News Update!
KFOR Report in OKC
SARAH STEWART reports
Updated: November 5, 2002 at 4:37 PM
STILWELL, Okla. -- Dozens of dogs were rescued
from near starvation this
past weekend after they were abandoned.
The dogs were discovered after their owner,
who had been collecting stray
dogs, died several months before.
There were originally reported to be about
75 dogs abandoned, some in pens,
others just wandering around in rural Oklahoma.
More than 50 were rescued,
and they're now at the Oklahoma City Animal
Shelter, where they could use
your help.
To these dogs the cages at the Oklahoma City
Animal Shelter must seem like
heaven. They were left to fend for themselves
for possibly several months.
"All of them were in varying stages
of starvation and some of them were
emaciated and some of them were just really
poor shape," said Andrew Putnam,
spokesman for the Oklahoma City Animal Shelter.
These are the lucky ones. They're already
in the stray area where potential
adopters can view them. About five of the
dogs had to be put down.
"We had one that couldn't use his back
legs and was like buried knee deep in
mud and probably hadn't moved for days, you
know, with all the rain we had
last weekend," Putnam said.
Neighbors in the area had called the Adair
County Sheriff's department to
put the dogs down, but some kind souls there
couldn't do it, and finally a
rescue group from Lawton made the long trek
to bring the animals to the
shelter.
There are no signs of abuse, but the animals
are suffering from mange, some
have to be quarantined because they were
so frightened they bit the rescue
workers. But shelter officials say most will
make great pets.
"Almost all of the dogs, once they got
used to their surroundings, were
acclimating to humans and coming up an having
eye contact with us and
sniffing us and all that," Putnam said.
Dozens of dogs that were left for dead are
now on the road to recovery
anxiously awaiting their second chance at
life.
Obviously, it's hard on the Oklahoma City
animal shelter to get a large
number of dogs in at one time. They're in
need of cash donations, also food,
blankets, toys and grooming supplies.
If you're interested in adopting one of the
dogs you can head over to the
animal shelter to find one. If it's not ready
to be adopted they'll hold it
for you.
If you'd like to call the shelter and offer
your help or inquire about
adopting call 297-3118.
Tulsa World Report
Rescuers save starving dogs after their owner
dies
By Staff Reports
11/5/2002
STILWELL -- More than 50 starving dogs that
had been caged without food or water for
weeks at a rural home south of Stilwell after
their owner died were rescued last week.
Faith Orlowski of the Tulsa Bar Association's
Animal Law Committee said Monday that Cherokee
Nation spokeswoman Diane Hammons notified
her about the dogs Wednesday.
Orlowski, in turn, called Robin Pressnall
of Small Paws® Rescue in Tulsa. The group
delivered about 400 pounds of food that had
been donated by PetsMart of Tulsa to the
dogs about midnight Wednesday.
Orlowski said volunteers with Lawton's Sheltering
Tree Animal Rescue Society took the dogs
Saturday to the Oklahoma City Municipal Shelter,
where they are being nursed back to health.
"It cost approximately $300 per dog
for treatment," Orlowski said. "Several
veterinarians were waiting at the shelter
in Oklahoma City to treat the animals."
She said the Animal Law Committee was formed
two years ago to deal with just this type
of situation. Orlowski said that if it hadn't
been for the Cherokee Nation marshals, the
dogs would have perished.
Catherine English of the Oklahoma City Municipal
Shelter said Monday that the animals were
emaciated when they arrived and were being
treated for a variety of illnesses in preparation
for adoption.
Of the 54 animals recovered from the home
near Bunch, southeast of Stilwell, English
said eight were euthanized because of illness
and unsociable behavior.
Tera Shows, a spokeswoman for the Cherokee
Nation, said Monday that 62 dogs originally
had been kept at the home of Robert Swanke,
who died a short time ago.
Shows said friends and relatives had been
trying to feed the animals as best they could.
