Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Joshua Lucero: Staff photo Wendy Turner, founder of Wendy Saves Dogs and secretary of Health and Human Services at Eastern New Mexico University, plays with a recent rescue she and her mother took in from Dallas. Turner said the number of animals in need of rescue could be cut significantly if more people had their pets spayed and neutered.
link Joshua Lucero: Staff photo
Wendy Turner, founder of Wendy Saves Dogs and secretary of Health and Human Services at Eastern New Mexico University, plays with a recent rescue she and her mother took in from Dallas. Turner said the number of animals in need of rescue could be cut significantly if more people had their pets spayed and neutered.
STAFF WRITER
Animals young and old are in need of rescue across Roosevelt and Curry counties according to local animal rescue organizations.
Reasons for rescue can range from families that have to give up pets because of a move to animals that are neglected or injured.
Local representatives from Hope Defined Animal Rescue, Cindy’s Hope for Precious Paws Animal, and Wendy Saves Dogs answered a few questions about what it takes to rescue animals in the Clovis and Portales area.
Here are five things to know about animal rescue:
• Most animal rescues in the area deal with cats and dogs. The most frequently rescued animals tend to be dogs, with cats coming in a close second.
According to Wendy Turner of Wendy Saves Dogs, cats are harder to find homes for.
Cindy Clayton, co-founder of Cindy’s Hope for Precious Paws, said her rescue group has had experience finding homes for birds and guinea pigs.
• Finding foster homes for animals can be difficult.
Foster parents for animals must be able to give a rescue a stable and loving environment while it waits for a permanent home.
Turner said she performs home checks and makes sure each foster parent treats the animal as family in order to get it ready for its permanent home.
“The most important thing is getting an animal to safety,” said Clayton.
• Injured animals need immediate attention. In the event that a rescue animal is suffering from an injury, swift action must be taken by rescue staff and volunteers.
Injured rescue animals are taken to local veterinarians for care or transported to larger rescues that can find the animals the medical help they need.
“Teamwork is important to get more animals to safety,” said Clayton.
• Rescues rely on donated funds and services to help the animals they take in. Rescues like Cindy’s Hope and Hope Defined are incorporated so they can conduct fundraising events that help gather money to pay for animal care, transportation, and shelter adoption fees.
Rescue groups also rely on donation of veterinary services by local vets. In some cases vets sympathetic to the cause will do procedures at cost, according to Defined Hope co-founder Jordan Marinovich.
“Donations go primarily to health care, about 70 percent, and 20 percent are used for shelter fees, and 10 percent are used for random expenses like gas,” Marinovich said.
• Animal breeding is the root of the problem. All three rescue groups agreed that not having pets spayed and neutered is the main reason the rescues have to exist.
Marinovich said shelters have to euthanize the animals because of the amount they pick up on a daily basis.
Marinovich and Hope Defined specialize in saving shelter animals from euthanasia.
Turner said, “I’d rather not have to do this (operate an animal rescue). People need to spay and neuter their animals.”
