By Roy A. Barnes

I attended one of the southwest’s biggest horror genre conferences called Texas Frightmare Weekend in May 2009. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a little time talking about purposeful travel and animal rescue with Linda Blair.

She has come a long way since she garnered much acclaim for her role as the possessed girl in The Exorcist whose soul needed rescue from evil forces. In real life, it’s Linda Blair who’s rescuing via her WorldHeart Foundation which rehabilitates abused, neglected and abandoned dogs (including some in shelters) back to mental and physical wellness to prepare them for new, loving owners.

Fans of her work lined up in droves for a short chat and her autograph on various memorabilia. Blair talked to them about the rescuing of these unfortunate animals. Her signing table contained information about her cause. The money she made from the horror convention goes to her work on behalf of these dogs.

Those who want to travel for a cause have many options, including helping Linda Blair take care of rescued dogs. The work is performed some 20 miles north of Los Angeles on 2.5 acres of land. Imagine working alongside with a movie star in a very worthwhile project for animal welfare. Because her facility is set up at her home and has limited space (much of that going for the care of the dogs), the volunteer project doesn’t provide housing. So finding volunteers who’d give of their time for what she deems “an American crisis” is a constant challenge:

They’d have to stay in hotels (about 20 minutes away) and have a real passion.” While a lot of people tell her that they’re interested in coming out, she added, “They just don’t seem to come. That’s sad.”

Playing God Is “the worst job ever”

Blair, with a small volunteer staff, is responsible for taking care of, at most, only 50 dogs at once (what she’s currently licensed for). That’s because if she’s short on volunteers, then she’s left doing the feeding and cleaning chores for the dogs basically on her own. Unfortunately, this means hard decisions for her over who she chooses for sanctuary. Knowing how much Blair loves animals, but also knowing that her facility isn’t infinite in its powers to save all animals who need rescuing from a bad life, I asked her about the process of selection. She was quite emphatic in stating:

I’ve written articles about playing God. It’s the worst job ever, but because somebody else didn’t have the decency to keep the animal or couldn’t find another home when they lost their home or they weren’t willing to move into an apartment that would take animals for a period of time. I’ve heard every excuse in the world, and there is no excuse good enough for me. The animals are your family and if they’re not, then you shouldn’t have had them in the first place.”

“I understand that there are people now who can’t put food on their own tables, let alone feed their animals, so go and ask for help. Go into a local vet, go into a feed store, go into anywhere and say, ‘Is there anything you can do and/or think of to help me because I’m in a bit of a difficult time?’ Some shelters are giving some food. Other shelters are begging for people to come and volunteer.”

She knows that the tough economy is forcing people to make tough choices but she still expects people to keep their commitments to their animals:

When I go into a shelter, I’m going for a specific animal or I [could] walk by and I say ‘Oh, I could take 25, I could take 50 – I’m only one person.’”

“People are trying to survive. This is a very scary time. We will make it out. But just care and be passionate. Fear makes you make mistakes. If you have fear, you have to believe that much harder that there’s help somewhere but you have to sometimes look for the help and realize what’s in front of you or somebody may offer you a suggestion. And it’s not always about, ‘We’ll just give the dog away’ or ‘I’m going to take it to the pound.’ It’s talk about it, think about it, put up signs, ask your friends – ask for help.”

Blair also suggests seeking out local groups that perform animal care and rescue in your community, too. She admonishes vets to give half price discounts on their spaying and neutering procedure at least once a month, charging that half the pet overpopulation is due to the difficulty in obtaining grants for these expensive procedures.

Travelers can give back

As for the subject of travel, Blair has seen a lot of this world, so I was curious about her favorite travel spots, and not only did she talk about her preferences, but she emphasized her feelings about the meaning of exploring our world. She initially spoke of her fondness for Australia and then about noticing what needs to be done to make things a little better whenever you find yourself away from home:

I’m sad to think of when enough people go to Australia, it’s gonna become more like what we’ve done to America. America is a very special place, but many people have ruined it. Many people have said ‘What can you guys do for me?’ It’s about ‘What can I do for my country?’ Kennedy’s words were [that]. Be proud of this country. I’m serving my country and I want others to do the same. Australia was one of my favorite places because it’s similar to what I know America was 50 years ago. You could have a lemonade, you could leave your doors open, you weren’t stabbed in the back and shot.”

Blair continued about America:

I love driving through Alabama and Georgia – all of the trees. It’s very beautiful and peaceful. I’m still a big fan of lemonade. I like the bayous. I think it’s really really interesting. Look at the West. The pioneers. Go back historically [and see] what they went through. I have seen many places and history is very interesting to me. Remember how we got here. People came over on ships and they died for us. So give something back in our communities…and you and your family will feel better.”

“Pick what you like. You like nature. Give back. You just don’t take from it. You must give back. Clean up. I did a play one time, and every night in back of this hotel was so much trash and I used to take my dog out and we’d just go clean trash at night, and I thought if only people knew I was cleaning the back of the hotel at night. But somebody’s got to do it. Just volunteer your services, whether it’s animals, children, environmentally. If you don’t have the money, give the gift of time.”

If you have some vacation time coming up and want to make a difference, and really love working with dogs, contact the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation

photo credit of Linda Blair and dog: Terri Keefer (used with permission)

Roy A. Barnes writes from southeastern Wyoming and is a frequent contributor to The Traveler Blog. Roy is seen here with Linda Blair at the Texas Frightmare Weekend.