Second Chance

Where love and patience replace euthanasia in an effort to find good homes for abandoned and stray dogs and cats Second Chance Animal Shelter

Story and photos By David Moore

Sad to say, but you don’t have to love a dog or a cat to own one. That’s why places such as Second Chance Animal Shelter in Boaz exist … too many unloved animals.

But to operate Second Chance or any such non-profit shelter – whether it’s a no-kill facility or not – does require people who love dogs and cats. All dogs and cats. Even those hard to love.

Likewise, if you operate such a shelter with your spouse, you best love that person, too. A lot. And it probably helps if you’re both a little crazy.

Some folks know Doug and Wanda McGee, Second Chance founders and owners, as “the crazy dog people.” And “crazy” may well predate the dogs. They met at the Albertville Police station when Doug arrested Wanda. And then nobly bonded her out.

Full disclosure: Wanda then manager of McDonald’s in Albertville, had been “arrested” as part of a jail and bail fundraiser for muscular dystrophy. During the event, Doug arrested her at work at and took her to “jail.” She had to make phone calls to raise her bail money.

“I gave her $5,” he grins. “It was all I had.”

Nothing says I love you like a sorely needed Lincoln.

The family lore moment held no harbingers of their life to come … well, not unless those jail bars symbolize the 233 dogs that today wait in cages at the shelter for a kind soul to pay their $40 adoption fee and take them to the loving home that’s so far evaded them.

The McGees met in 2005; married in 2006. On their honeymoon to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, they actually had a “what if” talk regarding animal shelters. The true harbinger came when they returned home to find two black Lab puppies on their porch.

“It should have been an indicator that we would have something to do with dogs,” Doug says.

More puppies squirmed unsought into the McGees’ lives one evening in May 2008.

Wanda was then a customer service rep at BancorpSouth. Doug, in his 16th year with the APD, was filling in as dispatcher when he took a call on six puppies someone dumped in a yard on Gethsemane Road. Protocol called for animal control, but Doug knew the city euthanized some 80-90 strays and unwanted dogs a month.

“I knew as soon as animal control picked them up, they would die.” So instead he called his wife. “Can I get these puppies and bring them home?”

Doug McGee, top, hugs a cute little buddy. Volunteer Gigi Hulgan, center, gives Moses some attention. It’s been a good year for Second Chance; starting with some 270 dogs in January, it has given away about 70 more than it’s taken in.

Like-hearted Wanda said yes.

The pups were a cute, mixed breed, maybe 10 weeks old. The McGees took them to Collinsville Trade Day where they were quickly adopted.

As Doug tells this story from the office, Wanda, the “heart and soul” of Second Chance, is outside working in the pens. You can hear the clamoring barking of the crazy canine choir.

Doug finishes the puppy story. “That started it. It just kinda’ went crazy from there.”

Then there was Toby, a black Newfoundland with a Houdini propensity for escaping. The McGees found him a home in Pell City. Other unwanted dogs followed suit, and eventually that what-if honeymoon talk turned serious.

And so it was, that on May 1, 2008, they began taking dogs at the shelter on land Wanda’s Gregg family owned off U.S. 168 north of Boaz. Funded from their own pockets, the homemade pens were nothing fancy, but they answered a need for unwanted dogs. There was never a debate about operating any way other than as a no-kill shelter.

“Wanda made it clear we would never kill an animal on the property,” Doug says.

At the end of 2009 Doug and Wanda received nonprofit status, and by May 2011 they housed 100 dogs. After working bank and police jobs, they came home and worked dog pens, drained by the time all of the mouths and pens were fed and cleaned at night.

“We were exhausted,” Doug says. “We both just started crying. We knew it would kill us.”

Finally they agreed that Wanda would leave the bank to work the dogs; Doug would support them on his police check. But their relationship continued deteriorating.

“She was stuck here all day while I was goofing off at the police department – and that’s supposed to be one of the most stressful jobs,” Doug says. “It got to the point where tension was not working.”

