rescue

In 2011, hope came to Hope City Animal Control in Hope, Arkansas in the form of a new organization created specifically to save lives. At the time, the shelter was euthanizing 92% of the dogs (no cats—this city deems them

Private animal shelters often are built near public shelters to do the job that the tax-payer funded shelter is not. They literally rescue dogs from the public shelter. Why is more not expected from a government run shelter? Why do citizens pay for two shelters - one with their taxes and the other with their donations (and hearts)? And why, pray tell, do we allow this to go on?

“Why do you do this?” I asked Rose, the founder/director/doer-of-pretty-much-everything at Saving Webster Dogs. Rose shrugged, smiled, sighed, and said, “Somebody has to do it.” But, somebody doesn’t have to do it. In fact, nobody else in Webster County, West

This is not a sustainable situation, but it is one that we encounter almost everywhere we go: Incredible heroes (mostly middle-aged and older women) sacrificing everything to save the animals, and counties who count on them with no plan for what happens when they can no longer continue to rescue (or the rescue connections dry up).

I asked Leonika how we solve this, and she shook her head. She said

@OPENARMSAnimalShelter @Lawrencecountyhumanesociety-LouisaKY

Saving Webster Dogs is a unique rescue run by one of the hardest working, most dedicated woman I know (and I know a lot of women in rescue). Rose cares for between 75 and 115 dogs at a time on