the root of the problem!
Candy:I think that we don't
Candy:want Tennessee to become a stray dog sanctuary.
Meaghan:No.
Candy:The whole state, right?
Meaghan:I have family in the Dominican right now, and I was like, hey, how are those stray dogs? They're like, they're everywhere.
Candy:Yeah.
Meaghan:I'm like, great.
Meaghan:Yeah. So I will say if you want, if you wanna learn more about this, if you, the best thing you can do right now to get this bill passed is to email your state legislators.
Candy:So, That would
Candy:be your senator and your house representative.
Meaghan:Yes, and there's a website, Oh, Lord. Yeah. I think it's...
Meaghan:I'm looking at right now. Just Google it. Google "find my legislator in Tennessee", and you can put in your address. It'll give you the two.
Candy:Yes. It'll give you your two representatives, and all you have to do is tell them, hey. I am in favor of, you know, senate bill one 1475 . This means a lot.
Candy:You know, just a a sentence or two. This means a lot. I agree with it if because you have to understand that these legislators, they have a a slew of bills that they have to look at in just the session time period. So they need constituents to point out what's important to them.
Meaghan:Mhmm.
Candy:And it makes it easier for them to back a bill because they said, hey. I have constituents that are interested in this. So your quick five minute email to them...
Meaghan:And share your stories. We were told that sharing a personal experience could really go a long way. Like, if you are a victim...
Candy:If you witness something,
Meaghan:yeah. So, there's that. And so, I will say there are elections, you know, coming up next year, and, you know, it was I was told that a lot of these folks, these people running, these candidates, they may be a little more accessible because they want to make you happy. They want your vote.
Candy:Right.
Meaghan:So, while we are in session right now, you may be more likely to get some face to face time with them. Right. Because they want your vote.
Candy:Right. Yeah.
Meaghan:So anything else with that, Candy?
Candy:That's it.
Meaghan:Okay. Oh, this is good. I am trying to talk fast.
Meaghan:I already talk fast, but my computer's at 3%. if It dies, you could just take over.
Candy:Yes. That's fine.
Meaghan:This is something that is in the works...
Candy:Yeah. Something near and dear to you.
Meaghan:What was that?
Candy:Something particularly near and dear to you.
Meaghan:Honestly, this wasn't my... I didn't I didn't come have this Come to Jesus moment. Someone kind of shared their concerns with me, but when we first started this you know, back like in September 2024, one of the first things that was brought to my attention was the premises permitting requirements for Tennessee.
Candy:What does that mean?
Meaghan:great question. I'm so glad you asked. It means that it is a lot easier for you to get permission to have a mobile unit and perform veterinary procedures or even vaccinations. If you have a mobile unit or a permanent facility than if you wanted to set up temporarily. Which is what, there are a lot of third party organizations that do that. They travel around...
Candy:it's high volume. So let's say I work at a vet clinic and my vet clinic charges X to do spay neuter or vaccinations or whatever, and they don't have the bandwidth or for whatever reason, they don't wanna do low cost. I mean, this is somebody's company, you know? But let's say I'm a veterinarian and that is my commercial company, but I wanna volunteer a few times a month or a few of my vacation days or whatever. I wanna go volunteer and do low cost spay neuter.
Candy:Well, you need an organization to set up these pop up or mobile clinics.
Candy:Yeah.
Meaghan:That's the high volume stuff.
Candy:Right.
Meaghan:My eyes were opened, and, like, I've sent this before on my mission trip to Nicaragua in the spring in 2025, where I saw dogs being neutered on a freaking folding table.
Candy:Right. Right.
Meaghan:On, like, a picnic chair. . I came back here and I was like, why can't we do this? So, and then speaking with other people, it sounds like there has been a lot of roadblocks from the Veterinary Board of Tennessee.
Candy:Right. To set up the pop ups.
Meaghan:Yeah. To set up the I'm really excited because I don't you know, I'm not gonna go into detail about it, but we are building relationships with people who can really help with this effort, and I'm so excited about it. Again, not gonna solve our animal welfare crisis, but it will it will really chip away.
Candy:Right.
Meaghan:And I'm super excited about it.
Candy:Right. And and that's something I wanna highlight that rescues that are trying to help the animal crisis situation, it's not just for your neighbors or whomever who needs low cost spay and neuter because maybe they can't afford I mean, the the veterinary practices near me, the spay and neuter starts at $350, and then it goes up depending on the size.
Meaghan:My friend just got quoted $500.
Candy:Right. So it's not cheap.
Candy:Not everybody can afford that. Not every vet will give a discount. As a matter of fact, I find it's difficult to find a a discount at any vet.
Meaghan:I think your rescue...
