Re-posted from The Chonicle, Centralia, WA, Saturday, July 28, 2007
Doggy Delivery
Small Dogs Coming for Adoption
City Government and Health reporter
If it’s true that good things come in small packages, Lewis County is in for a whole lotta good.
A bus loaded with small breed, homeless dogs is headed to Chehalis from Austin, Texas, in the first ever pet exchange through Pets Across USA.
The Friends of the Lewis County Animal Shelter (FOLCAS) has partnered with Protection for Animal Welfare Services (PAWS) of Austin, Texas, to bring the canine cargo to Chehalis, where small dogs are at a premium.
“They have tons of little dogs in Austin – Chihuahuas, dachshunds, Lhasa apsos. They can’t get rid of them,” said Patty Kaija, FOLCAS president. “But in our area, we get plenty of large dogs, though most of the requests are for little dogs. We have a waiting list for the little dogs here.”
Kaija and PAWS’ Executive Director Prima Mosi first realized this regional difference two years ago. The two women met in 2005 while doing pet rescue in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. While Mosi was lamenting the alarming number of small dogs being euthanized in Austin, Kaija was lamenting the shortage of small, adoptable dogs in Lewis County and elsewhere in Washington.
Casually, Kaija mentioned that maybe Mosi should send her unwanted dogs to Washington. Eight months ago, Mosi called Kaija with just that proposal.
“After Katrina, everyone wanted to help. We had an unbelievable response and saved more than 1,200 pets,” said Mosi via telephone Thursday. “But, once it was over and everyone went home, they forget that there’s a disaster every day. Thousands of animals are being killed every day. So, we decided to go ahead and create a partnership. The more hands, the more people, the more good you can do.”
PAWS has moved small numbers of pets around Texas to find them homes, but next month’s trip to Lewis County will be the first pet transport to cross state lines.
“We had other cities on the West Coast wanting us to come there. San Diego, Calif., wanted us to come and it would be closer for us to go there, but we didn’t get as much excitement from them as we got from the people in Washington,” Mosi said.
On Aug. 13, the first busload of 25-plus dogs will arrive in Chehalis from the shelter in Austin. Mosi said she will also include litters of newborn puppies since the shelter there has no means of caring for them.
“Newborns under six weeks, with the mother, are put down immediately,” she said. “If there are foster families in Washington who can take the mom and puppies and get them adopted when they’re old enough, you bet they’ll be on the bus.”
The specially-converted bus will be followed on its journey by a crew of documentary filmmakers, who are chronicling the efforts for cable network Animal Planet, said Mosi.
She’s hoping the cross-country attention will result in more awareness of the problems of pet overpopulation nationwide.
“In our community here, pets are looked at as disposable,” she said.
Mosi remembers several disturbing cases in which people have abandoned their pets at shelters before going on vacation, only to get new ones once they got back. In Austin, between 12,000 and 13,000 animals are killed every year, she said.
Lewis County’s shelter kills about 1,000 cats and 100 dogs each year, mostly due to overcrowding.
FOLCAS is working to bring those numbers down by raising money to build the county’s first no-kill shelter. A two-acre lot on Kresky Avenue was purchased in June by Darren Pritt, FOLCAS treasurer, for $225,000. He donated the property to FOLCAS for a combination no-kill animal shelter and medical facility for low-cost spay and neuter services.
The pets from Austin will arrive at this site on Aug. 13. The dogs will be posted online for adoption Aug. 1 (see accompanying story).
Kaija said a celebration is planned to welcome them in.
“(Radio station) Live 95 will have a remote broadcast, there will be veterinarians available, and dog trainers,” she said. “We’re all really excited about this. This is just the first trip of what we hope will be a longtime collaboration.”
Added Mosi, “It’s no problem for us pulling 30 dogs and bringing them to Washington if it means they’ll have families waiting for them. I’m hoping people will see what we’re doing and know that every little bit helps these animals.”
For more information, visit the program Web site at www.petsacrossusa.org.
•••
Amanda Haines covers municipal government and health for The Chronicle. She may be reached at 807-8245, or by e-mail at ahaines@chronline.com.
