Only 72 hours ago 8 small lives who were in jeopardy not just because they were on death row, but because there are a few rogue dogs in that shelter that are targeting and killing the smaller and vulnerable dogs there.
![]()
![]()
During the day the staff and volunteers can keep an eye on everything, but at night when no one is there.... For the last few weeks they have been coming in to find dead bloodied bodies. Always the same types of dogs, smaller, weaker and unable to defend themselves. They had been targeted by these rogue dogs.
In a shelter that the capacity is to hold 70 dogs but currently is forced to try and care for 100, all it takes is one dog to attack another and the rest pile in, this is pack mentality at its worst!
AAFA were desperate, every week we sat dreading the updates of which dog had been found ripped apart in a corner of the kennels, the dogs who were next in line could be guessed because of similar characters and size to the ones already killed. We new the next targets would be all or from this group of 8 dogs, they were Tina, Tony, Leo, Della, Heda, Stella, Astor and Lotta.
The ambulance we knew would not be back o the road in time for this week, to get over there but we knew we must do something, but what?
We had an idea, last month we held a ticket to freedom event to find homes for 15 dogs from death row and funds to get them out and to the safety to begin new lives. Again our wonderful supporters stepped up and raised the funds needed for this but for some dogs, we still needed to find fosters.
This meant that the ticket to freedom dogs actually traveled in two groups. The first immediately after the appeal was held and fosters/adopters found and the second group this week by a private transporter along with some other very lucky rescued dogs from other places and countries who had found homes. Because we were not yet back on the road we had already booked a private transporter to psychically do what at this current time we were unable to do, to get there ourselves as we normally would have done.
There was only one major problem, The transport was due to collect the dogs from death row ( Ticket to freedom event) in just 48 hours. In just 24 hours we had to have all the dogs on traces ready for the next day, leaving us just 24 hours to not just find funds to pay the transporter but also the foster homes for them to goto. The majority of our fosters are full so we had to hope someone had space and to recruit new fosters that had already been home checked.
In all honesty with the ambulance appeal only being a week previously and knowing pre-home checked fosters were hard to find, especially at such short notice we thought realistically we maybe could save 2 - 3 of these 8, but did not quite believe it was possible to help all of them, we of course hoped we could, we just did not think this time it would be possible. The thought of having to leave 5 - 6 dogs to face absolute horror and an awful painful death was too much to bare, but we had no choice. We could only do what we could do. So we begun to appeal and kept our fingers crossed.
We already knew how wonderful our supporters were, but we really had no idea how quickly they would all come together and step up to help and offer what they could, be it the odd £1 donation to funding a full transport space at £150 each dog. As always the biggest hurdle apart form raising funds is finding that ever important foster placement, 2 wonderful foster carers and 2 previous adopters of AAFA offered space and then Lizzie's Barn Sanctuary offered foster space for the rest.
To say we were happy and also shocked was an understatement! But our amazing supporters came through and yesterday morning these extremely lucky 8 little dogs along with the others saved from our ticket to freedom event boarded the Happy bus and together they begun their journeys to a new life, a safe live, a wonderful life.
UPDATE:
The lucky dogs and also two kittens whose lives have been saved by you guys, supporters , adopters and fosters have arrived safely in the UK. Currently they are all in kennels (two kittens in Cattery) doing there 48 wait for there DEFRA check. This Saturday each and every one of them will be collected from kennels or transported to meet there new adopters and fosters never to be tortured, starved, attacked,abused or abandoned ever again.
Without the support and kindness of others, AAFA would not have been able to be there when these amazing animals needed us.
As always, thank you from all the AAFA team and from the animals whose lives you have saved.
TOGETHER WE REALLY CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!