Rescue. Train. Transform: Inside The Human Canine Alliance

Stacie introduces The Human Canine Alliance (THCA), an initiative founded in 2025 to revolutionize the societal role of rescue dogs by turning them into companions for people who could benefit from a trained canine. THCA plans to start by focusing on the 61 million people considered to be disabled in America. The podcast will serve as a live documentary detailing the process of building THCA, which combines grassroots partnerships and modern technology to match rescue dogs with compatible humans. Stacie discusses the various roles canines play in society, and highlights the underutilization of rescue dogs. Stacie reveals THCA's plan to develop an APP that matches rescue dogs with individuals in need based on compatibility, with support from community fundraising. She is actively building relationships with rescue centers and trainers to execute this plan, aiming to form working relationships and document the journey through this podcast.

THCA Rescue statistics are pulled from the following resources:

1. Pet Statistics by ASPCA
2. Facts & Figures by Coalition for Pets & Public Safety
3. Industry Stats & Trends by American Pet Products Association
4. 2024 Stats by American Kennel Club
5. AKC Detection Dog Task Force Report by American Kennel Club
6. National Animal Welfare Statistics by Shelter Animals Count

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction with Shocking Rescue Statistics
• 1:38 Meet Stacie and The Human Canine Alliance
• 2:01 Roles of Canines in Society
• 4:09 The Potential of Canines for People with Disabilities
• 5:50 The Cost and Intelligence of Training Dogs
• 8:02 The App: Matchmaking for Canines and Humans
• 9:49 Intro to Sponsor a Match!
• 11:43 Execution and Call to Action

Transcript

Hi, everyone. This is Stacie. And before I introduce you to myself or the Human Canine Alliance, I'm going to hit you with some stats. 

 There are 10, 000 rescue groups and animal sanctuaries and about 4, 000 brick and mortar animal shelters across North America and the U. S. And 65 million, almost 20 percent of U. S. households owned at least one dog in 2023. Yet, the status quo looks like this.

Every year, we euthanize 390, 000 dogs nationwide. Since 2021, the number of dogs relinquished by their owners has risen to nearly 950, 000 annually. Shelter time has doubled from an average of 40 days to over 80.

Nearly 60 percent of U. S. shelters are unable to provide good public service due to staffing shortages. And get this, 2 billion annually is contributed by American taxpayers for animal control, animal shelter maintenance, and euthanasia. 

And 61 million people living in the U. S. today with a disability who could likely have a better quality of life from having a trained canine companion. Guess what? Currently less than 1 percent of them do. Less than 1%. 

My name is Stacie, but that only matters. So you can tell your friends about me.

I am super excited to introduce you to the human canine alliance or THCA for short founded in 2025. THCA aims to prove how investing in rescue dogs can create a ripple effect of positive impacts in our society. 

So, I want to start by outlining the roles that canines currently play in our society. First and foremost, dogs in American society serve mostly as pets. We all know 

Canines are also economy boosters because americans spent a hundred and forty seven billion dollars in 2023 on their pets and dogs were the leading cost all the way. I looked at the graphics on that. 

Service dogs are another way that dogs are in our society, we all know this, they help people with disabilities such as vision or hearing impairment, mobility challenges, PTSD, they're the ones allowed to go on planes, allowed to go on restaurants, we're all very aware of them, 

Emotional support dogs are another role that canines play in our society. They offer emotional stability, comfort, improved mental health, and social interaction. One thing they don't have in our society are legal rights, the way that service animals do.

this is apparently a rising role for K9s, which I think is really awesome, but the athletic and performance dogs out there, there's more and more owners really taking interest in getting their dogs into competitive sports, agility competitions, or performing for entertainment.

Also another role in our society that canines have is, is they are employed by the federal government, military, law enforcement, and private sectors, specifically for things like, um, canine units. That's something we all are very aware of, right? You got the, sniff dogs for drugs and for explosive and for contraband, and they also do tracking and protecting personnel type of tasks.

 These are also the kind of dogs that we would know of to do, medical detection, such as dogs that can detect diabetes or cancer. 

Okay, so now we know that not only do dogs have the capability, but they're already playing a role in our society in many, many different ways. We also are aware, according to the CDC, that we have 61 million Americans living with a disability I'll bet there's a very high percentage of them who could improve their lifestyle if they had a trained canine. Because a lot of disabilities aren't exactly disabilities when you have a little bit of assistance.

And in a lot of instances, a canine could really replace that human assistant. For example, a disabled person or for someone who, you know, is categorized as disabled in our society.

 And therefore, they could really gain a lot of confidence and a lot of strength back in themselves because it wouldn't be another human helping them. Whereas human to human, you feel like you're being judged. You feel like you're being looked at as weaker with a canine, with a dog. That's a man's best friend, right?

