Amy Shever—the founder of 2nd Chance 4 Pets, an animal welfare organization that seeks to reduce the number of family pets unnecessarily euthanized due to the death or incapacity of their companions—provides an overview of what 2nd Chance is, what it seeks to do, and what prompted her to launch it in 2003.She also discusses the sorts of responses she elicits when explaining her 
organization’s entreaties and recommendations—people often haven’t thought about providing for their pets in scenarios when the human companions might be temporarily or permanently unable to care for them. But once prompted to think about it, Shever explains, people often are quite willing to formulate a plan, often with guidance from 2nd Chance 4 Pets, sometimes involving pet trusts. On a related note, she addresses the difficulty of animals whose owners haven’t made such a plan, wind up in a shelter (Shever estimates as many as 500,000 animals annually for this reason), are shaken by that harsh transition, exhibit behavior that often has them deemed “unadoptable,” and as such, are euthanized. Shever also describes the array of measures—including webinars, speaking at conferences for veterinarians and others, providing resources on the 2nd Chance 4 Pets website, and more—to broaden the educational scope of this information. (www.2ndchance4pets.org, www.facebook.com/2ndChance4Pets)
COMEDY CORNER: Bill Burr’s “Dog Trainer” (portion) (www.billburr.com)
MUSIC: Rebekah Pulley’s “Talking Animals Theme,” They Might Be Giant’s “Mammal,” Rokia Traoré’s “Tuit Tuit,” instrumentals
NAME THAT ANIMAL TUNE: Be Bop Deluxe’s “Sister Seagull”
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