Paws for Life

https://reasonstobecheerful.world/paws-for-life-prison-inmate-dog-trainers/

In 2014, dog rescue volunteer Alex Tonner set out to temporarily house dogs in prison as a way to save them from overcrowded shelters where they would be killed for lack of space. “I was only interested in saving the dogs,” the blonde Brit admits with refreshing honesty and a self-deprecating laugh. “I really didn’t care about the guys. But that quickly changed.” 

In a way, animal shelters resemble prisons: dogs and cats are often warehoused behind bars,  many of them facing a death sentence for crimes they didn’t commit. “They’re cast away because society doesn’t want them anymore,” Grobman says. “Just like us.”

In 2014, Tonner founded the non-profit Paws for Life K9 Rescue and launched California’s first dog rehabilitation program in the men’s maximum-security prison in Lancaster. Incarcerated people commit to spending at least six weeks with a pup from a high-kill shelter, working with a trainer so the dogs get the Good Canine Certificate and become more adoptable.