...and I'm happy to report it's all for the better!
I
never really got into facebook and other social media sites other than
blogging until the past year. But I have found something astounding to
me and I love it. Many of you know I have devoted much of my life to
animal rescue - mostly greyhounds but I have no idea how many other
animals I have found a home for or treated because their owners had no
money and I had access to medicine for them. (When you race greyhounds
you don't want anybody you come in contact with to have an unhealthy
animal so you treat them so you don't carry anything back to the
kennel. And most trainers do this on a routine basis)
Anyway back to Animal Rescue and facebook!
I
discovered a group called S.A.F.E. from my hometown in Logan, WV. They
started a group to rescue animals from the high kill, nightmare of a
dog pound in my hometown. For all my life they have been routinely
killing about 99% of the animals that have the misfortune to end up in
that pound. When I was in high school I went to the county commission
and asked for permission to find homes for the dogs but I was denied for
"legal reasons" (this was back in the 70's).
In the first year
that S.A.F.E. (Saving Animals from Euthanasia) has been around they have
found homes for 1100 dogs and cats - including one that I adopted and
they paid for the adoption fee. There are still plenty of animals being
killed at that pound but S.A.F.E. has been so successful that the pound
started it's own facebook page and has been networking with adoption
groups as well.
Adoption groups from high population areas are
connecting with adoption groups from rural areas and transportation is
being arranged to get the dogs and cats to the people so they can get
homes. Also there are fundraisers for healthcare for these animals -
sometimes even surgery when necessary. This was unheard of just a
couple of years ago.
Also I know several people who have gone to
shelters because shelters now post pictures of available animals and
they see one that just "calls" to them.
Yesterday the Kanawha/Charleston Animal Shelter adopted 51 dogs and
cats out. They had a black friday sale and all black animals (even one
black hair) were half price. This includes spay/neuter and shots. This
is the shelter in Charleston, WV, where I live now. They have a
beautiful facility here. Not like the nightmare of a building in my
hometown of Logan.
Another thing facebook has done is lost dogs
and cats are finding their way home because of social networking. We
have a site called Lost Dogs of West Virginia. People post dogs
pictures that they lost and dogs pictures that they found. They have
such a good success rate of reuniting pets and people that the woman who
started it was given a "Hometown Hero" award from a local television
station.
It has also given me an outlet. People have always come
to me about lost/found dogs or pets they want to get or get rid of. I
used to do it so easily I called it "Deal a Dog". I could literally
walk down the street and get a phone number of someone who wanted a dog
and then run into somebody else who wanted to get rid of the same dog.
Once my health started to decline I had to give up finding homes.
Although people would still come to me thinking some of my old
connections could help - and sometimes they could but mostly I was
finished helping and I missed it.
Now I am a cross poster. People
know to check my page for lost and found dogs. And my friends also post
animals from their areas. It has helped get more than one dog reunited
- including my own little cousin's dog who was lost and found before he
even made it home from vacation.
So once again I am involved in animal rescue in a small but helpful way.
There has been a revolution and I am glad to be a small part of it. I
watch it get bigger every day as people figure out what they can do. If
they can't adopt, they can donate, if they can't donate, they can
transport, if they can't transport, they can post. It is truely saving
lives every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment