Copied this from another website. Anyone close to the Twin Cities? Please spread the word.
Maybe you might be able to spread the word on this and some animals might be adopted.
I talked to Mike Fry and he said that the majority of these dogs are 6 months old and younger, which is much easier to deal with than 200 various aged breeding bitches who have lived in a cage all their lives.
Would you bring this to the attention to your friends and family.
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Just this morning I received this note from Animal Ark shelter here in the Twin Cities regarding a mentally ill woman in Illinois who was found to have over 200 German Shepherd dogs on her property. The shelter and rescue systems in the area are overwhelmed and so the word is spreading. The first note below indicates that Animal Ark will go get animals that people agree to take in here. The second note (further below) tells the story of the situation.
If you or anyone you know can help in anyway, please share this information.
Contact:
Mike Fry at [email protected]
Animal Ark No-Kill Shelter
http://www.animalarkshelter.org
Denise Simmons, LVT
PetWhere Customer Support Associate
ASPCA National Shelter Outreach
[email protected]
Thanks for your efforts!
Denise
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Fry [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 9:30 PM
Subject: German Shepherds need help
Hi All,
I am forwarding this email to the group to see if anyone can assist with this effort. As many of you know, Animal Ark has a policy to not import animals into our community for rescue purposes. It is generally our feeling that the humane community in Minnesota is not sufficiently caring for the pets we have here already. . . so why import more?
However, this is a very unique situation. The email is pretty self-explanatory. What was not clear to me when I first read the email is that the total number of dogs involved is around 230. Almost all are young, purebred German Shepherds. The woman who owned these animals is mentally ill and will not be getting any more dogs. So this is a one-time real emergency for the community dealing with this problem.
I have spoken with Beth, the originator of the email. The shelters and rescue groups in this community are literally working day and night to care for these dogs. Clearly, their community can not absorb 230 surplus German Shepherds, even though many of them are very young.
These folks are literally begging people to try to make room for some dogs.
Because of the uniqueness of the situation, Animal Ark has agreed to drive to their area and bring back as many animals as possible. We have veterinary assistance coming to help in the evaluation of the animals.
Beth told me that animals that are unadoptable are being euthanized there. However, the majority of the dogs are very young. They are vaccinating and worming (with Fenbendezole) at their location.
In the email, Beth describes "the first wave." These are the animals that the Department of Agriculture has gotten this woman to sign over to them. Since she sent this email, the number of animals that have been signed over has grown. Currently, about half of the animals have been signed over. They are working to get her to voluntarily sign over the rest. If she does not, the rest will be available in 8 days.
This means that two trips may be possible: one this weekend, and one a week from now.
The rescuers there and Animal Ark request that anyone agreeing to accept animals as part of this effort not euthanized any pets unless serious medical complications develop, or animals are deemed a danger to people. This is unlikely to be necessary, since the animals are getting veterinary care there and will be evaluated before being taken to Minnesota. If the animals are going to be put to sleep, it is likely best for everyone that the euthanasia take place there.
Anyone able to accept any of these dogs, please let me know. We will happily transport either this weekend, next weekend, or both.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: FW: German Shepherd's need help
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 15:03:24 -0600
From: Darlene Larson
Reply-To:
Organization: ASPCA
To: 'Mike Fry'
Permission to Cross Post.
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 11:03 AM
This is Beth Riddle writing regarding a very serious atrocity that has occurred in our state and in our little German Shepherd community. A mentally ill woman was served a warrant on Dec 16th and Dec 17th regarding the removal of animals from her property. The first wave consisted of about 90 dogs and over 70 of them were purebred GSD's. Last night at 11pm I received a phone call from my colleague that had just finished cataloging the final pull from the womans house. 160 young GSD's, nursing mothers, pups, and just a small handful were other breeds. The GSD community is shocked. I am crying and shaking as I write you, because we worked so hard yesterday to pull just the first 22 out of the shelter and get them into rescue. Then as we were going to bed feeling pretty good, I received this phone call.
The holidays make finding kennel space impossible. We are begging, we never beg, but we are on our knees to former adopters, contributors, anyone who loves German Shepherds to please help this huge rescue effort. The shelter cannot coordinate the rescues, so it is a team effort consists of Northern IL GSD Rescue, their founder and President is logging and cataloging the dogs, Chicagoland GSD Rescue is digging up a couple spaces and on the phone, Central Illinois GSD Rescue is contacting nationally and coordinating transport, foster care, and will also be pulling some of these angels.
They are everywhere at the shelter. They are in cages, kennels, tied to the walls, and though they were eating dirt, had no food, are close to starvation, they just look at us and wag their tails. It is absolutely killing us to see this. We could use money for medical care, we could use puppy canned food and puppy dry food, puppy pan to feed them in, crates, kennels and most of all space! Anyone with a farm that could serve as a temporary M*A*S*H unit, or shelter. I stress there is no where to go with these kids.
Transporters for national distribution. I can't even think. IF you want to help, please call at 217-337-5832 or 217-377-7135 and we'll figure something out. Thank you for your consideration. Rick and Beth Riddle Central Illinois German Shepherd Dog Rescue Urbana, IL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Denise Simmons, LVT
PetWhere Customer Support Associate
ASPCA National Shelter Outreach
[email protected]
--
Mike Fry
Animal Ark No-Kill Shelter
A no-kill shelter because pets aren't disposable
http://www.animalarkshelter.org
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