A puppy named Darla was being wheeled to her death in an overcrowded Texas shelter when she was rescued with just seconds to spare.
“A wheelbarrow holding an 8-month old Golden Retriever puppy was making its way across a south Texas shelter on a hot day. The shelter, like so many across Texas, was overcrowded, and being ultra-shy made the puppy at risk,” Austin Pets Alive! shared in a recent Facebook post about Darla.
Why was Darla in a wheelbarrow? She was so scared she couldn’t walk. “With legs too afraid to walk, she was placed in the wheelbarrow in order to be euthanized,” APA! explained.
Thankfully, the sweet puppy caught the eye of her rescuers just as she was being wheeled into the euthanasia room. And thanks to a last-minute intervention and a concerted team effort between the Laredo Animal Care Services (LACS), APA! and Mile High Labrador Retriever Mission the puppy can look forward to a bright future.
Darla was pulled last-minute by APA! and put out an urgent request to rescues across the country. Shortly after the Mile High Labrador Retriever Mission, a dog rescue located in Denver, Colorado, secured a foster home for her and worked quickly with the APA! team to arrange transport. APA! has a Transport Program that does lifesaving work to get at-risk dogs like Darla into homes across the United States. The program has saved 5,000 homeless pets since it started in 2021.
“We had to pull her, we had to save her,” Jordana Moerbe, APA!’s national shelter support director, said in a press release. “We hope that she’s able to come out of her shell and be the happy puppy she deserves to be. It’s what every one of the pets in the shelter deserves, and that’s what we’re working so hard for.”
Darla has settled in Colorado and is learning how it feels to be loved and safe. She didn’t have to stay long in her foster home as Mile High Labrador Retriever Mission revealed Darla has just been adopted! What wonderful news!
As shelters become more and more overcrowded they are faced with making increasingly difficult and heartbreaking decisions. Shelters across Texas has lots of dogs like Darla who need saving. Laredo Animal Care Services (LACS) alone has four purebred Golden Retrievers, a Frenchie mix, a purebred Yorkie, an Akita, Great Dane and a Shar-pei mix among others.
Reach out to Austin Pets Alive! to learn more about the animals up for adoption and to find out more info about APA’s Transport Program, visit their website.
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