Candy:My rescue experience, I've tried in my neighborhood, and I've asked multiple veterinary practices, and they have said no, which that's their business, and I respect that. But some we need somewhere to offer the community more options . Or else it's just not gonna get done, and then we're just gonna have more and more litters. The other component of that is if these veterinary practices are not willing to offer discounts, where do the rescues go to get low cost spay neuter?
Meaghan:You will have to do it yourself.
Candy:No. My gosh. No. Oh my gosh.
Candy:So it's difficult to get a dog adopted at adoption fee of $250, and that comes with spay neuter, vaccination, so on and so forth. If my spay neuter cost starts at $350, how am I gonna get the dogs adopted at $250? And I know people are gonna say, well, just supplement with donations.
Meaghan:Do you know how hard it is to raise money in this climate?
Candy:I mean, it's been like that for years, you know, that people just don't donate until something directly impacts. And even then, we have so many people calling rescue saying, I can't keep my dog. Come take it. No. I haven't vaccinated it.
Candy:No. I haven't spayed or neutered it, but you can have it. It's like, that doesn't help. That doesn't that doesn't help. All of a sudden, I've got, you know, a a $500 tab for a dog that I'm gonna to fight to get my $250 for.
Meaghan:Yeah.
Candy:And then how long does that dog stay in rescue? Because as long as that dog stays in rescue and doesn't get adopted because they're not adopted on the first day, you're paying for monthly preventions, you're paying for food, you're paying for incidentals. So that's why these clinics are so important, because you have people who need low cost options, you have rescues that need support and connections.
Meaghan:Yes, we all have to work together. You know, I feel like if for every post someone shared about a dog that needs a home, if we shared one about our animal overpopulation and prevention, we may be a little further along. Match it, I dare you, I challenge you.
Candy:Yeah.
Meaghan:The next time you share something about a dog that needs a home, find a post about a spay in your clinic and share it.
Candy:Right. Right.
Meaghan:I don't know. I'll get off my soapbox.
Candy:And I'll say, what is the website? Spaytennessee.org. It's a great website. It provides you a map and you can go by county and see what spay neuter services are near you. But even the license plate program here in Tennessee, there's a spay neuter license where if you select that license plate, some of the money goes to spay neuter programs across the state. That money goes to spay clinics like my local shelter.
Candy:I have contacted that shelter, and I have gotten the line of, well, our spay and neuter services are for the community, not for rescues. So there's all of these conditions where rescues are constantly cut out. You know? And it's not supposed to work that way from what I understand, but what am I supposed to do?
Meaghan:Because rescues are popping up at in my opinion, an alarming rate. They kinda had to start saying that, though.
Candy:But that's not according to the people who run that program, it is supposed to be for the rescues as well. But I have been ... It's supposed to be for any spay neuter needs. Yes. But I have sometimes they work with me, and sometimes, like, we don't we don't have any availability.
Meaghan:Okay.
Candy:And it's not like they're like, hey. We're booked out for three months. They do it's just a no. It's like ok.
Candy:So I feel like the rescues constantly and consistently from both end just get blocked out of a lot of resources When in fact, I feel like they are making monumental progress. Because, by the way, in addition to adopt or beyond low adoption rates at shelters, one of the main ways that dogs and cats get out of shelters is because rescues pull them. Rescues finish their if there was a dog that was shot, hit by a car, whatever, a shelter is not going to take care of that.
Candy:They just as soon put the dog down.
Meaghan:And they also don't have the resources. Otherwise I'm sure they would.
Candy:Right. But it's the rescues who pull those dogs and and get them the care that they need. When the shelters are screaming from the top of their lungs that they're over capacity, it's the rescues that pull those dogs that may or may not be spayed or neutered. And they'll have the rabies vaccine, but they have other medical things. It's the rescues that take the dog the rest of the way with their needs and their medical and everything else and getting them adopted, getting them fostered and everything.
Candy:So, I just, to me personally, having worked with a lot of rescues, I don't feel that it's fair that they're they're severely under supported, and they're making so much impact.
Meaghan:You know, Candy, I'm just gonna brag about you a little. You spend your free time... You work full time. You have a family.
Meaghan:You have your own pets. You have Obligations.
Candy:Yeah.
Meaghan:But you you spend your life, this past weekend, you drove
Meaghan:with four dogs... .
Candy:Oh, yes. Yeah.
Meaghan:Dropped one off. Like, in another state. I mean, not everyone does that.
Candy:And I'm very, like, boots on the ground. Like, what needs to get done? Let's get it done. Yeah. But that's how rescues function.
Meaghan:Yeah.
