Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Barnett.
Hi Katie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In 2005, I my best friend Brandi and I traveled to Mississippi which was one of the staging shelters for survivors of Hurricane Katrina. We stayed for a few days and volunteered with the animals who weren’t allowed in the human shelters, left behind, or were separated from their families. One of the unclaimed dogs was a little mixed breed dog and I adopted her and brought her back to Kansas City. I named her, Katrina. Katrina lived with me in Johnson County for months until one day a police officer came to my door and told me I had a “pit bull” looking dog and I had to find her a new home. I couldn’t bear to let her go after all she’d been through, and I couldn’t believe she was being targeted just by the way she looked (she was tiny, 40 lbs, and didn’t look like a pit bull at all to me), so we moved to pet friendly Olathe. Once we were settled in, I started advocating against breed specific legislation at city council meetings n the metro area, researching the constitutionality of breed targeted legislation, and Brandi and I started volunteering at spay/neuter clinics and rescues and shelters. I met Anthony (now, my husband) at a city council meeting where he passionately and effectively argued against breed specific legislation. I decided that advocating for people and pets was something I wanted to do or a career and decided to go to law school. Today, I have the only animal law firm in Kansas, I teach Animal Law as an adjunct professor, and my best friend Brandi runs my practice.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No one ever prepares for their dog being taken because of the way it looks, or their dog being shot by police, or taking their dog in for surgery and them not making it out alive. My struggle is finding balance between serving everyday people when then they need it the most, and making sure that I earn enough to pay the bills. As the only attorney in my field in Kansas and only one of two animal attorneys in Missouri, I feel like I’m turning people away more often than I can help people in need and that is a huge struggle for me. People and pets need more advocacy and representation, so I hope that I can inspire young attorneys out there to consider this as a career path.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My husband and I have lived here for many years and while my law firm tries to serve pet owners with legal needs, we also see the critical need for urgent veterinary care in our community. With corporate investors buying all the veterinary clinics and increasing daytime loads while decreasing overnight and urgent care, there is a huge service gap in our community. We’ve invested in the Ad Astra Urgent Vet care clinic and helped build out a place for Dr. Jason Banning to fill the gap for overnight care. His clinic will be the first and only urgent care facility in Douglas County, KS. https://adastraurgentvet.com/. We are so excited to see how he can help the pets in our community when they need it the most.
For fun, my husband and I are also opening Hair of the Dog Cafe, an adoptable dog cafe in Lawrence, KS. It is the country’s only adoptable dog cafe and we are thrilled to share the human-animal bond with visitors and give them high quality food and drink service. Cocktails and coffee and adoptable dogs – should be a blast! https://www.hairofthedogcafe.com/
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
For my law firm, I hope to see an influx in new attorneys pursuing animal law. When I was in law school, Animal Law wasn’t offered as a class, and today, I teach it at University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law and Washburn School of Law. I get to reach a ton of eager students each year and I hope that they learn the value and reward of a career in animal law. What used to be a niche area of law is becoming commonplace in firms nationwide and I’m excite to see what happens in the Kansas City area over the next 5 to 10 years.
I think we are on the cusp of pet owners demanding more after hours services like Ad Astra Urgent Vet Care. With nearly 70% of all households in this country having a pet, I hope more clinics allow for after hours care or people in need have an urgent care clinic to get help in their area. Accessibility and affordability are the primary reasons pet owners don’t seek vet care (especially services like spay/neuter). If the market doesn’t correct the accessibility and affordability issue, pet owners nationwide will suffer and animal shelters will continue to see an influx of animals and overcrowding.
In the next 5 years, I hope Hair of the Dog Cafe has made lifelong connections with adoptable dogs and their new family. We want this to be a destination cafe where dog lovers can relax with good food and a cocktail and also enjoy some time with dogs looking for a family. We want to honor the bond that connects me and my husband with our dogs, remember Katrina, the dog who got us here, and create positive memories for visitors.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hairofthedogcafe.com/; https://adastraurgentvet.com/; and https://www.barnettlawoffice.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hairofthedoglawrence; https://www.instagram.com/adastraurgentvetcare/ and https://www.instagram.com/barnettlawoffice/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hairofthedoglawrence/; https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584272177613 and https://www.facebook.com/BarnettLawOfficeLlc/
