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Kam Gottlieb puts pups through paces with treadmill
Wilmette teen Kam Gottlieb got to know Chance, a ward of the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society, when she donated a special dog treadmill to the Society last month. Kam took two years to raise money for the machine, and her campaign to buy more treadmills for enclosed dogs continues.Wilmette teen Kam Gottlieb got to know Chance, a ward of the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society, when she donated a special dog treadmill to the Society last month. Kam took two years to raise money for the machine, and her campaign to buy more treadmills for enclosed dogs continues.Wilmette teen Kam Gottlieb got to know Chance, a ward of the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society, when she donated a special dog treadmill to the Society last month. Kam took two years to raise money for the machine, and her campaign to buy more treadmills for enclosed dogs continues.
WILMETTE
Don’t use the phrase “it’s a dog’s life” when you visit an animal shelter.
It falls dreadfully flat while looking into the hopeful eyes of dogs who must spend their days in cages, waiting for new lives – for those few precious moments they can move beyond the cages that keep them safe.
Two years ago Wilmette student and animal lover Kam Gottlieb found that vision impossible to ignore. She decided to do something about it. With the help of mom Susan, she began raising money toward a solution. She held tea parties in her backyard; she sold special bracelets; she made presentations to her school classmates.
Last month the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society and the canine wards it houses at its LaSalle Street shelter netted the benefit of some of the $800 that Kam, now 12, raised; a $500 treadmill specially designed to give space-limited dogs a chance to stretch their legs.
The treadmill is longer than a standard machine, with soft high-sided walls to keep a dog well balanced. It’s already a hit, Society President Robyn Barbiers said last week, even though it can be used by only one dog at a time.
“We’re in downtown Chicago, and we don’t walk dogs on the streets. We have our runs, but that’s it,” Barbiers said. “So (the treadmill) will be used quite a bit, especially for our dogs that have been here a long time or who are harder to place.”
That pleased Kam, whose lifelong love of animals, especially dogs, has until now been stymied by severe allergies (although she, dad Adam and brother Hunter, 15, are taking allergy shots in hopes of finally having their own hairless terrier next spring.)
“I really love animals, and when I saw how big the Anti-Cruelty Society was and how many dogs they have, I thought it would be hard to exercise all of them,” she said last week.
The project was a natural outgrowth of a family tradition in which Kam and her brother give part of their allowances to help others, mom Susan Gottlieb said. When she and her own mother put their heads together and did some research, they decided the Anti-Cruelty Society was where Kam’s efforts should focus.
Barbiers said educating children to respect and care for animals is a core Anti-Cruelty Society mission, which makes Kam’s determination even more laudable. As a result, the Wilmette teen won the first spot in the Society’s new Pals for Pets program, designed to recognize children who work on behalf of animals.
“I was just so impressed with Kam. It took her almost two years to raise this money, and when I heard that, I thought ‘What a unique child; she’s going to go places,’” Barbiers said.
The owners of Las Vegas-based dogPACER, the company which makes the treadmill, were equally impressed; so much so that they discounted the cost of a second treadmill, allowing Kam to donate it to the Michigan animal shelter she and her family regularly visit and help while on vacation.
Kam is already hard at work raising money for a third treadmill, to go to an as-yet-unknown recipient. People who want to donate to her cause can do so by visiting www.dogpacer.com/ and clicking on the donation button.~.
