For those of you who our on our separate Volunteers Facebook page, you have recently seen this, but I thought it was important for everyone to see this message, from our Founder, Faith Richards. ~Sharon Bice, Vice President
Hi everyone! I apologize for not keeping up with our Facebook group. I’ve recently had a great loss. The Co-President of the Coalition, and the reason I decided to dive in to starting a nonprofit for spay and neuter, passed away from kidney failure in March 9 and then her adopted fur brother, Boomer died of a broken heart two weeks later.
Dovey was a chocolate dapple mini dachshund, she had a rare color and size that made her very desirable to a puppy mill breeder. She spent 7 years being bred every time she went into heat and lived in a cage in a small apartment until her owner died. She went into rescue and became my heart. Due to bad genetics and years of neglect, she went blind nearly overnight and had numerous eye and other health problems. In March of 2016, she was diagnosed with stage 3 kidney failure. She wasn’t expected to last a month. She decided to fight, she always did everything on her own terms. This last March, she lost that fight and we had to help her move on, she passed peacefully in my arms. She was 14 years old. Losing her brought me to my knees.
I am posting this not for sympathy, but to let you all know her story. Dovey ended up with me, and she was loved so very much. But, most aren’t. Many don’t survive the neglect and stress of being a puppy mill mom. And many of their pups die young in a shelter or from bad genetics.
Here, we have a chance to break this chain of puppy mills, backyard breeders, irresponsible owners and to help those who want to do the right thing, but are unable to afford the procedure.
We are called the Spay-Neuter Coalition because changes can’t be made without all of us working together. We’ve issued 90 vouchers, assisted financially and as volunteers with 7 high volume, low cost clinics and have educated thousands about the problems and the solutions. We all need to contact our legislators both local and state to educate them about how spay and neuter can not only solve a horrible humane issue, but will save municipalities money in sheltering, make our communities and children safer by controlling the stray population and preventing attacks and prevent many diseases, some of which can be caught by humans. It’s an up front expense, but one that will pay for itself plus in five to ten years. County run clinics can actually become profitable after a few years.
We are an all volunteer organization run by a board of five who work, have families and give every moment we can to end the suffering of New Mexico furkids. In order to keep doing this, we need dedicated volunteers, funding and a community who is passionate about spay/neuter, education, retention and changing the outdated legislation in this state. We would like to be able to help statewide, but we just don’t have the funding or volunteers yet. Although, I’d rather that we weren’t needed at all due to community clinics and legislation.
I will keep fighting to prevent others from having to suffer through what Dovey did, but we can’t do it without you.