67 Afghan Hounds Rescued
in New Mexico
Afghan Rescue had been having a good year. Our Rescue Web Site only had two Afghans available for adoption the beginning of July, which is the lowest number we have had in the past 5 years. But as most of you already know, that has all changed. In a Shelter seizure, 67 Afghans were taken from a home in New Mexico this past week. These dogs are totally unsocialized, most have never been in crates, and even worse, the 17 puppies were dying from Parvo. Currently there are only 4 still alive.
We have begun a coordinated effort with the Shelter to bring these dogs out of NM and into foster homes for evaluation. It has been a very difficult task! The location of these dogs makes transporting long distances necessary. We have plenty of homes with experienced Afghan people offering to help with foster, but first we have to get the dogs into vans, airplanes, or what ever is necessary to move them. Needless to say, they are very stressed and not easily handled. Transporting adult Afghan Hounds who are not leash broken or crate trained is challenging. We have one Rescue Volunteer on the ground in NM, Susan Stephens, she along with the long distance support of Betty Salmon, Lisa Bryant, and myself, is heading up the task of getting these dogs moved. The Shelter is trying to cooperate as well, but obviously they have other dogs to care for and the expense of having taken these extras in is hurting them. They are helping with obtaining health certificates, transport to the airport and have even sent workers off to PetCo to obtain shipping crates for us. We are hoping to utilize their service in transporting several dogs to Houston, TX. We will continue to work with them and have begun moving some of the dogs out. It is proving to be a difficult thing for every one. Some of our Regional Clubs are also making trips to take back some of these dogs and we thank them for this effort.
Now, this is what this is going to take. We have the support of the Afghan Community with offers of foster homes. These dogs are going to take a while to fit into any home situation....and yet every day we have people offering to give their time to them. The expense of transporting, vetting, and rehabbing these dogs is going to be tremendous. We have set up a pay pal account where donations can be made and we will continue to take donations by check as well. The Pay Pal account is Kurabiafs@gmail.comand the checks can be sent to Russ & I at:
AHCA Rescue
c/o Hastings
4071 Gurnee Rd
Westfield, PA 16950
Please mark the memo line..... NM Rescue. If you would like a tax deductible receipt for your donation, the check must be made payable to:
AHCA Rescue Charitable Trust ! You will receive a receipt for the donation before the end of the year.We have some very talented Artists who are beginning to make donations of art work to Rescue to be auctioned off or sold on e-bay. This is a work in progress and is being handled by Katrina Hatch. Stir Greer has created a web link on our Rescue Web Site http://www.afghanhound.net/ that gives details of the rescue, newspaper reports and a video of what has taken place, all of the information for donations are listed there as well.
We hope to use this as a way to show case the dogs as they become available for adoption. This is a very difficult situation for all involved. We need the support of all of the Afghan community. It is easy to sit back and criticize what is being done or to point fingers at the person who owned the dogs, but this is no help to any one and only makes the situation worse. I feel this is going to be the way of the future for Afghan Rescue.
The trend we are seeing is that instead of getting single family type dogs turned in because of divorce, death, or just not knowing what they bought, we are getting the backside of the Afghan Boom. People that were involved in the breed for profit are finding them harder to sell, so they are giving up their dogs to shelters or to rescue to go on to more profitable smaller breeds, who need less care. Instead of getting one dog, we are getting families of 4 or 5, Mom, Dad, and a few kids that were not able to be sold. How long this trend will go on is any ones guess.
Again, we are asking for your support, I know we will get it.
Thank you,
Russ & Barb Hastings
AHCA Rescue Chairs