Meet The Charles Angels…
Have you ever thought that the “tag”, “share” or “like” that you imposed on an animal’s picture didn’t make a difference? Well these ladies would beg to differ! Meet Celeste Charles and her granddaughter Alexis, the dynamic duo from Downey California that works to rescue numerous pups from their local shelter every single day. Her weapons of choice? A digital camera and a personal Facebook account. I had the privledge of speaking with Celeste and interviewing her in preparation to write this article. I must say that although her reputation for being an animal lover, rescuer and true champion of animal rights did proceed her, it did NOT prepare me for the conversation that we were about to have. The depths of this conversation reached far below the surface of human interactions and delved into the depths of what it means to be not only an animal rights activist, but a compassionate, empathic individual whom believes that animals have feelings just the same as you and I do. It was truly an honor to be touched by this woman’s life, and a generous gift of her to let me into her world by sharing her story. Celeste began by speaking about the remarkable network that she was introduced to through Facebook, recalling how as recently as a year ago she was under the impression that shelters were a “safe place for animals to go, I had no idea that they killed them there. Some people might think that’s naive but that’s really what I thought. I learned how to work Facebook for the dogs as I started to put pictures up there to network them. I remember seeing these people that were called “crossposters” on Facebook posting pictures of these shelter animals and I just thought, what do they mean they are going to be killed!? I would cry like a baby at my computer as I learned of all of these horrible things that humans do to animals, how they are killed how people treat them, I mean I would be sitting at my computer sobbing but I had to watch these horrific videos because that was how I learned the truth of what is really happening out there.” Celeste’s primary involvement has been at the Downey shelter in Downey, California. She and her 9 year old granddaughter, Alexis, volunteer their time there and devote their energies to networking, rescuing and advocating for the animals trapped in this high-kill shelter. As she began to recount her first experience at the shelter I could feel her anxiety, despair and passionate determination through the phone. “I will never forget the first time that I was at the shelter, it was October 2010 and I was there for a pit-bull rescue with a friend and it just so happened that I got to the shelter before she did. I remember sitting in my car in the parking lot and I was literally shaking out of fear of what I might see in there because I could hear all of the dogs barking and howling from outside in the parking lot inside my car.” As luck would have it, Celeste’s friend was networking with a rescuer that just happened to be out of the state at this time and although she had been to the shelter 3 times in attempt to pull this dog, she had yet to have any success in getting her out. Serendipitously, Celeste had just happened to befriended a puller from the shelter and the two were able to get the dog out successfully that very day. When Celeste got home, her ears were “still ringing” from all of the barking and howling of the anxious pups and she was so distraught by everything that she had seen and experienced that day. “I realized that I couldn’t just bring them all home and I just kept thinking, how else can I help them?” Celeste came up with a great idea right then and there, she would use Facebook’s ever growing popularity and worldwide reach to gain massive amounts of exposure for these trapped dogs on death row.
