April 1, 2007
Sunday

Maggie Garmle is one of the thousands of people who donate their time and energy to help reduce the killing of dogs and cats. I do not know her, but I do know that she is typical of those who work without financial compensation to save the thrown away dogs and cats.

I send out daily posts of the dogs needing to be placed at one rural Ohio county pound and have been doing this for the past two and a half years. I have never been to the pound but do it to help make a difference. Through the efforts of a small internet group, we have taken this one pound from a high kill facility to an almost no-kill facility. Many of the dogs have been rescued by shelters in parts of Connecticut and New York where there are lower numbers of dogs due to very effective altering programs. One of the people who helps forward the posts is a woman called Ladybug who lives in New York. Perhaps Maggie knows of her. Once a dog is rescued from a pound, if the rescue shelter is in another state, the dog then needs to be transported to the shelter. Volunteers will drive "legs" of a run to get the dog moved. Sometimes many dogs are moved at one time in a large transport, usually all done by volunteers in private vehicles. These people receive no compensation for their time but do it because it needs to be done. When I was in Central Washington I would help drive transports as well as care for the abandoned dogs that were dumped near the house. I paid for all food and vetting so that the dogs would be ready for placement at a rescue or adoption by a family. My husband was not overly excited about my efforts but my elderly father-in-law was okay about it. I am not sure he ever really understood the constant flow of dogs.

While I am not driving transports here in Ketchikan, I am still working to help reduce the killing of throw away dogs. I spend about 20 hours a week posting the dogs from the Ohio pound, contacting rescues that may be able to help, forwarding information about other dogs in need to breed specific rescues, and updating a website about the dogs needing rescue from a small Oklahoma town. Recently I lent a crate to a local woman who had rescued a young dog from an indifferent owner. She has finally found a good home for the dog. I am hoping that sometime soon we can get a group together to raise money to provide low cost altering of dogs and cats in the Ketchikan area. It would certainly be nice to find the local Animal Protection having a waiting list for dogs and cats rather than the current list of the numbers of dogs and cats that were euthanized because nobody wanted them.

Margaret Cloud
Ketchikan, AK


Received March 31, 2007 - Published April 01, 2007

About: "Volunteer for the Columbiana County Dog Pound"

 

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