Meet Megan Husbands & Robert Kassis of Carpinteria, CA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Husbands & Robert Kassis .

Hi Robert & Megan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
DogFolk (previously named Farmer & The Flea) began as a small community market in Summerland, CA, built around connection, creativity, providing a platform for artisans & small businesses and rescue dogs to find forever homes.
Since our very first pop-up in 2019, we have made a positive impact in our community in meaningful & measurable ways:
100+ dogs rescued and rehomed through our markets, events and partnerships

60+ community markets hosted since 2019 bringing the community together, especially thru the Covid pandemic when we all needed it the most

150+ small businesses and makers supported & given a platform to market and sell their finds and creations, many whom have gone on to open brick & mortar retail businesses in Santa Barbara County

20,000+ Santa Barbara County locals & visitors attending our markets and 10,000+ Instagram Followers engaged — creating awareness, joy, connection & community

What started as a local gathering has become a community movement — one that’s proven how rescue, creativity, and compassion can transform lives. DogFolk is the natural next step: a permanent home for everything we’ve built together.

DogFolk is a 501C(3) non-profit that is dedicated to creating a healing-centered, cage-free dog sanctuary that serves & heals both rescued dogs and the people who love them — a place where wellness and rescue meet.
Through the gates of our sanctuary, we will host foster & adoption events, wellness gatherings, live music and creative outreach—because when humans and dogs heal side by side, entire communities grow stronger.

We strive to ignite compassion, deepen understanding, and inspire action and positive change for animals and the humans who love them.

Mission

Our mission is to rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome dogs while creating a sacred and soulful space where humans and dogs heal together.

Values & Principles

DogFolk’s Core Values & Principles which have guided us through our history and will lead us into the future of building & operating our sanctuary are:
~ Create Healing & Transformational Spaces & Experiences for Dogs & Humans
~ Advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves – dogs, children & any being in need of compassion & care
~ Promote Meaningful Community & Connection
~ Act courageously and use our voices to educate, bring awareness and cultivate systemic change in dog rescue & welfare
~ Create a Living Legacy of Rescue & Hope

Dogfolk will be a first-of-its-kind sanctuary in Santa Barbara County redefining what rescue means to us.
We’re building a sanctuary that supports transformation and healing. Here, every soul finds not only safety, but purpose — often becoming a source of courage for those on their own healing journey.
Through the creation of a dedicated wellness space for yoga and meditation, Dogfolk becomes more than a refuge — it’s a place where both humans and hounds can reconnect to stillness, breath, and service. It’s a space for nervous systems to settle, for hearts to heal, and for resilience to take root.

It’s an opportunity to witness the impact of rescue — to see that when we help animals, they heal us in return. Whether through adoption, therapy programs, or volunteering, every supporter becomes part of a story grounded in hope, connection, and the simple truth that healing flows both ways.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being in rescue is never a smooth road. Securing funding, finding foster homes, finding volunteers, access to affordable veterinary care, rescuing dogs with behavioral issues, educating the public about the crisis, animal welfare, and wading through all the antiquated laws & systems are always challenges. The emotional toll the world of rescue takes on all who work in it is a daily struggle.

Our shelter systems are filled with well-intentioned people doing their best — but the system itself is built on survival, not healing. All of our shelters are overrun, underfunded and emotionally overwhelmed, they are on the verge of collapse. The main objective is to keep dogs alive and move them out, not to help them heal & who can blame them, they’re part of a severely broken system that needs radical change.

Sadly due to the staggering amount of dogs entering the shelter systems, many have to euthanize dogs just for space. Dogs enter at no fault of their own and aren’t given the resources they need to succeed, an environment to be healthy or even the chance to survive, and when asked ‘why’, the resounding response from employees, management & volunteers on the front lines are, ‘lack of funding.’

