Desperate situation in West Virginia: dogs & cats will be put to sleep within 24 hrs

[owl]

Edit: Could the mods please add the word "shelter" after "Virginia" in the title? Many thanks.

Hello, I apologise if this has been posted already. Could you please advise on what to do - eg what is the best way to contact the media about the plight of these poor animals? I realise there are many abandoned animals out there but this is perhaps slightly different. Please read on, cross-post, forward to your friends (esp if they are in the W Virginia area) etc.

Many thanks!

http://dogblog.dogster.com/2006/06/2...s-immediately/


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Desperate Situation in West Virginia — Pound Puppies and Kitties Need Homes Immediately!
by joy in Dog News



This very desperate situation in West Virginia has shown up in a number of groups thanks to some more dedicated Dogsters like Dakota! I know there are more Dogsters who have been passing this message around. Thanks to each one of you, even if I don’t list you here. I apologize for that but hopefully I’ll catch up with you on another posting!


WV court case requires emptying out shelter for hoarder’s dogs.

Please help us before then as they must cross the rainbow bridge on June 23rd or 24th if not rescued! They are so young we’re not ready for that yet!

If you can help any of us, please contact Laurel because she will see to it that we get to rescue! Here is her email addy: hampshirecountyac@yahoo.com and here is the phone number you should call! (304)496-9379. We are all in the Hampshire County Animal Control located in Paw Paw, WV. They are rescue friendly so what are you waiting for? We are just waiting on you!

Follow this link to Petfinder to see dogs in need of adoption immediately!


This is located in the town of Paw Paw West Virginia, a town with a population of 524 human beings.

Can you imagine having to kill all these darlings in a town called Paw Paw? This is close to Hagerstown, Maryland and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. If anyone has room to adopt or rescue one or more of the adoptable dogs on their Pet list, it would be such a blessing. It’s an easy drive to the D.C. area. There are many cats as well as dogs who need saving by June 23rd.


CONTACT:
hampshirecountyac@yahoo.com

PLEASE CROSS-POST!!!!
This is a very small shelter in West VA; This is an extremely desperate situation. Please check the list of dogs and cats, and see if you or anyone you know can help.

Respond to Laurel Melvin: hampshirecountyac@yahoo.com

THANX!!

Here’s more information on the situation in Paw Paw and why these pets are in danger.


From: Laurel Melvin
Date: Fri Jun 16 10:13:33 CDT 2006
Subject: Fwd: MENTALLY ILL HOARDER INDICTED; 40+ dogs & cats arriving at FULL SHELTER

A Mentally Ill Hoarder is indicted !!!!!!!!!!!! His 40+ dogs and numerous cats are arriving at an already full shelter. All 40 dogs have to be held for a court date, so the ones there now have to be euthanized in order to make space for these new dogs!! The Hampshire County Animal Control tries very hard not to euthanasia, but they are out of space for this URGENT situation; The dogs have till June 23 and 24 !!ALL DOGS WILL DIE IF NOT RESCUED OR ADOPTED; please look at the dogs below and try to help, even taking one dog will help the rest. Contact: Laurel at 304-492-5442 or Hampshirecountyac@aol.com. Shelter cell is 304-671-4704 and main # is 304-496-9379

PLEASE HELP THESE WONDERFUL DOGS! Most Dogs are Very Rescue Friendly but will be PTS due to not enough Rescues and too many animals in this EMERGENCY SITUATION. Please help them. The more we can find a place for, the fewer will be put down. Thanks.

See list of dogs below-


Male, Mastiff mix, very people friendly, OK with some dogs, ignores, curious about cats!!

Caroline- Female, White Shepard mix, very friendly, LOVES CHILDREN!!!

Babe- Female, Lab/boxer mix, just weaned from her 3 puppies, A great family dog!! Loves cats, dogs, and children!!

Clint- Male, Malamute mix, Very friendly, loves cats, dogs, and children!!

Dylan-Male Rott/shep mix, people friendly ONLY!


Harmony- Female, Lab mix, friendly, good with children, other dogs and cats.

Heaven- Male, Husky mix, friendly, good with children, other dogs and cats.

Toby- Male, Schnauzer mix, friendly, good with children, other dogs and cats.

Lucky- male, beagle mix, friendly, good with children, other dogs and cats.

Sadie- Female, boxer mix, friendly, good with older children, other dogs and cats.

