Our work started when our founders visited Tipton County Animal Shelter in Tipton, TN and discovered that 85-percent of the dogs at the shelter were euthanized because of overcrowding. There were simply too many dogs for the facility to fit let alone care for. Owner-surrender dogs were sometimes euthanized the day they entered the shelter. Our work started with a simple mission: Take one dog at a time out of the shelter, bring them to the vet and advertise in New England for adopters.
As of 2024, PAWS New England has over 100 volunteers, all unpaid, donating their time for one reason only: the love of the dogs in our program and those dogs we have yet to meet. We’ve grown in many ways. We have established partnerships with many veterinarians who share our passion for rescue. Our foster network—essential to our life-saving work—continues to grow and allows our dogs to experience life in a home rather than a shelter environment prior to adoption. The importance of foster families cannot be understated. They are vital lifelines for the dogs that come through our program. Our fosters commit to caring for our dogs as long as it takes to help them acclimate to being a part of a happy, healthy Pack in their new families.
Most importantly, after initially working solely with the Tipton County Animal Shelter, we have been able to expand our mission to include several groups in Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri and Louisiana. In addition to working with local shelters, we now also work with rescue groups in the South who live and work in the communities with large populations of unwanted dogs. When we can, we assist with the local surrender of dogs when no other options are presented to an owner or their family, but this is not the Mission of Paws New England.
Our Mission remains to rescue dogs who would otherwise be euthanized in our southern partner states. More and more people in those regions are working extremely hard in their own communities to start spay and neuter programs which can drastically reduce the influx of dogs/cats into shelters to begin with and are reaching out to adoption partners to get their shelter dogs moved, not euthanized. When possible, we provide assistance to help those programs as well, although that is not a primary mission of Paws New England.
Euthanasia, often of healthy unwanted dogs, is still the number one cause of death in dogs under the age of two years. Until that statement is no longer true, PAWS New England will continue on the mission we first started with – getting loving, deserving adoptable dogs into the homes of loving, deserving families who want them.
Our Key Challenges
There are a few key challenges facing not just PAWS New England, but all rescue groups who do work similar to ours.
Various states have implemented anti-rescue legislation, which attempts to stop the influx of southern dogs to their states. We see an increasing number of dogs with health problems, and veterinary and transportation costs continue to rise. We also have to deal with constant criticism of, “we have dogs in our shelters here in New England already; we don’t need more.” While it’s true there are dogs and cats awaiting homes in New England, “adoptable” dogs are a different issue. Sadly, there is a high percentage of bully breeds that are turned into our local shelters. The stigma of having a bad temperament or being dangerous still follows the bully breeds and they are (much to our dismay) not as desirable as other mixed breeds. Families cannot or will not adopt them for several reasons including homeowner’s insurance policies that come with breed restrictions.
Our organization, and others like us, serve two very important needs:
- Providing wonderful dogs that would otherwise be euthanized with safe, loving homes.
- Providing families who can’t afford a breeder dog (or worse, a puppy mill dog) with a wonderful companion who’s fully vetted and a great fit for their home.
Too many highly-adoptable dogs are euthanized every day, and not all families can afford the $1,000 - $3,000 price tag to purchase a puppy. We never give up, and work as hard as possible to continue our mission. That will never change.