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I Used To Be A Lawyer And Now I'm An Animal Rescue Advocate
Rebecca Guinn works to save animals around the clock.
by Ralph McGill Jr.
November 10, 2008
T
he problem came up every time Rebecca Guinn recorded her billing hours for her legal
clients. She billed every six minutes. She did the math and realized that one animal was killed
every six minutes in a metro Atlanta shelter.
"I couldn't get it out of my mind," she says. "Every six minutes I billed a client meant an
animal died. When my watch struck the sixth minute, I knew an animal was killed. Couldn't shake
it."
Guinn had no intention of dropping her lucrative law practice to become an animal rights and
rescue activist. "I worked too hard to become a lawyer and worked too hard as a lawyer to give it
up," she says.
But the clock
still struck six.
Guinn has a degree in communications from Antioch College but recalls "always having the
desire to save the world." She worked as a graphic designer in the "pre-Mac" 1980s. "I worked with
a computer that cost a quarter of a billion dollars and filled the room. It does as much then as my
cell phone does now."
However a nagging desire that she should be a lawyer reared its head. "I didn't have
grandiose ideas, but I felt that I could make a contribution. I didn't want time to pass and not
take a chance."
She enrolled at Georgia State University's part-time legal program, graduating in 1996. She
became a criminal defense attorney with Maloy & Jenkins (now Maloy Jenkins Parker) defending
clients against such white-collar charges as tax fraud, money laundering, securities violations and
tax evasion.
"It was very difficult to defend my clients, because once you're indicted in federal court,
there is a 95 percent conviction rate. I had several clients I really believed were innocent, and
there was a lot riding on their defense. I still don't believe that anyone is quite as guilty as
the government says they are."
Did she enjoy being a lawyer? "I don't know anyone who can honestly say they love being a
lawyer," she laughs. "It's a difficult job and very challenging. I love the law, and I think it
works - on the whole."
She remained committed to her career. One day in 2001 she heard a dog barking for help near
her home. Its paw was caught in a barbed wire fence. She called DeKalb County Animal Control, which
came to free the dog. Guinn asked what would happen. If the owner didn't claim it in five days, the
dog would be euthanized on the sixth, she said.
She called every day and on the fifth day she rescued the dog as well as another one. "I
remember going into the shelter, and it was full of dogs and cats - hundreds of them. They said
they were behind, and I had no idea what they were talking about. The next day I went back to the
shelter, and it was almost empty. They had caught up. It was the worst feeling I ever had;
something was horribly wrong."
She worked with a local rescue group to place the two dogs and did some research. It turned
out that at that time about 100,000 a year were euthanized. You guessed it. One every six minutes.
Looking for a solution, she founded LifeLine Animal Project, a nonprofit aimed at working
with animal welfare groups to help in the adoption as well as spaying and neutering. The group's
website,
Atlantapets.org, allowed rescue groups and shelters to
show the animals and help spur adoptions.
Americans spend more than $41 billion on pets, not including the purchasing of the animal
and vet fees, she says. "I know people love their pets, but I don't think people had any idea about
these shelters. If you just look at the statistics of the numbers of pets killed every day in our
shelters, well, it's too horrible to deal with. You have to walk away."
In 2003 Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, the largest no-kill sanctuary in the country, came to
Atlanta and Guinn worked for it as a consultant while still maintaining her law practice. Under the
name No More Homeless Pets Atlanta, the group opened a facility so that rescue groups could board
animals at low cost until they were adopted. They also expanded a feral cat program that would
trap, neuter and return the cats. "It's the only solution that works," she says. They opened a
high-volume, low-cost spay and neutering clinic.
Unfortunately by 2005, Best Friends, under changed management, pulled the plug on its
support. Guinn left her law practice and became a full-time animal rescue activist (although she
still maintains her license).
"It's harder than being a lawyer; I work longer hours, and it's more challenging," she says.
"There is not a clear path."
Guinn and LifeLine Animal Project are continuing its work. To date about 18,000 low-cost or
no-cost spay/neuter surgeries have been done. LifeLine's Dog House and Kitty Motel provides
"halfway" homes for orphaned pets needing medical or behavioral rehabilitation while awaiting
adoptions. Its online adoption network, atlantapets.org, receives about 20,000 unique monthly
visits. Its Catlanta program for feral cats is the only one in the area.
"Things have gotten better than when we first started out," she concedes. "But of the
thousands of animals that go to local shelters, less than about one-third leave alive. Only 20
percent of all pets acquired come from shelters. We need to increase that market share. We need to
stop puppy mills. We need laws to help protect animals, but the government can't do it alone."
"This work is hard," she admits. "People tell me that we can save some of the animals, but
not all. And I say, 'We just might.'"
