pet connection

Been meaning to update this for a couple days now, about the seizure of a couple hundred dogs in Montana, mostly English Shepherds. What makes this really hit home is that I know two people who are involved in saving these dogs: Blogger Heather Houlihan, and my friend Jill.

Here’s the Associated Press story (thanks, Susan). And an on-the-ground report from Jill:

Since I work for the local sheriff’s office and I know dogs, I was volunteered to help with the seizure of 189 dogs from a dog hoarder. I won’t go into the legal aspect of it, but will share what I was put in the middle of.

I was stationed at the drop off spot, where the dogs that were being brought in were checked by vets, microchipped, rabies vaccinated and then segregated into areas; Okay to be kenneled, sick, injured, too young and pregnant. I was in charge of the kenneling area. Me and my volunteers had to transport the dogs from the staging area down to a horse barn where they had to be released into stalls. Usually between 2-5 dogs per stall. These dogs have, more than likely, never had a human touch. They had no idea what a dog cookie was or even a leash. Most were malnourished. They were scared to death. Their huge pleading eyes met mine so many times, I was almost brought to tears just looking at them. I just had to keep working and only think of them being in a better place with fresh water, food and shelter. The 20 below weather we had last week they had to endure outside before we could get a warrant to seize them.

The dogs we were handling were English Shepherds. Very sweet looking dogs. Only a couple of them seemed aggressive, the rest were just scared. I can’t even imagine what is going through their heads. First they are taken from their group at their home, then they are put into a crate, driven in a horse trailer, taken out, examined by the vet, given 2 shots, poked and proded, put back into that crate, driven down a hill, put into a horse stall and then taken out of the crate. Where food and water awaits. The journey wasn’t fun, but I am betting they liked the destination.

The English Shepherd folks are marshaling forces to get the dogs rehabbed and rehomed. Here’s what Heather has to say:

NESR is getting updates several times a day from the authorities.

We hope to have a team on the ground in Montana shortly. NESR hopes to cover the costs of sending our volunteers into the Great White North. (Full disclosure: the intention is that I will be one of them.) So show some love.

The pugs are AWOL since the first raid a few weeks ago. An accurate body count on the deceased animals will probably have to wait until thaw.

More here, including the story of a ES she fostered and placed earlier. Zippy is happy in his forever home.

Contribute to  the rescue effort if you can.

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Now, about that new blogger. Pet Connection archives editor Phyllis DeGioia has been itching to contribute a post now and again. You’ll see her first pop up here soon, probably tomorrow. In addition to her work as a writer and editor — much of it on pet-related projects — she is active in fostering pets, and utterly committed to her former shelter pets. After losing a couple of cherished oldsters, she recently adopted a young pointer mix, and she’ll be writing about that first.