11 Dec | Posted by memydog | no comments |
The term “rescue” is used so often these days that we tend to forget the meaning…and more importantly the stories behind the word.
Rescue dogs are saved from kill centers.
Please take a minute while you are reading this blog post to imagine the puppies and adult dogs locked in cages with concrete floors with poor drainage in loud rooms with no human or animal touch.
No love. Only suffering.
They are usually full of fleas and have wallowed in their own pee and poop. Ears infested with mites, covered in body sores, and suffering from mange.
We who live in the northeast pride ourselves on being the place to which dogs from the south are sent to find their forever homes. But the story begins with dedicated volunteers in the south who specialize in rescuing these poor dogs, often times at their own expense. They save them from the kill shelters, feed them, heal them, and prepare them for travel up north to adoption agencies and then hopefully their forever homes. One such dedicated organization is Angel Paws.
Why so many dogs in need?
Peter Zheutlin, best selling author of Rescue Road, writes that there is a cultural pre-disposition in the south against neutering/spaying. Just one unaltered female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in only six years! So how does that play out? Too many dogs, limited personal resources, and then the story gets ugly. People leave these dogs by the roadside, often tied to a fence, where they die or are taken by animal control to a kill center.
According to the ASPCA, approximately 3.9 million dogs enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, 1.2 million dogs are euthanized. In Louisiana alone, over one hundred thousand dogs are euthanized every year.
While it is true that the dogs do not know in advance that they are going to be killed, we, who are thinking and feeling human beings, do know and are sad to imagine these innocent fellow mammals being killed because no one wants them.
Here at Me and My Dog Training, we put our money where our paws are by supporting animal rescue and adoption programs. Each month, we will Paw it Forward by making a donation of 10 percent of our net proceeds to organizations that rescue these four-legged friends of ours.
Our featured organization for the month of December is: Puppy Love, right here in Harpswell, Maine.
Puppy Love, Inc. is an all-volunteer non-profit organization with a primary mission to rescue dogs from Louisiana and place them in forever homes in Maine and surrounding areas. All rescued dogs are provided veterinarian treatment, temporary foster homes, and loving forever homes. They provide screening, counseling and support to adoptive families to promote responsible and safe adoption decisions. All interactions with the public are viewed as opportunities for education regarding risks associated with pet overpopulation, the importance of spaying and neutering pets, and the merits of adoption. More information and available dogs can be seen on PUPPYLOVEME.ORG.
