Comments from Colleen

HI all-

You know I like to report back after a RED LAKE TRIP so here you go. I do this
A- to educate people about what goes on
at events like this
B- how much work is put in by HSUS and others to help the animals in that community
C- to THANKS all of those
directly and indirectly involved in helping the animals leave the rez to get a new home in many parts of the US and
D- lastly- to install
a desire in new people to jump on board and help.

So first I want to thank all of the folks who spent time and energy at RED LAKE or worked to keep us fed etc. This is a huge effort and with aprx 100 people involved- there is a lot of food, energy and material support needed. From the perspective of what is spent- donated what have you- it is returned many fold in the energy and medical care given to animals in a region of blunt poverty.

Dr. Eric the fellow who dreamed up this program which is funded by HSUS is a genius and works non stop when he's at these clinics to make sure as much gets done as possible. I do not have the numbers for this year- but it looks something like this:

There were about 60 volunteers for HSUS - vet techs, vet tech students, vets, vet students and the crew that travels with Dr. Eric.

They pay to attend this event, pay to get to the site - whether they drive in or fly. They sleep at the dorm at the convent or they camp at the warehouse with the rest of us. Their days start at 6am with a short meeting and then they have to do rounds- which is walking animals and care for the animals that might have had medical surgeries the day before- or if their "owners" left them over nite.

They put in 14-16 hour days, drive to the convent - crash and come back the next day and do it again. Emotions range from sheer exhaustion to glee. I thought the better comment I overheard was:
"as a vet student- I will learn more here for my $250 investment" than I would from a 4 year $50,000. classroom experience. This fellow was so enthusiastic at the end of 6 days of this that he wanted to go on with them to do the second week.

As the support team Red Lake Rosies supplies food for the crew plus our own volunteers. This year we had a simpler menu and it was almost in total handled by Ellen, a young woman of 18 whose family last year ended up adopting a Red Lake refugee dog- and whose family now works very hard to support the efforts going on up there. Ellen did a great job in the kitchen and said she will be back again.

The rest of the volunteers for Rosies- who were to many to mention here and since I didn't get there until Thurs- I 'm sure I will miss some- but this crew works a different part of the event. Since this is kitty and puppy season there are a good number of people who walk in wanting to surrender their animals. If they come in with infants only-and want RLRR to take them the first question we ask is where is the mother- we want her to- or can we get her spayed so this doesn't keep happening- THIS YEAR we did have less surrenders than last year- and while its worth noting- one year- does not make a trend- so it is too early to say what it means.
WE got great help from rescue groups again this year and Karen said by mid week- that at least 90 some animals had left on transports to various rescues around MN and WISC. 90 animals that will get good homes and 90 animals that won't be reproducing. Then there were the balance of about 25 -30 that will be at Karens for some many weeks, recovering from starvation or mange.

LAST year- you might recall I ranted on about starving dogs who could barely stand up. Those dogs went on to become fat and sassy - so this year when the "Auschwitz dogs" came in looking like they didn't have a day left in them- I didn't get as crazed. I got busy and started making puppy gruel and getting water in them.

We had another large dog named BOON left behind because he was too big, but the family was happy to keep the puppies "sired" by him who will get just as big. It makes no sense and the rage bubbles up.

There was a female "Auschwitz" dog who came in with her 1 year old puppy and 3 2 week old puppys who were left to start in a kennel in the back of the yard. Someone alerted Karen to them so she went and pulled them. These dogs- Shelby, Mindy, Kevina, Jacob and Josh were in quite bad condition. Shelby the mom who was under 2- had heartworm, lymes disease and no hair with a severe case of mange and a heart condition to boot. The daughter Mindy had lymes and mange and the puppies had mange- and were starving.

At the end of 4 days- Shelby and the 3 pups went to WISC, Mindy went to karens. All doing much better, with many weeks of recovery ahead of them.

This volunteer stint is not for the weak of heart. You get your fill of puppy kisses and in return get to see an overflow of puppy poop and worms. You get to see dog feces, and upon closer inspection see worms and dirt. Towards the end, the dogs we get were forced to try and eat dirt to survive.

Almost all of the dogs have worms, about 80% have mange, about 60% have lymes or heartworm or both. Partly its the rural environment, partly neglect.

I have attached pictures so you can see these dogs conditions, and one pictures of the help on break!

Well, I will close here with encouragement for any of you who like to work with animals hands on--please consider going up we can always use more help. If you don't feel that's your calling- there are many support things that can get done without leaving home.
Just let us know what you are good at.

Thanks for reading this far down!!
Have a good one.
Colleen
CARE/ RLRR


Animals understand your tears, what
they really appreciate is action.