Rea to the rescue: Sophomore does charity work with animals

Tails wag rapidly as sophomore Laura Rea walks through the Furry Friends shelter on Sunday afternoons in Fremont. She bends over to pet the many panting puppies and frisky felines in their chain link enclosures. After acknowledging all the staff members with her dimpled smile, Rea quickly gets to work.

Rea has been volunteering at various charities for five years and “loves every minute of it.”

“I started volunteering in the beginning of middle school when I was looking for a dog to adopt,” Rea said, “I saw all those poor cats and dogs in cages and that sparked my passion.”

As a member of National Charity League (NCL), a mother-daughter philanthropic organization, Rea has the opportunity to work with several charities including the Humane Society of Silicon Valley (HSSV), Nike Animal Rescue Foundation (NARF), Sacred Heart and more than 20 other charities served by NCL.

Although she volunteers for many charities, Rea enjoys helping animals the most.

“I really want to be a vet when I grow up because I’m really passionate about animals,” Rea said. “It makes me upset to see so many homeless, malnourished and abused animals come into shelters. I love the feeling of helping animals find homes.

Although Rea does simple tasks that every pet owner should do, she also gets exposed to what it’s like to be a veterinarian.

“I mostly just feed, clean and play with the animals that come in. But sometimes I get to shadow a procedure like a colic or a pregnancy,” Rea said.

One of the events that sparked Rea’s passions to work with animals occurred when she interned at her aunt’s horse rescue, Thoroughbred Rehab Center at Winner’s Circle Ranch in L.A. over the summer. They had been driving on the highway and spotted an injured German shepherd.

The pair immediately stopped and checked on her and saw that she was completely malnourished and “on the brink of death, with bare patches of scarred skin.” They rushed her to the closest vet hospital and after “waiting what had seemed like hours,” the vet told them that she was pregnant and that they were going to have to do an emergency C-section.

The veterinarian allowed her to watch the procedure and although the mother died during the process, she had three healthy puppies.

Though Rea and her aunt found homes for all of the pups whose births they witnessed, not all animals are so fortunate. Out of the 6-8 million cats and dogs that enter shelters every year, Rea said that the winter season is when the most animals get abandoned, so shelters need more volunteers. People like her are crucial to the maintenance of shelters.

According to Rea, doing volunteer work that one finds meaningful and interesting can be a relaxing, energizing escape from one’s day-to-day routine of work, school or family commitments.

“Volunteering gives a bittersweet feeling. It warms my heart to know that I’m keeping animals safe and out from the cold, but then again saddens me that so many people abandon their pets.”