Please note: This article was originally published on ShelterMe.tv in 2016.

The Problem:

Redland, Florida; it’s a rural area southwest of Miami. A place that is haunted with the despair from the many animals who are abandoned there every week. Daily, cars and trucks stop on one of the streets or highways, open a door, shove out a confused animal, then drive away quickly.

The Redland area is not a safe place for the animals who are left there. Most are dogs, and while some learn quickly to stay away from humans, others are shot, poisoned, hit (on purpose) by cars, stolen by dog fighters; or they die from starvation and dehydration in the Florida heat. The lucky ones hide during the day, coming out as the sun goes down as a group of dedicated volunteers bring the food and water they need to survive. Join the volunteers, Jessie, Yleana, and Ramsey, on a hot July evening as they bring me along to witness the sad situation.

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Luna

Cora looks like a beautiful young dog! Her deadline is Tuesday. This young girl is under two years old. She is sweet and under 50 pounds. She has lots of life and love to share with a family. Cora is #5626.

There are 39 dogs in Sebring, Florida who have a deadline. That means that if they are not adopted or pulled by rescue before then, they are in danger of being killed. Don’t blame the shelter — blame those who dump their dogs with no thought of what will become of them. These dogs are wonderful, and the shelter is very transparent about what they do and don’t know. They often know if the dogs will not get along with other dogs and cats and will indicate that. Many of these dogs have lived outside and never known a soft bed, while others were family dogs discarded when they became inconvenient.

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Some of the dogs written about in “31 Dogs Have Nothing to Be Thankful for; All will be Killed Before Thanksgiving” were rescued and others were given a reprieve until Monday the 27th. That’s the way it goes in small county shelters. If enough space opens up, the dogs who were going to die get additional time to find a home and leave the shelter alive. But that also means that there is a never-ending cycle of dogs who are urgently in need of rescue.

The dogs who are still in need of rescue are Brinds, Tony, Shyla, Arie, Derby, Bailey, Howze and Plumo. There are also a few new dogs.

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Update: Belle, Moon, Rosa, Parker, Silver, Pork Chop, Murry and Maggie (she wasn’t posted yet) have all been RESCUED by Bishop Animal Shelter,SPCA of Manatee County, Please honor pledges at www.bishopspca.org The volunteers at Sebring, FL say, “Thank you!!!!”

Tony was caught on camera with his tail mid-wag. He’s looking sweetly at the photographer with a gleam in his eyes, his body raised up as if hoping that the person taking the picture will stop and give Tony some affection. He wants it, desperately. And now Tony is one of many dogs who will be killed on Tuesday, November 21, unless he is pulled by rescue or adopted.

Tony isn’t petite or graced with curly locks. His nose doesn’t wrinkle up like a Boston Terrier’s. He doesn’t have a long plume of a tail like a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. In fact, Tony looks like many of the other dogs at this shelter. He’s a mix — that healthy blend of many breeds that gives the lucky ones longevity and few diseases and the unlucky ones death at the local county shelter.

While city and suburban shelters receive a mix of purebred dogs and mixes, rural county shelters like the Highlands County Animal Services get mostly mixed breeds, many of which look like pit bull mixes and hunting dogs. The shelter’s director tries to learn about the dogs and their personalities, but as with  most shelters, and especially small ones with few resources, dogs’ behaviors in shelters are often quite different from their behaviors in a home. That’s why responsible shelters advise adopters to take all animal introductions slowly and give new animals time to decompress and relax. (Read a great article about this here.)

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Tom – killed the night he was adopted?

Posted by volunteers

Stanley – offered for sale the day after adoption

Want to make a quick buck in Hillsborough County, Florida? If you live in Tampa or its environs, just visit the county shelter on a weekend when they are adopting out dogs for free and get a couple. There’s no adoption fee, no application, and best of all — you can sell a dog for $50 the very next day! Just say it’s a good “hog hunter.”

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Eva is a sweet and very friendly dog who is a volunteer favorite. But Eva, through no fault of her own, is going to be killed at the shelter because they are filled and need her kennel.

Eva is a dog who has been failed way too often. She has been adopted from the Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center over and over, but she gets returned after a few months, or she is dumped on the streets to end up there a few years after being adopted. In March, 2016, she had been dumped at the shelter with pink-painted nails. Someone had loved her enough to spend time painting her nails, and then they left her at a kill shelter.

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