Candy:But, again, they are I mean, not a lot... there's very rare that a rescue can raise enough funds or have the the structure to have their own spay neuter clinic, to have that funding, to have a building. People don't realize rescues run off of fosters. But I feel like rescues are speaking of being on a shoestring, I feel like rescues are begging, borrowing... I shouldn't say that. They're doing so much with so little, and then when they try to get support, it's like, nope. Nope.
Candy:Nope. Nope. And it's miraculous what these rescues are able to carry on.
Meaghan:Yeah. Yeah. There's just such a big need, so that's why I think it's important. Again, like, support your rescues, support your shelter.
Candy:Volunteer. Offer to foster. , Volunteer at just and if you can't foster, volunteer at an adoption event. Right. Volunteer to host the adoption event.
Candy:Take some take some of that planning off the back of the rescue itself. Right. You know? Right. Yeah.
Meaghan:So thank you for all you do. You open my eyes.
Candy:As to as to what it takes.
Meaghan:No. So yeah. I know. Yeah. It it takes it takes a lot, and we just have so many dark animals.
Candy:Yes. Yes. We do.
Meaghan:But yeah.
Candy:Yes. The outdoor sale gifting of animals, we do have a ban, it's in Nashville.
Meaghan:And that's consumer protection. That's there's this woman selling on the street. Like, could don't know. It's kinda like getting... it's like a hit and run.
Candy:Right. You don't know who to contact when you get home and you're spending a few thousand dollars on the parvo . You know, treatment and everything. You know? When you take that puppy home or wherever you take it to, you take it to a friend's house to see your new puppy, everywhere that puppy, Parvo puppy goes, you're leaving Parvo behind by the way.
Candy:Yeah. It is a big concern.
Meaghan:Yeah, no one talks about it. Yeah, so there's that. I mean, do we have other things. I just feel like also my brain is broken often now.
Candy:I think we're getting back up and running and it's a lot now. I think that this is a great start to the year. I think this is great motivation, especially as you mentioned before with this being an election year. Even if you don't have something specific to discuss with your legislators, maybe just dropping them a line or going in to meet them and saying, Hey, I'm so and so. That's exactly it.
Candy:And these are the issues, it could be something beyond animal care, you can say, Hey, here are the things that are important to me. Here's what I'm seeing in the community. You are the boots on the ground for your legislator. Let them know, Are people dumping couches in a certain part of your community? Put together a little shopping list, include your animal care items, and let them know, I'm the boots on the ground, I'm a constituent, this is what's important to me, and here are some other things.
Candy:Include your animal to do list that you're interested in. Start growing that relationship. That way as we progress in this evolution of protecting animals in our community and trying to decrease this pet overpopulation, we have bugs in people's ears and we have our legislators thinking, wow, but my community really cares about animals. Yeah, yeah. We do.
Candy:So if a law comes up and I need, you know, hey, while I'm looking at this long list of proposed laws, let me check out what's going on with the animals.
Meaghan:Just be aware, I mean, I think again, I do often think that people just, they really don't know. I spoke to a woman, a veterinarian today and I was like, you know, no offense, but I've met a lot of veterinarians who don't really have a grasp on the animal climate. And she's like, Yeah, they don't. They operate in their own little bubble.
Meaghan:Yes.
Candy:It's hard. I'm glad that you mentioned that. There was a breeder on the AKC website and that's the thing, these people are very creative with their wording.
Meaghan:Oh, yeah, they're sneaky.
Candy:Yes, she said, I have over X years of... how did she say it?
Candy:I have X number of years in the veterinary field. So at first when I first read that I'm like, this lady's a veterinarian. And what the heck am reading? I'm like, no, no. She's X.
Candy:She could have been a vet tech.
Meaghan:She could have been the marketing manager.
Candy:She could be the nice person at the front counter that checks you in and helps you pay your bill. It means, so you have to...
Meaghan:Well, it's kind of like the rehoming. On one of the Tractor Supply boards... Oh, love my mom. I got her involved in the Tractor Supply thing, the Better Boards. And she sent me a flyer from Connecticut and it said, rehoming. And there's a picture of one dog and then it was handwritten, $150 each.
Meaghan:I was like, No, I feel like you're misusing the word rehome. You're actually selling puppies.
Candy:Yes.
Candy:And there's a lot of people who buy a dog, and they say I adopted this. I'm like, no. You purchased it. ,
Candy:There's a difference.
Meaghan:The websites for puppy stores literally say adoption... they have Adoption language
Candy:Oh...
Meaghan:uh-huh. They sure do. But Candy, how are we on time? Because my computer is...
Meaghan:Let's round it
Candy:up here, but I do wanna go back a second and say if you go to capital.tn.gov. That's where you can find your legislators.
