Kindness Unleashed
When I first visited Aska’s Animals Foundation in Victor, I had a loose idea of the organization’s mission. I remember when Aska, a self-proclaimed “cat lady,” would rescue stray kittens back in the day from places like underneath the Knotty Pine restaurant, nurture them back to health, and then find them good homes. So, I knew what I was getting into. But as I stepped through the farm’s gate and was greeted by Papa and Wally, two of the sixteen rescue pigs who live there, I knew this wasn’t just your typical animal rescue operation.
Aska Langman, founder and board member of Aska’s Animals, and Lantz Hartley, executive director, ushered me in among free-range chickens and more pigs. Aska explained that some of the pigs arrived from shelters, while others came from individuals surrendering pets for a variety of reasons.
First, we visited the three “puppy palaces,” as they call them, which are tiny home-style structures. The first was built in collaboration with Jackson’s Animal Adoption Center and constructed by Aska’s husband, Will Haywood, the most unwilling, willing volunteer. (This means being the unofficial full-time farm handyman and snow remover.) The other two modular palaces were procured from Canada with fundraising dollars. Aska explained the purpose of the temporary shelters.
“The idea behind the puppy palaces is to provide a place where the moms and puppies get to grow up apart from the stressful shelter environment,” she says. “We keep them until they are eight weeks old, and then they go off to our partners for adoption.”
Contrary to my assumption, Aska’s Animals does not handle adoption. Rather, they provide an environment for rehabilitation, animal education, and community outreach.
“We have about 200 to 250 [rescue] puppies in our program a year, and adoption is just not where our strength is,” Aska continues. “Our strength is in dog behavior and providing great care for the animals while they are here.” She stressed that dog behavior, like human behavior, starts during early development.
Sometimes the puppies’ receiving organization is a shelter that has a municipal contact, like the Idaho Humane Society in Boise or the Snake River Animal Shelter in Idaho Falls. In other cases, it may be a rescue facility, like the Animal Adoption Center in Jackson, depending on who has capacity. Farm space is prioritized for moms with puppies that have already been born into the sheltering system, and for every litter housed at Aska’s, the organization is turning down another three to five litters.
“It’s a first-come, first-served type of basis,” she says. “One dog isn’t more deserving because it’s coming from Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Texas … If we have room, it’s like, ‘Who needs help?’”
After their eight weeks at Aska’s, the dogs must be sent to receiving shelters in larger cities, where their chances of being adopted are greater. The logistics of moving the dogs around is no easy task and involves a lot of text and Facebook messages, in addition to providing their care.
“There’s a lot of work that happens behind each puppy, like vaccines, spay/neuter, transport, treating them for illnesses if they have one,” Aska says. “So, they are really cute, but it’s a lot of work.”
Next, Aska and Lantz took me to the second palace, where a puppy family was in quarantine. (Aska advised me not to touch.) The farm instates a two-week quarantine for every litter that comes in, which involves special clothing for caretakers when they enter the palace. The laundry won’t leave the premises until the sanctuary is sure the dogs are free of any communicable sickness.
The third puppy palace housed dogs that were found in New Mexico and taped up in a cardboard box. Originally, Aska noted, there were eleven puppies. The New Mexico shelter kept two, two died on the way to Utah because they were in such bad shape, and seven in addition to the mom arrived at the farm.
“They were matted in feces and so sick,” Aska says. “One passed away after the first forty-eight hours—his little body couldn’t go on—but the rest have survived.”
These littermates were named after sandwiches from Figgie’s’ Deli in Driggs: Tuna, Meatball, Po Boy, Hamburger, Cheese, and Bologna. Each palace has a theme to help the staff and volunteers know who’s being referred to.
Just then, we were greeted by Stella, a pig with a funny walk, who escorted us into the barn. Aska explained that the barn was originally built for personal use, and its infrastructure needs upgrading. The sink drain doesn’t empty into a septic system, but rather into a French drain, something that will need to be remedied long-term. Still, the heat in the barn is working and functional, allowing the pigs to nest alongside Aska’s childhood horse and several chickens during the winter.
The organization’s office is housed in Aska’s old residence, and this is where we got down to the nitty-gritty of their mission. I met Ali Anderson, the animal care coordinator, and got a peek inside the office of Sam Diaz, canine behavior and enrichment manager. Lantz, who just started as executive director in August, says that he observed the farm’s operation for a year before officially starting in a leadership position.
“I fell in love with the program because it’s not a conventional way to tackle animal rescue. It was a cool thing to get swept away by,” he says.
Currently, Lantz’s duties involve an interesting combination of day-to-day animal care, the shuffle of event communications, and visibility in the community. The elevator pitch version involves what he calls “three pillars”: provide a sanctuary for farm animals; rescue dogs from programs and people who can’t accommodate them; and offer a behavioral program for the dogs they rescue as well as other community dogs.
PAWS Animal Shelter
PAWS (Providing Animal Welfare Services) acquired the Teton Valley Community Animal Shelter in January 2022. They already operated an existing facility in Jackson that was (and still is) exclusively funded by donations and grants.