Before Swanke died, he was known for taking
in stray animals, officials said.
English said the good news is that most of
the dogs retrieved will be available for
adoption.
She said the ASPCA has pledged funding for
the dogs' care, and Southern Agriculture
in Tulsa donated 1,400 pounds of food to
the rescue mission.
To make a donation for the dogs' care or
adopt a dog, contact Small Paws® Rescue in
Tulsa. >
Five Dozen Starving Dogs Found Alive in Stillwell
Oklahoma
Http://www.channeloklahoma.com/news/1759784/detail.html
We gave great updated news! The starving Cherokee dogs from last week were rescued Saturday. November 2, 2002!
62 rescued dogs were taken to a division
of the Oklahoma City Animal Welfare Division.
They were transported by a wonderful volunteer
rescue group called the Sheltering Tree Animal Rescue Society (STARS) ,thanks to Lynn Ramos, her son Sam, and
sixteen of their other volunteers from Lawton,
Oklahoma! Lynn's account is below!
A truly wonderful lady, Cathrine English,
(Catherine English Superintendent, Animal
Welfare Division catherine.english@ci.okc.ok.us)
is now in charge of this rescue in OKC, through
the OKC Animal Welfare Division. Catherine
told us that they had vets and vet techs
waiting there for the dog's arrival on Saturday.
These dogs were triaged, treated, (they will
even be even treated for heartworm and lymes
disease if necessary) and then the dogs that
are placeable will be placed into loving
homes!
These dogs have come into some incredible
luck. Their bill is being paid by the ASPCA
in New York City.
Again, thank you all so very much to everyone
who prayed and sent this story out to the
Internet! These dogs received prayers and
concern from as far as Tokyo and Australia.
They tell us that we should be seeing some
media accounts about this huge rescue soon.
The dogs are now in safety!:) Here are some
updates as we all saw them happening both
from the shelter and from the transporters!
<Subj: 9 PM:Stillwell update from Catherine...
Date: 11/2/2002 9:02:37 PM Central Standard
Time
From: catherine.english@ci.okc.ok.us (English,
Catherine A.)
The dogs are here. The transporters are wet,
cold and tired and so is our staff, who worked
all day as well. Eighteen dogs were left
behind in Adair County because the people
who live there wouldn't let the rescuers
take them (I guess the dogs are theirs).
We have 62. Unfortunately, there were 9 bites
to rescuers, but none of them were severe.
Most of the dogs are in really bad shape
and many are aggressive. We're going to hang
onto them for a couple of days anyway to
see if the aggression is from fear/strangers/travelling,
or if they just aren't suitable for adoption.
We cannot save the biters. The rescuers and
our Officers, vet techs, vet, supervisors
and animal welfare representatives are all
still there and will be until all of the
dogs are processed (at least another 1.5-2
hours).
After reviewing the situation, the transporters
decided that none of the dogs had to be euthanized
before arrival. They originally thought some
of the dogs wouldn't make the trip alive.
They were most worried about a guy with a
gashed head, but our vet will suture and
clean him up, and will assess him later.
He made the trip okay.
The Sheltering Tree Animal Rescue Society
people started really early this a.m. and
still have a couple of hours here before
they can leave. They then face a 2 hour drive
before they get home. I ordered in pizza
for everyone (my treat--nothing but animal
care/rescue will come out of the donation
from ASPCA or anyone else) so that will set
them back another hour or so for dinner.
In short, please keep them close to your
heart for a safe drive home in what is rainy,
icky weather, because by the time they get
home they will have been driving, loading,
driving, unloading and driving some more,
for about 16 hours.
I've received tons of emails--thanks to all
for your words of encouragement and for your
offers of help. I'm not sure how many of
these dogs, after they settle in for a couple
of days, will really be savable, because
right now they all look awfully rough, but
I'll let y'all know something the first of
the week. The preliminary assessment is pretty
grim.
