Keep'Em Home: A grassroots project finds its feet
It's our loudest rallying cry to date - Keep'Em Home (and out of overcrowded animal shelters). We held six large free clinics in 2014 and worked steadily to assist families throughout the year with support and resources for their dogs. The learning curve for this work has been fast and furious: Knowing when to help. Accepting our limits. Forming strong alliances to get the job done. With each new public outreach event, we get better at listening to our community and learning how to be an effective support for under served dog owners and Good Samaritans. And with each connection we make, we believe the dogs gain a little more stability in a topsy turvy world where a shortage of affordable housing, training and veterinary resources can push dog owners to make painful surrender decisions. It goes without saying this project would have four flat tires without the help of amazing volunteers, veterinary partners and donors like you who breath life into this work.
In 2014:
430 families met with our team for specialized help and services.
120 dogs received a free spay/neuter surgery.
221 microchips were distributed.
100 families attended our Pit Ed classes.
Sign of the Times: Up to one third of the families who requested (correction: begged for) spay/neuter surgeries during our events owned small dogs, particularly chihuahua or chihuahua mixes. We did our best to accommodate the so-called 'non-pits,' but there were always more dogs-in-need than we could help, and in many cases we were unable to locate no or low-cost providers to send them to. We joke that the small dogs need their own Nut Truck and troop of helpers. Can that be far behind?
Social Media to the Rescue: Being a microchip provider comes with the added job of answering calls about found dogs whose chips trace back to our events. We welcome the opportunity to intervene in these situations since many animal shelters are not able or willing to make owner returns (RTOs) a priority, and unclaimed dogs face uncertain fates including euthanasia. We worked to locate and successfully reunite 15 families with their lost dogs in 2014, often holding the dogs for safe keeping at the Rescue Barn until owners can be found. Social media has been important tool in these efforts, allowing us to share alerts, search for dog owners and fish for leads on dog friendly rentals for families who are in between homes. In response to the public discussion surrounding an affordable housing shortage for dog owners, community minded property owners started contacting us with news when their dog friendly apartments open up. We're encouraged to see the seeds of solutions to some traditionally stubborn urban challenges just starting to take root.
 The Nut Truck (pic) purred away at sites all over Oakland this year. Each time we went out, Dr. Noe from Well Pet Veterinary Clinic and the volunteer RVTs completed an average of 15 spay/neuter surgeries while our team serviced dozens with other kinds of help. Many of our outreach clients have been reluctant or unable to fix their dogs, but the convenience of the mobile unit and the opportunity to discuss the procedure with our team and be with their dogs before the surgery and during recovery opens an impressive number of doors. One dog owner likely saved his dog's life with his on the spot decision to neuter. 'Kush' presented with testicular cancer once Dr. Noe started the surgery. She was able to remove the entire tumor and his relieved owner went home with a newly healthy dog. A great day for all! Above: clients wait in line at a BR free clinic in July
 Goal 2015. We plan to hire a manager for the Keep'Em Home project in the new year so we can broaden our focus and reach more people and dogs.
Location, Location. Always on the search for new places to hold public outreach events. Please contact us if you know of sites in residential areas (Oakland preferred) that can accommodate our spay/neuter van and team of change makers. (Details) Thank you! Contact LINK
< Click on our Keep'Em Home logo to meet some of the people and dogs who inspired us to power up this project.
|
We offer three ways to donate. Please consider giving a tax
deductible gift to help us push this boulder up the hill in 2015
for the dogs and the people who call them family. Thank you!
EIN Number - 94-3397172
|
Adoptions. It was the year of the bust dog - again!
We haven't seen this many cruelty survivor dogs in our program since the Vick case. We can thank the people behind the enormous federal raid (the #367 dogs) for this influx. We met each of these faces during two separate trips to the southeastern US. Ten of us worked to assist the HSUS with daily care in the temporary shelter for the #367 dogs, and three of us later flew out to assist shelter workers with a special group of dogs in Mississippi. Now in CA, all but two of the dogs we accepted - Gwennie and Chiquita - have been gobbled up into permanent homes. We're indebted to the volunteers and foster homes who helped with these dogs. Not unlike the Vick dogs, each 'bust dog' needed patient coaching to help them adjust to a much bigger world than they were accustomed to. Supporters cheered them on through some of their challenges via the facebook pages of Monkey and Melvin.
Some of the #367 dog firsts
Where are the dogs coming from?
Twelve American Pit Bull Terriers and one husky-something mix (Preston!) came to us from the southeastern US, five dogs came to us as unclaimed Oakland strays or from families in crisis in Oakland, one pit mix came from a cruelty/neglect case in San Francisco, five came from Contra Costa Animal Services, a nursing mother and four pups came from Yolo County Animal Services, and one silly boy came to us from Hayward Animal Services.
 The Happiest Trail Blazer of 2014
Reverend Al (left) came to us from Jackson County Animal Services in southern Mississippi. He remains one of the happiest dogs we've ever met!
After surviving a dog fighter and living nine long months in a shelter kennel without relief, he lead the way to agency change as one of the first pit bull cruelty victims to be transferred to rescue from this shelter. Al came to CA alongside Chiquita and Preston and wagged off the airplane with his trademark smile. 'The Rev' also contributed to lifting the long standing ban on pit bull adoptions in his MS shelter. Thanks to their new director, Diane Robinson, and a wonderful and supportive staff, this challenged shelter now boasts a regular flow of pit bulls in their adoption kennels. A new day!
