Archives: Shelter

In 2008 animal rights activist Du Yufeng founded the Bo Ai Animal Protection Centre Guangyuan.

Everyday Du works tirelessly to care for the hundreds of dogs and cats in her care. A majority of the animals living at Bo Ai Animal Centre have been rescued from the Dog Meat Trade. Raised only for their meat, these loving animals are kept in cramped cages until they are slaughtered. Du continues to fight this barbaric practice, even traveling to Sichuan and Yulin to rescue dogs and appeal to the local government. Du has successfully closed restaurants, butcher stalls and slaughterhouses.

SPCA International is proud to support the essential work that Du Yufeng is accomplishing at Bo Ai Animal Protection Centre of Guangyuan. You can help Du in her fight to end the dog meat trade by signing SPCAI’s petition.

https://www.boaianimalcentre.org/

In West Virginia, there are no laws that require puppy mills or breeders to be registered by the state. Hundreds of backyard breeding facilities exist housing dogs in inhumane conditions for the sole purpose of capital gain. So when more than two-dozen frail and terrified adult small purebred dogs and puppies were found huddled along a rural Doddridge County Road, it was pretty clear that they were dumped by a breeding facility that found them no longer useful.

All of the 31 dogs raging in age from puppy to senior were found underweight with long nails preventing them to walk and severe cases of mange and some blindness. One was found dead several hundred meters up the road. The dogs were dropped at The Ritchie County Humane Society for urgent medical attention and care around the clock. 

SPCA International learned of their plea for supplies and donations through an online article and quickly contacted the non-profit shelter to offer them assistance.

This is not the first time The Ritchie County Humane has made news. Tragically, the facility, left in an estate by an animal loving resident, caught fire in early 2010 and 13 dogs and 50 cats perished in the disaster. The officers, members and staff vowed that those animals did not die in vain, and quickly set out for the biggest fundraising effort of their existence since their beginning in 1992, in order to rebuild the shelter. A memorial garden was built in the back where the remains of the animals were buried.

The Ritchie County Humane Society strives to promote anti-cruelty and care education to the public and schools, spay/neuter programs and adoptions to wonderful forever homes in the community. We are very proud to support their efforts through our Shelter Program.

http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/wv22.html
http://www.facebook.com/groups/228435647246777

BAARK! stands for Bahamas Alliance for Animal Rights and Kindness a non-profit organization formed in 2009 by the members of the Facebook Group: For a more humane Bahamas Government Dog Pound. Baark! was established in response to a disturbing revelation about the local Government Pound in the Bahamas; otherwise unknown to the public, each Friday as many as 50 animals are being inhumanely killed by the Pound Staff.

Baark’s mission is to immediately improve the conditions and treatment of animals at the Pound, and rescue as many adoptable strays as possible. They do this by increasing public awareness and funding spay and neuter programs in order to reduce the number of unwanted and stray animals on the island. They feel that animals end up in the pound because people do not sterilize, so targeting the source of the problem has became their main goal. In 2010, they participated in World Spay Day and attended Best Friends Conference for the first time. Since then, the all-volunteer group has implemented many fundraisers to be able to host their own spay/neuter clinics.

We first heard of them through their T-N-R efforts on Paradise Island as the feral cat population was becoming a huge problem and residents were starting to complain. Fearful of what might happen to the hundreds of cats in the colony, they sought our help to continue their remarkable initiatives.

SPCAI is proud to support their ongoing efforts and future spay/neuter Day in January through our Shelter Grant Program.

BAARK is key player in the organization of a large spay and neuter initiative that will be taking
place in Nassau in January 2013 along with other local organizations, and headed up by Animal
Balance (www.animalbalance.org) where they will aim to spay and neuter 2,000 animals from
January 10th to January 21st 2013.

www.baarkbahamas.com
www.facebook.com/HelpBaark?ref=ts

“…Consider Quality vs. Quantity”

When thinking of adopting a new dog, the majority of people typically seek out puppies or younger dogs. Sadly, this means that older dogs that have no home suffer in shelters and are most often the first to be put down. Judged upon their age, the way they look or the fewer years that they have left in their lives, thousands of senior dogs are the first to be overlooked, but a woman in Minnesota says she’s doing everything she can to change that.

