Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella and his wife, Christine Tortorella are incredibly passionate about rescues and animal welfare. The Tortorella’s have “The John and Christine Tortorella Family Foundation,” which features “Bear’s Angels,” is a program that partners with rescues and shelters that help homeless and abused animals. “Enlighten Your World… READ!” also helps with reading and writing skills.
The Tortorella’s are also passionate about “Hockey & Hounds.” The pair works locally with the Pennsylvania SPCA (PSPCA) and Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) through the Hockey & Hounds program. Each week, Hockey & Hounds features a rescue dog of the week. This week, the pup is an 11-month-old named King! During the Flyers Charities Carnival, the head coach spoke candidly about his love for animals and what inspired him to impact the community.
Q: What got you involved with “Hockey & Hounds?”
JT: “It orginated out in Columbus. Anthony Rothman, who does a radio show out there, we became friends. He does the real stuff, watching out for these dogs. So, as big sports guys, we connected and talked about hockey as long as we talked about animals. That’s the deal we made. Hundreds of dogs were adopted in Columbus in my six years there. Philadelphia is probably the best organization my wife and I have been involved with that understands how badly the causes are needed here to bring awareness.”
Q: For people who can’t adopt (dogs/cats), how else can they get involved in helping the rescues?
JT: “Just to go to the place, to the shelter near you, just to walk a dog. My wife was really into dogs before I met her. She brought to my attention the need. We were in a lockout or strike, so we went to our local shelter and walked dogs all day. There are so many different avenues that people can help with. You don’t want to force people to adopt a dog because it usually returns. If someone honestly doesn’t want a dog or cat, it usually comes back to the shelter.
You can make donations for food. The neatest one is to carve out an hour in a day of your busy week or maybe a few days a week just to let these dogs out to get them out of their cages and let them be dogs. Fostering is a huge part of helping these animals. It allows them to see what home life is and lets them have the personality they have instead of being cooped up in the kennel. It’s not always money. They’re all (rescues) looking for money but just caring. If you care, you’ll find ways to help.”
Q: How many pets do you have?
JT: “We have five rescue dogs and three rescue horses.”
Q: Horses? How did that come about?
JT: “We started in Columbus about nine years ago. We didn’t have a clue what we were doing. With our foundation, we’re all through the country and have different shelters. We ran across this shelter to the south of us from where we lived and became friends with the family. There were a couple of horses that were left for dead in the field. They were starved to death. We had a five-acre farm. They nursed the horses back to where they could stand; they couldn’t even stand. They asked if we could bring them over and let them graze on your grass.”
Q: Were the horses first or the dogs?
JT: “The dogs came first. My wife is passionate about it. It’s her life. She didn’t know what she was getting into. She follows me around with all the jobs I’ve had in hockey, and if it isn’t hockey, it’s rescuing animals. It’s a huge part of our life right now. We loved doing it and met so many great people doing it. It’s so needed. It’s such an emotional rollercoaster when you try to help these animals. You can bring awareness to my platform. The greatest thing about my job is that it’s a platform. It’s not me. It’s just my platform to talk about this. We need help. These animals need help. We’re in all the way and want to help in any way possible.”
As you can see, John Tortorella is passionate about protecting animals. You can check out all the websites below to learn more about the different organizations.
https://www.nhl.com/flyers/community/programs/hockey-hounds
https://www.tortorellafoundation.org
Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
