Page 46 - Cityview Jan-Feb 2017

around townCONVERSATIONSgeorge kordaKorda: In hindsight they would rather have you inside the tent, so to speak?Boyd: Yes, I think that’s true, butthe good news is that all the Invisible Fence dealers were happy that I bought the company, because they had been owned by a succession of private equity investors who were really just milking the business. I had a passion for the industry, knew it, and so when I bought the company, the dealers appreciated the fact that they had somebody who understood the business and was in it for the long term. It’s been a great relationship.Korda: What is the story on you and pets, or was this just a great opportunity?Boyd: Like everyone, I like pets, butthe truth is my wife is much more ofthe nurturer of our pets so every time somebody gives me credit for being a pet lover, she always has a quizzical lookon her face. It’s great that I happened to have an opportunity to help owners take better care of their pets.Korda: Tell us about the dog parks.Boyd: That started with my going toa PetSmart Charity Event in Phoenix, Arizona in 2007. This was one of those typical charity events where there is a golf tournament followed by a big gala in the evening. The President got up and started talking about all the great things PetSmart Charities was doing all around the country, celebrating all the victories and success. She concluded by saying that unfortunately there are still back waters in America, places like Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee. In the dog training world, there is something called ght or ight; you can either run from it or you can ght it. I decided that we had to ght.Korda: What do you mean by ght?Boyd: I came back to Knoxville and rather than thinking incrementallyabout how do we make our community a little better, said let’s think aspirationally. Let’s claim the title of the most pet-friendly city in America. We’ll start doing all the things thatthe most pet-friendly city in America would do, and maybe in additionto the initiatives that we’ll come up with, people, spontaneously, willstart acting like they are the most pet-friendly city and create their own ideas. We created a new animal shelter on Bearden Hill.Korda: Why did you need such a high-visibility location?Boyd: We had two problems to solve. First, we have too many pets being born and not enough adoptions. We had to work on the supply and the demand, and the thing that made us not the most pet-friendly city in America was that we were euthanizing 12,000 cats and dogs a year. Some people might think that is normal. It is not. In other communities they import dogs because they do not44 JANUARY FEBRUARY 2017