What a mammoth rescue effort by our Team H2H doggy angels. Never have we been asked to help with, nor attempted to help with such a big rescue, let alone entirely on our own.
The ‘Never pup’ rescue…..
On Christmas eve, I was contacted by a young lady, in a desperate situation, seeking help with working dogs of her Aunt’s, that had gotten out of control in numbers and accidental breeding. Her Aunt used to breed quality, registered working kelpies, however as her mental and physical health severely declined this year, the dog numbers started to get out of control too. She came back to her parents’ property, the girls’ grandparents, and they have been managing as best they could since. Being on a large merino sheep stud, you can imagine the chaos they have caused and danger they have been, and been in.
As the Aunt’s health declined, the dogs bred more and it was a terribly difficult situation for the grandparents to try and manage while trying to look out for their daughters’ health as well.
One of our amazing volunteers headed out ….
on a 3 hour and 45 minute journey to this remote property, where I wasn’t quite sure exactly what she was going to find, and what I had sent her in to.
There were many young, happy, approachable pups, healthy enough, and a family so welcoming, grateful, and simply desperate for help to get on top of things. At this point, the dogs’ owners’ health had deteriorated so much so, that she may have needed to be admitted to hospital again at any moment.
Pups were collected up, and secured in crates and dog cages; varying in ages from 6 weeks to 4 months. There was at least one litter of pups and 2 scared Mums hiding under a house. The litter of 1 week old babes hadn’t been fed that day as the Mum hadn’t been seen. Unfortunately they were unable to catch her, but another Mum ran into the house and jumped in and started feeding the babes. So we took a surrogate Mum! 3 pups aged about 3 weeks were gathered from under the house, with the remaining pups and Mum unable to be reached behind pipes.
In total, our doggy angel left there, approaching midnight, with 31 precious souls for the long journey home. She will head back out there the following day to see how many more have been able to be caught and secured, to come into our care, but she estimates up to 20, including 2 pregnant Mummas to be. At this point, we have arranged to take one of the preggo’s into our care, raise the pups, desex Mum and return her to her owner; as removing every dog will not do anything to improve her mental health in an already precarious situation. We just need all of the fertile females removed and desexed as a first priority.
The following day, it started early, with the rest of our amazing Team H2H coming together to head out and start to collect these pups and transport them to their foster carers, or meet up with other volunteers to continue the transport relay on to Northern H2HQ for temp care and pickup. This continued on into the early evening. These animals futures will be bright, their needs will be met, and they won’t have to spend time impounded or in a shelter for extended periods.
All of this is one of the main reasons Herd2homes was founded; with a mission of working with farmers and breeders, to educate, help and spread awareness, learn, and bridge the divide, to improve the way in which working breed dogs are treated across the country, whether they are pets or workers, city or country. The ‘us against them’ attitude and judgements have not, and will not work. It does nothing but closes doors and puts barriers more firmly up. By working together, and with fair changes in legislation, we will see change, and we are seeing change!
Though delirious and sleep deprived from coordinating all of this, I couldn’t be more impressed, grateful and proud of our entire team of volunteers for coming together to pull this epic rescue off. And there’s only more to come in the days and weeks ahead.
Rescue doesn’t get a holiday!
In total, we had 3 trips out to the remote property, rescuing 57 dogs and pups, in the space of just 7 days.
30 transport volunteers helped get these dogs into their foster homes right across NSW, QLD and Vic, not counting all of the foster carers who put their hand up to care for these dogs and pusp.
2 dogs require amputation. 3 more have required xrays and investigation into old injuries. One required after hours surgery for a large abscess. 5 wounds that needed vet attention.
4 females needed ultrasounds for pregnancy, thankfully it appears none of them are pregnant, and one the vet suspected had stillborn pups or a very late miscarriage.
Transport costs in excess of $2,000 to pull off the rescue.