Donna DeConcini’s to-do list is endless when it comes to protecting animals — and what tops the roll is supporting the people who own them.
DeConcini collects food and other items to help pet owners keep their animals through tough times, including illnesses, injury, unemployment and incarceration. The work is being carried out through a nonprofit called “Food for Horses” that she started with her daughter, Margaux DeConcini.
Their dream for 2016 is to open an animal food bank, an effort that’s being helped along by Ward 6 Tucson Councilman Steve Kozachik.
“People love their pets, and I’m going to help Donna in any way I can,” he said.
All of this started a few years ago, when Margaux was working at a local feed store.
“Every day a new person would come in asking for advancement on feed or animal food,” she said.
To help at first, she’d lend them what she could. Soon, there was a labeled jar near the register so people could make donations.
Often, Margaux said, people who borrowed from the jar would come back with some reimbursement. Most were extremely grateful, she said, and “would try to pay us back as much as they could, whenever they could.”
Around this time Margaux, who is an equestrian, kept hearing stories about horses being abandoned in the desert. With this in mind, they named their nonprofit Food for Horses and, initially, focused on helping horse owners. But their efforts quickly expanded from hay and straw to kibble and dog biscuits as more people heard of their efforts, and reached out.
They now not only provide food, but also will care for animals for up to three months, hopefully enough time for the owners to work out problems, or get well. They also help with vet bills and medicine when they can.
“We want to help people who really wanted to take care of their animals,” Donna said. “To have to make a choice between your family and your animals is not an easy choice to have to make.”
When circumstances or illness prevent an owner from keeping their pet, Donna said they work with three area rescue organizations to help find homes for the animals.
To help raise money for the organization — which they eventually plan to rename — they have teamed up with local food vendors, who donate 15 percent of their proceeds. The Tucson Food Truck Rally holds events around the city. (Find out more about upcoming events online at foodtruckrallytucson.com or on Facebook).
Margaux is working on her master’s degree in social work through Arizona State University’s Tucson campus, and dreams of one day opening a resource ranch where teens and others can come for help. The focus? Animal therapy.
Donna’s garage, meanwhile, is stuffed with animal items. She hopes to donate much of it before Christmas.
“This has been my vision for a long time,” she said. “We find that people are just so happy to be able to keep their children at home, as they would call them, their fur friends.”