According to Ann Loyola, director of shelter operations in Driggs, “We are now operating the only open-admission animal shelter in the Teton Valley area, accepting all stray, lost, abandoned, and owner-
relinquished pets in Teton County, Idaho.”
While the shelter primarily cares for cats and dogs, with a “wildly fluctuating population,” they have also taken in rabbits, guinea pigs, and a parrot. At full capacity, PAWS of Teton Valley can house twenty-four cats and twenty-one dogs. But at one point in 2024, they had forty-two cats, mostly kittens.
“Our facility needs more than a facelift,” says Ann. “Essential upgrades are needed for systems including electrical wiring and capacity, plumbing, roof repair, kennel reconstruction—you name it, we need it.” The organization has drafted an architectural plan for a new, more efficient shelter and hopes to begin raising funds sometime in 2026.
Still, PAWS’ programs run strong. The nonprofit shelter provides veterinary care for its animals in the form of vaccinations, deworming, and sterilization. They also offer spay/neuter vouchers to help defray veterinary costs.
PAWS walks potential pet owners all the way through the adoption process and educates the new owners on this lifelong commitment.
Ann stressed that the facility is “way more than just a shelter.
“We know that when a pet is suffering, there is usually a person on the other end of the leash who needs help, too,” she says. “That’s why our social services have always been at the core of our work.”
Ann said PAWS is a touchpoint for pet owners seeking nonjudgmental support and connections with services that will help them and their furry family members. They offer social services like financial assistance, access to veterinary care, and community resources to help prevent pet surrender. This holistic approach to animal welfare “offers a nurturing environment where both the well-being of animals and their human companions are intertwined.”
Animal Adoption Center
The Animal Adoption Center (AAC) in Jackson works closely with Aska’s Animals, as well as with other regional and national shelters, to welcome animals from overcrowded situations into its rescue and adoption program. Since the organization’s inception in 2004, the AAC has positively impacted the lives of more than 30,000 animals, typically caring for eighteen to thirty-five cats and fifteen to thirty-five dogs at any given time. All of the dogs and puppies in this program spend their nights and weekends in foster care, and the number of animals they serve is directly proportionate to the number of human fosters on hand.
“We are always looking for new people and families to work with,” says AAC’s executive director Carrie Boynton. “Our team provides everything needed for a doggie sleepover, including food, leash, bowls, kennel, and medications.”
The mission of the AAC is to save the lives of homeless animals through rescue, adoption, education, and spay/neuter services. This is accomplished through low-income vouchers with partner vets, as well as sterilization clinics, specifically one hosted annually on the Wind River Indian Reservation in western Wyoming. The center works with nine vets across the state to provide essential medical care, both in the field and in-house.
“Most recently, we added a medical suite to our facility [in Jackson] and are now able to provide spay/neuter services to the animals in our adoption program, as well as to pets in our partnering shelters,” Carrie says.
The AAC’s adoption process requires a mandatory foster period for approved families and individuals. Once everyone determines it’s a good fit, the team works to process the adoption, which involves signing papers and paying a fee ($250 for dogs, $100 for cats). The organization also offers post-adoption training support through its friends at Aska’s Animals.
I must admit, before I visited Aska’s farm and chatted with other local organizations, I thought I had an idea of how animal rescues worked. What I didn’t know was the behind-the-scenes dedication of every person involved in our region’s animal advocacies. From countless hours spent on the computer, to selfless time caring for even the sickest of residents, these crusaders offer far more than a voice for the voiceless stray. It was eye-opening to get a peek into a perfectly calculated system—one that involves changing the fate of one dog, cat, or pig at a time.
Dog Is My Copilot
Speaking of unconventional animal advocacy programs … the Jackson organization Dog Is My Copilot is the brainchild of orthopedic surgeon Dr. Peter Rork. Highly regarded, Dr. Rork’s encore career merges his love for pets with his passion for flying airplanes.
In 2012, Dr. Rork combined forces with Judy Zimet, a Scottsdale, Arizona real estate attorney and animal lover, to start this nonprofit with a mission to transport animals from overcrowded shelters to adoption centers by airplane. Using two planes, the team works with municipal shelters in California, Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma—where stray pets are at the highest risk for euthanasia—and flies them to adoption partners.
In 2021, Dog Is My Copilot saved forty-five dogs in a Texas facility from euthanasia by flying them to the West Coast for adoption. They partnered with China Rescue Dogs to save thirty-one dogs from the meat trade industry in 2022, and in 2023, with the help of Austin Pets Alive!, spared a “shy” eight-month-old golden
retriever named Darla by flying her from a kill shelter in Texas to Mile High Lab Mission in Colorado, where her furever family was waiting.
Check out the organization’s “Happy Tails” website that highlights many of the pets that have landed safely into a new future.
For more information, or to get involved, visit:
askasanimals.org
pawshelpspets.org/animal-
shelter-driggs-idaho
animaladoptioncenter.org
dogcopilot.org