Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation and Operation Warrior Shield Gives Rescue Dogs the Chance to 'Pay it Forward'

At the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation, the mission is to find dogs their forever homes.

Thanks to a new partnership, some of the dogs have also found a new forever purpose.

In July, the foundation joined forces with Operation Warrior Shield, an organization that provides a wide range of support programs for military veterans and first responders focused broadly on health and wellness to help “heal their hidden wounds.”

Since being founded by Ed Schloeman, and the late Jerry Yellin in 2016, the organization has put special emphasis on helping veterans and first responders recovering from injury, PTSD and other mental and emotional health challenges. They take a multi-faceted approach to that work, offering teaching transcendental meditation and offering other community-based holistic wellness programs, but one standout feature, launched last year, has been an effort to pair vets and first responders with companion dogs.

SASF Executive Director Pat Deshong had been interested in finding a way to train some of the shelter dogs for a new life as companion pets for that purpose, and a former associate from her days working as the president of the Humane Society in Jupiter, Florida, suggested to her that she get in touch with the people at Operation Warrior Shield.

Deshong had created her own organization in Florida, “Shelter to Service Dog,” identifying dogs from a no-kill shelter in Jupiter that would be good candidates for training as companion dogs, and pairing them with military veterans in need. She said she was inspired to create that program after attending a ceremony in 2014 where a military veteran in a wheelchair was paired with a companion dog.

“I was so moved and thought, if only we could do this with rescue dogs,” she said.

That’s exactly what she’s doing now.

The partnership between SASF and OWS is still new, but has been fruitful thus far.

Layla, an 8-month-old yellow lab mix who came from Texas, which has a high number of kill shelters, was paired with Chris Quirin, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Manhasset. At age 18, Quirin was injured by a landmine while serving as a combat veteran in Vietnam. He spent seven months in the hospital and earned a Purple Heart, although the fallout from his wounds — both physical and emotional — are still with him. There was a knee replacement, shoulder injury, and loss of feeling in his left hand; he’s had two different kinds of cancer; and Quirin said he lived with undiagnosed PTSD for 20 years before he started getting help.

Quirin has been a dog lover his whole life, and said when he met Layla two months ago, it was love at first sight.

“She jumped in my lap and put her head on my shoulder,” he said. “She’s a gorgeous dog, with beautiful eyes, and she’s very calm.

“She’s just a good, calming influence,” he continued. “When I’m paying attention to her, it distracts me from other things. I can focus on giving her love and attention, and she sends it back.”

Quirin added that Layla has been a great addition to the entire family, showering love and affection on his wife as well as on his son, who is on the autism spectrum.

The foundation and OWS recently created another partnership, between NYPD officer Thomas Cannariato, who lives in Goshen, New York, and another yellow lab mix named Zelda. Foundation members made the trek up island to have Zelda meet Cannariato when he came down from Goshen for a doctor’s appointment, because he is limited in where he can travel.

Like Quirin and Layla, Cannariato and Zelda made an instant connection, and she’ll go live with him in Goshen in less than a month, when her training is complete.

Cannariato said he’s excited to have Zelda become part of his life. In 2021, while working as an NYPD patrol sergeant in northern Manhattan, he had an accident that resulted in multiple injuries and he has been out on sick leave ever since. The extent of his injuries requires him to be housebound for much of the day, and because he lives alone with his cat, Shadow, he is looking forward to the companionship that Zelda will provide. He called the day he met Zelda “amazing.”

“She’s been like a ray of sunshine in a dark place,” he said.

Seeing the powerful impact a dog can have on the life of someone like Quirin or Cannariato is powerful, and Deshong said being able to give a shelter dog the opportunity to perform that role makes it even better.

“It gives the dog a chance to pay it forward,” she said.

The partnership with OWS has been mutually beneficial. Schloeman said it’s been rewarding to incorporate shelter dogs into the program, instead of exclusively using dogs from breeders, and Deshong said that the partnership has been mutually beneficial from a financial standpoint as well. OWS was able to provide the $5,000 necessary for the companion dog training for Layla, and Schloeman said that making the connection with SASF will help boost their own fundraising efforts. OWS receives financial support for the companion dog program from the Doris Day Foundation, Hope for Heroes, and the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. They both also pointed out that it’s important to make the distinction that the dogs are trained as companion dogs rather than service dogs, meaning their training, while still key, is less robust and extensive — and thus much less expensive — than service dog training.

Deshong said the kind of feedback she’s received from making these connections, both during her time in Florida and now here, makes the effort well worth it.

“I want to give shelter dogs a purpose,” she said. “They can do more than just be a family dog. I really see that. It’s so rewarding. I had the spouse of a veteran call me and say, ‘Thank you for giving me my husband back. He took me to the movies last night, and we hadn’t done that in 10 years.’”

Deshong knows firsthand the kind of impact a dog can make on someone suffering from PTSD. Her own husband, who died three years ago, was a Vietnam veteran and she realized, in hindsight, there were signs that he had PTSD. She said he was very attached to their own rescue dogs and relied on them for support.

She still speaks with reverence for one of the first connections she helped foster during her time in Florida, between a rescued pit bull and a U.S. Army veteran named Derek Butler. The dog — which had been renamed Phoenix — had been rescued from a horrible situation, where it had been doused with gasoline and set on fire, and also had a fractured hip. Despite all the dog had been through, it remained kind and gentle with people, and after recovering, bonded with Butler, who adopted the dog. He later shared with Deshong that he had a day where he was seriously contemplating suicide, but after looking in the dog’s eyes, decided instead to drive himself to the hospital and seek help.

Like Deshong, Schloeman is equally thrilled about the new partnership, and the opportunity to give shelter dogs a new purpose in life.

“Pat is such a wonderful person,” he said, adding he’s happy OWS’s companion dog program now includes both breeder and rescue dogs. “This really opens up a whole new avenue for us.”