Saturday, October 9, 2010

Many Valley residents have been to the county's animal shelter and seen those precious faces staring back.

Right now there are thousands of Valley dogs that need to be adopted, but some will never get that chance because they will be euthanized before that one family can make it there.

"If we can't take them, this dog will die at 5 o'clock tomorrow morning," said Shelby Erdman, an animal behavior counselor for the Arizona Animal Welfare League (AAWL).

Erdman and her co-worker Erin Quigley are what some might call "dog saviors".

Their job is to go into various county shelters and save animals as they can before they are put down the next day.

"We do try to focus on the animals who are on the euthanasia list," Erdman said. "Those are the ones that are the most at risk in the entire shelter."

Dogs like a Wire Fox Terrier that has an ear infection will be put down the next day unless AAWL rescues him.

"So far he looks really friendly, really outgoing," Erdman said.

Also on the list is another dog facing death the next morning.

"Right now we're headed out to D83 to look at a cattle dog that's on the euthanasia list for fear," Quigley said.

The stray is so shy she almost doesn't come out of her cage.

"You can see she's cowering down a little bit," Quigley said. "She's a little unsure but she's still wiggling like she's interested."

AAWL says these are exactly the kind of dogs they want to give a second chance.

Read the full article and watch the video

 

Tags: