Alabama is now the home of the biggest no-kill dog rescue facility in the nation.
The new Big Dog Ranch Rescue Facility used to be a holding facility for racing Greyhounds. The 100-acre facility is predicted to be able to save 10,000 dogs per year once it’s fully remodeled. The three buildings are already full with a waitlist of over 300 dogs.
Lauree Simmons is the founder and CEO of Big Dog Rescue Ranch. She says inflation has caused many people to abandon their dogs and there simply isn’t capacity for them in county shelters.
“We are just raising the funds to remodel and complete each building as fast as we can because the need is so great," she said. "Honestly, we can’t get them remodeled and ready fast enough.”
She also says euthanasia rates for dogs are at a record high.
“And that’s why we opened the Alabama facility, to give us the ability to save more lives that are on death row at shelters or abandoned dogs that are dumped and are now starving to death,” Simmons said.
Simmons encourages people to not abandon their pet as well as to get them spayed and neutered to decrease the overpopulation problem.
She says the dollar amount raised equals the number of dogs in need that can be saved.