Eventually, the McGees had a come-to-Jesus meeting in the kitchen of their former trailer.

“As a trial, I said I’d quit my job for six months and give it all we’ve got,” Doug says. “I told her, ‘You know, if we do this, we could end up homeless living in a box.’ It was one of the few moments of my life I remember with clarity.”

“Well,” Wanda had replied, “it’d better be a big box.”

They laughed. And the plan took.

“With us both on the same sheet of music, we could do anything,” Doug says. “One of us could not do it, but two of us as a team … We went out on a limb together and it really worked.”

It still wasn’t easy. Second Chance Shelter grew by leaps and barks. Nearly every morning Wanda and Doug found a box of puppies outside the fence or a

Zafira and Brittany Perez hug at top right. Technically, the dogs are free to good homes. The $40 adoption fee covers the mandatory spaying or neutering.

tied-up dog. It was out of control. By 2013, they peaked at 459 dogs.

The McGees came under negative scrutiny from an Albertville business. A person affiliated with the business wrote letters to officials. The shelter is located just inside DeKalb County, and a DeKalb deputy told them they had too many dogs.

“People said it’s animal cruelty,” Doug says, hurt still in his eyes. “That we needed to start killing them. But that was off the table. We said the dogs were fed and kept up as good as we could. ‘Take me to jail.’

“It looked like we were hoarders, but we weren’t,” he continues. “Once the dogs were here, we didn’t have the heart to send them off. That’s the bottom line. I let them get out of control. But Wanda would put me down before she let me put a dog down.” Responding to complaints, DeKalb County District Attorney Mike O’Dell made a surprise visit to Second Chance. According to a story in the Fort Payne Times Journal, he found no signs of cruelty but instead volunteers helping care for the dogs and two shelter owners who obviously loved animals.

The DA did tell them to reduce their numbers and said he would make follow-up visits.

The reduction came from a seemingly unlikely source – Northerners from Wisconsin and elsewhere. Wanda began networking with them, and the Northerners would drive down monthly to transport neutered dogs for adoption back home.

“I am grateful they still take them,” Doug says. “But it bothers me that we are not handling our own problems. I am tired of Alabama being 49th and 50th in everything but football. Humane animal issues are an area we can do better.”

Between these outside and local adoptions, Second Chance averages finding homes for 120-130 dogs a month. Last year, those adoption fees generated about 16 percent of the shelter’s $250,000 in donations and grants.

“It sounds like a lot of money, but it is really not,” Doug says.

Besides food and supplies, that also covers six full-time and three to four part-time employees. Further help comes from volunteers, court-ordered inmates and those doing community service.

Second Chance gets grants of

$1,000-$10,000 from businesses and others, plus they have several generous benefactors across the county, Doug says.

“Most of our money comes from big-hearted people who just like to help,” he says. “We get lots of $25 and $50 donations. We sure have a good community. It’s amazing how much support we get around here.”

It’s hard for any detractors to claim Wanda and Doug run the shelter to get rich. He makes $5.76 per hour while she makes $6.75.

“She is worth more,” he laughs. “But I don’t want people to say, ‘Oh, those poor people.’ We are not that kind of people. We have everything we need in the world. My payoff is not money. My payoff is that I’m excited about living.”

More money for the shelter and employees, however, would be nice.

“It’s not the Taj Mahal. We do what we can with what we have,” Doug says. “But I want it to be better. I want to be the premier shelter in the state.”

Though some might criticize their approach, he and Wanda insist that a “premier shelter” is a no-kill shelter.

A dog awaits a rescue that may or may not come. The shelter is located off Ala. 168, just outside Marshall County at 130 Co. Rd. 398, Boaz 35957. For more info on adoptions or volunteering, visit: www.secondchanceshelter.net; or call 256-561-2411.

“We don’t think it’s good for an animal to have to sit in pens,” Doug says. “But we think as long as the dog is alive, he has a good chance to get a good home. Once he’s dead, it’s over.”

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