Meeting created at: 11th Nov, 2025 - 4:49 PM1 Sophia Magnanini: Oak City Move is a podcast on WKNC's 88.1 FM HD 1 Raleigh where we highlight people and organizations creating positive change in the Triangle and beyond.
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Sophia Magnanini: The song you just heard was House of mango by surf ninja3.
Sophia Magnanini: I'm Sophia Magnanini, your host and you're listening to Oak City Move.
Sophia Magnanini: Today we are joined by a very special guest, Alicia Carlucci, founder and Chair of the Friends of Wake County Animal Center.
Sophia Magnanini: So first off, I just want to thank you so much for joining me and if you wanted to explain what the Friends of Wake County Animal center is for those who may not know.
Alicia Carlucci: Yeah, awesome.
Alicia Carlucci: First of all, thank you so much for having me this evening.
Alicia Carlucci: I'm super excited to talk with you today.
Alicia Carlucci: The Friends of Wake County Animal center is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to improving the quality of life for humans for animals and their human companions right here in our awesome Wake county where we live.
Sophia Magnanini: How does the Friends of Wake County Animal center kind of differ from the Wake County Animal center itself?
Alicia Carlucci: Yeah, that's a really great question and one that I'm really glad that we're going to get a chat about because a of lot, a lot of people do think that we are the same place.
Alicia Carlucci: The Wake County Animal center in Raleigh, North Carolina is the Wake county intake facility for all animals needing to come into animal shelter.
Alicia Carlucci: It is also the only open intake animal shelter in Wake County.
Alicia Carlucci: So I want to talk for a second what open intake means.
Alicia Carlucci: A lot of people are aware that we have tons of rescue organizations here and they are by default managed intake.
Alicia Carlucci: So they only intake animals when they have a foster home or if they are a facility based organization when they have a space.
Alicia Carlucci: The Wake County Animal center in Raleigh, North Carolina is open intake.
Alicia Carlucci: Which means they have to take every animal no matter what they do, manage their intake by making appointments for owner surrenders.
Alicia Carlucci: But strays.
Alicia Carlucci: If a hundred strays come in a day, they have to take them all.
Alicia Carlucci: So that's the county shelter itself.
Alicia Carlucci: Our organization, the Friends of Wake County.
Alicia Carlucci: We are a group of hardcore longtime volunteers who wanted to really find a way to help not only the animal shelter here in Wake county, but also help pet owners Here we are a nonprofit.
Alicia Carlucci: We are not a rescue.
Alicia Carlucci: So that's one of the first things.
Alicia Carlucci: Like, we don't intake any animals.
Alicia Carlucci: My organization doesn't have any animals in our care.
Alicia Carlucci: What we do is we help support the county shelter through a variety of programs, and we try to prevent animals from going into the shelter through a variety of programs.
Alicia Carlucci: We have no facility.
Alicia Carlucci: We basically operate.
Alicia Carlucci: The core volunteers and our board are the ones who govern everything.
Alicia Carlucci: But again, that's kind of the main difference is that we aren't a shelter or a rescue, but we are more of a support organization for our shelter and our community.
Sophia Magnanini: That's so great, especially because, like you're saying, the Wake County Ambulance center is one of the few that will take them no matter what.
Sophia Magnanini: So the fact that they have that extra support from you guys is probably something that really helps and really helps a lot of animals not only get a home, but just like a second chance to have time in the shelter to possibly be adopted.
Sophia Magnanini: Are there any, like, specific programs or initiatives that Friends of Wake County Animal center that you guys have launched recently or that is ongoing?
Alicia Carlucci: Yeah, so we have quite a few different programs.
Alicia Carlucci: Our first and longest standing program is called Heal a Heart.
Alicia Carlucci: Heal a Heart is our first that we started with, and it's actually one that directly helps the county shelter.
Alicia Carlucci: So let's say you're an adopter and you come in and you fall in love with this dog, and it is heartworm positive.
Alicia Carlucci: We know that is a big cost for people right up front, like when they adopt a dog, that is just an added cost.
Alicia Carlucci: Adopting a pet is expensive anyway.