Male-Pit mix, puts on a show in the kennel but is people friendly!

Scarlet-Female, retriever mix, friendly, good with children, other dogs and cats.

Timon- male, Shepard/collie, friendly, LOVES CHILDREN, other dogs and cats.

Wesley-Male, Shepard/lab mix, friendly, good with children, other dogs and cats. (not a good PIC, His ears stand up like Shepard)

Sprout female, wire haired Jack Russell mix, friendly, good with children, other dogs and cats.

Corky- Male, Purebred Hound mix, friendly, ignores children, good with female dogs.

Ernie female Chow mix, spayed, very people friendly, OK with some male dogs

Poppy-female, pointer/lab mix


Delia-female, shepherd mix

Daisy Mae-female, treeing walker coonhound

Mackenzie- male, pointer mix, Neutered

Curly- male, yellow lab/shar pei mix, friendly does not like cats

Moe Male, yellow lab/shar pei mix, friendly

And many others! Including Cats and Kittens that will be put down on the 23rd and 24th!!




9 Woofs
6/21/06 at 2:41 pm mark c berchtold

What was that man indited for? It wasn’t euthanizing one animal to make room for another, was it? Shouldn’t the court be responible for finding shelter to house them? What is HSUS doing? If this shelter is going to act this way, then it has become an implement of the court system, and should no longer be called a shelter. Do not investigate the hoarder, investigate those who intend to carry out this indefensible act. I would be interested in transporting to a shelter or sponsering, as long as I did not have to hear a explanation as to why anyone thought wholesale euthanazia was an acceptable solution

6/21/06 at 3:10 pm joy

Valid concerns, Mark.

From the little that I’ve seen on it, it sounds like this is a very small community with very limited space in their shelter. From reading the listings of the endangered dogs at the shelter, it sounds like the shelter workers try very hard to care for and socialize the dogs and cats. But this number of new animals on the doorstep would be hard for one of the big city shelters, much less a tiny, rural one.

I just wish I wasn’t up to my legal limit of four or I would be tempted by a couple of the Paw Paw dogs, especially the treeing coonhounds. If a Dogster saves one or more of those babies I’d like to know!

But if you’re in a situation where you can save one or more Mark, please do so. I know they would appreciate it!

Thanks for barking in!

6/22/06 at 8:39 am Furio

Does anyone know of an option to move these dogs and cats to other shelters?

6/22/06 at 9:59 am Dave

There is a place near Bruceton Mills, WV called Star Ridge Animal Ranch and Rescue that may be able to help. They accept puppies and kittens. They usually have adoptions sessions on Saturdays at local businesses (Tractor Supply, etc.). Their phone number is: (304) 379-3322.

(The court system should force the owner to pay for sheltering his / her dogs and pay any cost involved with obtaining food or staff to care for these and/or shelter dogs.)

6/22/06 at 10:04 am Jenny

Is there somewhere else this can be posted so that as many people as posible will see it? If you have a website, please put a link to this on there especially if its myspace.com or someplace that gets lots of traffic.

6/22/06 at 10:39 am joy

Thank you everyone for being concerned and finding ways to save these dogs and cats! Please feel free to transfer this notice to any blog or online service that will take it!

If you know of a shelter or other group that might help, please call them directly and alert them to the situation. They would then to need to contact the Paw Paw shelter to arrange for the movement of teh endangered cats and dogs.

6/22/06 at 1:34 pm Furio

I’ve e-mailed and called all numbers provided for the shelter and left messages, but haven’t received a response yet. Has anyone heard from the shelter as to how many animals are still in danger?

Also, thank you Dave. I also left a message at the animal ranch you mentioned to see if they can help.

6/22/06 at 1:58 pm ET

I have contacted the rescue group I foster for to see if we can help, but we are a long way away! I also posted this on my personal blog and e-mailed links and synopsis to virtually my entire mailing list, including pet places that send me e-mail in case anyone can help. I know the Purse Forum has been kind enough to post this as an “AD” on their pages, and the PF girls are trying to contact anyone who might be able and willing to assist these poor animals! LUCK!

6/22/06 at 5:18 pm mark

I have talked to three shelters in Erie pa, and a fourth that did not return my call. No help from them, even though thier websites do not show that many dogs housed.
I think that all publicly funded and 501c shelters should be required to be in a network to manage his kind of emergency.

