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Animals are God's creation too!
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We love our pets don’t we? According to a 2006 report released by APPMA, 63 percent of Americans own at least one pet, and 73 million of those pets are dogs.
Now, I am not a part of this 63 percent, but some of my friends are. Even though I am not a pet owner myself, I understand the connection a pet has with its owner. I also understand that God has charged us with the care and protection of His animal creation, but sometimes we don’t or can’t fulfill our duty. What happens when you have a pet and, for whatever reason, you are not able to care for him or her? What do you do?
Kim Stuckmeyer is co-founder of American Eskimo Dog Rescue of St. Louis, Inc. Her organization takes in American Eskimo dogs and finds loving homes for them. The dogs that they rescue are caught in different types of situations: Their owner is moving, the owner cannot financially or physically care for the animal, and sometimes abuse is a factor. By far, the majority of the animals that AEDR saves are ones that are on death row at the pound or shelter.
“I started rescuing dogs in 1998 when I happened to receive a dog from a friend of a friend, and I fell in love with him. His name is Luke,” says Kim. “At about the same time, I was volunteering at the Wildlife Center in Ballwin, and I saw a flyer on the wall saying someone was looking for a foster home for a dog. I called about that ONE dog, but then it snowballed into one dog after another. Shelly Rose put up that flyer, and she and I co-founded Dog Rescue.”
Kim says that even though they focus on American Eskimo dogs, there are several other organizations that are breed-specific. If you need help with a breed other than an American Eskimo, you can e-mail Metro Animal Resource Services or call the Humane Society of Missouri at 314-647-8800 to find out where to take your dog. The American Eskimo Dog Rescue organization has taken in other types of dogs, because they believe a dog is a dog, and if a dog needs help, they will help, but their expertise lies with the American Eskimo breed.
Stuckmeyer’s non-profit organization is 100 percent funded through donations. I asked Kim if the economy was adversely affecting her company and she said “Yes and no. It hasn’t affected us in the traditional way that you might think. We just had our biggest fundraiser of the year and we seem to be on par with past years. The problem is, now that the economy is so bad, more and more owners are having to give up their pets because they can no longer financially take care of them, or they have to give up their residence and move to a smaller place that may not take animals, so they turn them in to us as well as other shelters”.
Maybe the issue is not an inability to take care of a dog you already have, maybe you want to get a loving pet of your own. If you want an American Eskimo dog, you can get in touch with Kim’s company and adopt one. There is a short application to complete and they will perform one or two follow-up visits to make sure everything is going well.
I asked Kim what was one of her major concerns affecting pet ownership besides owner abuse. Kim’s response was clear and heartfelt: “Please get your pet spayed or neutered, and PLEASE adopt your pets from a shelter or some type of adoption agency and NOT from a store or a puppy mill. Those animals are sick, not bread well and abused, and the owners are in it only for money. They have no standard of care for any of the animals”.
I have often said that I thank God for giving us people with different types of personalities, because it’s a person like Kim Stuckmeyer that has a heart to take care of God’s animals. If you are a kindred spirit, why not consider sending a donation or you can even become a foster parent! Assuring the safety and well-being of animals is one of the ways that we can be good stewards. After all, animals are God's creation too.
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