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Animal-Kind International | In The News

In an update of their 2016 interview, Tracie Hotchner spoke to AKI Founder & Director, Karen Menczer. You can listen to the interview on the Dog Talk (and Kitties too) podcast: HELPING ANIMAL HELPERS AROUND THE WORLD

(Yes, Tracie is aware that Africa is a continent (and islands), not a country.) "...Animal-Kind International dispensing grants and other support to non-profits globally, often covering the salaries of shelter workers without whom animal rescue would not be possible."

We're grateful to Heart & Soul Animal Animal Sanctuary in Glorieta, New Mexico, USA for the recognition to Animal-Kind International in their Spring 2024 newsletter. In the newsletter, Natalie Owings not only mentions AKI's work in Africa, but highlights the humane education programs of two of our Partner Organizations, Sauvons nos Animaux (Congo) and Twala Trust (Zimbabwe).

A HUGE Thank You to Animals Today Radio, Dr. Lori Kirshner, and Dr. Peter Spiegel for interviewing AKI founder & director, Karen Menczer:

"We begin the [June 4, 2023] show with a delightful romp across the animal kingdom and the animated creatures of renown with Lori and Peter....Peter continues by welcoming Karen Menczer, Founder and Director of Animal-Kind International (AKI).  Karen established this exemplary animal welfare organization in 2007 to serve needy and abused dogs and cats (and now horses) in various countries in Africa. In this discussion, Karen talks about three local groups AKI supports and partners with, Uganda Society for the Protection & Care of Animals, Sauvons nos Animaux-Democratic Republic of Congo, and The Six Freedoms-Ghana. AKI carefully evaluates and then partners with select groups which are lovingly and diligently working to help dogs, cats and horses in Africa."

LISTEN TO ANIMALS TODAY RADIO

Although the entire show is fun and educational, if you'd like to skip to Peter's interview with Karen, it is at minute 21.5. But all their shows are interesting, and very much worth subscribing and listening to. 

We've often used Lakes Animal Friendship Society's beautiful Humane Education material. LAFS, located in Burns Lake, British Columbia, Canada, was recently in the news (July 5, 2023), and they cited their work with Animal-Kind International and the Uganda SPCA. Their coloring books about kindness and caring for animals is now available in Luganda, the most common local language in Uganda: 

READ the ARTICLE HERE

Thanks once again to Donkeys for Africa for including Animal-Kind International in their August/September 2022 newsletter and in their April/May 2022 edition of their newsletter! Among other interesting news, DfA quoted AKI about the importance of partnerships and mentions our Friendly Audit program.

READ the April/May DfA Newsletter

Read Animal-Kind International: Working for the growth of animal welfare in Africa in The Shan Newspaper (Voices from the World of Ecospirituality). Thank you to Rosalba Nattero for giving us the opportunity to publish this article in their esteemed e-newspaper. If you care about animals, something exciting is happening in Africa....

READ MORE

We're grateful to The Bark magazine for publishing Dog Rescue in Central Africa: Profile of founder of the Sauvons nos Animaux sanctuary, June 2021, by Karen Menczer. Sauvons nos Animaux is a 2020 AKI grant recipient. Also, in 2021, we raised money for SnA to rebuild their cattery and repair a dog kennel after rains and a mudslide caused a huge amount of damage to the sanctuary.

Read the Op Ed in the Santa Fe New Mexican about how covid-19 is affecting animal welfare organizations in Africa:  "Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Billie Eilish are just some of the young celebrities who have adopted or fostered dogs and cats during the coronavirus pandemic. Compare this to the situation for animal shelter and rescue organizations beyond our borders, especially in low-income countries, especially in Africa...."

READ THE ARTICLE

Thank you to Annemarie, editor of Donkeys for Africa, for the feature article in the August 2019 edition: "Animal-Kind International --here for African donkeys." 

AKI, our Partners and Grantees continue to make the news in Donkeys for Africa newsletters! Articles about Bam Animal Clinics-Uganda and Sibanye Trust-Zimbabwe (our 2019 Grantees) and Ghana SPCA (our Partner) are in the October 2019 edition.

AKI again features in the February 2020 Donkeys for Africa newsletter.

Your Dog, the newsletter of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, interviewed Karen Menczer (AKI Founder & Director) and asked, "Do we treat our dogs better than people in other countries?" The interview is in the January 2017 newsletter:  

Article about Animal Kind International in the Tufts Veterinary School magazine.
Article about Animal Kind International in the Tufts Veterinary School magazine.
Article about Animal Kind International in the Tufts Veterinary School magazine.
Article about Animal Kind International in the Tufts Veterinary School magazine.
Radio Pet Lady logo and link to interview with Animal Kind International Karen Menczer interview

Listen to Radio Pet Lady's interview with Karen Menczer, AKI Founder & Director, as they discuss how to do good for animals while traveling the world. If you don't have time to listen to the full hour, skip to Minute 22 for the 18 minute interview. 

Radio Pet Lady - AKI
00:00 / 00:00

AKI got top billing in the July 8, 2016 Albuquerque Journal's "Fetch!" section with this article by Keiko Ohnuma: 
Animal welfare goes worldwide: New Mexico woman's project helps animals everywhere.   Keiko writes about Liberia Animal Welfare & Conservation Society's, Morris Darbo's, visit to the US, as well as about AKI's support for its Partner Organizations. 

Voices for Biodiversity logo

AKI was featured in the publication, Voices for Biodiversity. Debra Denker wrote a beautiful article, "Animal Kindness Beyond Borders" (April 28. 2016).