[owl]

First bump! Anyone near W Virginia looking for a dog or cat companion?

Time's running out for them ...

Thanks for any advice.

[Chad Michael Murray]

I actually just acquired a kitten a couple of weeks ago from some family in West Virginia, because of this reason.

I have relatives there so I visit at least fairly often, and I have NEVER seen a place that is so moronic with their animals in my LIFE. Animals roam free, aren't properly taken care of, constantly breeding and resulting in more unwanted puppies or kittens (not that the world doesn't want them, but the people don't and don't properly care for them at ALL), and all that jazz.

Many people will take litters of kittens or puppies and leave them somewhere RANDOM where they have no chance of survival. I myself tried to rescue a kitten who was out by the road and was seemingly thrown from a moving vehicle. I rushed her to the vet, but the kitten's injuries were too severe to survive.

I really do wish that people would be required to take a class or have a license or something to own pets. I know it's a hassle, but animal lovers will understand the necessity and anyone who doesn't probably doesn't need to be having the responsibility of a pet anyway.

/rant

[strawberry cupcake]

i love animals so much and i wish i could adopt every single unwanted animal in the world, but already having three dogs myself, i can't help. all i can do is pray and advise people to help these poor strays in any way you can.

[owl]

MATTrish Stratus, you're right - if only some pet owners were more responsible ...

Strawberrry cupcake, thanks for your prayers. Fingers crossed that at least some of the animals in the Paw Paw shelter can be saved.

[Howdoulikemenow333]

there is a web site f or it,can't get it to work.

[owl]

Originally Posted by alaskaboy

there is a web site f or it,can't get it to work.

Sorry, what's the address of the website? Thanks.

Update from ETenebris on another forum (posted about an hour ago):


Re: Pets in desperate need of homes by 6/24 - can you...??

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay...I just hung up with Laurel. The good news is that she is "farming out" the dogs that are spoken for to area homes who can hold them for a week (the coonhound has been adopted by someone in New York) and she has managed to get a reprieve until July 1st on the euthanizing. The bad news is that they are flooded with calls for animals who are being neglected in the heat, and until they move animals around they cannot bring these sick and mistreated animals in. She will be sending an e-mail out tonight or tomorrow with what she has available, and I can post that here if you want me to. If you are out of the area and want to adopt, she will work with your local rescue and use the sort of "underground railroad" system to get a dog to you. If you have a rescue group or work with one, she can work to get a dog to you, as well. So I am going to see if the rescue here can help...at least I can probably take one (hubby says NO WAY, but I will work on him). Also they are hoping that the hoarder (who was stealing dogs as well as hoarding strays, and had 150 cats in cages in trailers with no air conditioning and had NOT cleaned up after them...the conditions were quite deplorable) will relinquish his animals so they can be placed with rescues or adoptive homes. If you have been considering an animal, this is a good time to open your home! And June is a slow month for adoptions because of moving and vacations. Let's do what we can to help these guys out!

Unquote

Please post in blogs, forward emails to your friends - and even better, go adopt one of the animals yourself. Thank you.

[Jo_Luvs_Ketchup]

This is so sad! I have four pets at home and I love them all the death! I can't imagine ever putting them to sleep. This just makes me wanna hug my Bailey!

[EmoJoe]

thats so sad

[Courtnee]

[owl]

Hi all, I agree that all this is so sad.

This was posted on another forum:

Quote
A few months ago I was watching the news (don't remember which news program) and at the begining they showed an orphaned puppy that needed a home, then they continued with the program. Before the show ended they announced that over 400 people had call to adopt him.
Maybe people actually seeing this pets (like on TV) would help if there is more time.

Unquote

Did any of you watch the program and if, so can you recall which program it was - which network? Thanks.

[owl]

Latest update, posted by ET:
UPDATE e-mail from Laurel as promised:

Dear [ET],

Here is the recap of the conversation we had - outlining the situation here and what help we could use/need - we're steadily updating the site. It was great talking to you.

I have actually asked my boss and was granted time until 7/1 - 7/2 in order to put transports together for any groups willing to help us out.

I have been talking to many people in this past week who have stepped up to either volunteer their time in cross posting or trying to make room in their rescues to pull our dogs and I am trying to accurately portray the full picture here in the county. If you could find a way to paraphrase the below so that it accompanies wherever you crosspost it would be great.