Alicia Carlucci: The county shelter tries to make it as affordable as possible by covering all the big stuff, vaccinations and spay neuter.
Alicia Carlucci: But knowing that they're going to be heartworm positive, knows there's going to be ongoing vet care to treat that condition.
Alicia Carlucci: And it needs to be treated because, untreated heartworms can unfortunately cause animal to go into heart failure.
Alicia Carlucci: So we have a sponsorship that we will pay a new adopter's vet to help them get treated for the heartworms.
Alicia Carlucci: So let's say you come in, you adopt a heartworm positive dog, you get our contact information, and once you're ready to treat your pet, we will actually pay that veterinarian directly a portion of what our sponsorship is.
Alicia Carlucci: Our standard sponsorship right now is $600.
Alicia Carlucci: It's made a really big difference because of how we see the increase in adoptions of heartworm positive dogs.
Alicia Carlucci: And we've Gotten lots of great feedback from people that having that sponsorship has allowed them to actually adopt.
Sophia Magnanini: That is really awesome because yeah, like you were saying, it is a lot cost up front.
Sophia Magnanini: Especially are getting a dog.
Sophia Magnanini: A lot of people will kind of be turned off by.
Sophia Magnanini: Not like turned off, but a lot of people.
Sophia Magnanini: It's easier for them to get one that does.
Sophia Magnanini: So the fact that it's opening so many doors for these pets and opportunities for them to get good families.
Sophia Magnanini: So that's awesome.
Sophia Magnanini: Are there any other programs?
Alicia Carlucci: Yeah, we.
Alicia Carlucci: We have a couple other.
Alicia Carlucci: We have our low cost spay neuter programs.
Alicia Carlucci: We are personally are not veterinarians, but we do partner with several local vets.
Alicia Carlucci: So members of the community can apply for a low cost spay neuter voucher through us and get their pets fixed.
Alicia Carlucci: It's very affordable.
Alicia Carlucci: It's the most affordable in the area outside of free.
Alicia Carlucci: It is a small fee, but we believe that enough because we want to reduce the number of animals.
Alicia Carlucci: We also have a rescue medical fund.
Alicia Carlucci: That's something that we work directly with the shelter with.
Alicia Carlucci: For instance, literally last week we just had a dog who came into the shelter who has double torn ACLs.
Alicia Carlucci: And if anyone's been following our pages, they've been hearing about this dog named Classy and how she needs about $10,000 worth of orthopedic surgery.
Alicia Carlucci: That is not something our county shelter is able to provide.
Alicia Carlucci: She's a great dog.
Alicia Carlucci: She's in a great foster home.
Alicia Carlucci: And we believe that by getting her the surgery it's going to make her adoptable.
Alicia Carlucci: So we will do with that.
Alicia Carlucci: We'll work with the shelter with specific medical cases.
Alicia Carlucci: Additionally, when animals come in that may need care way above and beyond even what our organization can do, we will offer sponsorships for rescues to be able to pull some of those hospice cases, those high needs, some of those hit by car dogs that are gonna need a lot more time to recover.
Alicia Carlucci: And we try to provide some sponsorship to help those local rescues take them.
Sophia Magnanini: That's amazing, honestly.
Sophia Magnanini: So sweet to hear.
Sophia Magnanini: Also that you're giving them these second chances and especially for the ones that are really in need are helping them even if it's too much, you guys are doing a lot.
Alicia Carlucci: Additionally, some other ones that are a bit more community focused.
Alicia Carlucci: We do have a program called no Empty bowl.
Alicia Carlucci: And that program helps support pet owners who might be facing just some difficulties financially.
Alicia Carlucci: And we don't want them to surrender their pet.
Alicia Carlucci: They love their pets, they're their family.
Alicia Carlucci: But if pet food is something that they are in need of.
Alicia Carlucci: We will help support them temporarily through like a job loss or a job transition or maybe they were super sick and they missed work for a couple weeks and their paycheck was a little bit smaller.
Alicia Carlucci: So we do provide temporary pet food relief to families in need.
Alicia Carlucci: And then we also have a community outreach program.
