INTRODUCING TEAM BTC!

Designed to assist with online animal advocacy, BtC4animals.com has grown a great deal since its inception. With growth comes the opportunity for further community involvement. That said, we are happy to introduce the talented people behind Team BtC, an all volunteer family! Have a talent you’d like to offer? Write to us!

Kim Clune - Director, Founding Member 

Kim Clune, owner of Mixed Media Matters, Inc., helps animal welfare and humanitarian aid groups promote initiatives using print, digital and social media. Founding member and Director of Be the Change for Animals, an international activism site awarded Best Cause Blog by DogTime Media, Kim also celebrates human/animal connections through writing, photography and film at ThisOneWildLife.com.

Balancing a quest for global change with a desire to act locally, Kim now blends her passion for animal welfare and humanitarian aid by founding Dog House Adoptions, a rescue to serve stray dogs and the people of Rensselaer County, NY. With hands-on experience revealing the softest side of dogs once deemed “unadoptable,” Kim believes that all dogs deserve the chance to shine, enriching people’s lives through therapeutic, educational, and companionship opportunities. Her goal at Dog House Adoptions is to make as many of those connections as possible.

Visit Kim’s Rescue: Dog House Adoptions
Visit her Blog: This One Wild Life
Professional Site: Mixed Media Matters, Inc.
Social Media Spaces: http://xeeme.com/KimClune

Amy Burkert - Financier, Founding Member 

Amy is a co-founder of the award-winning pet travel website, GoPetFriendly.com, a free resource for all the pet friendly information needed to travel with pets throughout the US and Canada. She and her husband spend much of their time traveling in a Winnebago with their dogs, Ty and Buster. Their blog, Take Paws, is an encyclopedia of pet travel tips, pet friendly destination advice, and humorous tales of the couple’s dog friendly adventures.

Visit Amy:
Blog: Take Paws
Professional Site: GoPetFriendly
Facebook and Twitter

Peggy Frezon – Staff Writer

Peggy is an award-winning writer specializing in pets, with stories in The Ultimate Dog Lover, Miracles and Animals, and others; a regular contributor to Guideposts magazine; and a contributor to more than a dozen Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Her first book is Dieting with my Dog (Hubble & Hattie, 2011). Her “pet cause” is pet adoption, sparked by the love of a scrawny stray beagle-lab named Happy, an orphaned farm mutt named Corky, and currently, her rescue spaniel-mix pooch, Kelly. Peggy enjoys sharing tips and inspiration in her twice-monthly web column, Pawsitively Pets, and on her blog Peggy’s Pet Place. Although she’s been mom to dogs, cats, rabbits, gerbils, turtles, fish and (in college, when nothing else was allowed) hermit crabs, she has a soft spot for guinea pigs.

Visit Peggy
Blog: Peggy’s Pet Place blog
Professional Site: PeggyFrezon.com
Facebook and Twitter

Kim Thomas – Staff Writer and Facebook Community Liaison

Kim Thomas is a freelance writer and mother of four; her family shares their Chicago-area home with two dogs, three cats and foster kitties. She volunteers with Almost Home Foundation, an all-volunteer organization that has rescued over 5,000 dogs and cats since its inception in March, 2005.  Kim shares her love for pets and concern for animal welfare in her blog, CindyLu’s Muse – appropriately named after her strong-willed but irresistable pup, CindyLu, who occasionally injects her own views.

Find Kim
Blog: CindyLu’s Muse
Facebook and Twitter

Vicki Cook – Staff Writer and Twitter Community Liaison

Vicki Stringfellow Cook is a  mom, self-professed crazy cat lady, and human slave to her rabbit – Bunny Jean Cook. A passionate pet blogger, Vicki focuses on animal shelters/rescues and other animal-related causes and has blogged about most every cause BtC4animals has ever hosted. She is also a volunteer fundraiser for Pawpawty, a  24 hour virtual event on Twitter that raises money for animal charities all over the world.

Find Vicky
Blog: Bunny’s Blog
Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

Mary Haight – Staff Writer 

Mary Haight was fascinated with animals from a young age. She began taking care of whatever showed up in her yard–cats, birds, chipmunks. Mary, a cat person until allergies hit, got her first dog as an adult, and was surprised at all the lessons learned, like puppy energy requires patience. Mary’s been learning from animals ever since, working with horses and dogs. Currently living in the Chicago area with her dog Tashi, Mary is an officer on the board of Lake Shore Animal Shelter, one of the first No-Kill shelters in the US, serves on the board of the Chicago Animal Shelter Alliance and is founder of the podcast site Animal Cafe. She has been involved in animal welfare for over 15 years.

Visit Mary
Blog: Dancing Dog Blog
Podcast site: Animal Cafe
Facebook and Twitter

Mel Freer – Staff Writer

Mel has been an active cause scout and BTC contributor since June 2011. She made her writing debut during our October-long campaign against puppy mills.  Mel’s yellow lab, Daisy, is rescued mill dog – #201. Mel is a former pet sitter and dog walker from St Paul, Minnesota. Before becoming a pet sitter, she volunteered at the Minnesota Valley Humane Society (MVHS) for 8 years as a dog walker and Star program trainer. In her time at MVHS, she fostered 4 dogs, failing with three – Daisy, Jasper and Lady (her present dogs). She also has a cat, named Nick.

Visit Mel
Blog: No Dog About It
Facebook and Twitter

Maggie Marton – Staff Writer

Maggie Marton is a freelance writer based in Bloomington, Indiana. When she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out with her dogs while trying to convince her husband that they also need a cat. Maggie’s cause to end Breed Specific Legislation in Denver, CO was the first cause ever hosted on BtC4animals.com, making her a member of the BtC team since the very beginning!

Visit Maggie
Blog: Oh My Dog! blog
Professional Site: MaggieMarton.com
Facebook and Twitter

FORMER MEMBERS WHO HELPED US TO RISE

Shauna Stewart – Cause Scout

Shauna was a single dancer/backpacker/student living in Toronto, Melbourne, Tokyo and Amsterdam… and then she met her husband, John, moved to an island off the westcoast of Canada, got married, got a mortgage, and added two dogs to the mix: Mickey (a chihuahua x) and Kayloo (a pittie/collie/australian mix of some kind). Her blog, Fido & Wino, is  about all three  and she posts lots of photos – because that’s how she rolls. Shauna is also “the chick” behind the R.O.A.R. Squad- Rescue Owners Are Rockin! which was profiled here on BtC4animals. Shauna is now making room in her life for a bambino and we wish her growing family all the best!

Visit Shauna
Blog: Fido & Wino (& Bambino)
Facebook and Twitter