Are you a sucker for animal rescue stories? You all know I am. I post them here all of the time. However, I can’t keep up with the constant flood of good news, and even if I could that would mean I’d never post anything else on the Pets blog. As tempting as that sounds, it’s important that I keep my articles diverse. So today I’m going to profile a new website, Pet Pardons, that provides animal rescue stories 24/7.
Now, you’re not likely to find many tales of hero dogs alerting their owners to midnight fires on Pet Pardons. The website’s name gives it away a little bit; this site is dedicated to spreading the word of animals rescued out of bad situations, nursed back from neglect. Its purpose is to bring together animal lovers, to organize us when relevant legislation goes before governmental bodies, and to alert communities about recently rescued and rehabilitated animals so they have the best shot possible at finding homes.
I found out about this site from a friend. She’s the one who does rehoming drives for a dachshund rescue and who always seems to know when there’s a Yappy Hour or other such event going on in the Baltimore-DC area. She always has her ear to the ground and she’s my best source for animal-positive news.
Pet Pardons seems like it’s made for people like her, like us really. When I first visited the site its front page cycled between stories of huge puppy mill busts, of the positive difference a spay/neuter awareness program is making in L.A., of profiles of sweet rescued dogs that need a home, and more.
Those are the two main purposes of Pet Pardons: to spread awareness and advocacy for animal rights issues not only in America but across the world, and to act as, essentially, a mini petfinder.com. Just like with Pet Finder, all of the animals profiled on Pet Pardons come from rescues, not breeders and certainly not puppy mills.
The site’s reach is not limited to the most common domesticated pets, cats and dogs. Although the front page is mainly dedicated to canines, I quickly noticed stories and ads about snakes and horses. In fact, I even have to take back what I said earlier; there, towards the bottom, reads the headline: “Kayaker Saves Dog From Heartbreaking Accident.” So although the main focus will be animals in rescues, heartwarming tales of derring-do will also make an occasional appearance.
The Pet Pardons mission is bold: “To End the Killing & No More Homeless Pets by January 1, 2015.” That seems wildly unreasonable to me, no matter how much I sympathize. But what does it matter? I can definitely get behind any organization that wants to stop puppy mill abuses, to encourage the world to adopt from shelters, to make it so that shelters don’t have to put down animals anymore, and to spread the word about spay/neuter programs.
Even if they don’t reach their specific goal in three years, all the work they’ll do in the meantime is invaluable, and definitely something worth supporting. If you’re at all an animal lover like me, and if you’re here than that means you probably are, you should definitely spend some time over at petpardons.com.
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*(This image by MendocinoAnimalCare is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)