When it comes to combining my two favourite things on TV, it’s hard to find a show that covers cooking and muscle cars or my other two interests – astronomy and poker… so one day as I was flipping between animal shows and Storage Wars, I heard my email ding. Frustrated with having to flip between the two shows, I was ready for a distraction. When I opened my email, there it was in big bold letters… New show that combines Animal Hospital with Bin Hunting called Pets & Pickers, premiering on Thursday May 12th. What were the odds and was I dreaming the entire email ding? I tend to sleep walk and will sometimes eat all the sliced cheese in the fridge. Luckily, the email ding checked out and this really was TV brilliance at its best. Finally, we have a TV show that truly combines 2 incredible interests – animals in need and storage bins full of unknown treasures.
Tyson (Hepburn) Media is the creator of the series, in association with Bell Media for Discovery and the participation of The Bell Fund. Hepburn is Executive Producer and Showrunner, Heather Williamson is Sr. Development Executive, Tina Apostolopoulos is Sr. Production Executive; Sarah Fowlie is Head of Production, Kelly McClughgan is Series Producer and Andrew Vacheresse is Director. Hepburn is the creator, showrunner and executive producer of several other successful docuseries, including global phenomenon – Rust Valley Restorers (Netflix International, History Canada), Cold Water Cowboys (Discovery Channel Canada), The Dog Dudes (Amazon Prime, Apple Plus), and Backroad Truckers (History Canada).
PETS & PICKERS is a one-of-a-kind animal hospital where pets receive urgent care, even when owners can’t afford it; funded by a dedicated team of picking specialists who sort through abandoned storage bins finding hidden treasures to pay for the surgeries. When a beloved pet risks going without life-saving medical treatment because a desperate owner is unable to pay, the RAPS (Regional Animal Protection Society) Animal Hospital comes to the rescue – providing a vital helping hand. Inspirational and heartwarming, Pets & Pickers is the story of animals and owners in urgent need, and the special team of selfless veterinarians who care for them. To help fund these treatments, an energetic, dedicated group of colourful, animal loving “pickers” combs through donated mystery bins, hoping for forgotten treasures. Some bins are disappointing duds and others reap thousands of dollars, all going to pay for vet care and critical surgeries.
In Episode 101, entitled PETS, PICKERS & PROBLEMS, Dexter the dog has breathing problems so serious, owner Michelle travels hours in the hope that RAPS can help pay for urgent surgery. There’s also Halo the chihuahua, who discovers more than exercise in the local dog park.
This type of animal treatment definitely takes a team and I spoke to part of it. I met with Eyal Lichtmann – Executive Director and successful entrepreneur with a knack for fundraising. He set an ambitious goal of caring for every animal in need. When a storage company offered to donate the bins from abandoned storage lockers to charitable organizations, Eyal saw the picking as a potential gold mine to help raise money for animal care. Under his leadership, RAPS has grown from treating 1200 animals a year to 15,000. Its Cat Sanctuary houses and cares for over 500 wild and abandoned cats (largest in Canada) – with a goal of finding forever homes for all of them.
Tyson Hepburn also joins us. He is the creator and Showrunner of the series.
I also met with DR. Marius Vasilescu, RAPS lead veterinarian and the “go-to” surgeon for more complex procedures. He holds a Masters in Small Animal Clinical Sciences and Pharmacology and a Ph.D. in Microsurgery. He has worked in Toronto and Vancouver and has been at RAPS for almost a year. He describes veterinary work as “a mixture of science and a little bit of art” or – more accurately, “Intuitive work.”
The last member of the team I was able to speak with, was Karen Kamachi – Thrift Store Manager. Karen had a long career as a florist and was a program manager for people with disabilities before coming to RAPS. Two of her five children have developmental disabilities and providing opportunities for them and others has been a driving force for Karen. Her love of animals and its “no-kill” policy attracted her to volunteer at RAPS. She offered to help RAPS put together a charity gala and they recognized her extraordinary skill in managing people and begged her to take over their thrift store – a job she knew nothing about. That was 14 years ago. She has since become a master at getting donations, finding buyers and making sure everybody plays nice while they raise funds to help the people and pets that are in need.
These incredible guests were most gracious in talking to us about the heartwarming new series that can be seen on Discovery Channel every Thursday at 6 PT. Each guest was tremendously informative and I could’ve talked Pets and Picking all day, it was fascinating. Roll the tape!
HNMAG “I really love the idea of this show Tyson. How did it materialize?”
TYSON “It’s not just me, it’s Eyal and Karen. They introduced me to this beautiful world. It’s a team effort, I just filmed it.”
EYAL “It was Karen’s idea to get these bins from U-Pack to fill our stores. The problem was, you had to take all 175 bins because they wanted it out of their facility. Our cat sanctuary is on farmland, so we were able to take a lot. We began opening up 2 at a time and we were going to start our own Youtube channel, like Storage Wars and just as we started filming that, we met Tyson and that’s where the idea to do a show came from.”
