The popular shelter, Austin Pets Alive! received an unusual donation from another rescue organization Monday in the form of a 22 foot truck. The truck came from Best Friends Animal Society, the largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals, located in Kanab, Utah and will serve as a mobile adoption and rescue transport. There was a bonus delivery. Inside the truck was more than $15,000 worth of treats for Austin Pets Alive! rescued dogs.
The donated vehicle will be used for both dog and cat mobile adoption events and could be used for the transportation of rescued animals in the Austin area, which will save hundreds more lives each year.
“We will be able to save an additional 500 lives per year with this vehicle,” said Dr. Ellen Jefferson, executive director of Austin Pets Alive! “This will allow us to do mobile adoptions and also serve as a transport vehicle for rescue situations, like the night the Bastrop shelter was evacuated due to the wildfires.”
John Garcia was the truck’s celebrity driver making the trip from Kanab, Utah to APA!’s Town Lake Animal Center site at 1156 W. Cesar Chavez, Austin, Texas, a no kill community. Garcia is a dog trainer and the manager of Best Friends emergency response activities. He appeared in National Geographic channel’s DogTown, co-authored Dog Tips from DogTown and worked to rehabilitate 22 dogs from Michael Vick’s abusive, criminal dog-fighting ring.
Garcia will share with APA! insight on how to save more large dogs with behavior issues that are currently not making it out of the Austin shelter alive and increase Austin’s save rate. APA! has identified the need for a large-scale behavior program budgeted at $300,000 a year to be truly no-kill for large breed dogs.
Austin Pets Alive! is a non-profit organization of volunteers dedicated to promoting and providing the resources, education and programs needed to eliminate the killing of companion animals. The organization’s purpose is to provide the services needed to save the lives of the thousands of pets killed every year at city shelters and to prevent them from getting there in the first place. Austin Pets Alive! was voted reader’s choice as ‘Best Nonprofit’ in the Austin Chronicle‘s 2011 ‘Best of Austin’ list.
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