How a common love for animals brings the community together

Editor’s Note: The Henryetta Free-Lance and Okmulgee Times will feature county residents who are making a difference in the community. These individuals don’t seek accolades for themselves, but go about their day doing all they can to change the lives of others. If there is someone you would like to nominate as one of Okmulgee County’s Unsung Heroes, please send your nominee name and the story of why to dawn@cookson.news.

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This week, we look at several community individuals who have a common love for animals, and their efforts to make a difference. They are Gregory Phillips, Aimee Robinson, Barbara (Babs) Martin and Dr. Jennifer Livesay.

• Gregory Phillips: Board member of Okmulgee County Humane Society, Founder of Okmulgee Animal Welfare Committee and OSUIT student group PAWS.

Phillips says he has always been an animal lover. Relocating from the Lawton area to Okmulgee with his husband in 2017, he gained employment at OSUIT. One morning while preparing to perform some of his duties, a student came to him regarding a kitten they found in one of the dormitories.

“It was up on the third floor of one of our government dormitories ... there was a cat and he was injured,” he said. “And so I took a look at him and his ear was gone. And upon first sight, his tail was also not there. And he seemed happy and was playing with leaves but you can tell he was wounded. And that of course shocked me. So I called my boss and was like ‘Hey, I need to leave for a little bit because of this,’ and she said that was fine and I called my husband because I was like, I know we cannot take another cat but this is an emergency we have to do something.”

At that time, Phillips stated he was not making a lot of money and his husband had not yet graduated from OSU so they were on the lower end of income. That’s when he reached out to Lynn at the Humane Society.

“I informed her of the cat’s situation,” Phillips said, “and we talked about it and she said that they would gladly help of course, but what would help even more is if I would be willing to foster or adopt the cat once they intake him. And of course I was like yes, I can’t turn this cat away. So we ended up getting him to the vet at Dripping Springs and got him fixed up. His ear, It was gone. So there was no saving that, but his tail, he’s a natural no tail, thank goodness. And we couldn’t really determine what was the cause but it was enough to make me ask Lynn questions about the situation of the Humane Society and the intake.

“I had no problem taking this cat in but I was wondering in the back of my head ‘what happens if we find another, we wouldn’t be able to take it, what would happen to it.’ And so that’s how I got in with Lynn and I started the Animal Welfare Committee shortly after to kind of get some questions answered.”

Greg says he worked with then-Mayor of Okmulgee, Richard Larabee.

“We sat in on some meetings and we basically just tried to get a game plan of what the Humane Society or the animals of our community needed. We’ve, you know, had quite a few meetings at the beginning and when asked for help and the TNR section of it, so I got a team together and we did research and then came and presented it to the council. And that’s pretty much how I got started getting involved. It’s just my passion.”

For Phillips, this was just the beginning of his outreach for the Humane Society and the animal community as a whole. He began speaking with school administrators at OSUIT.

“I ended up speaking with some staff members in the administration at the school and ended up founding PAWS at the school which is a student club,” he said. “It’s People for Animal Wellness and Safety. And we still do that. They actually partook in some of the research that we did for the council meeting, which was great. But I’ve been trying to build a small team that can assist in volunteer work for the Humane Society in the community. Then, that’s what we’re currently working on now. We have a good team so far. So I’m thinking we’re going to do some good.”

For Phillips, reciprocating the good that his animals have given him is just part of what he can do to make a difference.

“It’s been a journey and there’s so much more work to be done,” he said. “My aspirations for this community, you know, I’m coming in as an outsider - I haven’t been here all my life like a lot of folks that live here. But I do love Okmulgee. We’ve had a really good time since we’ve been here and the community has been very open to us, which is not necessarily something that happens in every community with people like me and my husband. And we have just been embraced and maybe we found the right people, I don’t know. But going with that in the future, I definitely want to keep on making a change and keep on making a difference.”

• Aimee Robinson: Writer and Okmulgee County Humane Society President Robinson has the privilege of being pet mom to three rescue dogs while taking care of retired horses. While growing up, the Okmulgee native says, she was used to having dogs dumped on her family’s end of the road.

Upon graduation, Robinson moved to Milwaukee, Wis. with her then Great Dane doggie best friend and protector. While there, Aimee adopted another rescue dog and learned that all the dogs this particular rescue mission takes in are from Oklahoma.

“I had no idea until I left our state,” Robinson said, “that Oklahoma, in the south in general, has such an overpopulation issue that dogs that are lucky in that area, are transported to the north out of state. Because there are more people wanting to adopt and because they’re more apt to spay and neuter. So, it really got me to asking a lot of questions ... Whenever I moved back to Oklahoma, knowing up there I saw all these rescues pulling dogs from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, we’re not alone in this ... I knew this is something I wanted to get involved in…although we are able to transport animals out, we can only transport as many animals as they need.”

Robinson shared several statistics. According to Best Friends, a national animal rescue, in 2021, the save rate in Okmulgee County was 55.31 percentwhile the save rate of Oklahoma overall is 80 percent (our county was nearly 30 percent lower than the Oklahoma statewide average, meaning nearly 30 percent more dogs and cats were euthanized in Okmulgee County than others in the area).

The total number of pets entering the Okmulgee animal shelter in 2021 was 537. Total pets saved 297.

Here’s the good news - for November of 2022, the Okmulgee County Humane Society save rate was over 88% and Robinson says the uptick in numbers is due to support from the community. Her goal is to one day have a safe and sustainable number of adoptable homes and responsible ownership that will eliminate having unwanted litters.

“They need homes too and I’d say I think we all dream of one day having even more involvement,” she said. “We so appreciate the community’s support. It’s incredible all the support from everybody and if anyone has a soft spot for animals and whether you’re a writer, you like social media or whether you don’t mind hopping in a car and helping transport, we’d love love, love anyone’s help and heart to help us just keep going because there’s a lot of ways to get involved. And there’s a lot of need. For sure.”

See next Wednesday’s edition of the Henryetta Free-Lance for Part 2.