B-Side Community

After learning that over 20,000 animals are euthanized in Austin, Texas every year, Stacy Schoolfield volunteered to foster abandoned animals in her home. This film chronicles her experience, taking viewers straight to the heart of pet overpopulation’s causes and complexities and examines the costs to individuals and the community.
"Rescue Me" invites viewers to meet rescue volunteers, learn what motivates and challenges them, and experience the highs and lows of volunteering – from the satisfaction of matching a foster animal with an adoptive family to the disturbing numbers of adoptable companion animals killed every day due to overpopulation. The subjects, including writer-songwriter-politician Kinky Friedman, all speak to the societal costs of our “disposable” culture’s lack of stewardship toward animals. They point out, that fixing the problem of pet overpopulation and abandonment is bigger than one volunteer, or a small army of volunteers can fix.