Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Thomas
Hi Ashley, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in an abusive and poverty stricken household but had a wonderful grandmother who was a huge animal lover. I used to help her catch feral cats in order to get them spayed or neutered. Starting at 11 years old at babysit as much as I could and officially got my first job at 14. I saved everything I could, and at 16 left home and never looked back.
In high school I volunteered at the animal shelter in Blount County starting around 2006. I found that helping the unwanted and discarded animals also helped heal a part of me that was traumatized from my upbringing. I have since noticed a pattern with animal welfare folks having similar backgrounds as me.
Throughout college I continued to volunteer for different animal, welfare organizations and rescues. Eventually, I got a job as a kennel cleaner at Young Williams Animal Center in Knoxville in 2009. At that point in my life, I realize that what I was going to college for was not what I wanted to spend my life doing. I think I have been majoring in psychology to try to evaluate my childhood experience and family members more than anything.
I spent 10 years at Young Williams animal Center working in every department for the first couple of years before becoming Placement Manager. In that role, I was able to start and maintain a large foster care program, nature rescue partnerships, and even send dogs to northern states where they had a better chance for adoption. I also worked with rescues to start a program for feral cats to be placed in barn homes so they would no longer have to be euthanized.
My main goal was and is to learn everything I can to better serve the animals in my care. I was fortunate to work at such a large shelter with many resources a full service veterinary clinic. In 2018 Young Williams finally reached no kill status. At that time, I felt that I had accomplished and learned enough that it was time to take my skills and help a smaller shelter with less resources.
Toward the end of 2018, I applied and was hired to create a brand new animal welfare organization for this Sevier County government. Sevier Animal Care Center was born! We serve the public and animal control needs for Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and Pittman Center. from day one we have been able to maintain no kill status and humane care for our community. I’m very proud of the wonderful team I have put together that makes this happen every day. Every one of them are heroes. we also have so many partners throughout the community that helps support our mission and we really could not do this without them.
Since 2016, I have personally fostered over 3000 animals in my home. I specialize in kittens that are unweaned and fragile, but foster pretty much any pet that needs me. I also run a rescue based in Knoxville with my friend Joyce Gouge called Rustic Rover Rescue & Lodge. Joyce is in charge of the dog rescues and I’m take care of goat/farm animal rescues.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
When your life‘s passion is animal welfare it’s unfortunately never a smooth road.
For the animals, we battle animal abuse, overpopulation, backyard breeders, hoarding & neglect, puppy mills, misinformation about certain breeds of dogs, and general ignorance about animal care.
For the humans in our community, we work just as hard! From folks looking for a companion to combat loneliness to people needing resources to feed or fix their pet-there is a great need for our services.
We’ve been impressed with Sevier Animal Care Center, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Sevier Animal Care Center is the open admission animal shelter for Sevier County. We assist folks if they have found a stray, need to surrender their animal, or if they’re looking to adopt. I believe what sets us apart is that we use the non-judgmental approach to animal welfare.
What’s next?
I am really looking forward to moving into our new facility! Since we opened in 2018, we have been in a temporary space which used to be a car garage. March of this year, we are set to move into our brand new building that is approximately four times larger and designed to limit animal stress while increasing efficiency. We will have areas for classes and events along with specific areas for volunteers to do their best work.
Once we have the bigger space, I’m excited to add even more programs to assist the community.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.sevieranimalcarecenter.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sevieracc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sevieranimalcarecenter/
