It Takes A Village: Dog Gone Transport

Dog Gone Transport was started in Nov 2009 to save the lives of dogs by transporting them from the Carteret County Humane Society to rescue organizations located across the country and to no-kill shelters in the north where overcrowding is not an issue. As with many NC counties, shelter overcrowding is a big problem in Carteret County where the average intake at this shelter is far more than the local homes in the area can accommodate --and many times dogs are euthanized simply to free up space. Candace Christopherson, manager of the shelter in Carteret County and president of Dog Gone, said that transporting the animals gives them a better chance of getting adopted and frees up space in the shelter for other animals. As can be expected, there is more to transporting than just…well, transporting. For Dog Gone Transport, this includes having the dogs professionally evaluated, continually networking to locate available rescues or shelters, arranging for fostering of these dogs until transport is available, arranging for vetting and obtaining a health certificate for dogs that will be crossing state lines and, of course, coordinating transport plans with volunteers to transport animals via ground and/or via air by Cloud Nine Rescue Flights, an airplane transport group. With the help of Dog Gone Transport and all of the other organizations involved in transporting these dogs, CCHS is now a low-kill shelter.

Without the work of Dog Gone Transport and volunteer /VP of Dog Gone, Julie Tiso, the following CCB Adopt-a-Bulls and alumni may have ended up as yet another casualty of shelter overcrowding. Dog Gone has transported countless dogs out of the Carteret County Humane Society to CCB including Hooch, Stig, Sophie, Jade and Gauge! And Kendra is on CCB’s waiting list.

What can you do to help? Dog Gone is always looking for transport volunteers and fosters to care for the animals while waiting for transport. Contact: Julie Tiso at jdtiso@gmail.com for information. Donate: It costs approximately $200 per dog for a transport flight up north (vetting, food/supplies while waiting for a flight, donation to pilot, etc.). Long term solutions: Promote spay/neuter. The primary reason the northern states where these animals are being transported do not have problems with overcrowding is due to the effectiveness of their spay/neuter campaigns.

Links:

Dog Gone Transport in the news: http://www.enctoday.com/articles/euthanasia-85225-jdn-homeless-transport.html

Video/Article Cloud 9 Rescue Flights: http://coastal.news14.com/content/top_stories/620685/nonprofit-organization-saves-pets-by-flying-them-north

Carteret County Humane Society Shelter: http://www.cchsshelter.com/  

Dog Gone Transport’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/DOG-GONE/111092135595417#!/pages/DOG-GONE/111092135595417?v=info


1. Does Dog Gone Transport pull from Carteret County only? Usually, but if there is a crisis in another high-kill shelter (Craven and Onslow counties), we will assist them and transport those dogs up north as well.

2. How has Dog Gone affected CCHS euthanasia rates? With the exception of November and December, we haven’t had to euthanize for space issues since Dog Gone Transport was started, however, we do still have to euthanize some due to aggression and/or medical reasons.

3. What is your primary need? Foster homes and transport volunteers. Of course, funds, too but we need people. Foster Homes seem to be the hardest to flnd.

4. The name “Dog Gone” implies dogs only. What about cats? We started with dogs, but now we also include cats. In fact, during the last few months of 2010, about 40 cats were also transported.