MC volunteer's passion is pets

Haywood resident Mary Moore embodies the expression, “Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they are priceless.”

Moore’s worth must be more than a trunk of rubies because she is a volunteer extraordinaire. You name the organization and she has a finger in it. Madison Emergency Services Association (MESA), Services to Abused Families (SAFE), Questers and the Madison County Animal Friends are a few of the organizations she currently volunteers for.

In the past Moore has been everything from a hospital candy striper, a docent at historical sites, a long-term ombudsmen in Fairfax County, involved with both the Boy Scouts  and Girl Scouts, helped with a food distribution center, was a Christian caregiver, a volunteer as a master gardener and a volunteer for English as a Second Language students.

However, her true passion is animals. She has rescued four dogs and given them a lovely home and she wants others to take the next step to adopt the lovable dogs at the Madison County Animal Shelter.

She rescued Pansy, who is part bacenji and even knows how to make yodeling sounds. She said bacenjis were bred to hunt lions in Africa. “She is very fast and very slinky. She is very cute and very smart,” Moore said.

She also has Betsy, who is some type of hound, Liberty, the youngest of her dogs who is a blue heeler which is considered a cattle dog and Kate, a Jack Russell terrier who is the oldest. Three of the dogs are from the Madison County Animal Shelter. 

She said she has always wanted a dog and her four dogs that she has now fulfilled a life-long dream to own one. She did not have dogs growing up because her brother was bitten by one and was afraid of dogs.

“There is a vicious cycle in this county,” Moore said. “In my opinion, there are two branches to breaking this cycle. One is the way that companion animals are thought about. There was a dog that lived its life on a six-foot chain in my neighborhood. It was in the pouring rain, freezing cold and sweltering heat. They have the same needs as humans and it goes way beyond food and water.” 

She added, “There are animals all over this county that are in need of attention, not just to the letter of the law, but to the life of the animal. Our minister has really compelled me to take that concern, own it, see what I can do with it. There is a great need of education, starting with the children in our schools about companion animals, about the care and condition animals are in.”

She continued, “When it comes down to the end of it, it is the people who make the conditions that each and every animal in this county lives in. Animals don’t ask to get pregnant, or to father animals, therefore affordable and accessible spay and neuter programs are essential. In speaking with a local veterinarian I learned that in fact dogs may hunt better when neutered. I think that may go against the lore of the area.”

She attends Piedmont Episcopal Church in downtown Madison, where the Rev. Brad Jackson is the pastor.

She is married to Dick Moore and they have two adult children, Phillip Moore, 39, of Carrollton, Ky. and Sarah Malinoski, 36, of Houston, Texas.

She was born in Dallas and has lived in every region of the country, except the far northwest.

She graduated from Woodside High in Atherton, Calif. in 1966. Then she went to Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1970. She studied history, religion and sociology. She also has a master’s degree in human resources development.

She has been coming to Madison County since 2000 and the condition of some of the animals have been tugging at her ever since. She moved here full-time in December 2009.

“You have got to see where you fit into your community, like Jesus did,” Moore said.

“I am hoping I can make a difference in the collective care of (Madison County) animals.”

She is worried about hunters who discard their dogs after hunting season, as well as people who hit or kill deer and leave the parts of the animal they do not want on the side of the road to rot.

“Twice this hunting season, we have had the legs and the head left by hunters and they take the rest of the carcass that has the meat in it, but they won’t dispose of the head and the legs. What you end up with is the smell of the rotting carcasses, the buzzards that pick it to death, the other carrion that drag it all over the place,” Moore said.

She is really passionate about starting a program in Madison County to spay and neuter animals as well. She is also really interested in getting the young people in the county educated about companion animals.

“Animals have the same needs that humans have. They need food, water, shelter and companionship. What makes the animal be something that humans will want to interact with is if you consider them to be companions,” Moore said.

She said she has been a volunteer her entire life.

“We would like to see all the creativity that volunteers can bring, that the community has within its power, that really costs no money. We want to see that creativity used so this community can be kind of a shining example within the state of what can happen to animals,” Moore said.

If you are interested in the animals of Madison County, contact her and her friend Carol Kindel of Radiant at savemaddogs@yahoo.com.

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Favorite movie: “Casablanca.”

Is she good at Trivial Pursuit: “I usually talk myself out of the right answers,” she said.

Would she like to know the day she’s going to die ahead of time? Why or why not? “No, because it might make me stop living,” she said.