Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in “Inside CNN,” a free weekly e-newsletter. Sign up here.
Covering the information could be a worrying job that always requires lengthy and odd working hours. News correspondents should be available almost any time of the day to report on occasions as they unfold.
That was the lifetime of CNN anchor and chief national correspondent Jim Acosta for a lot of years reporting on political campaigns and the White House.
Shortly after transitioning to his present position, he knew precisely what he wished to do.
“After I left the White House in 2021, I would basically tell anybody that I knew that I wanted to get a dog,” Acosta mentioned. “I thought, you know, I’m going to have a little bit more free time on my hands since I’m not going to be at the White House day and night. I’d love to have a dog. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do.”
He reached out to a buddy who labored with a rescue organization, and a short while later he was related with a beagle puppy named Duke whose mom had been present in an deserted home.
“I just love dogs,” Acosta mentioned. “I must have been a dog in a previous life, and so it just was a natural thing to want one as soon as I had the time available.”
Each 12 months, CNN asks its TV hosts and correspondents to highlight the inspiring tales of changemakers with whom they share a private connection as a part of the community’s “Champions For Change” initiative.
Acosta didn’t must suppose twice when he was requested. He chosen Julie Castle, the CEO of the Best Friends animal sanctuary, who helped join him with Duke.
Best Friends has two pet sanctuaries, one in Utah and one in Arkansas the place Duke is from. They are calm, hospitable locations for the animals and encourage guests who’re inquisitive about adopting.
The Kanab, Utah, location is “like a national park with rescue animals,” Acosta mentioned. The sprawling indoor-outdoor sanctuary homes loads of cats and dogs but in addition different animals comparable to pigs, goats, horses, turtles and parrots.
At the power in Bentonville, Arkansas, “there are beanbag chairs, there’s a coffee bar … they want you to come in there and spend a lot of time with the animals,” Acosta mentioned. “(It’s) like an Apple store for animal rescue.”
Best Friends is working with different shelters to assist create the identical mannequin and cut back the speed of euthanasia for wholesome, adoptable pets.
“They’re essentially trying to revolutionize the pet adoption experience … into a much more appealing experience rather than just going to the sad, depressing animal shelter (where) animals might get put to sleep,” Acosta mentioned. “What Best Friends is hoping for is that by the year 2025 — just two years from now — 90% of animals that go into shelter facilities get rescued.”
When Acosta reached out to his buddy who works for Best Friends to assist him discover a canine, it didn’t take lengthy for him to seek out the right match.
“Within a week or two she was sending me pictures of this little beagle puppy that they found in Arkansas,” he mentioned. “Apparently the mother had been left abandoned in some house that had been foreclosed on and had puppies.
“As soon as I got the picture texted to me, I was like: ‘Oh my God, this is it. I have to adopt this dog.’
“Within a few weeks I met Duke, and (we’ve) been best friends ever since.”
After his expertise, Acosta wished to unfold consciousness about Best Friends and its mission.
“If we could take all the stressed-out people in this country and put them together with an animal that needs a home — think about all the good we could do,” Acosta mentioned. “I discover having a pet to be an incredible stress reliever and an incredible actuality test in your life. You know what I imply?
“You’re wired … and you then come home, you open the door and the canine’s taking a look at you want ‘I’ve acquired to go to the lavatory!’
“It does take you again right down to planet Earth and floor you just a little bit. And I believe it’s a tremendously wholesome factor.“
For extra CNN information and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
