SEPTEMBER 8 • 2022 | 13

etroit Dog Rescue 
(DDR) started back 
during the Great 
Recession, when 
high unem-
ployment drove 
foreclosures and 
bankruptcies, and 
many people had 
a hard time feeding 
themselves let alone 
their pets. Unfortunately, 
thousands of dogs were being 
abandoned, according to the orga-
nization’s executive director Kristina 
Millman-Rinaldi.
 “The Big Three car companies were 
laying off employees and people were 
losing their homes and, in some cases, 
had to leave their dogs behind,
” she 
said. 
So, Millman-Rinaldi and a group of 
friends decided to do something about 
the stray dog epidemic. “We made 
YouTube videos of our dog rescues, and 
we started our social media presence,
” 
Millman-Rinaldi said.
In 2011, the organization was born. 
Now DDR is celebrating more than 
10 years as Detroit’s first no-kill shel-
ter and is getting ready to expand its 
no-kill operations. 
As DDR started to grow a name for 
itself, the 39-year-old exec-
utive director 
says they 

received a call from an angel donor 
who gave $1.5 million in Coca-Cola 
stock to their cause. While DDR wasn’t 
Millman-Rinaldi’s full-time gig at the 
time, she had reached a crossroads in 
her life. 
“I came to a moment when we got 
that $1 million donation and I said, 
‘Oh, man, I can finish nursing school, 
or I can really build something.
’”
With the support of her friends and 
family, Millman-Rinaldi decided to 
leave nursing school and take on DDR 
as a full-time vocation. 

TURNING PASSION 
INTO PURPOSE
Millman-Rinaldi says her passion to 
rescue dogs and find them a forever 
home comes from personal experience.
“Unfortunately, I come from a pretty 
bumpy background. My mother isn’t 
in my life and my father died early on,
” 
she explained. 
Millman-Rinaldi’s rough childhood 
included episodes of abuse and being 
shuttled from house to house.
“I knew what it was like to feel dis-
placed. To not have a permanent place 
or a safety net. To not be sure 
if I was loved or where I 
belonged.
”
Raised by 
her Jewish 
grand-

mother, Rita Millman, she found sup-
port and a place of belonging in the 
Jewish community.
“Thank goodness the Jewish com-
munity has always stood by me. But 
also, I looked at these dogs and I knew 
exactly how they felt. And some of 
them like me, just needed a chance,
” 
she says. 
Before finding a home with DDR, 
Millman-Rinaldi found her way work-
ing in the entertainment industry in the 
Detroit music scene and by working in 
the health care industry.
 “I was working at Beaumont 
Hospital and going to nursing school 
when plans for DDR all started,
” she 
said.

A NEW PLACE FOR 
DDR TO CALL HOME 
DDR opened its first shelter in Detroit 
in 2014. The following year, Millman-
Rinaldi met with Mayor Mike Duggan 
and assembled an animal welfare 

Kristina 
Millman-Rinaldi

OPPOSITE PAGE: Lil Mama, a pit mix who found 
her way to an east side Detroit Fire Department 
house, leans into the arms of Kristina Millman-
Rinaldi of Detroit Dog Rescue after being rescued.

RIGHT: A group of young males from the mentoring 
program Building Better Men join Kristina Millman-
Rinaldi at the opening of Detroit Dog Rescue’s new 
shelter on Detroit’s west side.

continued on page 14

