An Angel in the Tennessee Dog Pounds
As we walked through several municipal pounds in Tennessee, I kept thinking, “Thank God for Amber.”Truly.She and her husband Brandon and their rescue Halfway Home are the only hope for too many animals whose lives could so easily be snuffed out, unknown and uncounted.As far as I can tell, ‘animal control’ in Tennessee is a patchwork of public shelters, private rescues, and too many municipal pounds.The pounds are leftover from an era when that was the only option for most lost or unwanted animals in this country. Animals were impounded – held until their owners came to claim them or, rarely, someone adopted one. Once the legally prescribed hold time had passed, the animals were killed in all kinds of ways, some humane and many not.
Many areas progressed and built real shelters, developed adoption programs, and partnered with rescues. The best cities and counties fully funded a progressive shelter that worked to find a positive outcome for every treatable and adoptable dog.Sadly, in the south, those places can be frighteningly rare. In the rural places, the ones barely marked on a map, sparsely populated, with a limited tax base, those places still rely on dog pounds. Some are called animal shelters, but that’s not what they are, and the locals know it so they call them pounds.The pounds are generally a few kennels located on county or city land – the maintenance area, the sewage treatment plant, the police station, and too commonly, the dump. They are often simply a set of outdoor kennels on a concrete slab (or dirt). The better ones have some kind of roof and a dog house or hollowed-out barrel.The dogs that are unlucky enough to land in a southern dog pound have pretty low odds. My dog Fanny came from one such dog pound in western Tennessee. We found her there, emaciated and covered in poop. She’d been placed in an outdoor kennel in the brutal heat and been held their who knows how long since there was no one to talk to at the pound.
Many areas progressed and built real shelters, developed adoption programs, and partnered with rescues. The best cities and counties fully funded a progressive shelter that worked to find a positive outcome for every treatable and adoptable dog.Sadly, in the south, those places can be frighteningly rare. In the rural places, the ones barely marked on a map, sparsely populated, with a limited tax base, those places still rely on dog pounds. Some are called animal shelters, but that’s not what they are, and the locals know it so they call them pounds.The pounds are generally a few kennels located on county or city land – the maintenance area, the sewage treatment plant, the police station, and too commonly, the dump. They are often simply a set of outdoor kennels on a concrete slab (or dirt). The better ones have some kind of roof and a dog house or hollowed-out barrel.The dogs that are unlucky enough to land in a southern dog pound have pretty low odds. My dog Fanny came from one such dog pound in western Tennessee. We found her there, emaciated and covered in poop. She’d been placed in an outdoor kennel in the brutal heat and been held their who knows how long since there was no one to talk to at the pound.
It was an inspiring way to end our trip. It gave me hope not just for the dogs of western Tennessee, but for the south. People like Amber, Brandon, Cindy, Tara, Kenny, the Stouts (HHAR board members we met), and the other volunteers of Halfway Home Rescue are the ones who will turn the tide. It’s their selflessness and dedication that will overcome the apathy and stinginess of local governments to bring change despite the obstacles.But they will need plenty of support. Burn out is incredibly high in this business. Thank goodness Amber was born to do this.
If you’d like to help, you can purchase items from their Amazon wishlist, donate funds for their medical bills at Paris Veterinary Clinic (731-642-2263, 2101 E Woods St., Paris, TN 38242), or watch on our Facebook page for the donation address once Halfway Home’s nonprofit status is secured. You can also follow Halfway Home on Facebook.That was the last of our visits from this trip, but I’ll be posting occasional updates on the blog, plus telling you about our upcoming plans that include a volunteer team trip to North Carolina’s shelters (The OPH Rescue Road Trip) and working on creating a Who Will Let the Dogs Out podcast! You can also find additional videos on Who Will Let the Dogs Out Youtube channel (warning they are in NO way professional videos!).
Until every cage is empty,CaraPlease help us by subscribing (button on right side) and sharing this blog. You can also keep track of us on Facebook and Instagram.Who Will Let the Dogs Out (we call it Waldo for short) is an initiative of Operation Paws for Homes. If you’d like to contribute to our work, we encourage you to click on the how to help link above and give directly to a shelter. You can also donate to our work via OPH’s donation page by designating Who Will Let the Dogs Out in your comments.
My upcoming book, One Hundred Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues (Pegasus Books, July 7, 2020) tells the story of a challenging foster dog who inspired me to head south and find out where all the dogs were coming from. It includes many of our shelter visits and how Who Will Let the Dogs Out began. The book is available for preorder now and a portion of proceeds of every book sold will go to help unwanted animals in the south.
If you’d like to help, you can purchase items from their Amazon wishlist, donate funds for their medical bills at Paris Veterinary Clinic (731-642-2263, 2101 E Woods St., Paris, TN 38242), or watch on our Facebook page for the donation address once Halfway Home’s nonprofit status is secured. You can also follow Halfway Home on Facebook.That was the last of our visits from this trip, but I’ll be posting occasional updates on the blog, plus telling you about our upcoming plans that include a volunteer team trip to North Carolina’s shelters (The OPH Rescue Road Trip) and working on creating a Who Will Let the Dogs Out podcast! You can also find additional videos on Who Will Let the Dogs Out Youtube channel (warning they are in NO way professional videos!).Until every cage is empty,CaraPlease help us by subscribing (button on right side) and sharing this blog. You can also keep track of us on Facebook and Instagram.Who Will Let the Dogs Out (we call it Waldo for short) is an initiative of Operation Paws for Homes. If you’d like to contribute to our work, we encourage you to click on the how to help link above and give directly to a shelter. You can also donate to our work via OPH’s donation page by designating Who Will Let the Dogs Out in your comments.My upcoming book, One Hundred Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues (Pegasus Books, July 7, 2020) tells the story of a challenging foster dog who inspired me to head south and find out where all the dogs were coming from. It includes many of our shelter visits and how Who Will Let the Dogs Out began. The book is available for preorder now and a portion of proceeds of every book sold will go to help unwanted animals in the south.
