Nearly two dozen pups were flown to Florida from Grand Bahama to take up temporary residence at the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League in West Palm Beach before they are adopted into new families.
The puppies, known in The Bahamas as potcakes, are mixed-breed dogs and range in age from eight to 16 weeks.
In fact, they received a warm reception when they arrived in Ft. Lauderdale with the U.S. media waiting.
The Humane Society of Grand Bahama has dubbed this new programme “Operation Puppy Lift” which has been running for the last two years.
Another 20 were sent over to the Florida humane society two weeks ago.
“This group is one of the biggest shelters in Palm Beach County and they heard about our problem and that we had so many puppies and they can find homes for them,” HSGB Managing Director Elizabeth “Tip” Burrows told The Freeport News.
She noted that the Peggy Adams teams has the very best in medical care for the pups with veterinarians on staff and have agreed to take puppies whenever the humane society can avoid putting the dogs to sleep.
“We do this instead of putting them to sleep because we don’t have good homes here and this is a way to find them a really good home,” she said.
The Humane Society of Grand Bahama pays for the health certificates at home which is provided by Freeport Animal Clinic at minimum cost before the puppies are flown over to Florida.
The first set of puppies were flown over free of charge two weeks ago by GB Express Ltd.
When they arrive, the puppies are thoroughly checked out by the vets at Peggy Adams, fed and given whatever medication or preventative medicine they need.
“They are all spayed and neutered and then they’re put up for adoption. Out of the first 20 that we’ve sent, I believe the majority of them are adopted,” she said.
The dogs have either been brought in to, or picked up by the shelter or abandoned.
People would go to great lengths to rid themselves of a puppy, no matter what the age.
“We have one puppy that was found swimming in a canal and couldn’t get help,” said Burrows. “Actually I have a puppy that was found under my van at my house Monday morning. I think someone dropped it there.”
Burrows says it was not the first time someone has dropped off puppies at her house, but she’s okay with that and says she would rather people do that than abandon the dog somewhere else.
Sometimes people drop the dogs over the fence at the shelter on Cedar Street during the night.
In fact, Burrows says they find puppies all the time when they return to the shelter.
Sometimes the dogs are waiting at the fence and sometimes they’re hiding in a corner so the volunteers make it a practice to always look around the front yard thoroughly when they come in in the morning.
Burrows pointed out, however, that if a dog owner is unable to make it to the shelter during business hours they will pick animals up if the owners call.
“The only concern I have about them dropping them over the fence is the puppies getting injured. Also, if another dog’s loose in the front, and someone else has dropped a dog, you might have a dog that might not like puppies,” she said. “So we wouldn’t want any injuries to happen.”
Burrows said she would rather the pups be dropped off at the shelter than to be taken over the bridge in the wilderness or something terrible happen to them.
She is simply requesting that people be mindful of where they put the pups, because dropping a puppy over a six foot fence could injure a puppy, Burrows cautioned.
As for Operation Puppy Lift, the Humane Society sends the puppies to the United States when they have extras.
Eleven puppies were recently sent to a shelter called “Bide A Wee” in West Hampton, New York on Long Island.
The Humane Society also works with an organization called “Love A Pet” in Palm Beach and have sent 150 pups over in the last two-and-a-half years.
Burrows says the Bahamian potcakes have made it into homes as far as Arkansas.
“We’ve got potcakes in Maine, we’ve got potcakes in New York, in Connecticut, in Boston, in Denver, we have one in Arkansas that I know of, and of course a majority in Florida, but quite a few in New York,” she said.
People in the U.S. think the potcakes are some of the smartest dogs they have ever seen, said Burrows, noting that the dogs and puppies house train themselves.
“The great thing is they’re going over to the states to become members of families,” she stressed. “They’re not living in a backyard and tossed food once a day, they’re living in homes, they’re members of the family.
“I get e-mails all the time from people who say, “we’re going to puppy kindergarten class,” they take them to the beach, they swim in their pools with them and they sleep in their beds. It’s really heartwarming.”
While she adds sending puppies over to the U.S. is not a long-term solution to the problem, Burrows stresses the fact that the entire community needs to deal with the problem and come together to find a solution.
In the meantime, she says, this is one way to save more lives and she’d rather do this than to do otherwise.
“My ultimate goal is to have someone call us up and say we’re looking for a potcake puppy and I can say we don’t have any but I will have to put you on the waiting list,” she said.
The Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League employs a staff of 62 and takes in about 30 animals daily.
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Carl Leveridge says nothing could be better than saving the lives of puppies and the league is delighted to be able to help.
The organization, he says, will continue to help and do whatever it can to help The Bahamas in its pet overpopulation problem.
“We love these little puppies. Our mission is to save the lives and to control pet overpopulation so every animal has a home. That’s so important. We’ll just keep doing it until we do it right,” he said.
Media houses such as ABC, CBS and NBC and the Sun Sentinel were on hand at the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to welcome the pups on their arrival Thursday.
The 21 pups actually arrived ahead of schedule and all fell asleep in the air-conditioned RV once they were safely tucked away for the 45-minute-long transit to West Palm.
Five of the first 20 sent there two weeks ago still remain at the West Palm Beach shelter being treated for minor skin conditions before they are adopted out.
“Once they are 100 percent healthy, we put them in our adoption area and as soon as they go over there they are adopted,” said Leveridge.
The League has two 40-foot pet mobiles that are taken out to different parts of the county to be able to do remote adoptions by taking the animals to the people.
“All these puppies go into loving homes. We screen the families, we make sure that they can afford the vet care, the processing and we make sure that they have a place for the animal to stay, they have a veterinarian and we adopt to them,” he said.
It is anticipated that in about five days each of the 21 pups will be in their new permanent home.
By LEDEDRA MARCHE, Senior Freeport News Reporter