The hoarding situation came at an extremely bad time for us, not that there is ever a good time for one of these. The dog count we have so far is 17, with approx 15 small dogs that have disappeared (we believe they are with an accomplice and we are seeking her) leaving about 10 dogs that are unaccounted for and could be they didn't "exist" - the count was off or they were let loose to be picked up as strays. The cat situation is worse but has to be handled a diff way and we have a couple of groups lined up to help us in our efforts to contain that. Currently these 17 dogs are being emergency housed until we can funnel them into the shelter. Our stray problem in this county for whatever reason is not as bad as the surrounding counties - Jefferson, Morgan, Mineral, Berkeley, Clark and Frederick - this could be due to our extensive efforts to actively find adoptive homes on our own rather than solely relying on the efforts of rescue groups which are already overburdened. However this apparently frees us up for being able to spend more time actively pursuing neglect, abandonment and cruely cases. I can say in speaking with people in the surrounding WV counties that call us to report neglect, abandonment, cruelty in their counties that they contact us out of frustration because they are not getting a response from their local animal control division - in some counties it is non-existent, in some they are still referred to as "dog wardens" and basically all they do is pick up strays.

I say the timing is bad because the summer months are our worse for abandonment cases. People like to move during the summer and for whatever reason they forget to bring Rover along with them while they are packing their important stuff up. A lot of people simply turn their dogs loose to be picked up as strays because they have found out that we either refuse them if we are full and/or charge a fee to take their dogs. During the hot months (this is true during the extreme cold months) we also get numerous calls in that dogs are left outside with no shelter or water in the sweltering heat. And calls for emaciated dogs tied to boxes, covered in sores. These are particularly heartbreaking because the good citizens in this county usually wait a week or two to call after they've finally noticed this animal's plight because no one really wants to get involved unless they have to. So basically once the report is finally made regarding the animal in distress it's usually an urgent situation that needs to be addressed immediately - meaning seizing the dog and getting it into the shelter, addressing it's physical condition with vet care or just a cool place to sleep with reg food and water, building a case and waiting for a court date which entails kenneling the dogs for a court appearance for about 6 - 8 weeks, or rehabbing them until they are healthy enough to be adopted. Our strays are much luckier - they come to us in better condition, better temperments and after a 5 day stray hold - ready to find their new homes. Right now we have 3 kennels filled with dogs awaiting court cases - these are not the hoarding cases. The past week and a half saw 2 - 3 calls every day for dogs being neglected - several of them severe. With aching hearts we go out on these calls knowing if they are severe enough to seize and hold that one of our unlucky strays will have to be euthanized to make space for these poor souls that desparately need to get out of their current situation so they will not have to suffer one minute more.

I ask everyone to look at our site on Petfinder.com, WV - Paw Paw - Hampshire County Animal Control and see if there is just one currently in there in danger of being put down the weekend of 7/1 - 7/2 that they could help and going forward if they could check our site out every once in a while and see if there might yet be another one they could possibly make room for so that they get a chance at a forever home and not be denied it beause we need to make space to intake a dog in desparate need of safe shelter, away from it's current conditions it's suffering in.

For good-hearted animal lovers that want to help but are unable to rescue/foster, etc. We could also use donations in any form. Monetary donations would go towards gas to get these guys out on a regular basis, basic vetting needs in the form of vaccines, wormers, antibiotics, spays and neuters to help place these guys in foster care (our biggest hold up), crates and food to provide to foster homes that open their doors for the emergency hold situations - the list is endless. Monetary donations can be made to Hampshire County Animal Shelter, P. O. Box 397, Springfield WV, 26763 or our vet is Cacapon Valley Medical Center in Capon Bridge, WV - 304-856-1700.

thanks, Laurel

Unquote

Link to Petfinder here (the most urgent cases - to be adopted before 1 July, if possible):
http://search.petfinder.com/shelterS...ort=&preview=1

[mystery_daisy]

Unfortunately I'm in Texas, and have adopted a puppy a couple of months ago, so I can't help much. But I'll pray for you all. It's a drastic situation.

[owl]

Mystery daisy, anyone who adopts a cat, dog or rabbit or hamster is helping. What's the puppy's name, may I ask?

[D-Dey]

This kind of reminds me of a Daria fanfic:
http://outpost-daria.com/fanfic/comm...isservice.html

Anyway, I hope some of those animals were adopted.