About PetPromise
MEET THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Cynthia Butler Carson
President, Founder
Cynthia along with her husband, Paul Carson and a group of other lawyers and professionals that were passionate about animal welfare founded PetPromise in 2000. Cynthia Graduated from the Ohio State University and then from Ohio State's Mortiz College of Law in 1994 and went on to get her Master of Laws in Taxation in 1995. She has been practicing law since 1994 and in addition to working as a corporate mergers and acquisitions attorney, was an Assistant District Attorney in North Carolina before return to her home state of Ohio.
Cynthia has had a passion for animals since she can remember and has been rescuing animals since she was a child. Today she is proud to be part of the organization that she helped to create to make the world a better place for homeless and abandoned animals.
Paul R. Carson
Treasurer, Founder
Paul R. Carson
Treasurer, Founder
Paul along with Cynthia and a group of other people concerned about animal welfare in Ohio were the original founders of PetPromsie. Paul is credited with coming up with the name "PetPromise" and has been the backbone of operations for the organization during his time on the Board.
Paul retired as the Manager of the Ohio State University Computer Maintenance & Repair Dept in 2003 to focus full time on their new baby (Jack) and on PetPromise. Along with Cynthia, having stepped away from the Board from 2012-2024, due to Cynthia's terminal cancer diagnosis in 2011, he is back as treasurer and chief operations officer.
Paul is the boots on the ground director, ensuring that all pets are transported, when necessary, day to day liaison with veterinarians, Pet Food Pantry distributions, P.O. Box and storage unit details, equipment maintenance, he does it all for our organization and we are thankful to have him.
Jennifer Fredritz
Jennifer is an animal welfare advocate who blends conceptual thinking, problem-solving, and creative leadership to drive success. As a former Creative Director, Jennifer brings her diverse background in visual communication, creative strategy, and branding to inspire people through storytelling.
Jennifer has been involved with PetPromise since the organization’s founding in 2000 and has served as a volunteer, foster, and adoption committee member. She was previously Secretary and Board Director for 12 years. As a current Board Director, she collaborates on voice and brand, organizational growth, fundraising activities, capital campaigns, and the design of communication touchpoints.
Owen Ronchetti
Owen is a recent graduate from Denison University, with a Bachelor of Arts in Cinema. He moved to Columbus in January 2023 and is a Sourcing Coordinator for Ambercrombie & Fitch.
Owen's love for animals started when he was little, being raised with a Bernese mountain dog and a Newfoundland. After moving to Columbus, he adopted his first pet of his own, Iris (a sweet tortie cat) PetPromise and he and Iris have been inseparable since.
Owen is looking forward to working with the PetPromise organization as director of the Board and is extremely proud to be a part of an organization of people who share the same love for animals.
Netsanet Chevers
Since childhood, Netsanet has loved animals and believed in the importance of taking care of our planet and the beings who inhabit it. After adopting her own cat from a shelter over a decade ago, Netsanet grew more passionate about stray or homeless animals. She became aware of PetPromise after receiving their assistance with finding a home for a stray cat.
She accepted the offer to join the board in January 2025. She works to utilize her problem solving skills, knowledge of organizational strategies, and person-centered focus from her engineering and counseling backgrounds to help provide direction.
DJ Stephens
Vice President
DJ Stephens
Vice President
DJ Stephens joined the board of PetPromise in March 2023 when Cynthia and Paul Carson took back ownership of the organization. Prior to joining PetPromise, DJ was on the board and was a founding member of the Columbus Pet Rescue from 2012 until 2024.
Dj joined the US Air Force in 1989 where she trained and worked in Airlift Services for 4 years. Izmir Turkey was her first tour of duty, supporting NATO, during and after the first Gulf War where she served for 15 months before returning to the United States at Wright Patt Air Force Base in Ohio. Once back in Ohio, she retrained for the Paralegal career field and served at Tyndall Air Force Base in her paralegal role until leaving the Air Force in 1997.
After her service, DJ has continued her career in the legal department of the American Electric Power Company and where she works currently as a paralegal.
Dj received an associates degree in Paralegal studies and a bachelor degree in Technical Management.
Phyllis Gubanc
Secretary
Phyllis has been volunteering with PetPromise since its inception in 2000, and has watched the organization grow over the years and help so many little furry ones in dire need. Her passion has always been anything animal-related, from daily bird feeding, to sharing her home with a variety of pets over the years.
Besides being a Director, Phyllis holds the Office of Secretary and takes and prepares all of the Minutes for each PetPromise Board Meeting. Phyllis also helps to maintain the electronic database containing all of the historical records of PetPromise from 2000 to the present.
In addition to this behind the scenes work, Phyllis is responsible (and has been for almost 25 years) preparing and ensuring that PetPromise donors receive a thank you letter/tax receipt for their donation. Prior to her recent retirement, Phyllis held careers as a chemical dependency counselor, paralegal, and administrative assistant.
Macie Sarsfield
Macie Sarsfield joined the Board of Directors in February 2025 and is passionate about saving the lives of homeless animals. She adopted her own furry child in September 2023 through the Operation Pet Rescue, which was previously run by Cynthia Carson before taking over PetPromise.
