FALL RIVER — Things have been busy as usual this summer at the Forever Paws animal shelter, but when they got a call from New Bedford animal control on Monday that 21 dogs were seized from a home in that city, the population of shelter dogs doubled at the Lynwood Street facility.
And as the Forever Paws staff work to help the new canine residents, as well as the many other creatures currently in their care, they are looking to the SouthCoast community for help.
Gail Furtado, president of Forever Paws, said that on Wednesday veterinarian Jaqueline Brito was at the shelter all day assessing the New Bedford rescue dogs. Furtado said the staff isn’t sure if the dogs are full bred, but appear to be at least part French bulldog.
Furtado said an investigation is still underway regarding the animal seizures.
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Dogs ‘not in great condition’
“They have the typical things with ear infections, their paws are a mess, they have skin infections,” said Furtado. “They have burns from urine. They don’t look like they were trained to go out. We had a groomer that came in yesterday and started washing them up.”
But five minutes later, when they return to the kennel “it’s all over the place again.”
“They’re not in great condition,” said Furtado, adding that they are “somewhat malnourished as well.”
Most of the dogs taken by New Bedford animal control are females, she said, and at least one dog is pregnant.
None are spayed or neutered, but will have to be before they are adopted, which will be a great cost to the shelter.
“Some of them are super friendly and the others are afraid of human touch. So, the vet trying to work on them, it was a lot of work yesterday, a lot, a lot of work,” said Furtado.
Because the New Bedford rescues are in quarantine and there is at least a 10-day hold on the animals, The Herald News was unable to take photographs of the dogs for this story.
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What does Forever Paws need and how can you give?
The shelter currently has 40 dogs at the shelter including the New Bedford rescues. Five more dogs are in foster care and four others are in foster care to adopt, said Furtado.
There are 43 cats and kittens in the shelter, six at the Baja Cat Cafe, 25 in foster care and 25 in foster care to adopt.
In addition, they have one rabbit and two birds.
So, the need is great.
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And so has the public since word got out about the recent rescues, according to Furtado.
On Thursday morning before the shelter opened to the public, people were dropping off check donations, pet food and other supplies. Packages arrived from Amazon for the shelter.
People have donated about $10,000 on the Forever Paws Facebook page, which has an option to donate.
“We take Venmo, we take PayPal,” said Furtado. “So, money is coming in and it’s great because we need it. Some of the larger dogs, depending on where we can get them vetted, it could cost up to $1,000 to $2,000 to get them the care they need.”
In addition, the shelter always has a need for non-clumping litter, kitten food, cat food, different types of dog food based on the animal’s needs. Also on the wish list are martingale collars, which they use for dogs for walking and training.
Furtado said she also wanted to give a shout-out to shelter director Ariana Silva, Forever Paws staff and the volunteers since they were notified of the 21 rescue dogs on Monday.
“I think the staff has done a great job. I’m really impressed with them. They just blew me away,” said Furtado. “Everyone is rallying for us.”
If you want to donate, Forever Paws is at 300 Lynwood St., Fall River. Money donations can also be made on the shelter’s Facebook page at facebook.com/ForeverPawsAnimalShelter.
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