What’s missing is being able to care for each dog as a unique being, not just a number on a kennel card. Most shelters lack the necessary resources to address minor & major medical needs, provide behavioral rehabilitation & training, understand the emotional trauma and support meaningful human–dog interaction that will give them a chance at a new life.

We’ve lost our human connection & we’ve lost connection to the natural world. Shelters can feel like closed doors — places of sadness instead of joy, grief instead of hope. But when people are invited & welcomed in — to walk, to help, to learn, to connect — it changes everything. Healing happens not just for the dogs, but for the people too.
We want to focus on wholeness: where animals are given time, nature, structure, and love; where people come to volunteer, reflect and be part of something bigger. A place that reminds us all that rescue isn’t just about saving dogs — it’s about saving the parts of ourselves that forgot how to slow down, feel and care deeply.

To put the animal crisis into perspective and context; consider these heart-breaking statistics:

~ In 2024, nearly 1 Million shelter animals were euthanized in the U.S., 450K+ of them were dogs
~ In Los Angeles, dog euthanasia rose 72% this past year alone & California accounts for 15% of the euthanasias nationally, eclipsing 70,000 dogs in 2024
~ Nationally, shelter intake is up more than 25% since 2021, topping 3 Million dogs in 2024
~ Every year, 1 Billion children, 50% of all children worldwide are physically, sexually or emotionally abused or neglected
~ Every year, 10 Million animals die from abuse, cruelty or neglect

These numbers tell simple & sad truths; we have lost our way, hurt people, hurt people and hurt people hurt animals, and most often, they hurt the most fragile among us, those without a voice or with a voice that’s been silenced. Megan and I want to be voices & advocates for the most vulnerable among us, we want to create a space where both animals and humans alike can find peace & healing, meaning & connection. The crisis we have created is daunting, but we believe collectively we can make a change and in the process, reimagine rescue, not only for dogs, but for humans too.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Megan has worked in the wellness field for 15+ years as a sports massage therapist and esthetician. As mentioned, she started Farmer & The Flea Market in 2019 and is proud to have started one of the very first open-air artisan markets in Santa Barbara County, which she grew from 17 vendors to the 75+ vendors today. Most notably, after covid shut the world down, Megan brought the market back at a time when the community needed it most. F&F has become a beloved market, built community and have found homes for many dogs while positively impacting the lives of those that adopted them.

After 25 years in high-tech in the Silicon Valley, 17 years with Cisco Systems in several leadership roles, Robert decided to leave the corporate world to pursue his passions in animal welfare & wellness. He spent most of his career launching new products and building the teams to bring them to market. He is using the experience and skills he learned in tech to bring a new vision to dog rescue and shelter life.

Dog Folk, the name of the Sanctuary that Megan & Robert will build will be one of the first and only cage-free dog shelters in the United States. Through the creation of a dedicated wellness space for yoga and meditation and other wellness modalities, Dogfolk will be a place where both humans and hounds can heal, creating a first of it’s kind Sanctuary.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Megan and I have entrepreneurial spirits by nature, both having started our own businesses. We both take the view of ‘nothing risked, nothing gained’ and we believe the biggest risk anyone can make is to bet on themselves, which is what we have done through-out our lives starting businesses, creating a market when none existed, and disrupting the status-quo by brining a new vision to dog rescue and human wellness. Specifically in terms of our non-profit, we held a large benefit concert with 2,000+ attendees to introduce ourselves to the community. While we had hosted many market events, we had never hosted an event of this scale or cost and there were no guarantees we would be successful. But we followed our guts, our passions and relied on our belief in ourselves to not let fear keep us from taking the risk of hosting a community event which was very well received. And now we begin a 3 year fundraising campaign to raise the funds necessary to bring our vision to life. We don’t want to live a life of regrets or come to the end of our time wondering ‘what if’, so we are following our passions and trusting that in doing so, the doors will open and the things we need to make this possible will come our way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.farmerandtheflea.co
• Instagram: farmerandtheflea