Animal-Kind was featured in the Costco Connection! check it out,  click here.

The Truth About Cats and Dogs in Costco Connection, about Animal Kind International.
Article in the Bosque Beast Doing a World of Good a World Away about Animal Kind International.

"Doing a World of Good, A World Away,"  written by Barbara Castleman, and published in the December 2014/January 2015 Bosque Beast, is an interesting and fun read, and summarizes AKI's purpose and activities very well!

Bark magazine published this AKI Guest Editorial, "Act Locally and Globally" in their Spring 2014 issue.

Bark Spring 2014
Guest Editorial
Act Locally and Globally
By Karen Menczer
According to the 2013 World Giving Index, an annual survey conducted by the Charities Aid Foundation, in 2012, the United States topped a list of 135 countries as the world’s most generous nation. As director of Animal-Kind International (AKI), a nonprofit that supports 10 (soon to be 11) existing animal-welfare organizations in poor countries, I was thrilled to read these statistics. But do they apply to animal welfare? Have animal welfare advocates moved beyond national borders to support animal protection efforts wherever they are needed? If not, why not?

Thanks largely to social media and international travel, interest in and awareness of global animal welfare issues are certainly growing. These days, I less often hear, “Why should we help over there when we have so many animal problems here in the U.S.?”
Rather, I meet people like Maritha, an AKI supporter, who has traveled to Jamaica and who designates an AKI partner organization, Kingston Community Animal Welfare, for her donations. Maritha’s reason for donating to an organization thousands of miles away? “A dog is a dog, and it doesn’t matter which country he comes from. Where the help is needed most and where you know you can make an impact, that’s where you should put your money.”

Even though awareness and interest are growing, my AKI experience tells me that animal welfare advocates have yet to wholeheartedly join the trend of donating beyond borders. Certainly, U.S.-based animal welfare organizations deserve our support, but if American dog- and cat-lovers knew of the tremendous strides animal welfare organizations in poor countries are making (and their tremendous needs), and if they knew that their donated funds were well accounted for and were making a difference, the boundaries to giving would break down.

AKI fills those knowledge gaps:  We report on our partner organizations’ successes and challenges. We provide details of how these donations are used. We do the due diligence to ensure that our partner organizations spend funds only for animal welfare purposes. And we send 100 percent of all donations to our partner organizations, all of which were started and/or are now run by local people who deeply care about animals.

It’s an exciting time to be involved in international animal welfare; things are happening so quickly! In the past few years, Pilar, who runs the AKI partner organization Helping Hands for Hounds of Honduras, noted that “people now take their dogs to the vet for vaccinations and when they are sick (although often they wait too long due to their financial situation). They also buy dog houses, and dogs are less often chained and left out in the sun and rain with no shelter. People are now buying dog food (often the cheap kind) instead of giving them old, moldy tortillas. Many people now bury their pets when they die instead of throwing them in the trash.”

Our AKI partner organizations do so much with so little; they are often the only animal welfare organization in the country. They work in countries where donations to animal welfare are so hard to come by, and where American expertise, lessons learned and generosity can have a huge impact.  It’s not about us v. them; it’s not a matter of local v. global. We all have something to share.

Karen Menczer started Animal-Kind International in 2007. It now supports existing animal welfare organizations in Armenia, Bosnia, Jamaica, Honduras, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Uganda.

Book Saving Baby review by Karen Menczer of Animal Kind International.

Animal-Kind International's Director was invited to provide a review of Saving Baby, a memoir of a woman, her horses, and the racing industry. Read more about the book here: www.savingbaby.com

OTHER MEDIA ARTICLES & MENTIONS......

University of New Mexico's alumni magazine, The Mirage, Spring 2012, included an article on Animal-Kind International that you can read here.

 

The Jemez Thunder published an article about Animal-Kind International in 2011-->

 

Animal-Kind International is featured in American Foreign Service Association News in the Foreign Service Journal, April 2012 and

is available here (as it appeared in AFSA News).

 

Helping Hands for Hounds of Honduras is the star of Ben Swan's article in the Santa Fe New Mexican about AKI's Partner Organization in Honduras -->

 

SEE MORE ARTICLES BY BEN SWAN ABOUT ANIMAL-KIND INTERNATIONAL, BELOW

 

James Hettinger wrote in the Humane Society of the United States' publication, Animal Sheltering Magazine, about Animal-Kind International.

Read it here

 

Karen Menczer's article about Animal-Kind International was published in High Desert Dog Magazine-Read it here.

 

David Pluth, world renowned photographer, wrote in Bark magazine's July/August 2007 edition, "Humane educator Karen Menczer works at the grassroots to help Africa's dogs." The article showcases David's beautiful photographs.

Read it here

Animal Kind International article in the Jemez Thunder.
Animal Kind International article by Ben Swan about Helping Hands for Hounds of Honduras.
Global Good Deeds article by Ben Swam

Another great article by Ben Swan about Animal-Kind International appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican in 2010: Homeless, neglected animals throughout the world get needed help through Animal-Kind International.
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Ben Swan wrote a short article on June 20, 2010 for the Scoop column of the Santa Fe New Mexican, entitled, Keeping the Pulse on Animal Welfare Throughout the World."-->

Animal Kind International article by Ben Swan about Keeping the Pulse on Animal Welfare Throughout the World.
Article about Animal Kind International and Global Acts of Kindness.

Ben Swan's first article about Animal Kind International appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican on 11/21/2009 - Animal-Kind International helps support animals in the world's poorest places.<--

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