Charlotte Man Recalls Journey in Emergency Animal Rescue Work

Last fall, Mike Schultz was about four years into his journey doing animal rescue work locally, helping rehabilitate injured wildlife with the Indian Trail-based Carolina Waterfowl Rescue — working with turtles, rabbits, birds, snakes and squirrels — while also fostering dogs that were awaiting adoption.  

Come late-September, as Schultz began to hear about the hundreds of pets and shelter animals that were displaced by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina last year, he decided he had to do more. 

That’s how he got involved with emergency rescue work, volunteering with Humane World for Animals (formerly Humane Society of the United States) to help aid animals that have survived tragedy or large-scale abuse. 

Following an interview, Schultz went through a couple months of training that included FEMA-led classes before starting on his work. He told Queen City Nerve that he would be placed on an Animal Rescue Team of six to eight people on short notice then sent to a location where there was a need. A coordination team booked the trips and lodging, issuing vouchers for related expenses. Schultz could expect to be on any given trip for a minimum of three days and sometimes longer. 

The work was far from glamorous. Mike once spent three days cleaning dog cages, unable to interact with the inhabitants other than placing some peanut butter inside the cage as a way to subtly build back their trust in humans. 

These animals come from a variety of horrific situations — dogs that had been living on meat farms or the victims of neglect and illegal veterinary acts. 

In one recent case, a veterinarian’s home in Ohio was raided and found to be housing more than 100 dogs, cats, exotic birds, donkeys, rabbits, alpacas, goats, guinea pigs and a pig, most of which were suffering from various states of neglect. 

There were tables with blood stains and dogs roaming hallways lined with bird cages with visibly wounded birds inside. There were rabbits living on a concrete floor covered in urine and feces and multiple cats found with serious respiratory and eye injuries.  The doctor, who claimed to be running an animal sanctuary on the property, faces five charges of cruelty to companion animals. 

Schultz would sometimes be assigned to track the water and eating habits of large groups of animals recovered from situations like this and eventually work to get them to a place where they could once again thrive as potential pets. Or, in the case of natural disasters, working to reunite as many pets as possible with their owners. 

Allowing dogs to forage through boxes was one way for them to explore the senses of smell and taste. He would sometimes read to them or play music and ambient sounds of other animals from a noise machine.

“Some have not heard the sounds of people talking or birds chirping,” he said. “Dogs need structure to prepare them for their next home.”

In some cases, euthanization was necessary, never an easy thing for folks who had sacrificed their time to travel in hopes of helping any animal they came across. 

Schultz said his most rewarding moment was working to feed 100 dogs that were recovering in a warehouse together, then looking out over the facility and “seeing a warehouse of 100 dogs that were calm, happy, and healthy, which they were not before.”

Though no stranger to laborious work as a full-time roofer, Schultz is stepping back from emergency volunteer work to focus on volunteering with more local animal rescues. 

“I’ve found that the bigger the organization, the volunteering is more labor with little rewards, but the smaller animal rescues I’ve gotten to work with is where I actually got to do things that made a definite difference in the lives of the animals,” he says.

One of his most fulfilling experiences has been working with the Charlotte-based Fighting Chance Ranch & Rescue. He still remembers most of his foster dogs — Xena, Cowboy, Ranger — and knows the happy homes where each one of them ended up.  

Read more: CMPD Animal Care & Control Opens Satellite Shelter Amidst Crisis (2023)

He remembers Ami, a dog he met at a Lancaster shelter who was so covered in sores that she yelped when he first picked her up. He saw her through to recovery and that’s when he knew he wanted to do more. 

“She’s the reason I do so much with animals,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to go help at Humane World for Animals.”

As Schultz continues to focus his efforts locally, the need for nationally deployable emergency volunteers remains. Those interested in learning how they can help can visit the Humane World for Animals website.