PET POWER Animal advocate vocal in support

TRYSLYN CAMPOS Volcano Vista High School

Tryslyn Campos has a special connection with animals. She volunteers for a host of animal rescue and advocacy groups, including Albuquerque Animal Welfare, Watermelon Mountain Ranch and New Mexico Pets Alive, which advocates for no-kill shelters.

She started a community project to get chew toys to the city’s animal shelters, where she spends many a weekend walking dogs, and she is involved with Babes and Bullies, which advocates on behalf of pit bulls and related bully-breed dogs. She participated in Roundhouse legislative sessions urging the passage of a bill that would have banned breed-specific legislation in New Mexico. The bill ran out of time in the Senate after passing the House.

“They are often labeled as dangerous, but they aren’t. I own three of them,” she says. “They have so much personality, and they’re very sweet.”

Campos, 17, volunteers with the Muscular Dystrophy Summer Camp, where she works with kids who have neuromuscular diseases — something very personal to her because she, too, has a neuromuscular condition.

“Most people don’t know I have an illness because it’s not visible, but I get weak when it’s cold or if I’ve overexerted myself. My muscles tense up and it’s hard to move or do much, but I push through it.”

Campos wants to train assistance dogs, something that would bring together her love of animals and her love of helping people overcome disabilities.

She intends to study business at UNM and eventually own a pet supplies/pet bakery store and run a nonprofit animal rescue.

ROBERTO E. ROSALES/JOURNAL “They have so much personality,” says Tryslyn Campos of the pit bulls she often walks as a volunteer at the West Side animal shelter.