Meaghan:Thank you so much. That's helpful.
Candy:And I know
Candy:that seems intimidating to email a house representative or a senator, but quite honestly, it's a quick line. These people are people just like you.
Meaghan:I struggle with that too. I go to a lot of networking events and actually, I was at an event last week. It wasn't networking. It was something else, but the mayor was there.
Candy:Yeah. Yeah.
Meaghan:But she's so nice and it's a me thing. The more you see these people, the more you interact, the less intimidating it is.
Candy:If you don't know what
Candy:to do, ask them. How can I help you? This is what's important to me. Well, how are we doing when it comes to drugs, human trafficking, the big hitters, the things that we can all agree on. How are we doing there?
Candy:How can I help maybe? What can I keep my eye out on? And here's what's important to me, animal welfare, child welfare. Just give them a little list And if they wanna get a panel together to ask questions, you can sign up for that panel, attend meetings, give your feedback.
Meaghan:It's so important to just get to know the people in your community. It's the only way you're gonna have change. I will say, because I know we're gonna wrap this up, but I think on deck, the next few episodes, I'm so excited. So Candy, I know we're going We are going to talk to my good friend who has a hunting dog and he's a hunter. And I'm very excited about this.
Meaghan:I'm not gonna give too much away, but let's just say don't believe everything you read about hunters.
Candy:Right. I don't have a lot of experience in this area, but I have a feeling it's like the breeders.
Meaghan:Yes.
Candy:They are good. They are reasonable.
Candy:And, you know, I know it's like, oh, you're killing an animal. Look, I'm not a vegetarian. So, like...
Candy:You have to have some responsibility in that. What's the difference from me picking up something to eat at the store versus a hunter going and do like, getting that food source on their own? You know?
Meaghan:Oh, you're talking about that. I mean, like, hunters with well, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With the hunting Okay.
Candy:But I know it's easy to portray hunters as a bad thing because they're killing an animal, but there's...
Meaghan:Oh,
Meaghan:I didn't even really think about that. Yeah.
Candy:But to me, it's the consumption of the... again, I feel like there are responsible hunters.
Meaghan:Yes.
Candy:They take care of their animals. They take care of their animals. Very well.
Candy:And are respectful of the animals that they are hunting.
Meaghan:Yes. Yes.
Candy:And what they're doing with that animal and so on and so forth. And there, of course, in every patch there's a bad apple.
Meaghan:But, yeah, so I'm excited to have that conversation with Candy. I know we're trying to get a veterinarian.
Candy:We're working on that. We'd love to have a veterinarian on the show. Just to chime in, I'm not a vet, you're not a vet, we're not trying to give dog advice, but sometimes we talk.
Meaghan:I am gonna start to neuter dogs.
Candy:Oh, no.
Meaghan:I'm just joking. I'm not.
Candy:Nobody send Meaghan a pocket knife. But when we talked about parvo earlier, it'd be great to have a vet chime in and like, here's what I'm seeing and here's why it costs so much. Parvo puppies have to have around the clock care. They're very delicate when they're going through this process. So that wraps up when you're getting fluids intravenously, you're having somebody monitor you overnight, it racks up and that's why it costs so much.
Meaghan:I love that and we'll have a veterinarian on who is aware of what's happening in our community. That's the goal.
Candy:A few check ins out and about, so we'll try to take care of that.
Meaghan:Yes, for sure. And then also, know at some point we're gonna talk about hoarding, just the mental health component of animal hoarding. But guys, unfortunately we see a lot of it. . Down here.
Meaghan:Yeah. So I'm excited. Those are just a few of the things.
Candy:And if you have topics, let us know
Meaghan:Yes.
Candy:If you're curious about something, if you don't know, and another thing, we're looking for volunteers.
Meaghan:Always looking for volunteers.
Candy:If you do a little bit of this homework and researching and whatnot, we can definitely use more hands on deck to help us work through these things. And maybe that'll help us work through them better.
Meaghan:If you also know your way around a Google map, because we haven't updated our incident report map in so long. Because it just, well, first of all, there's so many incidents. I can't keep up.
Candy:Yeah.
Meaghan:But we have this interactive map on our website that just shows all of the animal welfare issues that we see. So if you know your way around some Google Sheets and Docs, please help. So I think that's it. I'm sorry.
Meaghan:I'm, like, burping up my coffee.
Candy:How about I close this out?
Meaghan:I'm struggling here.
Candy:We're glad to be back. It's 2026. We've got a lot of hot topics coming up, and so stay tuned, with The Bark. We can't wait to continue with you.
Meaghan:Yep. All right. Thanks guys. See you next time.