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Hey, Western Washington peeps
Jan. 26th, 2009 07:17 pmI posted about this to some local friends, so those of you who've already seen it can skip, but if you're on my flist and you're in Washington state (or hell, really, anywhere, because anyone can donate to Pasado's, etc.), there's a way you can help with the 600 or so dogs that were rescued in those hideous puppy mill busts recently in Snohomish and Skagit counties. Most of the 600 dogs are actually pregnant. This is going to be untenable very soon (not that it isn't already, but you know what I mean).
In my part of town, a group is getting together donations of materials badly needed by the rescue groups. You can read about it on the West Seattle Blog here, and if you don't know of a pet store in your area taking donations, please let me know and I can pick up whatever you may want to give, and take it to my pet store. They need blankets, towels, beds, bleach and cleaning supplies, pee pads, and of course, food. If you've got stainless steel food bowls, they really need those as well. Many of the stores will give you 10% off what you buy for the donations.
You can also buy gift cards from Costco, PetSmart, etc., and give the cards to organizations like Pasado's Safe Haven. Here's another post from a forum that provides some links and numbers.
I've seen a lot of semi-hysterical posts from people who don't understand how complicated a situation like this is, and they're all huffy because they foster certain types of dogs, and the organizations are "snubbing" their efforts to volunteer (and it never helps their cause when they can barely write a coherent sentence and they sound like loony pet ladies). The thing is, at this point, you need trained volunteers who have some understanding of working in a large-scale rescue effort. My sister did this, and I learned a lot about it from her, and I still haven't got even a basic understanding of how to dig in and really make something like this work. So if you want to volunteer beyond giving something, please be patient, let them know what you can offer them, and don't push it. Likely these people are strained to the max themselves, and it takes even more effort to work in people and their emotions to a situation that's already the worst it could be.
And yes, those mills operated for a long time and these busts come very late, considering how terrible it is. And yes, there are tons more out there that should also be stopped. But one step at a time. These folks need our help, not our criticism. As for the puppy mill and kitten mill subhumans out there, these are the times I truly wished I believed in an afterlife. Because the only way you can console yourself is by thinking there's a special circle in hell for them.
Please feel free to link to this post if you want; the more we can spread it around, the better.
In my part of town, a group is getting together donations of materials badly needed by the rescue groups. You can read about it on the West Seattle Blog here, and if you don't know of a pet store in your area taking donations, please let me know and I can pick up whatever you may want to give, and take it to my pet store. They need blankets, towels, beds, bleach and cleaning supplies, pee pads, and of course, food. If you've got stainless steel food bowls, they really need those as well. Many of the stores will give you 10% off what you buy for the donations.
You can also buy gift cards from Costco, PetSmart, etc., and give the cards to organizations like Pasado's Safe Haven. Here's another post from a forum that provides some links and numbers.
I've seen a lot of semi-hysterical posts from people who don't understand how complicated a situation like this is, and they're all huffy because they foster certain types of dogs, and the organizations are "snubbing" their efforts to volunteer (and it never helps their cause when they can barely write a coherent sentence and they sound like loony pet ladies). The thing is, at this point, you need trained volunteers who have some understanding of working in a large-scale rescue effort. My sister did this, and I learned a lot about it from her, and I still haven't got even a basic understanding of how to dig in and really make something like this work. So if you want to volunteer beyond giving something, please be patient, let them know what you can offer them, and don't push it. Likely these people are strained to the max themselves, and it takes even more effort to work in people and their emotions to a situation that's already the worst it could be.
And yes, those mills operated for a long time and these busts come very late, considering how terrible it is. And yes, there are tons more out there that should also be stopped. But one step at a time. These folks need our help, not our criticism. As for the puppy mill and kitten mill subhumans out there, these are the times I truly wished I believed in an afterlife. Because the only way you can console yourself is by thinking there's a special circle in hell for them.
Please feel free to link to this post if you want; the more we can spread it around, the better.
