The Homeless Pets Foundation, a Marietta-based non-profit, announced that its founder, veterinarian Michael Good, died Friday after a heart attack.
For more than 40 years, he was the owner of the Town and Country Veterinary Clinic on Gresham Road, and used his clinic to provide temporary shelter for animals without homes and to serve as a hub for other pet advocacy work.
The foundation “was founded to provide a solution to the endless homeless pets population by educating our next generation, providing communities, and businesses a means to get involved and tell their stories,” said a post on the Homeless Pets Foundation Facebook page. “He was our visionary and the voice of the voiceless. Dr. Good seemed invincible to all who knew him and our hearts will forever be filled with adoration.”
He was involved in a variety of fundraisers to pay for the organization’s work. East Cobb realtor Janice Overbeck, who has held Homeless Pet Foundation vaccination clinics at her office on Sewell Mill Road, said in a statement that “his loss leaves a hole in the heart of our community, where he served so many others in countless ways. Dr. Good had the biggest heart for animals of anyone you’ve ever met. It’s practically in his name.”
He founded the Homeless Pets Foundation in 1998 and extended his animal advocacy to include the Underhound Railroad, which claims to have rescued more than 20,000 dogs from kill shelters in the South and sent them for adoption in the Northeast and Canada.
In 2016, Good was fined by $90,000 by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency for not properly recording the inventory of drugs at his clinic. According to the AJC, Good said the incident was the result of a “witch hunt.”
In 2019, a non-profit with which Good was involved was investigated by the Georgia Veterinary Medicine Board for allegations that orthopedic surgeons trained to operate on humans were performing unlicensed operations on homeless animals.
The board found no violations on Good’s part, and while the non-profit was shut down, Good defended the work of Surgeons for Strays.
Many of the comments on the Homeless Pets Foundation Facebook page thanked Good for his generosity toward their pets. One woman called him an “earth angel for everything he did for our fur friends” while another remembered that he “also personally kept our other cat alive when another vet all but wrote him off. My girl greeted him in heaven for sure because of his organization, she was saved from a kill shelter before we adopted her.”
The Homeless Pets Foundation said a celebration of life service will take place for Good from 2-3 p.m. Sunday at First Baptist Church in Marietta (148 Church St.), preceded by a visitation from 12:30 to 1:15 p.m.
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