Found her calling: Making leashes
Two dogs named Walter and a chance encounter led to birth of company
A chance encounter in 2006 between two Chihuahua pups, both named Walter, wound up being the catalyst for Bethany Obrecht’s dog leash company, Found My Animal.
The happenstance of a Brooklyn sidewalk meeting between the pups, as well as their owners — Obrecht, who now lives in High Falls, and Anna Conway — led to a conversation about dog leashes and animal rescue, and, eventually, a business partnership.
“Our founders met on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn while walking their two rescue pups, both of whom were named Walter,” the Found My Animal website states. “The Walters were sizing each other up, and their people started a conversation that quickly revealed their passion for animal welfare.”
“The reason why [we] started the company was to create more of a buzz around why it is important to adopt pets rather than buy a pet” said Obrecht, 35, now the sole owner of Found My Animal.
Two weeks ago, Obrecht, a photography graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, moved her Brooklyn company to the more spacious environs of the former Fuller Shirt Factory on Pine Grove Avenue in Kingston.
Found My Animal occupies 3,585 square feet of warehouse-like space with ceilings that are more than 13 feet high.
Spools upon spools of colorful rope made of nylon, cotton and up-cycled fiber were piled near a wall.
Sewing machines, some dating to the 1960s and 1970s, are used for stitching. Similar ones were used by people who worked in the Fuller Shirt Factory before it closed in 1965.
Then there are the leashes, in multiple colors, dangling on racks. The cotton ones are hand painted.
They sell for between $24.99 and $62 at various retailers, including Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom and Selfridges of London, Obrecht said. She also plans to offer them for sale at the Pine Grove Avenue location.
Each leash is individually numbered, and stamped “FOUND” tags on each leash “serve as a reminder of the uniqueness of your animal and allow us to keep track of the number of animals you have helped so far,” the company website says.
Found My Animal also produces collars, bandanas and harnesses, among other items.
The company employs seven people, and Obrecht hopes to grow that number to 20.
Since 2007, Obrecht says, Found My Animal has produced nearly 95,000 “handspliced” rope dog leashes.
According to the company’s website, the leashes can “withstand thousands of pounds of pull with the ends then ‘whipped’ (an old nautical term) for additional durability.”
They also can be maneuvered so that dog owners
can walk their canines hands-free.
Obrecht said several celebrities have been spotted in published photographs walking dogs while using Found My Animal leashes. Among them: Drew Barrymore, Nicole Richie, Michelle Williams and Megan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex.
When Obrecht saw Markle, who owns a rescue beagle named Guy, using a Found My Animal leash, “it was a pretty proud moment,” she said.
At retailers, the leashes are sold in small brown boxes with the words “Found My Animal” emblazoned on the front and a photo of Claude, Obrecht’s rescue dog, on the back.
The side reads, “Found My Animal’s goal is to help raise public awareness of the urgent need for animal adoption.”