Heather shared this information with our Facebook friends but for those of you who have not yet entered the electronic age, I wanted to pass this information along as it helps to better explain one of the programs at the animal shelter.
There is a process called “pulling” dogs from another shelter to help rescue them. We want to show you why and how we do it. The Houlton Humane Society is connected with several “No Kill” rescues and shelters throughout Maine, Georgia, Connecticut, South Carolina and Arkansas. These shelters and rescues post on Facebook and send emails every day, all day, about dogs that are going to be euthanized due to lack of space in shelters that have no other options. Just way too many dogs and nowhere near enough space.
Some shelters in the south euthanize more than once a day, others on a weekly basis. Our Shelter Director, Heather Miller, goes through these posts and emails and makes a decision, using several criteria, of what animals we can help.
Houlton Humane is a contract facility and we have to leave cage space for the stray and abandoned animals of our contract towns. We also help with owner surrenders, so we have to be aware of this need, know what might be coming in and when, and just have a general idea of what space might be available in our facility.
Then Heather looks at the local “need” – what kind of dogs can she place quickly so they don’t spend too much time in a shelter environment. Many of the animals that have come north have had homes even before they reach the shelter because Heather does such a good job matching the dogs to the adoptees. People might call and put their name on a list, looking for a husky, so if there is a husky in a southern Shelter, we know we can re-home it fast, that might be one that she pulls.
There is a network of people down south who go to these shelters and “pull” these dogs and puppies and foster them during the rest of the process. They have to be vetted, Maine law requires two sets of shots and each animal has to be spayed or neutered, they are tested for heartworm and Lyme disease, treated for worms and parasites that are common to the southern states, and then finally ready for their trip north.
There is a gentleman who owns a transport company, he is contacted to see what he has available for crates. We have to “rent” crate space and he only comes up every two weeks and only comes to southern Maine so once we lock down our crates and our dates, we wait for them to come up. They come as far as Scarborough and then another volunteer helps figure out how to get them to Bangor and then Heather arranges for someone to go to Bangor and get them for the rest of the trip north.
During this process it’s not uncommon to see photos posted on Facebook of the critters who are making their way north. This allows potential adopters to apply ahead of time for a specific animal and most of these dogs are placed before their four little feet even touch Houlton soil.
They still have to go to the shelter, state law again involved here, which requires a five day quarantine at the shelter, which also gives the staff time to do temperament testing and make other observations that will help the new family adjust to their new pet.
There is a lot of work to this and if we could not place them we would not do this but our success rate has been 100 percent and never once has this rescue effort interfered with the local rescue work that we do. It’s just one more service the shelter provides for the animals, to try to save as many as we can, as long as we’re able to do it.
The dogs adopted through this process have a higher adoption fee than our stray dogs because all of this takes money, the spaying and neutering, testing, even some of the transportation, so what we do is we have a special fund set up just for pulling dogs from the south and that money is rotated back into that fund so another group of dogs can be brought north. Not one penny of local tax dollars go into this program, it is all funded by the adopters themselves.
I know this a long explanation but I think it might help you better understand how this all works. If you have any questions or would like to enroll as a volunteer transport for the next group of dogs coming into Bangor, or if you would like to be considered to adopt one of these precious animals, please call Heather Miller at 532-2862 and let her know your interest.
