Rescue Wagons (and planes) are moving doomed dogs from high kill shelters to less crowded [View All]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-22-pet-transport_N.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno



Doomed dogs get on the rescue wagon to other shelters

Thousands of death-row dogs are getting reprieves every week, plucked from crowded, high-kill shelters and transported — often hundreds of miles — to places where there are open cages in shelters and open hearts in the community.

Shelter-animal relocations, known as "transfers," have been quietly going on for years on a fairly small scale. But the numbers are escalating as growing legions of devoted rescuers organize ever-larger convoys; high-kill shelters initiate partnerships with faraway shelters that have space to accept out-of-luck animals; and large pet-advocacy groups develop strategies to increase the number of pets that are moved and saved every month.

"It's a growing and increasingly important area in the animal protection field," says Cory Smith of the Humane Society of the United States, which has developed guidelines to help transporters.

Road to a second chance

PetSmart Charities' Rescue Waggin' is the volume leader in moving pets from shelters where there's no chance they'll be adopted to shelters where they're almost certain to get new homes quickly.