We take in German Shepherds in need of a home and provide professional training, socialization + love
20/02/2025
*PLEASE READ BEFORE REACHING OUT TO SURRENDER A DOG*
Calls, messages and emails from people from all over the PNW and beyond wishing to surrender dogs are piling up again. We are a small privately funded Sanctuary with limited space, time, energy and resources so unfortunately we cannot respond to everyone. I'm hoping this post will narrow down the amount of people reaching out to people we are able to help. Please know it breaks our hearts to not be able to help everyone however it would be irresponsible and counter-productive for us to take on more than we can handle. Below are some of the requirements for private parties to be eligible for our waiting list.
1. The surrendering party and the dog that you wish to surrender must be from Klickitat county (KC). We held a fundraiser last year to add space to help dogs in KC because they do not have resources for local residents or dogs like animal control or shelters.
2. We cannot take in stray dogs because they cannot legally be surrendered to our private sanctuary. If you find a dog you must follow state law and attempt to find the owners for 30 days before they are eligible for surrender. Please check into the laws yourself as I am not an attorney and do not know all of the laws and cannot give legal advice.
3. We do not accept dogs with a bite history or any history of aggression towards people or dogs.
4. We require a meet and greet/evaluation prior to being accepted or put on the waiting list.
5. We cannot accept dogs that don't respect fences
6. If you wish to surrender your personal pet (including pets that you rescued) we will ask that you to help with the responsibility that you ask us to take on. Examples of this include but are not limited to:
A) If you wish to surrender a dog due to behavioral challenges we will ask that you try training first.
B) We require you bring your dog UTD on vaccinations and get a f***l sample to rule out parasites and giardia prior to surrender.
C) If the dog is 12+ months old they must be spayed or neutered and healed from surgery. If the dog is not old enough we will ask for a donation to help cover the cost.
We understand things happen and not everyone can afford to meet these requirements. We do not want to rely on fundraising so we ask that if you cannot afford to meet the requirements that you take the time to raise the funds by asking for donations to help rather than asking us to take on the responsibility. We strongly believe that we cannot rescue our way out of the animal crisis and that requiring people to honor the responsibility they took on by getting a pet will help them to weigh the importance of the decision to get a pet in the future rather than enabling people by taking on the responsibility ourselves.
When we bring a dog into the sanctuary we view it as a lifetime responsibility whether the dog is re-homed or becomes a permanent addition.
We appreciate you understanding that this is what we need to do in order to continue our rescue efforts long term in order to help the most dogs over time rather than attempting the impossible task of helping every dog right now.