Macie has a background in social media & content creation, and is the social media face and voice of PetPromise as the PetPromise Social Media Director and Manager.
Katie Carson
Bio Coming Soon!
John Chabot
John is a lover of pets, an environmentalist, and avid enjoyer of nature. John works as a software engineer and brings his expertise in tech and problem solving to many of the behind the scenes needs of PetPromise on a daily basis.
John was introduced to PetPromise when he and his fiancé rescued a neighborhood stray FeLV+ cat, Bonnie. PetPromise stepped in and helped connect Bonnie with a lovely home. Later when offered a position and on the board he accepted as an opportunity to give back and help other pets in need.
Jack Carson
Jack has grown up with a love for animals, being involved with animal rescue his entire life. Ever since he was 5 years old Jack can remember attending PetPromise rescue events including adoption & foster home visits, adoption events at stores and veterinary offices, the PetPromise RescueRun, Board and volunteer meetings, and PetPromise Silent Auctions. Jack has helped care for many foster cats and dogs throughout his life and helped with finding their forever homes.
In addition to pet rescue, Jack has been involved with wild animal rescue, having been directly involved in the rescue of sick or injured foxes, bats, ducks, skunks, and birds, among other species.
Jack is currently an Honors student at The Ohio State studying Biological Engineering with plans to attend vet school after graduation.
Jack previously acted as the assistant secretary for PetPromise and is excited to join the PetPromise Board as an official board member!
GETTING TO KNOW PETPROMISE
Basic information
PetPromise (one word!!!)
Tag line: Life for Pets. Pets for Life.
Mailing Address
PetPromise
PO Box 14802
Columbus, Ohio 43214
petpromise.org
614-738-2149 (voicemail only)
Tax ID 31-1690791
PetPromise Origin and History
In 1996, the founders of PetPromise began rescuing, providing vet care, and finding homes for homeless dogs and cats in central Ohio. The founders, along with a network of volunteers interested in the welfare of homeless companion animals, formed PetPromise in 1999. PetPromise, Inc. was incorporated in Ohio on February 4th, 2000 and it’s story officially began. The heart in the PetPromise logo and the “Promise” in our name are symbols of the love that we have for all animals in our care and represents our promise to each that we will do everything that we can to change their world for the better. (Detailed organizational and financial information about PetPromise is available at GuideStar.org.)
PetPromise Mission, Vision and Values
PetPromise is dedicated to helping to create a world where there are no more homeless pets through rescue, education, spay/neuter, and adoption.
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PetPromise is a non-profit, tax-exempt, 501©3 organization.
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PetPromise does not support euthanasia as a method of pet population control.
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PetPromise does not have a shelter or sanctuary so its rescue programs are currently foster home based but we are working to change that statistic.
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PetPromise receives no governmental funding and our work is supported solely by public and private donations and volunteer fundraising.
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PetPromise helps many pets that other shelters and rescues would consider "unadoptable" due to age, medical condition, or breed.
What We Are Doing:
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rescuing stray dogs and cats (and sometimes other animals) from the streets and from animal shelters where they are on death row and often minutes away from euthanasia;
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working to secure a community adoption center no-kill sanctuary where rescued pets can be safely sheltered until we can find them adoptive homes;
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providing medical care to neglected, abused, and injured animals;
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rescuing hard-to-adopt animals that are elderly or special needs that other rescues or shelters may reject and finding them loving homes;
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providing spay and neuter services for community and feral cats and pet owners with financial need in order to reduce the number of unwanted pets in our community;
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providing food, medical care, and other assistance to pet owners in financial need, who may otherwise surrender their pets to shelters;
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educating children and adults in our community on the seriousness of the pet overpopulation problem and the importance of spay and neuter and responsible pet guardianship.
Why we do what we do: More than 920,000 dogs and cats are euthanized in shelters each year. That is 75,000 a month 106 dogs and cats being killed each hour because there aren’t enough homes for them all. PetPromise is working tirelessly to decrease this statistic.
Over 50% of the cats and dogs surrendered to shelters have not been spayed or neutered. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, Vol. 1, Number 3, pg. 213.
Sadly 71% of all cats and 55% of all dogs entering shelters are killed. National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy Shelter Statistics Survey, 1996
Leadership: PetPromise is operated by a Board of Directors and several program Coordinators. All positions are volunteer and unpaid so that more of every dollar goes directly to care/food for the animals rather than salaries. Members of PetPromise leadership hold full-time jobs and devote much of their free time to help animals through PetPromise. Board meetings are held monthly, on the second Saturday of each month and are open to the public.
Our Vision for the Future: The PetPromise Community Adoption Center
Our goal is to begin our journey toward a cageless/semi-cageless community adoption center for cats (and eventually dogs). After years in the making PetPromise is back on track to launch a fundraising appeal to establish the future PetPromise Community Adoption Center. Our goal is to start by securing a leased retail space where we can provide a cageless "Cat Campus" where cats and kittens can live while they wait to be adopted and where member of the public can visit, spend time with, and adopt PetPromise cats and kittens, volunteer, and learn about ways to help end the homeless pet crisis in our community and our country. The PetPromise Community Adoption Center will be a cageless animal care and adoption center designed specifically to house homeless cats and kittens in an environment that is comfortable, home-like, safe and happy for them and for the people that visit the center.
