Grassroots animal advocate Scott Poore named Chief of Advocacy and Media Relations at Great Plains SPCA

Poore with his beloved pup, Leo. // Courtesy Mission Driven Goods

Local animal activist Scott Poore, who writes The Pitch’s Creature Feature (a weekly column showcasing local adoptable animals) has been named Chief of Advocacy and Media Relations at Great Plains SPCA.

Poore left the corporate world 12 years ago to pursue a life of animal activism, funded from his own pocket. His passion for animals drove him to found Mission Driven Goods, a start-up selling pet-themed apparel and other merchandise, with 100 percent of the proceeds benefitting shelter animals.

Poore became jaded with his job in medical sales and decided to dedicate his life to animal advocacy.

“I was doing medical sales, and I became really consumed with my work in an unhealthy way. I was trending in a direction where all that mattered was how much money I made and what kind of car am I driving,” says Poore. “I woke up one day and realized, fast forward 20 years, will you be proud to have been this person? The answer was no. I was taking everything I could from the world without giving anything back.”

Mission Driven has raised more than $1.5M for animal shelters and helped thousands of shelter pets find their forever homes, according to a press release.

“The beauty of my partnership with Great Plains SPCA is they were the first animal shelter that I volunteered at,” says Poore. “Truly, they are the organization that inspired me to dedicate my life to helping homeless pets. When this opportunity arose, I thought it was just an absolute no-brainer. It would help me give more visibility to animals in need.”

Part of Poore’s mission in his new role is to spread awareness of the various services that Great Plains SPCA offers beyond animal sheltering and adoption.

“People don’t realize about their organization is it’s not just adoption. It’s caring for every stray animal in the county, and that’s a big deal because those animals have nowhere else to go,” says Poore.

“The other component that a lot of people aren’t aware of, that’s amazing to me, is they have an outreach team that goes out into the community, and they care for neglected and abused animals. They provide resources to people in low-income areas to better care for their animals. They provide vaccinations; they offer spay/neuter surgeries. So, there are so many different resources this organization offers, and it’s our goal to tell the community about all of them,” Poore continues.

The Great Plains SPCA team couldn’t be more ecstatic to have such a prevalent animal advocate in the community join their forces.

“Scott has always been a wonderful advocate for Great Plains SPCA and our shelter animals. This partnership formalizes and enhances the support he provides to our organization,” says GPSPCA CEO, Tam Singer.

Poore says of the relationship and new role, “Great Plains SPCA is the original animal shelter that inspired me to dedicate my entire life to helping homeless pets. It will be an honor to represent their staff, volunteers and shelter pets. I truly believe it’s the perfect partnership.”

In his newly appointed role at Great Plains SPCA, Poore will take on all media appearances for GPSPCA, promotion and emceeing of GPSPCA events, and fundraising specifically for animal emergency cases, according to a press release.

Poore says there are a few different ways the KC community can support Great Plains SPCA.

“Individual donors, corporate donors, and monthly donors are the lifeline that keep the organization running. But also, many donations of items that can come in, whether it’s dog food, cat food, dog treats, cat trees, anything along those lines. We always have an updated Amazon wishlist for people to check out,” says Poore.

Really key to supporting the shelter and the animals who stay there, though, are foster families, according to Poore.

“Fosters have never been in more need than they are right now. We’re losing the battle,” says Poore. “There’s more animals coming in than are going out, and the only way we can even that out is to have more foster families come forward and offer to get animals out of the shelter. A foster family, they’re saving two lives: the life that comes out of the shelter and into their home, and they’re freeing up a space for another life to be saved in the shelter system.”

The most important step towards improvement involves encouraging friends and family to adopt pets rather than buying them from breeders or pet stores.

“If you’re used to getting a pet from a pet store, or a pet from a breeder, our number one goal is to inspire you to consider adoption,” says Poore. “It’s not our place to tell you what you can and can’t do. But you need to know that millions of animals lose their lives every year because we have unethical backyard breeders and we have unethical pet stores.”

Poore’s advocacy doesn’t stop with Great Plains SPCA and Mission Driven Goods. Recently, he launched another nonprofit, On a Mission KC.

“We provide rural animal shelters that are on financial life support with necessities that we take for granted like air conditioning, heat in the winter, and proper plumbing,” says Poore. “We will pay local businesses to paint the building to make it more approachable, do a little landscaping, anything to make sure that they are a sustainable organization in their community.”

Poore certainly deserves a round of a-paws for his relentless efforts to place animals in need into loving homes. [No, we won’t apologize for that one.]