CEO says nonprofit is looking for new location for ranch
Katy Gullette, founder and CEO of Underdog Animal Rescue and Rehab, has been hoping to open a thrift store to fundraise for the dog rescue nonprofit for years.
Thrift stores are easy ways to raise funds, Gullette said: supporters can bring in free donations and the organization can sell those items for a profit. It’s a tried-and-true method—Humane Societies across the country run associated thrift stores. Gullette also has a background: she owned retail clothing stores in Oregon for 18 years before moving to Moab.
When the owners of the Remnant Thrift Store in Moab decided they were going to retire this summer, Gullette made an offer that was accepted. The store, now renamed the Underdog Rescue Thrift Store, will help fund the nonprofit’s mission to care for stray dogs from the Native American reservations of the Four Corners area.
“It’s going to be a profit center, but there’s more to it than that,” Gullette said. “It’s another way for people to engage with us, by volunteering, by donating goods.”
“There are a lot of ways people support nonprofits, and this just opens the door to more ways to engage the community,” she said, “as well as providing something that’s needed here, which is affordable goods.”
The store will look much different, Gullette said: the layout will be revamped, and there’ll be new lighting. Last week, everything in the store cost only $1 in an effort to sell leftover merchandise from the previous owners. The store will still sell clothing and furniture, but also craft supplies, tools, and sporting goods. To tie in the Underdog Rescue mission, there will be adoptable dogs on site too.
Underdog provides transportation, veterinary care, spay/neuter and vaccination clinics, and adoption services; but lately, it’s had challenges keeping up with the number of dogs housed at the Underdog ranch, Gullette said. There are 60 dogs available for adoption currently; in September, there were 164 dogs on the waiting list.
“We definitely have the ability to grow, and it has been growing consistently for the six and a half years we’ve been in business,” Gullette said. “But as far as physical growth, we are definitely out of space, and we are actively looking for a new location.”
In an Instagram post in September, Underdog said adoptions were down 60% from the year prior. Most dogs this year have been adopted out of foster homes (dogs are housed both at the ranch and in foster homes), which Gullette said helps with the workload—foster families are meeting with potential adopters, instead of Underdog staff.
The nonprofit desperately wants to find a new space, but that’s difficult for a few reasons: the City of Moab’s zoning laws don’t allow kennels, and in Grand County, the only place Underdog could go would be in highway commercial zones, which would be unsuitable. “I would be a basket case with our dogs along the highway,” Gullette said.
The nonprofit is looking farther afield, but moving somewhere like Monticello means it might be harder to hire staff. Currently, many Underdog staff live in local properties that Gullette owns.
“We may have to move out of this community,” she said. “Moab is just so expensive. It’s so expensive for staff, it’s so expensive for our business, and it’s so expensive to buy any property. That’s not the goal, but it’s a reality.”
While Underdog hunts for a new location, funds from the store will be used to create a new building at the current site to help quarantine sick dogs, as well as pay for the nonprofit’s vet bills and spay and neuter program.
The Underdog Rescue Thrift Store (350 N. 500 West) is accepting donations. Store hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, donations are accepted 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
To learn more or to volunteer, go to UnderdogRescueMoab.org.