Jean Beuning is the owner of Top Dog Country Club in New Germany, an all-encompassing dog kennel for the special canine in your life. Because dogs have been the center of her world since a young age, it prompted her to start a rescue effort called Top Dog Foundation, facilitating the fostering and rehoming of shelter dogs considered past their optimal age of adoption.
Unofficially started in 2000 when she began rescuing senior Shelties, now Beuning and her volunteers work together to provide a loving and permanent home for dogs that are deemed “un-adoptable” because of age and health, and would otherwise be unnecessarily euthanized.

The rewards of adopting a senior dog are immense, taking in an elderly dog can be easier than adding a younger dog to the family, because they are usually housebroken and understand some commands. Somehow they are always so very thankful too.

In 2010, Top Dog Foundation launched “A Home For Every Aging Heart”, a rescue and adoption program specifically designed to place senior dogs with senior people, matching the needs and filling the loneliness for companionship for one another.

Within the next year, Jean hopes to launch a capital campaign to raise enough funding to build a permanent sanctuary for senior dogs. The facility will offer services to the public including training, hydrotherapy and cremation, which will in turn provide ongoing revenue to support her rescue efforts. The goal is to become the source for all things senior dog.
SPCA International is proud to stand by Top Dog Foundation’s remarkable efforts for aging canines through our Shelter Grant Program.

http://topdogfoundation.org/
https://www.facebook.com/TopDogFDN

Milena Malesevic, fueled by her compassion and love for animals, began feeding the abandoned dogs that nobody wanted. She just could not walk away from these innocent creatures that after so many years of loyalty to their owners now faced a life of hunger, cold and cruelty.

After the war ended and, while people worked hard to bring back a sense of normalcy to daily life, these abandoned animals became silent victims of the war. Nobody wanted them as the process of rebuilding the country began and they became unwelcomed creatures, considered in many cases a nuisance, a pest that had to be exterminated. Dogs were shot and poisoned daily and many were injured from deliberate car hit-and-runs. Milena understood that somebody had to care for these creatures and decided that she was the person who had to do something to help. Thus, for the last 20 years, Milena Malesevic has continued this mission of caring for the stray dogs of Sarajevo.

https://www.facebook.com/SavingSufferingStraysSarajevo

In 2002, a woman by the name of  Corina Grigore began begun volunteering to take care of the stray dogs at the Galati city shelter in Galati, Romania. By 2006, local authorities started refusing volunteers access into the shelter because they attested to the ways in which the animals were being treated: abuse, starvation, unethical euthanizing protocols. Corina could not turn a blind eye to the hundreds of thousands of Romanian animals in need, so in 2004 the Association “Help Labus” was founded with the mission to create awareness and manpower to help with this cause.  However, it wasn’t until 2007, when she sold a piece of land that belonged to her parents and bought another more suitable piece of land, that she built a shelter of her own to care for these innocent creatures.

Corina  started with 100 dogs. To date, there are over 800 dogs and over 100 cats in her care, hoping to find a peaceful, loving place to call home. While Corina spends every waking hour and every penny towards the shelter, it is often very difficult to provide them with food and other necessities, especially during the cold winter months.  It is a constant uphill battle to keep the shelter running with so few volunteers, resources and accumulating costs, but she will not give up for she knows that the animals that are in her care are not homeless and they are not at risk of being abused, tortured or killed at any given moment.

Help Labus runs solely on donations and is the only non-profit organization active in Galati, which strives to meet all demands related to homeless animals: emergency medical transport, insurance to sterilizing animals, a shelter for the stray, and campaigning to protest against the mass killing and poisoning by local authorities.

http://www.help-labus.ro
[email protected]
tel #: 0040724305053, 0040751024562

Missing Pet Partnership (MPP) ,  a non-profit organization serving the greater Puget Sound (Seattle, WA) area reunites lost companion animals with their owners/guardians. Seven days a week, over 70 volunteers dedicate their time and effort by physically searching for lost pets by using trained search dogs. Through extensive training, they are able to capture skittish hard-to-catch dogs and cats by using motion activated wildlife cameras set up with feeding stations and by careful manipulation. Afterwards, they embark on publicizing the lost animals by several clever mediums they have come up with. 

