Home Animal Stories Memoirs of a Dog: June 20 Featured Shelter Animals

Memoirs of a Dog: June 20 Featured Shelter Animals

by ECT

Kristy Keusch has provided East County with photographs of available dogs for adoption this weekend from the Contra Costa Animal Services and the Antioch Animal Services. She also has shared some information about Big Dawgs Rescue.

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Antioch 6-17

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This week I would like to introduce a local rescue called Big Dawgs Rescue. This rescue is full of some of the most passionate people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Please take a moment to read their mission statement and get a better idea of what they are all about.

Please like them on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bigdawgsrescue and visit their web page at http://www.bigdawgsrescue.org/

ABOUT BIG DAWGS RESCUE

Big Dawgs Rescue was founded in May 2009 by Joanne Rivero, and is run entirely by volunteers.  We are a non-profit organization dedicated to saving the lives of homeless and abandoned pets by placing them into loving forever homes. Although we still focus on large breed dogs, we have expanded our efforts to include pets of all shapes and sizes. Once in our rescue, animals live in real homes with foster families rather than in cages, and are shown the love and attention many of them have never known. The sick are made healthy, and those with behavioral issues stemming from neglect or abuse are shown compassion and understanding as they learn to trust again. We are against breed discrimination, and we believe it is our mission to educate the public about how proper pet ownership can make any breed of dog into a loving family member.

Big Dawgs Rescue also aims to disprove the myth that shelter pets must be “damaged” in some way. Many pets are relinquished to shelters for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the animal itself. There are highly adoptable animals in any local shelter that have nothing wrong with them, other than being unlucky. Sadly, there are simply not enough qualified homes for all of the available adoptable pets. An estimated 25% of dogs in the shelter system are purebred. If you are looking for a particular breed, please consider looking for a breed-specific rescue before going through a breeder. Chances are, you can find what you are looking for AND save a life!

All of our rescue animals are spayed or neutered in an attempt to combat the devastating pet overpopulation problem that results in millions of unwanted pets every year. Most of the animals in our care are rescued from inundated shelters across California where they would otherwise face euthanasia. It has been suggested that between 3-4 million dogs and cats are euthanized yearly in shelter systems throughout the United States. This is largely due to overpopulation caused by unlicensed breeding of pets, and a lack of public knowledge regarding spaying and neutering. Sadly, until people stop allowing their pets to have puppies and kittens for their own selfish reasons, rescuers like us will always have a job to do. Remember this: each puppy a breeder adopts out means one less home for a puppy in a shelter. Shelters WILL and DO euthanize puppies and kittens, so please do not think they all find homes. Pet owners who breed think it is “cute” when their pets have babies- is a dead shelter puppy or kitten cute? DON’T LITTER- PLEASE SPAY AND NEUTER!

Big Dawgs Rescue is funded entirely by public donations and adoption fees. Please consider supporting our cause.

Information provided by Kristy Keusch, you can follow Memoirs of a Dog on Facebook by clicking here.

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