So not only do you get that emotional bond, but you would get that actual lifestyle improvement bond where this canine is helping this person to improve their life. It's also improving all of their family and friends lives because the family and friends don't have to then be that. assistant in so many ways.

I mean, maybe they still have to drive them places, right? The dog can't do that. But you know, there's a lot of things these canines can do that man or woman doesn't have to step in and do for said disabled person. So that's really exciting to me. Those are stats that to me just really stood out when I happened to stumble on them and in my head they just connected and I said, oh my god I mean, I understand that and i've looked this up Training can cost up to fifty thousand dollars guys.

Okay, uh up to fifty thousand dollars to train a dog And trainers out there more power to you You have got skill sets that a lot of us don't have being able to communicate with dogs But you can't But what I think a lot of us don't understand, and this is a new stat to me, I just learned this. Dogs have a capability of a three to four year old when it comes to intelligence.

So we are so under mining dogs. We are so Not giving them nearly enough credit for the level of intelligence they actually have and the level of responsibility they could actually take on in our society if we gave it to them. If we taught them how to play that role in our society.

Okay, so I got a little off topic there, but as you can tell, I am passionate about this. Um, once I connected the dots on the stats, it was really hard for me not to continue to think about it and not to feel like I had to do something about it. and that's exactly why I'm here. And my biggest question is, why euthanizing dogs in America?

There's so many reasons not to be. I realize money has a lot to do with it, but guys, I am here to say THCA has some solutions and money is one of them. So stick with me till after the break and I will explain to you, what the Human Canine Alliance is, what we intend to do and how you can be part of it. 

I've got a plan and it starts with an app at the Human Canine Alliance. We are starting with an app.

The app is going to function like a matchmaking service for rescue canines and need based individuals. Think about it this way. Profiles are going to be created for rescue canines to account for their breed, their personality, their age, natural tendencies, and the skills that the dog has the ability to learn based on predetermined societal needs. 

Number two, people seeking a canine to improve their lifestyle for any reason, whether it's medical, neurological, emotional, just a companion. They're going to create a profile. They're going to answer questions that are going to lead them to best fit companions to choose from. 

And when I say best fit, I mean like a compatible companion. They're going to have compatible traits that align with the needs of that person's profile.

Okay, so number three, a compatible dog has been found and chosen, and now the matched profiles are going to be sent to a pre designated training team that's going to put together a custom training package for this canine that's going to then align with the needs of the human who is going to eventually become their owner.

And this training package that they're designing specifically for this match is also going to include a final cost. 

Okay. Insert, sponsor a match. So the idea here is that once a human profile and a canine profile have been matched, community members can then view, share and sponsor matches directly from the app.

Okay, so I'm going to give you an example. Tommy from your church is autistic, and his family has matched him with a THCA canine. The match costs 10, 000, and your church has created a fundraising program to secure the match. THCA has created that platform to make it easy for communities to support and rally around Tommy. So, now, Everyone in that church can either donate money to the church or they can donate money to through the app either way Tommy and Tommy's family are going to be able to secure a trained dog that has been trained specifically for Tommy.

Think about it that way. Trained specifically for Tommy and Tommy's needs. And if you think about it this way too, as Tommy gets older and this dog gets older, this dog is going to learn and grow with Tommy and understand as Tommy does. As Tommy has, like, advanced his skills, this dog is going to understand that Tommy has advanced his skills, and he's going to just adapt to Tommy in ways that another dog that's just there for emotional support may or may not do, right?

But if it's trained to already understand the needs of Tommy, how much could that help and change Tommy's lives and Tommy's family's lives and oh, let's not forget about the dog's life in all of this, right? And all I can think about is how that scenario could be duplicated over and over and over again at a minimum 61 million times in our country, right?

At a minimum. Okay, so finally, finally, execution of the plan, right? It's always fun to have a great idea about how do you execute it. So the execution of the plan is really what I'm working on right now. Um, and as of this recording, I have created a list of over 50 rescue centers and trainers in the state of North Carolina, because that's where I happen to live, that I'm going to be reaching out to, to start discussions.

And my goal is to create working relationships with rescue centers and trainers to connect people in need. with dogs in need. And I'm using the Human Canine Alliance as my platform to do that. So if you're listening and you're a trainer or a rescue center or someone involved in that industry at all and you're interested, please reach out. 

My overall strategy is to combine grassroots partnerships and modern technology to form what I'm calling Compatible Companions.

And this podcast is also going to serve as a live documentary as we build the Human Canine Alliance. so if you wanna follow along with our efforts and what we're trying to do here, you know what to do, follow the podcast, right? I expect successes, I expect failures and I'm gonna share them here, I'm committed to sharing them here. 

I hope you continue to listen.