Thanks to Robin Pressnall and Faith Orlowsky,
who sent up the alarm and coordinated everyone,
and to everyone at STARS for being so brave
and committed. A thanks and big hugs all
around, also, for our local volunteers, activists
and staff who are taking part in every way.
I'm proud to know and work with all of you!!!>
Subj: The Stillwell Adventure
Date: 11/2/2002 11:35:45 PM Central Standard
Time
From: WRamos3126@aol.com (Lynn, Sheltering
Tree Animal Rescue)
Robin,
I am not very good with the computer so I
am going to tell you my story and let you
e-mail the people that you think need to
read this.
I received a phone call around 4-4:30 PM
on Friday asking if the STARS
organization could help transport animals
from Stillwell. I called you and you know
what transpired from there. it took me roughly
two hours on Friday to locate 16 people,
seven trucks, two horse trailers and a dog
trailer to go to Stillwell on Saturday morning.
All of the stars group met at my shop at
4-4:30 am. It was certainly a dreary day,
and we were all hoping that we would get
a break in the weather (no such luck).
Our little caravan arrived in Stillwell at
10:45 am. We were met by two very nice Cherokee
Nation marshals, L. D and Sharon, who took
us out to the site where the dogs were located.
We immediately got out and starting assessing
the situation.
The left side of the property where part
of the dogs were was the
worst. The cages on the left were almost
solid mud up to our knees. The right
side had more grassy area and the dogs were
not as bogged down. We
immediately set to work deciding which animals
needed to be put in cages
first. We found one dog buried to his waist
in mud. He was definitely the
worst case scenario (he was suffering from
hypothermia and had no feeling in
the lower half of his body). We divided into
two groups of eight and began to
work. Most of the dogs were completely non-aggressive.
There were
approximately 15 that did not want to cooperate.
We did not get bitten because the dogs were
aggressive or mean spirited; they bit us
out of sheer fear.
They were all cold, hungry and very scared.
It took us right at an
hour to load all of these dogs into our trucks
for transportation. There were
approximately 15 dogs that had a skin fungus
of some kind. We had one dog
that had a serious bacterial infection; one
dog that tried to rip his ear off
to get away from us, and one that was completely
blind due to a serious eye
infection.
There were at least two more dogs that seemed
to have eye problems,
several very malnourished dogs, several that
were pregnant or had recently
given birth. We found no puppies under the
age of 6 months. Most of the dogs
were estimated to be roughly six years old.
There are severe dental problems
with all of them. They all needed baths and
warmth. Also plenty of good food,
kindness and most important a loving compassionate
person to care for them. I personally tried
to handle or be around every single dog that
we rescued to
see how they were reacting to this very stressful
situation. Every single one
of us carried at least one dog inside our
truck cabs with us. Every dog we
had inside the cabs with us behaved like
any normal dog. Most of them slept
all or almost all of the way into the city.
The animal shelter people in the city were
very nice to us. they met us at Choctaw Road
and escorted us to the shelter with flashing
lights. We had one shelter van in front of
us and one in back with one leading the way
and stopping the traffic at every light to
get us thru. A great many thanks to the officers.
By the time we actually got into the city,
all of us were very weary. The shelter staff
were all very nice. We all worked very well
together. Each and every one of us had at
least one favorite that we would like to
have taken home with us. I know that this
rescue put a severe strain on the shelter,
however I hope that they will try
to give these animals a chance. If we had
a shelter, believe me we would have taken
them home.
All of the STARS group feel that out of all
of the dogs that we rescued today there might
be 10 at the most that would not do good
in the right home environment. Even though
we were all very wet, cold, tired and hungry
when we got to OKC, there was not one of
our group that had any regrets about being
out there rescuing those poor dogs. And we
would all do it again tomorrow. Thanks for
being there to get the word out.
If you have any more questions or I need
to write more please let me know.
Thanks again and I hope that we will meet
soon.
Regards, Lynn>