EDMOND, Okla. – Ethan Hong of Edmond has found his passion in life: Fostering puppies.
He takes in pups that have been discarded or abandoned and gets them ready to be adopted.
“I fell into it by accident actually”, Ethan said. “I found some pups that were abandoned, so I called a friend and she said, ‘we’re out of foster homes right now’. So, I said ‘I can do it.’ So, she said ‘I’ll be right there.’ She showed up 30 minutes later. She brought a crate, 50 lbs of dog food and two vaccines. After that, they got adopted. She said, ‘you want two more?’ And I said, ‘sure’why not?’”
Ethan has found loving homes for hundreds of orphaned pups and kittens.
His passion to save the lives of animals is why his friend Julie Scott nominated Ethan for Pay It 4Ward.
“When Ethan fosters a pup, he is really saving two lives,” said Julie. “Because when he takes a puppy, he opens up a space for another puppy at the shelters. So they don’t have to be euthanized.”
The folks at The Urban Tea House let us their facility to surprise Ethan with the 400 dollars from First Fidelity Bank’s Thomas Rossiter.
Ethan thought he was joining Julie for a lunch but we showed up with a camera instead.
After Julie presented the money to Ethan and the shock of the moment wore off, he told us his mission was not just about rescuing the pups and kittens, as well as finding them “forever homes,” but to also educate the public.
“Oklahoma City has a very high population of unspayed and unneutered dogs and cats,” Ethan told NewsChannel 4. “So most of our shelters are very high kill. The shelter here in OKC has been doing a lot to lower that number. It’s taken several years to lower that number and we’ve gotten it down to a lot more than we used to be. But there is still a lot of education and awareness that needs to be done in order for more people to spay and neuter their pets so we don’t have this overpopulation.”
Ethan Hong: Paying it 4Ward with puppy power.
Click here to view Ethan’s Twitter page.
Pay It 4Ward is sponsored by First Fidelity Bank.