How to save an animal shelter: “If you care about something just do it” episode artwork

EPISODE · Oct 11, 2025 · 13 MIN

How to save an animal shelter: “If you care about something just do it”

from Post Reports · host The Washington Post

The municipal animal shelter in Huntington, West Virginia, was euthanizing 50 to 75 percent of the animals that came in because they didn’t have the funding or space to care for them. Enter Courtney Proctor Cross. She was named director of the shelter in August 2018, and through hard work and fundraising she transformed the shelter into a place of hope. This episode was produced by Ted Muldoon. The Optimist’s editor is Allison Klein.If you want more stories from The Optimist, check out our newsletter. And let us know what you think of these stories on “Post Reports.” You can email me at [email protected] or reach the whole team at [email protected] to The Washington Post here. And check out the YouTube video of this episode here.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Oct 11, 2025

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Courtney Proctor Cross was an elementary school teacher for 30 years before she changed her life. When she took over an animal shelter that had become a “death sentence” for the animals who entered, she made it a place of hope.

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How to save an animal shelter: “If you care about something just do it”

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