ORGANIZATION GIVES FORGOTTEN DOGS SOME HOPE FOR A NEW FAMILY
Source: orilliamatters.com (Extract)
Posted: July 19, 2020
Lost Boys Hope is looking for a few good families to help give a home to a few good dogs.
Founded in 2016, Lost Boys Hope is a non-profit organization that helps rescue dogs connect with welcoming families. The majority of the dogs rescued are from reserves in northern Manitoba, where vet care and food are scarce.
Lost Boys Hope founder Kelley Ward said that dogs are left to breed, causing extreme overpopulation. Dog culls or shoots are a weekly occurrence.
“It is hard to imagine, but you literally will sometimes see 200 to 300 dogs running around,” said Ward. “Obviously, that is not a positive thing, but in their reality it is sometimes necessary.
“If you had your kids walking to school and the dogs were jumping on them for their lunch, that’s the first thing you wouldn’t want as well,” she added.
The organization has rescued more than 1,000 dogs and, in doing so, connected countless families with life-long pets.
Ward says it’s a thorough process, but needs to be to make the right connection.
“We post the dogs on our sites and people apply through our website, preferably immediately, as we have so many people looking for dogs,” Ward said. “We screen the applications from there and it isn’t necessarily first come, first served, because we need to make sure the home is suitable for the dog and family.”
From there, the process moves on to another volunteer base who will do a home visit. Due to COVID-19, Ward and her team are doing virtual visits right now. When that step is complete, there is a meet-and-greet and adoption at a later date.
Ward had 21 meetings last week, which shows the high demand for the animals.
While 98 per cent of the dogs come from Canada, Ward has partnered up with rescues in South Korea, where Lost Boys Hope has pulled dogs from the meat markets. Other international rescues have come from Mexico, Morocco and Egypt.
The organization uses professionalism and a strict process to make connections, but Ward admits it can be emotional.
“I see them from the very first moments when they come off the streets and they’re sometimes in rough shape, which can be hard,” said Ward. “Then we connect them with an adopter and the adopters have kids, and they’re crying with joy and, of course, it is sometimes hard to keep it together. Connecting a rescue and a family is why I do what I do.”