Alicia Carlucci: We have an amazing volunteer who goes out in the community and works in specific areas to talk with pet owners, to educate them and to help encourage them in situations where they might need some additional support.
Sophia Magnanini: No, that's awesome.
Sophia Magnanini: Especially I love you just kept coming out.
Sophia Magnanini: But that's amazing that you guys have so many different things that help the community and these pets to help get adopted and find forever homes and to keep those pets healthy in those homes.
Sophia Magnanini: Really great.
Sophia Magnanini: And I can only imagine how much work it is for everyone in it.
Alicia Carlucci: Yeah.
Alicia Carlucci: One thing is that we have no paid staff.
Alicia Carlucci: All of us, including myself, we are all volunteers.
Alicia Carlucci: We give our time.
Alicia Carlucci: All of our board, we're a working board.
Alicia Carlucci: So all of us give our time free of our own will.
Alicia Carlucci: We do not get paid.
Alicia Carlucci: And it's based off of our board members and our volunteers who make it happen and we couldn't do it without them.
Sophia Magnanini: So nice to hear also that you guys are just doing this.
Sophia Magnanini: Just seeing them get homes is enough for you guys and helping people and animals, which is something to admire.
Sophia Magnanini: But I know like you're saying you guys do so much to help these, the animals from the shelter get adopted.
Sophia Magnanini: What do you think that some people misunderstand about adopting from a shelter in the first place?
Alicia Carlucci: Yeah, that's a great question.
Alicia Carlucci: So I've also as like I said, as a volunteer at the county shelter, I've actually been there almost 18 years as a volunteer.
Alicia Carlucci: And so I've gotten to see kind of over time what are some of those misconceptions that people might have.
Alicia Carlucci: And one of the ones is that all the animals are like abused or damaged in some way and that they're going to take a lot of work to become part of their family.
Alicia Carlucci: And that's not always true.
Alicia Carlucci: Many of the animals were just people's pets that they fell in hard times or they moved or a life change and they had to re, you know, they had to surrender their pet to the shelter.
Alicia Carlucci: And so I think that's one of the misconceptions is that the animals there are somehow like second class citizens or something that they're not, you know, the best having personally, two of my dogs came from the shelter and they were the Best pets.
Alicia Carlucci: And they were just amazing.
Alicia Carlucci: And I'm so glad I got the opportunity to adopt them from there, because they were just wonderful family members for us.
Sophia Magnanini: Exactly.
Sophia Magnanini: I feel like so many people have these misconceptions, like you're saying, like, they're secondhand citizens or there might varying problems that come with them.
Sophia Magnanini: But in reality, dogs are just like animals, and in general are just very sweet.
Sophia Magnanini: And if you treat them right, like, they just want a chance to be loved.
Sophia Magnanini: And so helping them, especially when they've had harder times and, like, come from that, helping get that forever home is even more meaningful than.
Sophia Magnanini: Well, I don't want to say breeders, but in a way, sometimes.
Alicia Carlucci: And a lot of people.
Alicia Carlucci: Actually, another misconception that's really common is that the shelter doesn't have purebred dogs, and that's actually not true at all.
Alicia Carlucci: Right now, this very moment, we have a couple.
Alicia Carlucci: We have a couple purebred huskies.
Alicia Carlucci: We recently had a French bulldog there came through.
Alicia Carlucci: We get German shepherds.
Alicia Carlucci: We get labs, we get pugs.
Alicia Carlucci: I mean, we get all different breeds.
Alicia Carlucci: And of course, you know, those animals get adopted quicker than, you know, maybe like a hound or a piggy mix or something like that.
Alicia Carlucci: But it certainly is go buy a dog from a breeder, when reality is, if they check their local shelter periodically, they might just find exactly what they're looking for.
Sophia Magnanini: Exactly.
Sophia Magnanini: And sometimes even if they go and look and they might be thinking about getting a specific dog, and then they might meet one and play with, that isn't what they were thinking, but it becomes their forever one that they just, like, fall in love with.
Sophia Magnanini: So it's.
Sophia Magnanini: It's really about giving them a chance.
Sophia Magnanini: My next question was going to be, how does your organization help animals who are harder to place, like seniors and those with medical needs.
Sophia Magnanini: But I feel like you did kind of go into that.
Sophia Magnanini: Do you guys have any programs or any opportunities where you help educate the community about animal welfare?
Alicia Carlucci: Yeah, so we actually will go out.
Alicia Carlucci: We will do events.
Alicia Carlucci: Most recently, back in the fall, we did an event out in Holly Springs where we just have like, a booth at, like, a pet festival or something like that, where we not only talk about our programs, we also talk about what the shelter does and, you know, encourage people to go there to adopt.
Alicia Carlucci: So we do get out in the community periodically throughout the year, at least a couple times at some of these big pet events, where we'll have a booth and we'll be there to talk to people about our programs, about what we do about adopting Animals.
Alicia Carlucci: And even we also will tell people, you know, sometimes if they're looking for a specific breed, they might say, hey, I really want a dachshund.
Alicia Carlucci: And something that we might be able to do is say, hey, you know, we actually don't have one right now at the shelter, but did you know there's a dachshund rescue in North Carolina?
Alicia Carlucci: There's, you know, this breed rescue, there's that.
Alicia Carlucci: So we'll also educate people on those respects.
Alicia Carlucci: If they are someone who wants a purebred dog.
Alicia Carlucci: There's some really great purebred rescues right here in our state that we can refer people to as well.
Sophia Magnanini: No, that's so awesome because especially it's like a purebred rescue is very different from breeders, which is also really awesome because it's like, you don't have to go and give your money to these people that might be doing things in more unethical way rather than helping dogs get a second chance at rescues and stuff like that.
Sophia Magnanini: So that's really awesome.
Sophia Magnanini: What is the day to day operations for volunteer?
Alicia Carlucci: So I think that would be kind of twofold because for our organization, the day to day operations is, like I said, we don't have a facility.
Alicia Carlucci: All of us have regular, I call them real people jobs.
Alicia Carlucci: And so a lot of us, you know, each, I will say, like my team, we chat every single day, multiple times a day.
Alicia Carlucci: And so, you know, for us, the workload really depends on when cases come in, when we have events, when we have major things going on.
Alicia Carlucci: Now, that also differs in the fact that the county shelter itself has a whole volunteer program.
Alicia Carlucci: I'm a volunteer there, as well as our entire board is.
Alicia Carlucci: And so for that, it could look very different depending on what someone would like to do if they decide to volunteer at the county shelter for the Wake County Animal center, they can walk dogs, they can cuddle cats, they can be adoption counselors.
Alicia Carlucci: They could bathe animals.
Alicia Carlucci: They could.
Alicia Carlucci: There's literally volunteer jobs where they just stand out front and greet people when they come to the animal center.
Alicia Carlucci: And so if anyone is looking for volunteer opportunities, I would love to recommend the Wake County Animal center as a volunteer place.
Sophia Magnanini: I love that.
Sophia Magnanini: And like I was saying kind of earlier, besides just fostering, I have volunteered there quite a bit couple times.
Sophia Magnanini: And it is just such a nice space as, well, community.
Sophia Magnanini: Like everyone there is super nice, super sweet.
Sophia Magnanini: And it's just a great staff, great bunch of people.
Sophia Magnanini: But I can imagine working, like you were saying, real people jobs on top of also Doing this stuff is very challenging.
Sophia Magnanini: And are there any other, like, main challeng or challenges that you'd like to talk about that you guys have to deal with, misconceptions, lack of funding, or anything that your team's currently working to address?
Alicia Carlucci: Yeah.
Alicia Carlucci: So naturally, every nonprofit organization is going to have the issue of funding as a nonprofit.
Alicia Carlucci: We, like I said, we do not.
Alicia Carlucci: Well, we don't have a facility, but we do have all these programs.
Alicia Carlucci: And we run about a $200,000 a year budget that we spend on helping animals here in Wake County.
Alicia Carlucci: And all of that funding doesn't come from government grants or anything like that.
Alicia Carlucci: It's all private donors.
Alicia Carlucci: So, for instance, like the most.
Alicia Carlucci: The dog that we most recently did, we have been fundraising for her surgery for a couple weeks.
