Rethinking Rescue: Dog Lady and the Story of America's Forgotten People and Pets

NOW WITH A NEW AFTERWORD ABOUT THE IMPACT OF THE PALISADES FIRE ON ANIMAL RESCUES IN LOS ANGELES

Rethinking Rescue boldly confronts two of the biggest challenges of our time--poverty and homelessness--in asking the question: Who deserves the love of a pet?

In Los Angeles's most underserved communities, Lori Weise is known as the Dog Lady, the woman who's spent decades caring for people in poverty and the animals that love them. Long before anyone else, Weise grasped that animal and human suffering are inextricably connected and created a new rescue narrative: an enduring safety net empowering pet owners and providing resources to reduce the number of pets coming into shelters.

Rethinking Rescue: Dog Lady and the Story of America's Forgotten People and Pets unites the causes of animal welfare and social justice, moving between Weise's story and that of the larger U.S. rescue movement. Through captivating storytelling and investigative reporting, Carol Mithers examines the consequences of bias within this overwhelmingly white movement, where an overemphasis on placing animals in affluent homes disregards pet owners in poverty. Weise's innovative and ultimately triumphant efforts revealed a better way.

As cities across the country witness some of the worst housing crises in history, and as the population of unhoused people and pets continues to skyrocket, Rethinking Rescue offers a story of compassion and hope.

Author: Carol Mithers
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
Published: 08/05/2025
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.44lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.50w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781640097278

About the Author
CAROL MITHERS is a journalist who has written about Los Angeles, women's issues, and extraordinary women for over thirty years. Her work has appeared in The New York Times; Los Angeles Times; LA Weekly; O, the Oprah Magazine; Los Angeles Magazine; More; Town & Country; Architectural Digest; Ladies' Home Journal; Parenting; The Bark; The Nation; California magazine; Buzz; Salon; The Daily Beast; and elsewhere. She is also the author of three books, including Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War, written with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee. Mighty was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and has been reprinted in fourteen languages. Mithers lives in Los Angeles, where she has raised three demanding rescue dogs.