Christmas for Bailey and Andy

It’s almost Christmas, and guess who gets the biggest present of all?

That’s right—two of our rescue dogs get to share their journey together, to the same home in New England!

Bailey and Andy came into our rescue from two completely different sets of circumstances. Bailey (the white Pyrenees mix) was dumped out somewhere in our neighborhood and found his way to our front gate, malnourished and missing large patches of hair. A trip to the vet confirmed he had mange, so he spent the next couple of months recovering here with us. Andy (the small reddish fluffy dog) was an owner surrender, given up by a family who could no longer care for him. They arrived just over a month apart, but will leave together on Friday, December 22, on transport to their forever home.

WAIT—THEY’RE GOING WHERE? WHY?

We’ve been asked many times why we send most of our rescue dogs north. The answer is simple. Numbers are thrown around quite a bit in the rescue world, from kill rates to save rates to retention rates to how many puppies were in the litter somebody dumped on the side of the road. But I heard a number last year that said it all for me. Why do we send dogs north? Because based on community statistics, Central Appalachia has twenty-six unwanted pets for every available home. 26:1! This ratio is just untenable. However, based on the number of strays and intakes at our local high kill shelter, it certainly isn’t unbelievable.

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY UNWANTED PETS IN CENTRAL APPALACHIA?

The answer isn’t simple. Many rural areas, especially those in the Deep South, have similar troubles. There seems to be a strong positive correlation between high stray populations and poverty. Lack of education also seems to matter. We believe that much of it has to do with culture. When little value is placed on animals, they become disposable.

The other issue is lack of low cost spay and neuter services. The nearest clinic dedicated for this purpose is nearly two hours from our rescue. Local veterinarians are not able to offer deep discounts because they are not subsidized. Most local veterinarians can’t handle the volume of surgeries that would be required to put a dent in the unwanted pet population. With no or limited low-cost options, it’s difficult for a disadvantaged community to turn the problem around.

Major U.S. animal welfare organizations haven’t been much help. We’ve reached out to the ASPCA, the HSUS, Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Network, and Target Zero. None had solutions for us. We’ve never been approved for a grant. Its unlikely that even the best grant writers could help. The reasons we have been consistently declined are 1) we are a rescue, not a brick and mortar shelter. 2) we haven’t been able to demonstrate fund-raising ability that qualifies us for grant-matching programs. 3) there are no previous spay/neuter programs in our area provide statistics for how effective a new program would be.

SO WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Community education is a must, despite localized resistance and even hostility toward it. We hope to eventually raise enough funds to print public service announcements and purchase billboard space. If we can subsidize our own spay/neuter grant, that would be wonderful, too. We believe that if we can provide the service, plus a bounty for bringing their pets, even people in Central Appalachia might take part in the project.

IN THE MEANWHILE

We won’t give up on our community. But we also know it’s going to be a long, hard road to bring Central Appalachia out of the dark ages when it comes to animal welfare. Until then, we’ll save as many as we can, like Bailey and Andy. Could you imagine these two on death row at a high kill shelter? The thought horrifies us. Thanks to all the support we’ve received from our Steemit family, these two fellas never have to worry about that again.

We will keep you posted about their transport on Friday. Hopefully we can get some sendoff pictures, and the next day, some photos of them with their forever family. Those, we can’t wait to see!