Lisa McKay
Weekdays: 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM
LISA McKAY UNLEASHED
By Suzanne Jalot
Dog Living Magazine
April, 2008
We knew we'd love interviewing Lisa McKay as soon as we learned what her lifelong goal is: To end pet overpopulation. She's definitely someone we want to get to know better!
A familiar voice to country music fans, McKay can be heard all across the Triangle from 3pm until 7pm on WQDR, 94.7 FM. A vegetarian and obvious animal lover, she currently lives with six delightful dogs, although she tells us she's had more.
"I've had as many as 15 dogs in the house what I was more active in the foster home program," McKay says, "Now I am down to six since I lost Carla in December, a month shy of her 20th birthday." McKay says she used to be very active in fostering dogs, and she always seemed to just hang on to the ones nobody else wanted.
Pet portraits by Katie Seitz - Phone: 919-785-0620
Her current pack consists of Buster, Butterscotch, Paco, Scooter, Lucky and Duke. "Buster is the pack leader," says McKay, "Butterscotch looks just like Buster, but is one-eighth his size and we do call him mini-me!"
Paco is a border collie mix who McKay says has a sly side, "He'd be the one cheating at the doggie poker table." Scooter is a small terrier mix who McKay says is usually stuck to her side. "We tease him because he always is dancing so we call him tiny dancer," she says. Lucky is a white dalmation-rottweiler mix who McKay picked up when she was living in Richmond. She was heartworm positive, had just given birth to a litter of pups and had a broken pelvis. We think we know how she got her name!
Finally, Duke is a large pointer mix who, because of hip dysplasia, had the balls of his hips removed when he was a puppy. "He loves to goose us," McKay says.
A life-long, self-professed "dog person," McKay says her dogs teach her how to enjoy life. "They go full tilt at everything," she says, "Eating their Purina One, playing and, my favorite, napping."
Now, what about that goal of ending pet over-population? "Pet over-population seems so easy to cure," says McKay, "Spay or neuter period." She does have a theory about why it's such a problem. "No one makes money if there is zero pet over-population so it isn't a priority for politicians," McKay explains, "We need a 'Spay Neuter Political Action Group' to make this a priority with every animal going out of a shelter." She suggests that an advertising campaign that shows shelters being forced to destroy 80% of their adoptable animals would also be helpful to bring public awareness to the issue.
McKay is certainly in a position to help educate the public. She says 86% of her listeners are pet owners. "I love when my listeners share their pet stories and pictures with me," she says.
"Experts call dogs and cats companion animals because they are just that," says McKay, "Companions and best friends for as long as they live. It's a pretty good deal for people." She says she knows achieving zero pet over-population can be done and she's seen it done in other cities. "Imagine if every pet was wanted," she says, "How wonderful their lives and ours would be."
The Spay and Neuter Clinic of Alamance County is a recently developed clinic found in Burlington. It offers low cost services for pet owners to spay or neuter their dog or cat. Rabies vaccinations will be given for the animals who do not already have one for an additional fee. The Spay and Neuter Clinic of Alamance County is committed to reducing the number of unwanted animals that come to the animal shelter each year. The health benefits for the animals are numerous and allow pet owners to actively reduce animal overpopulation in Alamance County. For more information or to make an appointment, call 336-570-6767 or visit their website.
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