Alicia Carlucci: And so fundraising is always a challenge.
Alicia Carlucci: And of course, we always do accept donors to help our organization, but that is always going to be a challenge.
Alicia Carlucci: And I think that's not exclusive to us.
Alicia Carlucci: I think that's non profits in general.
Alicia Carlucci: And we try to make it clear, like on our social media pages at events, we try to tell the public the things that we do because we feel like that helps build a connection so that they feel good about the funds that they donate.
Alicia Carlucci: And we try to show our donors, hey, here's animal that we've been helping.
Alicia Carlucci: Here's a case we've been helping.
Alicia Carlucci: Here's what we're doing with everything so that they know that every penny that they give to us is being utilized.
Sophia Magnanini: That's awesome because.
Sophia Magnanini: Yeah, like you were saying earlier, I feel like for every nonprofit, it is kind of harder for the funding and the donors.
Sophia Magnanini: But it is really great when you can see that the community, like, through volunteers and donations, that how much they care about helping the animals and helping you guys get them good homes.
Sophia Magnanini: And so that's kind of.
Sophia Magnanini: Even though it's super hard work, it's kind of a little bit of satisfaction.
Sophia Magnanini: Not satisfaction, but something nice to feel like when you see the community really cares.
Sophia Magnanini: Yeah.
Sophia Magnanini: And for anyone who's listening right now, what are the best ways to get involved or support your mission?
Sophia Magnanini: If there are any specific or are there any specific types of, like, items that you need right now?
Sophia Magnanini: Donations, volunteers or fosters?
Alicia Carlucci: That's a great question.
Alicia Carlucci: So I can kind of speak twofold both for the county shelter and for our nonprofit.
Alicia Carlucci: Obviously, for someone who wants to give some time, I would highly encourage them to become a volunteer at the Wake County Animal center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Alicia Carlucci: They accept anyone who's 18 years in age and up.
Alicia Carlucci: And so of course that would be my first recommendation for someone who wants to get some hands on volunteering, because like I said, volunteers are always needed.
Alicia Carlucci: And I wish I could say that the number of animals is decreasing, but nationwide the number of animals in shelters is increasing.
Alicia Carlucci: And that's due to a combination of factors currently.
Alicia Carlucci: So volunteers are needed everywhere for our specific organization.
Alicia Carlucci: I would say the biggest thing that we have right now is the need for funds.
Alicia Carlucci: Definitely, you know, 2025 has been challenging.
Alicia Carlucci: I think every nonprofit is feeling that this year.
Alicia Carlucci: Just economies, jobs, things like that.
Alicia Carlucci: Some of our regular donors just aren't able to give in the way that they previously have.
Alicia Carlucci: And we of course understand that, but that just makes us have to get really creative and we're good at that.
Alicia Carlucci: I think everyone who nonprofits is good at taking nothing and turning it into something.
Alicia Carlucci: So we have to become experts at that.
Alicia Carlucci: We have to get creative.
Alicia Carlucci: But certainly the biggest things would be donors.
Alicia Carlucci: That would be the biggest thing that we need at this time.
Alicia Carlucci: And when we say donors, sometimes people hear that and they're like, oh my God, you know, I don't have a thousand dollars to give.
Alicia Carlucci: That's okay, dude, $5.
Alicia Carlucci: You know, if 100 people give $5, that adds up pretty quickly to help cover different things for whether it be a heartworm treatment, whether it be animal who needs surgery, whether it be a cat, a feral cat needing to be spay neutered, all of those things are things that we use those funds for.
Sophia Magnanini: And like you were saying, I think that's really important for people to understand.
Sophia Magnanini: No matter how much you give, you're still giving and it will add up.
Sophia Magnanini: So it's not like you have to make these huge donations at a time, but you can do little by little or even just giving every month or something like.
Alicia Carlucci: And that is definitely something.
Alicia Carlucci: We do have an opportunity where you can become a monthly donor and you could literally give as little as $5 a month.
Alicia Carlucci: And you know, people think, oh my God, that's nothing.
Alicia Carlucci: But really, that is truly something.