Game Changer in Mississippi We were proud to meet with the staff of this shelter for presentations and demos and offer our best tools for helping the 'blockheads' get homes. The county seemed excited about the change, too. NEWS LINK
 Life at the Rescue Barn
The Rescue Barn is humming along and continues to provide a restful shelter-style environment for the dogs' recovery.
Just for fun. Musical duo 'Tiny Home' serenades the dogs. Filmed at the Rescue Barn.
Our favorite addition this year was a multi-level kid's play structure affectionately dubbed 'Dog Mountain.' Thanks to the generosity of BR friend/donor Carla Morgan, we were able to supplement some of the climbing equipment we already had in place with some added fun and challenges. It's been especially helpful to shy dogs who need to build physical confidence as they recover from past traumas.
No one has used Dog Mountain better than Molly, who was initially so shy she had to be coaxed and sometimes carried just to move her around. Playfulness brings its own kind of healing, and after weeks of bonding with new dog friends and receiving volunteer support, Molly walked a little taller and soon found her bravado. She demos her fun in this fun little video tour of the Rescue Barn:
Goal 2015 - Now almost five years old, the Rescue Barn has seen a lot of dog traffic and is starting to show some wear and tear. In the new year, we plan to hunt down some salvaged hardwoods to redo our dog worn floors. We can't wait!
|
A Meeting of the Minds - The Rescue Jam 2014
Our second annual Rescue Jam brought bright minds from around the country together for two days of presentations, demos and round table discussions at the Rescue Barn.
One of the most popular topics this year focused on using the Harm Reduction model as an effective approach to animal welfare work. Eliza Wheeler from the Harm Reduction Coalition rocked
the house, and has dozens of new fans now digging through materials from this discipline, which calls for a balanced, non-judgmental approach to providing resources in order to secure incremental and small but forward moving changes. We are so there. More on the Jam
|
 Looking to 2015
A New Year's fresh start story and a notable reminder
This pup's story came to light just as we were getting ready to wrap up 2014. We first met AJ at one of our owner support events in East Oakland in 2013. Like any good dog owner, his person wanted him to have vaccines and a microchip. Little did we know that his chip would bring us together again and possibly save his life a year later when he turned up stray as an adult dog in the city of Alameda.
The info on AJ's chip told the shelter that his owner was an Oakland resident, but because she'd changed her phone number and forgot to update her contact info, she could not be reached. Normally, AJ would've have been transferred to the crowded and highly challenged Oakland Animal Services, where staff would send a letter to her now former address as a way to locate her. Without a car, his owner would've been unable to search the kennels for his face and after two weeks, he would become property of Oakland and just another pit bull without a home. But his chip traced him back to BR, so the Alameda Animal Shelter decided to make a phone call first to see if there was a better path: "BADRAP, we have one of your dogs."
Nope, not our dog. But because his person was a client at one of our events, we felt an obligation to do what we could to help him find his way. Now for the detective work. With no phone number, we searched Facebook and - bingo - found his owner's page, including the name of her employer. Excellent. Soon we were all in contact. Because efforts were underway to communicate with his person, the Alameda Animal Shelter kindly allowed him to stay in their kennels for an few extra days free of charge while we sorted out his situation. (Above: AJ as a pup with BR volunteer Charity Jara)  We learned that his owner and her young daughter were homeless and had exhausted all their personal contacts for safekeeping AJ during her search for a dog friendly rental. Inventory for renters is very slim in the Bay Area and his owner's budget was extremely tight, so we were worried. Our supporters joined in when they heard her story and worked to find housing options, but the clock was ticking. Finally, when the shelter became too full to keep him any longer, he was transferred to BADRAP where - lucky break! - a recent adoption opened one of our kennels. His owner was thrilled to learn that AJ was safe. Amazingly, she found a dog friendly house just after Christmas thanks to a homeless advocacy project organized by her employer (Home Depot). Right as we put the finishing touches on this year end report, we are also scheduling a meeting to finally reunite AJ with his family. This little guy - well, bigger guy now - may have easily been lost to depressing shelter statistics. But his story showed us a different path thanks to the various pieces that came into place starting with his owner's decision to microchip, and the Alameda Animal Shelter's decision to hold him tight while his story came to light. The timing of this family's New Year's reunion plays like a sappy ending to an edge-of-your-seat movie, but we'll take it!
Rescue is no longer as easy as pulling a homeless dog from an animal shelter and finding him a different family. Lasting change in our communities is going to require more work, broader solutions, better tools and stronger partnerships to serve the bigger picture and honor the dogs' original families and the challenges they face. Owner support work stands to change the entire game of animal welfare work. Please join us as we journey forward with brainstorming around these challenges and - if you can - give generously so we can continue to respond to the core problems that affect the 'blocky headed dogs' and the human/animal bond both in our SF bay area community and around the country.
Help us bring the dogs and their families to a better place in this brave new era of compassion.
 We were proud to be ranked nationally as the number one high-impact nonprofit for Local Animal Welfare, Rights, & Protection for Guidestar's Philanthropedia. What an honor for the dogs to have had a panel of experts see the value of this work and put BADRAP at the top of this prestigious list.
From all of us at BADRAP, Happy 2015.
Thank you for being such an important part of this work!
|
We offer three ways to donate. Please consider making a tax
deductible gift to help us push this boulder up the hill in 2015
for the dogs and the people who call them family. Thank you!
EIN Number - 94-3397172
|
|
