Slammed With Wanted Dogs

The word “unwanted” hurts me every time I see it used to modify nouns like “pets,” “dogs,” “child,” or anything sentient. It implies failure and rejection—rejection of some loving creature, and failure on the part of humans who were supposed to care for them.

In Southwest Virginia—Central Appalachia as a whole, really—our streets and shelters are overrun with unwanted animals. Spaying and neutering is a foreign concept to many, and outright taboo to some. Backyard breeders are rampant, something that seems to go hand-in-glove with poverty-stricken areas where people seem to think puppies are an easy way to make a quick buck. What happens to the ones nobody buys is unthinkable.

Yesterday we took in four homeless dogs, in addition to the stray we accepted a month earlier and the two collie mix puppies dumped in Ball Diamond Hollow. That makes seven new mouths to feed, seven new trips to the vet, seven spays and neuters before adoption or transfer. It brings our total here in rescue to 34, and I’m the only person caring for these animals on a regular basis. Just me. We have @cherielayne who comes in several times a week to help clean, but tending these dogs is a 24/7 job and I never get a break. It’s exhausting.

On top of this, not only is the community unsupportive, but it’s also actively resistant to our efforts. My rescue has labored for five years to help animals and apply social pressure on a region where people can be hateful, hostile, ungrateful, and downright dangerous. Most residents here resent Appalachian stereotypes, yet seem determined to live up to them. The four dogs we took in yesterday came from a situation where a tenant became incapacitated and the property manager was left to deal with her pets. Laws exist in the State of Virginia to deal with situations like this, but the last I heard, the realtor planned to just “open the door and put them out.” Needless to say, my rescue had an opinion about this.

Below is an example of Facebook commentary after I exposed the realtor’s behavior in a very public manner. People here are very cloistered and will circle the wagons no matter how egregious the sin. In the end, the police department mediated and obtained legal surrender from the owner, since her identity was protected from me by privacy laws. (And rightly so.) But just look at how this community responded.

After I quoted statistics that one in four Richlands High School students drop out before graduating:

I’m one person. I cannot do everything, even though I would if I could. I’ve almost literally run the wheels off my vehicle driving all over the eastern half of the U.S. hauling dogs to safety from Central Appalachian culture. The vehicle now can’t pass inspection and needs a lot of work. I don’t see community members lining up to help me with it. A faithful volunteer, @arrelaine13, did go get the dogs and is helping transport them to the veterinarian today. Thank goodness for her.

With 34 dogs in rescue, I’ll be feeding about 30 pounds of dog food a day. The new intakes will need vaccines, deworming, and sterilization. I need help. Ideally, I’d have loads of funding banked up for urgent needs like these. But since day one, my rescue has been drowning under a sea of unwanted animals and we have never managed to get ahead of the tide.

Here are photos of all seven dogs who’ve recently come into rescue. They’re all available for adoption. If you happen to live in the New England area or southeastern Canada and would like to take one of these gorgeous babies home with you, our Vermont rescue partners can certainly make those arrangements. Now, THAT would be a Steemit success story to share!

BOOMER: male, young adult, about 40 pounds