Yesterday the story broke about a massive rescue operation outside of Salem, in which nearly 150 animals (all dogs, plus two cats) were liberated from an ostensible “animal rescue” that had them crammed into filthy stacked travel crates without food or water. It’s pretty horrible. I’m not bringing it up just to ruin your day/week/life, but to point out that the Oregon Humane Society, if you don’t know, is a world-class institution that serves as a model for the entire world. They have amazing adoption rates, a teaching hospital, on-staff investigators whose entire job is to nail abusers like this, and even a freaking restored wetland area on its campus where volunteers walk the dogs two or more times a day. (And yeah, sometimes I volunteer there.)
OHS is currently housing and treating most of these rescued animals, which brings them up to double their capacity for dogs. Because it’s a criminal case, the dogs are technically in protective custody as evidence, which means they won’t be eligible for adoption until the legal system allows it. In the meantime, if you have been considering adopting a dog, now is the time: they are lowering the adoption fee for dogs over a year old to $50 through Friday in hopes of making more room. They also have a wish list, and maybe it’s an inspiring time for you to make a monetary donation to help them stop shit like this, too. I just did.
Unless they’ve changed things about their training and screening process, be a little bit wary of any dog from OHS that does not have an owner history.
Multnomah County Animal Shelter has a much tougher road (they can’t be selective or what they take in like OHS) and doesn’t get the publicity or private dollars that OHS gets, but they’ve initiated an innovative volunteer / training program which works wonders for the adoptable dogs there, which sadly are mostly pit type mixes more often than not.
I volunteered for both outfits. If I still had the time, I’d head back to Multnomah County because it was much more rewarding.
And this is not intended to downplay the good that OHS does, just to highlight the good of what Multnomah County does without as many resources or love from the press as OHS gets.
Another great animal rescue group of note too, is the Pixie Project! They take the least adoptable pets OUT of MCAS and pair them with a well matched family.