HNMAG “Tyson, This is quite a different speed from past shows you’ve produced. How did you know there was a story here?”
TYSON “It’s such a unique concept and it’s so heartwarming. There’s a lot of different animal hospital shows out there, so you’re always looking for something different. It also has to be genuine and real, which is what RAPS (Regional Animal Protection Society) does. The lockers get dropped off at the Thrift Store every week and the expert pickers – Karen and her team go through them and find these amazing items. One hundred percent of the proceeds go toward the animal hospital. Eyal showed me some of the earlier footage they had shot and showed me the entire process. I was able to see clients coming in with pets that had major issues. In post Covid, many people get a pet and there’s lack of funding due to their situation and they need help. RAPS is there to help out and it’s a very unique brand, where you have Storage Wars meets Animal Hospital.”
HNMAG “Having watched the show, it truly is very unique. You have the interest of the pet owners and you have the attention of the storage locker hunters. It’s a great combo!”
Tyson had mentioned a unique tattoo that Karen had and for her to explain the meaning behind it.
KAREN “This is a tattoo of pet paws and dog paws (wrist tattoo) that represent every animal that I have lost. I recently lost a cat 2-weeks ago, so I will be adding another paw to my wrist. It speaks to why I do what I do – I don’t want other people with paw prints on their wrist.”
HNMAG “Karen, what’s the most exciting item you’ve unpacked from a crate?”
KAREN “Oh my goodness… that’s really hard. It depends if you like collectables. I really like Poseidon, which is quite huge. If you’re looking for scary, we have guns – lots of guns. If you’re looking for collectables, the list is so long; James Bond watches, jewellery, China, it really depends on what you’re looking for. I’ve got enough s*x toys to sink a ship (laughing). Lots of comics, as well as an entire bin full of dolls. You sometimes go through an entire bin to find one great thing and then you have bins where everything inside is great, which is part of the treasure hunt. You don’t know if you’re going to end up with a household or someone’s treasures. We found a very beautiful old organ and when I think about music, I think of the jazz era. Our specialists are also very good and they know what they’re talking about. It’s been a big learning curve because sometimes I don’t even know what I got.”
EYAL “There was an entire unit that was S&M, we know that for sure. There were handcuffs, there were leathers, whips, it was everything. Karen did find some very good collectables though. We found an original script from Star Wars and other scripts as well. You find cash, a lot of expensive art work, train sets, car sets. Usually, you’ll only find a few collectables but some bins are full of collectables.”
HNMAG “How many bins have you already opened and can this be sustained?”
TYSON “Many seasons, decades.”
KAREN “Forever… I don’t foresee a problem getting bins, we still have bins left over that we haven’t touched. Aside from that, I would like to pick bigger – people will sometimes donate entire homes when someone passes away, with bigger things. We’re actually only at the tip of the picking iceberg.”
HNMAG “It sounds like you won’t have to turn pet owners away for some time to come, that’s wonderful.”
EYAL “We only raise so much money per animal for each of the shows. There could be 2-3 animals per episode or sometimes there’s 4 animals per episode. We also raise money for the general public but it’s not unlimited. The idea is to keep growing that as much as we can by opening up as many thrift stores as possible. We used to have 1 and now we have 3 but we’d like to keep growing that. It would be nice to have 100 Thrift Stores generating money to help the community. In the 4 years that we’ve been open, we’ve given back to the community – over 3 million dollars in vet care. We’re the largest non-for-profit animal hospital in the region and our goal is to open as many of the non-for-profit hospitals as we’re able to do so financially. Currently, the show is really capturing/showcasing our ability to make veterinary care more affordable for a lot of people.”
HNMAG “Tyson, what size of a camera crew would you be using at each location?”
TYSON “There’s usually 3-4 people on set that operate as a fly on the wall. We don’t want to interrupt any hospital surgeries or bin picking, however with that being said it’s still a show, so things do happen. We have a series director/A Camera, a Cinematographer/DOP, a Sound person and a coordinator. It’s usually 4 people that will rotate between different locations when we’re in production. They’re at the Animal Hospital and then they’ll go to the Thrift Store for picking or on standby. If a big case comes up at the Animal Hospital, they’ll go there but if the pickers find something really big, they’ll go back to the Thrift Store. We also have the cat sanctuary, which is the largest in Canada with 500 plus cats. The crew is able to move from one location to the other fairly easily.”
HNMAG “Hello Doctor Vasilescu and thank you for joining us. I understand that both your parents were veterinarians. Have they seen the show and how do they feel about you following in their footsteps?”
VASILESCU “They’re very happy and with mothers, they always love their kids. With fathers, you always have to earn their respect. He was extremely happy that I could move to a country where I can practice very high-quality medicine. I think that this show is the cherry on the cake.”
HNMAG “Doctor Vasilescu, what would you say was the most complicated operation you’ve done?”
VASILESCU “There is a pet that comes to mind with a complicated surgery. The pet belongs to a seamstress and the dog had swallowed a lot of thread. The husband was doing some renovations in the home and there were these plastic wall hangers and he was eating a lot of things on top of those. It made a ball in the stomach and also a smaller one that went down the intestine but was still connected by a thread that was approximately 40 centimeters long. When it reached the maximum length that it was travelling, the intestine was folding like an accordion. With the thick thread, it began sawing through the intestine in 10’s of places. All of the contents of the intestine spilled into the cavity and he developed Gastroenteritis. It was one of the surgeries where we barely had to give any anesthesia and just pain medication because he was so flat that we thought he might die at any moment. I worked on him for about 4 hours, taking intestine out, suturing pieces of intestine. The moment I would suture a hole, I’d find another 10 that I would need to stitch. In the end, when we finished suturing, he had lost about 2 meters of intestine. We woke him up and he made a miraculous recovery. For the amount of work he had done, he was amazing, especially for the shock he was in – he didn’t require any anesthesia. The lady was so sweet, she made me two pairs of scrubs. That was the beginning of my career, about 20 years ago and I still have the scrubs.”
TYSON “We’re really hoping it’s an opportunity for people to learn about veterinarian medicine that Marius (Vasilescu) practices at the hospital, as well as the other doctors. The audience has an opportunity to learn and understand what happens to their pets and have an understanding of how tough a veterinarians’ job is and what they do.”
EYAL “In addition to that, we discuss ailments, animal conditions and what pet owners should be doing to better care for their animals, so it’s educational as well.”
HNMAG “I found one of the more comical episodes to be when a Chihuahua was brought in for eating marijuana. Does that actually happen frequently?”
VASILESCU “It’s one of my favourites too. It happens frequently.”
EYAL “People are throwing the ends of their stogey’s away and the dogs are eating them. It still has marijuana in it.”
HNMAG “What happens when a cat eats it?”
VASILESCU “Cat’s are smart and won’t eat it. Dogs are indiscriminate eaters; they will eat anything in range. I’ve seen hundreds of dogs with marijuana intoxication but never a cat. It’s a question of smell and taste and they are very picky. They can get it from outside but they can also get it from inside. Some owners don’t hide their stash and the dogs like the smell and get into it. Sometimes it’s just miscommunication. A couple of months ago a Highschool kid made some hash brownies and put them in the freezer. The mom wanted to give the dog a treat (laughing) and she didn’t know.”
TYSON “We missed that one!”
HNMAG “Karen, when you find a specialty item, such as the antique organ, do you always try to seek out a collector?”
KAREN “I’m looking for a collector/knowledgeable person because just like the organ, I knew I had something but I didn’t quite know what I had. I want a knowledgeable person and I want a collector because I want to sell it to them. The guy that bought the organ, Gord, was really great, he really knew his stuff. He’s quite well known around Vancouver for audio equipment and was stoked to come by and pick it up.”
HNMAG “Eyal, you work with your wife every day. Have you been able to separate your home life from your work life?”
EYAL “Yes and no. I specialize in running non profits, I had left my last job and RAPS was my wife’s baby. She’s very much into animal rescue and has already been here a few years. She asked me to do a fundraiser for RAPS and I said yes and met the president. Three months later, they tracked me down to ask if I’d be their CEO and I said no, I’m not working where my wife works – it’s not happening. But then my wife put pressure on me… and I finally agreed as long as there was conflict of interest declarations with the board and that I had nothing to do with my wife or who she reports to, or her salary. I also try not to discuss matters with her at home. She’s always after me to find out what’s going on and I have to say ‘Sorry, I can’t discuss that with you.’ It can be difficult but I keep my mouth shut (laughing). As a family, we are all very much into rescue and my kids love animals. The entire family are engaged in RAPS and the kid’s volunteer and also help with fundraisers. They also volunteer at the Thrift Store and want 20 animals at home, they never stop asking me. They see animals at RAPS and they want to adopt them. We already have 5, so that’s enough.”
HNMAG “I’d like to wrap this up with a fun question. If you could be any animal at all, what would you be?”
EYAL “I’m definitely a dog guy… and I think I would love to be a lab or a husky, one or the other. I love those 2 dogs a lot.”
KAREN “I’d have to say, a dog too because I have 2 dogs. I think I’m very loyal and a pretty hard worker, so I think I’d be a Golden Retriever.”
TYSON “Great White shark! It would be fun, you get to lurk around. It’s basically like being a TV producer, so I already am one. I’m going the other way, I was reincarnated (laughing).”
Unfortunately, Doctor Marius Vasilescu had to tend to a patient with a low blood pressure before he could answer. This show is a must see for both reasons – the helping of sick animals and picking for treasures. I was hooked immediately by the unusual items found and the unusual predicaments animals find themselves in. Watch it this coming Thursday on Discovery.
Thank you, team!