Alicia Carlucci: And it's small enough amount where you don't notice it coming out of your monthly budget.
Alicia Carlucci: But if, you know, we get 100 people that do that every month, that adds up very quickly.
Alicia Carlucci: So even if you give or if you just want to do a one time donation, we are appreciative of anything.
Alicia Carlucci: The shelter itself, like I said, their biggest need would be the volunteer base to cuddle those cats and adoption council and visit with the animals.
Alicia Carlucci: But for us, the biggest thing is funding, because we cannot do our programs without that funding.
Sophia Magnanini: And that's good to hear.
Sophia Magnanini: So any listeners are listening.
Sophia Magnanini: Hey, donate, volunteer, do it all.
Sophia Magnanini: Because who doesn't love animals?
Alicia Carlucci: Exactly.
Sophia Magnanini: As we kind of come up towards the end of our chat, if there's one message that you wanted to listeners to take away from this interview, what would it be?
Sophia Magnanini: Or if you wanted to add anything else after that?
Alicia Carlucci: Yeah, the biggest thing is, you know, if you've been thinking about wanting to get involved in animal welfare, animal rescue, I would definitely encourage you to do it.
Alicia Carlucci: There's a lot of people say that they're afraid of getting involved because they think the shelter will be a sad place.
Alicia Carlucci: And really, I want to encourage you to think the opposite way, that you have to remember that these animals, the time that you spend with them when you become a volunteer is incredibly important.
Alicia Carlucci: You increase their happiness.
Alicia Carlucci: You increase their happiness while they're at the shelter and their stay, and you get to help them get a new home.
Alicia Carlucci: For us, the biggest thing I want to say for friends is that, you know, we want to continue to help support our community, and we also want to continue to help our shelter.
Alicia Carlucci: And we would appreciate anyone, if you're interested, you can follow us on quite a few different ways.
Alicia Carlucci: We have a very active Facebook page.
Alicia Carlucci: Friends of Wake County Animal Center.
Alicia Carlucci: We are on Instagram.
Alicia Carlucci: We also are on TikTok.
Alicia Carlucci: Oh, no, I'm sorry.
Alicia Carlucci: We're not on TikTok yet.
Alicia Carlucci: We're not there.
Alicia Carlucci: Our board.
Sophia Magnanini: Soon.
Alicia Carlucci: Yeah, our board.
Alicia Carlucci: We're a little.
Alicia Carlucci: We're a little older.
Alicia Carlucci: We've got.
Alicia Carlucci: We're not on TikTok yet, although we probably really should be.
Alicia Carlucci: We need to get some folks involved to help us on there.
Alicia Carlucci: We are on Twitter.
Alicia Carlucci: We are on Instagram.
Alicia Carlucci: We are on Facebook.
Alicia Carlucci: We have a YouTube channel where we share a lot of different things that go on.
Alicia Carlucci: And of course, we have our website friends@wakeanimals.org and that's a place that you can find out about all of our programs as well as make donations.
Sophia Magnanini: Perfect.
Sophia Magnanini: Thank you so much for coming in and talking to me about this.
Sophia Magnanini: It's so important for the community to learn, especially that they can.
Sophia Magnanini: What they can do to help the animal and the animal center.
Sophia Magnanini: And so it's really awesome.
Alicia Carlucci: Thank you so much for having me.
Alicia Carlucci: This has been a wonderful opportunity.
Alicia Carlucci: And again, anyone who's interested in learning more, you can check us out on any of our socials and contact us with any questions.
Sophia Magnanini: And thank you for what you guys do because it really does make such a big impact and helping all these animals and it's just really amazing and awe inspiring.
Alicia Carlucci: Thank you so much.
Alicia Carlucci: And again, thank you for the opportunity.
Alicia Carlucci: Appreciate it.
Sophia Magnanini: Thank you all for listening to this episode of Oak City Move.
Sophia Magnanini: If you're interested in listening to this episode again or to past episodes, you can go to wknc podcast.org and come back to listen to Oak City Move every other Monday at 9am Mondays.
Sophia Magnanini: Yep, 9am Mondays.
Sophia Magnanini: I'll say it again, but have
