Neighbor: Kops stays busy between HARP and SNIP, two animal rescue group

In our "Neighbors" series, we give you a personal look at the people who are serving your community. If you would like to nominate someone for this column, contact Judy Prieve at 925-779-7178 or e-mail jprieve@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Name: Karen Kops

Occupation: President of Homeless Animals Response Program (HARP) and co-founder and president of Spay/Neuter Impact Program (SNIP)

Marital status/Family: Kops has a daughter, Nicole Simareus, and a son, Marsais Simareus. Her son helps to take care of some of the foster animals she brings in.

Proudest civic achievement: Kops is proud of both her achievements with the HARP and SNIP programs she helped to start. She said that she has especially been excited about the SNIP program.

"We (SNIP) have been able to alter (spay and neuter) more than 400 cats at our clinic. The program is completely run by volunteers, including the vets," Kops said.

HARP was the first project that Kops became involved in. For several years Kops owned her own silk-screening business. She was used to working 60 to 70 hours a week. When she closed down the business, she found herself with too much free time and decided to volunteer at the Antioch Animal Shelter. After working there for awhile and learning about the animals, she decided that the shelter needed more help and decided to build the HARP program.

A foundation's beginning: HARP began with just 12 volunteers. The mission of the group is to work to end pet overpopulation through community education, spay and neuter programs and adoptions in East Contra Costa County. Volunteers work to find families for as many cats and dogs as they can. Many of the animals they help place are from Antioch Animal Shelter, but they also receive animals from individuals.

"The important thing is that we don't take any animals that we can't temporarily shelter with our foster families first," Kops said.

The foster families take in the animals and help with getting the animals to qualified veterinarians to make sure they are healthy. Then they keep the animal until a family can be found to adopt the animal on a permanent basis.

Over the past few months, Kops said that HARP has received several pets from families who have been displaced from their homes through foreclosure or from those who have lost their jobs because they can no longer afford to take care of the pets.

"At the CornFest we had a booth and received four requests to take dogs into our program," Kops said. "One woman told us that she had her home foreclosed on and has five children and needed to give up their dog."

Kops said there are have probably been more people than the organization knows of who asked for help for their pets because of foreclosure.

"People just don't want to tell that is the reason why their pets needed a new home," she said.
Future achievement: Each animal that is taken in to HARP is given a complete physical, immunizations, treatment for any health issues and is spayed or neutered if necessary. The veterinarians who work with the HARP animals do not provide this service for free. Part of Kops' job through the organization is to work on fundraising to pay for all of the services the animals need.

One such fundraiser will take place on Aug. 9. The group will host a Delta Discovery Cruise's sunset dinner cruise. The delta cruise on the Island Serenade will offer cocktails from the no-host bar, a gourmet dinner of either steak, salmon or vegetarian pasta.

Tickets are $50 and must be paid in advance. The money raised will pay for veterinary and foster care for the dogs and kittens that HARP rescues. For more information and tickets for the fundraiser go to www.harp-rescue.org or call 925-431-8546.

HARP has "re-homed" 600 dogs and cats in the past three years. The organization is completely run by volunteers. They pay no rent and have no salaries. All funds go to the care of the animals and community education programs.

"The economic situation in far East Contra Costa County has caused an upsurge in requests from the community for assistance. This fundraiser is crucial to raise additional funds to help distressed homeowners," Kops said.

Groups and organizations involved in: Kops said that pretty much all of her free time is spent between the two groups, HARP and SNIP.
On weekends, HARP volunteers bring animals to local pet stores for possible adoption.

The SNIP program for cats and kittens, meanwhile, is a completely volunteer-based group, including the veterinarians' time. The program is a countywide one that was developed to reduce the number of cats and kittens brought into the animal shelters in Antioch, Martinez and Pinole. The mission was to provide a nonprofit, low-cost spay and neuter organization that was modeled after the very successful "Fix Our Ferals" program.

Kops formed SNIP in 2006 with the help of five animal welfare organizations and the Contra Costa County Animal Services Department. They work with feral and free-roaming cats. The next clinic will be at the Martinez Animal Shelter on Aug. 23. All county residents are welcome to go to that clinic to spay and neuter their cats and kittens.