In 1997 the Animal Welfare Federation of New Jersey piloted a "puppy rescue" program which involved transporting the over abundance of puppies from South Jersey to the northern region of the state. Despite aggressive education efforts and mandatory spay/neuter programs, the southern shelters were still admitting 3 and 4 boxes of puppies into their facilities on any given day! The program was able to get off the ground due to a very generous grant that had been specifically targeted at the reducing the tragic number of puppies who were being euthanized. Demographic and financial differences had awarded North Jersey's same programs more effectiveness. The puppies chosen for this program were health checked vaccinated, de-wormed, microchipped and spayed or neutered prior to being transported. The shelter I was working at that time, Noah's Ark Animal Welfare Association, had been chosen as one of the three northern shelters to participate in this project. It was about a six-hour round trip, so amongst the three northern shelters involved, we decided the best way to operate the transferring would be to meet the southern shelters half way. It took us a while, but we soon had schedules, routes and volunteer drivers in place.
We would often receive urgent calls from one of the southern shelters asking us to take puppies as soon as possible. Around mid August we got one of those calls but our volunteer driver was on vacation, so despite my fear of highway driving and lack of direction, I was it. One of the other North Jersey shelters was going also, but arrangements could not be made to go together so we were to meet at our designated spot. I pulled in and minutes later the South Jersey Animal Control van followed. The gal who was driving opened up the back of her truck to reveal six crates of puppies of various shapes, sizes and colours, a total of 17 in all. She was in a bit of a hurry and asked me to chose which puppies were going to come with me, so she could begin the paperwork. After loading three crates into our van and signing for the puppies, she and I waited and chatted for the other shelter to arrive. She was becoming impatient so we decided to call and find out how much longer they would be. When we reached them it turned out there had been some mix up and they were not coming as they had just committed to taking several dogs from Puerto Rico! Needless to say, we loaded the remaining three crates into the Noah's Ark van. I called the shelter immediately to tell them what had happened. I kept thinking where on earth are we going to find room for seventeen puppies in our shelter! Catherine, our head technician, was a genius when it came to her medical knowledge, but until that day I did not realize she also had the ability to create space that I never knew existed! Two hours later I arrived "home" to be met by Catherine and several recruited volunteers to help with the puppies. Catherine had the cages all set up and the food ready, making the task of unloading these little angels a breeze. Within an hour we had seventeen contented, full bellied, sleeping puppies in our care.
To date, the program has saved hundreds of puppies but the real task at hand is to change the attitudes of people who do not treat dogs respectfully. Dogs are not disposable. You would be surprised how many dogs are "tossed" out when they don't "fit" anymore or when something better comes along. They need not reproduce when so many are without homes, or are at risk of being euthanized because there are just "too many". There will never be a "one size fits all" solution. However, we must all continue to work our ways and know that every little bit helps!
(Oh and yes, all seventeen puppies were adopted)
