It’s amazing what can be done when people work together!
Over the weekend, several organizations pulled together to transport about 90 adoptable cats and dogs from the Harris County Animal Shelter to rescues in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Harris County Animal Shelter is one of the many shelters in the busy Houston, Texas area. Like any other shelter the staff is working hard towards becoming a “no kill” facility but is constantly pushed to capacity.
The Lance McCullers Jr. Foundation, Houston PetSet, Rescue Express, and shelters in Houston and Minneapolis all pulled together, and these pets are now out of danger and on their way to finding new homes! Each organization played an important role in saving the lives of these pets:
The Lance McCullers Jr. Foundation sponsored the trip through Houston PetSet, which grants funds and works with Houston rescues and shelters to alleviate the city’s homeless pet problem. Lance McCullers Jr. may be known as well for his love of dogs as he is for the Houston Astros. His work with pets in need isn’t limited to his organization, either – we’ve written about how he has personally helped pets before!
Ruff Start Rescue in Minneapolis set up a foster network in Houston, which was supported by the Harris County Animal Shelter. Fosters were asked to take in pets for short-term stays, to socialize them and prepare them for their trip North. These fosters helped find other willing fosters, and through just the support of volunteers, managed to get all 80 pets ready!
Houston PetSet had volunteers at the Harris County Animal Shelter on Friday morning, bright and early, ready to save lives! They even provided sweaters for the dogs to help them stay comfortable in the colder climate! They helped load kennels into the bus and saw that the pets were safely on their way.
The pets were loaded onto a converted school bus run by Rescue Express. Rescue Express has four school buses that have been repainted and converted to comfortably transport up to 150 pets at a time. Since 2015, Rescue Express has helped transport and save the lives of over 18,000 pets! Most of their missions involve transporting pets along the West coast of the U.S., but sometimes take them into Mexico and Canada. They recently expanded their efforts to help in states with pets who were seriously affected by hurricanes, like Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. This trip took only one bus and a lot of helping hands!
The pets arrived at their destination and were put into the care of Ruff Start Rescue and Angel of Hope Rescue, both no-kill facilities in the Minneapolis area. In the hands of these two shelters, these dogs and cats will have all the time they need to find forever homes!
It took a lot of work, but coordination between these organizations and the help of volunteers made all the difference!
All of these organizations stay active with the help of donations. If you’d like to contribute, check out the links below:
Lance McCullers Jr. Foundation
Featured Photo: Rescue Express/Facebook
H/T: Click2Houston.com
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