January 6, 2012
In November, the ASPCA’s Animal Relocation Initiative transported 41 dogs from a shelter in South Carolina where they’d waited months or years for adoption to shelters in Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota—and great news about their adoptions started pouring in almost right away!
The ASPCA transfers shelter animals to areas where there are few, if any, similar pets available for adoption. Its goal is to create a national network that facilitates the transfer of pets, helping to end the killing of healthy and treatable animals in shelters. “So when A Second Chance Animal Shelter asked for our help moving some of their long-term resident dogs,” says ASPCA Animal Relocation Manager Kristen Limbert, “we knew right away we wanted to assist.”
The South Carolina shelter staff was doing a great job keeping the dogs happy and well cared for, but they knew the dogs needed a better chance at finding forever homes. So the ASPCA reached out to three of our amazing partner shelters—Animal Humane Society in Minnesota, Capital Area Humane Society in Ohio, and Bay Area Humane Society in Wisconsin—and they each told us they had the resources to help.
Animal Humane Society in Minnesota took in 20 of the dogs, and, no surprise, 19 of them celebrated the holiday season in their new loving homes! (The 20th is receiving a little extra veterinary care for joint pain before he goes home.)
Ohio’s Capital Area Humane Society has just one transported dog still awaiting adoption (She just became available for adoption after getting some veterinary TLC). And at Bay Area Humane Society in Wisconsin, every South Carolina dog has found a home except one; the final dog is recovering from knee surgery in foster care and will be available for adoption as soon as she’s healed.
“We couldn't be more pleased with the outcome of this transport, and I believe I also speak for the caring staff and volunteers at A Second Chance Animal Shelter when I say that,” Limbert says. “By bringing these dogs up north, each of these dogs not only got the chance they needed to get adopted—they got it quickly!”
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| Benji spent the holidays with his new family. |
In Wisconsin, a happy pup named Benji (pictured) found a home in only five days on the Bay Area Humane Society’s adoption floor—after waiting just over four years for a family in South Carolina!
The many happy adoption stories from Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin “are all the proof we need that this relocation effort was a huge success,” Limbert says.
Stay tuned to our blog for future success stories from our animal relocation efforts.