Hurricane Harvey Rescue

AWA is joining forces with national and regional animal welfare rescues to help save dogs affected by Hurricane Harvey. National organizations are on the ground in Houston trying to rescue all of the pets that were left behind during the massive floods. The next stage is to move all the adoptable animals from the local shelters to make room for the enormous amount of owned and stray animals coming into those shelters. This enables animals to not have to be euthanized to make room for the rescued pets.  AWA has offered to accept transported homeless pets from the Texas shelters and received the first group of dogs on 8/29/17. AWA will continue to accept animals according to shelter space and need. This is a very fluid operation and we will share updates.

Update 10/2/17: We are pleased to let you know that almost all of the animals transported from Texas have been adopted! We currently still have one cat, Hurricane, available from adoption. And we have three dogs from Texas who are under heartworm treatment (Hogan, Hailey, and Honey). We are so grateful to our supporters for letting us help these animals.

Update 9/11/17: We have taken in 11 more dogs from Texas shelters. We are happy to be able to help, but unfortunately a number of the dogs we’ve received from Texas have heartworm. Heartworm is expensive to treat and takes a long time to heal, but it has to be dealt with as it can be lethal if untreated. We are grateful for your support for our heartworm positive dogs. You can organize a cash fundraiser, ask friends to donate, or send a check or donate NOW via PayPal. Every gift adds up. Give $25, $35, $50 to cure these dogs’ hearts.

Update 9/5/17: We are so grateful to our Harvey adopters and donors. Because of your generosity we’ve been able to adopt out most of the first group of Harvey dogs, which opens up kennel and cage space for the upcoming transport of Texas dogs and cats this week. At the present moment we are all set with donated dog food and treats, towels/blankets/and sheets. If you’d still like to give, we need paper towels and cat toys. We’ll keep you updated when the new pets arrive!

Update 9/2/17: Some of the first group of Hurricane dogs have been adopted! We are thrilled that they passed their behavioral and medical evaluations and were able to find homes quickly. We do know that more animals will be coming to AWA from Texas, and it is very possible that some of those animals will be ill, injured, or otherwise needy. We anticipate continuing to need foster homes for these pets, and we will keep you updated here and on our Facebook page.

Update 8/31/17: We are touched by the tremendous response of support for the Hurricane Harvey pets. We can’t thank you enough for your donations of blankets, food, toys, and more. Due to an absolutely overwhelming amount of foster applications, we are temporarily suspending our foster and volunteer applications. We need time to process the applications and then schedule orientations and trainings. Please know that even if you can’t foster a Harvey animal now, we will be receiving more hurricane victims over the next few weeks and months and we will continue to need fosters and donations in the future! Thank you so much for helping.

SUPPLIES NEEDED!

• Dry and canned dog food (any brand, but no red dye please)
• Dog treats
• Used blankets, towels, flat bedsheets,
  
• Dog toys
  
• Peanut butter
  
  Please drop off at our shelter, 509 Centennial Blvd, Voorhees, NJ 08043.

This rescue effort is ongoing and being staged in waves. Help will be needed for months. Our network partner Best Friends Animal Society has published a list of animal shelters hit by Hurricane Harvey. These shelters desperately need financial support to help with the rescue efforts, clean up, transport, and intake of owned pets. You can also give directly to the Best Friends Disaster Relief fund.

Please know that the animals being transported out of the Texas shelters were definitely already homeless. These animals were unclaimed, stray, or owner-surrendered before the hurricane hit. They are being transported out of the region specifically to open up shelter space for owned pets, who will live there temporarily until their owners can reclaim them.