Foundation Saves Pets From Dog-Eat-Dog World

Saved: Woman establishes HAND to provide health care for sick, injured animals at shelters.

By Carol Davis

American News Service

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.- The mother Dog, who had five squirming puppies, once would have been doomed to euthanasia. She had heartworms- a parasite that restricts the heart's flow and can cause permanent damage- and now she was homeless, dumped on the front steps of a Chattanooga Animal Shelter.

"Our budget here really does not allow us to treat a dog for heartworms, which can run about $500," said Gabriele Young, Director of the shelter, the Tennessee Humane Animal League/Pet Placement Center.Thats where the Homeless Animals Need Doctors came in.

Homeless dogs with health Problems that make them virtually unadoptable have found a best friend in Tallulah Trice and her new community foundation, known as HAND, supported by the tax-deductible contributions of well wishers.

Chattanooga-area animal shelters' limited funds can now go further because the foundation picks up most of their health-care cost. "It's to help these shelters keep going," Trice said. "Usually Veterinary costs are the highest expenses."

In this case, the abandoned litter of puppies tested healthy and their mother received he proper heartworm treatment and was adopted, Young said.

Next was the case of the chow mix, whose heartworm treatment was funded by the foundation. But then they noticed her limp and discovered that her hip was out of joint, causing pain and requiring costly surgery.

"I can't in good conscience spend the money (for treatment)," Young said. "A lot of times we try, but funds are limited."

Trice's foundation shouldered the cost and the Chow's hip was repaired.

Trice, who owns a boarding kennel just over the state line in Lookout Mountain, Ga., has been helping the area's no-kill shelters with health care for about eight years, all at her own expense. When a stray was picked up, she frequently paid for spaying or neutering and shots, which eventually averaged about $1,000 monthly.

I don't mind feeding and housing a dog, but the vet bills were killing me," she said.

Trice couldn't bear to quit helping animals, but her familily's bank account couldn't bear the rising expenses, so she created a foundation that could solicit donations and extend her efforts.

"I am trying to help the shelters not get overwhelmed with the amount of strays and also help them finacially,"she said. "We take care of the health care so they can focus on expanding."

Most of Chattanooga's homeless dogs are good animals and usually pretty healthy, said Dr. Kevin Ade, one of several veterinarians who gave price breaks on homeless dogs and who now sits on the foundation's board of directors.

"The way we look at it, it's just another weapon in our arsenal to help humane societies or pet placement centers and give an animal another avenue of escape," Ade said. "It really gives us another route to go in saving an animal's life."

According to Ade, "the humane society does a wonderful job, but they don't have the space or finances to keep dogs going for a long period of time. And it usually older dogs who are euthanized if they're not adopted out over a certain period of time."

"In a nutshell, the idea is to find homes for these dogs and not put them to sleep," Ade said, adding that treating them for physical ailments usually makes them more attractive to potential pet owners.

Euthanizing an animal is very rare, Ade said.

"There are times when we will elect to do euthanization, but that's few and far between," he said. Rare exceptions are made if a dog has an incurable disease or an aggressive temperament, he said. "There have not been very many."

That's where satisfaction comes in, Trice said.

"It is neat to see the dogs that were so sad and depressed and basically waiting for death row and now they are living the high life," Trice said.

Though she created the foundation, Trice spreads the credit to the Chattanooga area's animal caretakers.

"It's the shelters, not just me," she said. "It's us as a community trying to keep them going, because if Pet Placement shut their doors, it would kill everything we have been fighting for."

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