PetPromise Programs
Our four main programs include:
1. The PetPromise City Kitty Trap-Neuter-Return Community Cat Program
Like many other cities in the U.S., central Ohio has a large overpopulation of unowned community cats. According to one study from The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, 43% of respondents from Ohio reported seeing cats in their neighborhood at least weekly, 26% reported feeding community cats, 23% reported that they had seen litters of kittens born outside in the previous year, and 55% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that “Free-roaming cats are a problem in Ohio”.
The over-population of community cats is a real concern in central Ohio, whether in urban areas, suburbs or even rural areas. Cats can go into heat at 4 months, thus a kitten giving birth at 6 months happens all too often. Cats can as many as 4 litters in a year, with each litter producing more and more breeding females, thus exponentially compounding the problem, in a very short period of time. In addition, Ohio has no laws that require the maintenance of free-roaming cats. Ohio law only mandates that each county have a dog warden that deals with dogs at large. There are no statutes regarding the control of community cats.
In response, PetPromise created the City Kitty program in 2008. This program focuses on the spaying/neutering of unowned, community cats across central Ohio. We work with individuals in the community who are caregivers of the cats, instructing them on safe methods for trapping the cats, and facilitating the process for the caregivers to take the cats to our partner veterinarian programs to get the cats spayed and neutered. After the cats have recovered from their surgery, they are re-released to their outdoor home, no longer reproducing and adding to the cycle of homeless cats and kittens.
Since 2008, the City Kitty program has facilitated the spay/neuter of over 7,000 cats and kittens. Exponentially, this has prevented potentially millions of homeless kittens from being born.
2. The PetPromise Pet Food Pantry
This program provides assistance through the provision of donated pet food to families who are struggling to feed their pets, and might otherwise have to surrender the pets due to financial issues. This program is another way PetPromise plays a role in prevention of pet homelessness, by keeping pets in a home where they are loved. Since 2008, the PetPromise's Pet Food Pantry has provided over 80,000 pounds of cat and dog food to hundreds of families in central Ohio.
3. The PetPromise Cat Foster and Adoption Program
Since 2000, the PetPromise Cat Rescue Team has rescued more than 3,000 cats. Where do the cats come from? Each week, PetPromise receives dozens of requests for cats that are homeless, being abandoned, no longer wanted, etc. Our focus is on the cats that are in the most danger, either from human harm, injuries, being born outside, etc. We have several foster homes that focus solely on “special needs” cats such as blind, deaf, injured, FIV+ cats, or shy cats. Each cat that PetPromise rescues costs on average $300, just for basic care that includes testing for communicable diseases, spay/neuter surgery, rabies vaccines, FELV vaccines, distemper vaccines, microchip, deworming medication and flea medication. The length of time that a cat/kitten stays with PetPromise varies greatly. Kittens are often adopted quickly once they are spayed or neutered. However, other special needs pets may wait for months – even years – for the perfect home. PetPromise does not put a time limit on a time for adoption. We firmly believe that there is a home for every cat in our care; it is only a matter of time.
4. The PetPromise Dog Foster and Adoption Program
The PetPromise Dog Rescue Team operates in the same manner with foster homes housing the puppies/dogs while they are waiting for adoption. Since 2000 PetPromise has rescued, rehabilitated and rehomed over 1,700 dogs. Each dog that PetPromise rescues receives heartworm testing, rabies vaccinations, deworming, microchip, spay/netuer surgery, basic vaccines and flea prevention. PetPromise often takes on special needs dogs. Past cases have included a Great Pyrenees with a club foot fitted with a prosthetic device, a puppy from Kentucky with a club foot, an elderly, blind and diabetic Jack Russell terrier, as well as others.
Our Volunteers
PetPromise has no paid staff, period. We specifically pride ourselves in being an all-volunteer organization so that funds raised are used directly for the pets in our care. Given our extensive programs, it is easy to assume that PetPromise has a large volunteer base. We are actively looking to recruit volunteers for specific roles in the organization. Volunteers are well trained, supported and celebrated in our organization. PetPromise values our volunteers’ time, energy, skills, and never forgets that without volunteers, we couldn’t do the important work we do.
Local Focus
PetPromise keeps our focus local, and uses local businesses for many of our veterinary partners. The majority of our veterinary partners are locally-owned veterinary practices, often small business owners. The majority of our donors and volunteers are local to central Ohio. The money that we raise through fundraising has an immediate, local effect on the local economy. Whenever possible, our preference is to support the local providers here in central Ohio.
We feel strongly that we are a partner with local groups in central Ohio and believe that thru teamwork, cooperation, compromise and partnership, greater things can be done for homeless animals in central Ohio. We work closely with local organizations such as Columbus Humane, Franklin County Dog Shelter, as well as other rescue groups and organizations. We are often called for “expertise” on situations such as feral cat trapping, situations with rescues, advice on behavior problems and “best practices”.