MPP was founded on the premise that every pet dog and cat that is displaced serves as a major contributing factor to the abundant stray animal population,  feral cat colonies , and overcrowding of animal shelters. Failing to provide such a service increases the population of unwanted animals as well  shelter kill rates, illness and abuse. The organization seeks to achieve their mission through training, education, partnerships with animal shelters and welfare organizations, veterinarians and pet detectives. 

Since 2008, they have helped over 1,300 families be reunited with their missing pet. 

www.missingpetpartnership.org
www.facebook.com/missingpetpartnership

The mission behind Fundacion Amigos de Animales Boquete in Panama is to provide low cost spaying and neutering ofdogs and cats and to promote the general welfare of animals in the Boquete community and surrounding areas.

The foundation was started in 2005 by a small group of concerned citizens in order to provide low-cost spay and neuter services to local pets and to the abundant number of street animals in the community. Since the beginning, the organization has been able to sterilize more than 3,000 cats and dogs. By working closely with local veterinarians, the organization has sought to improve existing veterinary facilities and services by facilitating training and introducing new surgical techniques adopted from outside sources.

https://www.aadab.org/

Since December of 2010, Scaredy Cat Rescue has assisted and found homes or foster care for approximately 300 feral cats in the Corner Brook area of Newfoundland, Canada.

The group began when two concerned citizens, Janice Higgins and Kim Fraser, started feeding feral cat colonies: cats living outside in harsh conditions without any shelter, food or human contact. Their fear keeps them hidden and because they are rarely seen, may people are unaware of their existence; hence, the name “Scaredy Cat”. Together, they aimed to improve the lives of cats living outdoors.
Scaredy Cat Rescue is now group of about 10 volunteers assisting feral cats and kittens as well as pets that are about to be euthanized. Since they started, only 3 cats have had to be humanely euthanized due to illness beyond salvation, the others have been trapped, vetted, spayed or neutered, socialized and adopted out. Those who could not be tamed are returned but have caretakers providing food and shelter them on a consistent basis.

Several days ago, Scaredy Cat Rescue, the only feral organization in the jurisdiction, received an urgent call about a shocking and sad situation in Corner Brook. Approximately 160 cats have been removed from a property in the area, and about 50 more are expected to be recovered once officials enter the house where they lived. The owner is in hospital, and the situation came to light when the front door was left ajar and the cats started escaping into the neighborhood. The cats are victims of one of the worst hoarding situations and have been living in deplorable conditions. There has also been confirmation that there is a numerous amount of dead cats being stored in the property’s shed.

Scaredy Cat Rescue needs our help more than ever as they rely solely on donations and organized fundraisers. This alarming recent rescue mission is putting enormous financial stress on their little budget.

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/CornerBrookTNR/

In 1999, started as a service to the community, holistic veterinarian Debra Rykoff founded Fur Keeps Animal Rescue, a small organization dedicated to saving animals from high kill shelters and other life threatening situations. Then, with the advent of the huge need created by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Debra volunteered in New Orleans for 6 months and brought back 185 animals to place in forever homes. The expansion of animals that were cared for at this time created what is now a non-profit shelter serving the needs and very often special needs of the animals in Barrington Hills, Illinois.  Once the rescues arrive at the shelter, they are vetted, rehabilitated and then placed into loving forever homes. Aside from direct care, the wonderful volunteers at Fur Keeps are dedicated to promoting “respect and compassion for all animals as partners in the human existence” through education and awareness about cruelty, abuse, neglect and pet ownership.

Recently, a concerned supporter alerted us that the shelter faced some unforeseen circumstances that were putting the animals at risk. Flooding began to occur due to an old septic system that could no longer bear the weight of heavy rainfalls. Broken tiles on the floor and even standing water in several places in the building jeopardized the welfare of the animals.

Through our Shelter Support Program, SPCA International was proud to offer Fur Keeps with a grant to help them repair the structure.

Fur Keeps has many wonderful animals that have been at the shelter for a long time. Please view their profiles at:

http://furkeepsanimalrescue.org