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Keep On Puppin'
Group effort saves over 200 puppy-mill survivors
By Cathy Scott
More than 200 dogs, from puppies to middle-aged adults, are resting easier today. The cast-off canines were saved from commercial breeders in Missouri in a successful joint effort among animal rescue groups, including Best Friends. The type of dogs rescued - either used-up breeders or puppies deemed too old to be sold at pet stores - are typically killed by commercial breeders to make room for more profitable dogs.
Theresa Strader of National Mill Dog Rescue initiated the rescue. National Mill Dog Rescue, based in Colorado, and its volunteer organized the rescue from the puppy mills while Best Friends handled transport from Missouri to New York. These lucky dogs were driven to waiting foster groups after rescuers were allowed to enter the breeding farms and retrieve them.
On Monday, May 11, they were handed over in Port Washington, New York, to several rescue groups, including North Shore Animal League America. North Shore took 150 of the dogs, a few smaller groups in New York and New Jersey took some, and Best Friends brought eight dogs back to our sanctuary in Kanab, Utah.
Devera Lynn, vice president of communications at North Shore Animal League America, says her group is happy to help. "These are living, breathing little souls who have never walked on the ground, never felt human touch or love, and have been kept in small cages just to breed," Lynn says. "We're happy to be a part of this and to be able to save so many lives, to find wonderful, loving homes so they can enjoy life to the fullest, as they should."
When asked how it felt to save that many dogs in one day from breeding farms, Strader said, "It's pure joy. This is a culmination of a lot of hard work, and it's completely joyous."
The rescue and transport of the dogs is part of Pup My Ride, a component of Best Friends' Puppies Aren't Products national campaign, which comprises several programs that fight puppy mills, including educational demonstrations at puppy stores that inform unsuspecting consumers about the truth behind mills.
Puppy mill dogs make up a significant percentage of the 4 to 5 million pets killed each year in American animal shelters, says Kelli Ohrtman, campaign specialist for Puppies Aren't Products, who organized the Pup My Ride transport and found the rescue groups to take the dogs.
The Pup My Ride collaboration is a successful demonstration of how animal welfare groups banding together can save dogs who otherwise would have been killed. It's part of Best Friends' long-term goal to reach a day when there are No More Homeless Pets.
Giselle, a small standard poodle, is one of the eight dogs who came to Best Friends. When Giselle first walked into her run, she seemed surprised. Best Friends caregiver Jacquie Bushay-Speer says, "She looked at me as if she were saying, 'All this is for me?' She couldn't believe her eyes."
Then, on her own, Giselle figured out the dog door, walked outside, turned around and walked back in. She stood on her cot-like bed with its blankets and toys, and then threw her front legs around Bushay-Speer in what is known as "a poodle hug."
Later that first day, Bushay-Speer observed Giselle sitting halfway out her run area and half in her indoor area. The breeze was blowing against her face, and she looked content. "I wished I'd had a camera with me," says Bushay-Speer. "Many mill dogs will surprise you with how quickly they are willing to move on with life," Strader says. "For me personally, mill dogs represent everything that I have respected and adored about dogs my entire life - their resilience, their willingness to forgive, their ability to live in the moment, for the moment."
To Strader, puppy mill dogs are an example of the best in animals. "Given what we know about the lives of mill dogs prior to rescue," she says, "every one of them is a precious lesson to us all about courage and the truest meaning of an undying spirit."
"Some will take longer than others to come around and some will break a thousand hearts as they struggle to find their courage," she points out, "but every one is special beyond words and every one will find their way into some-one's heart and make that person's life more meaningful."
All the dogs who came to Best Friends were spayed or neutered just after arriving at the sanctuary. Besides Giselle, theres Eliza Doolittle, an older, shy Yorkshire terrier who is getting badly needed dental work. There's Edward, a young, playful beagle; Strawberry, a calm and sweet Brussels Griffon; Havana, a happy-go-lucky schnoodle-looking white dog; Leizel, a sweet shih-tzu; and Chester, a charming, friendly King Charles Cavalier spaniel. They have all moved into an area especially set up for them at The Heights area of Dogtown, where canines live at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.
"I think they're going to enjoy it," says Best Friends Dogtown co-manager Michelle Besmehn. "They'll have a large area that's indoors and outdoors to run around and play in. It'll be fun seeing them come out of their shells."
Strader and her volunteers are already planning their next trip to Missouri mills to pull out even more dogs. By that time, Strader says, "Every one of these [Pup My Ride] guys will be in a home. That's our goal - the best homes for the dogs."
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