The London Jewelers president is expanding her animal welfare work, helping pets and their owners through hardship while advocating for lasting change.

Life in the family business keeps Candy Udell busy. But there is always room for a call about an animal in need, whether a shelter needs help paying its bills or a dog needs a home.

Sometimes the work follows her home, too. After a dinner conversation with the head of hospice at Northwell Health, Udell spent much of the night thinking about patients’ pets. What happened when their owners could no longer care for them?

“I was really upset about that,” she told WWD. “If I did something about that, maybe it’ll make a difference.”

She called her shelter partners with a request: “Please leave an open cage.”

The response became Candy’s Angels, a program connecting hospice patients and their animals with care, volunteers and potential homes. For the president of London Jewelers, it extends work that began with individual rescues and has increasingly drawn her toward the circumstances that put animals at risk.

“I find that rescue is great, but it’s a Band-Aid,” she said.

As the family-owned retailer marks its centennial, Udell is considering more lasting change: helping people keep their pets through hardship, expanding humane education and working with government on animal welfare.

Her attachment to animals began at home. Her mother brought back dogs and cats, ducks and chickens, even a small alligator. Caring for that unlikely menagerie helped develop her compassion for animals.

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