WE WON THE PETFINDER SHELTER CHALLENGE FOR THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND!!!!!!!
We are the #1 shelter in RI, and won $1000!
Thank you to everyone who voted for us!
Donations to Help Save One and How They Are Used:
Help Save One is a Non Profit organization registered in the state of Rhode Island. Below is a copy of our non-profit status, as per the Secretary of State's website.
We are only able to help these dogs with your help. The cost to pull, vet, spay/neuter, and transport a dog is costly. We pull based on need and never breed. Your help in this effort is monumental. We also accept donations of food, toys, bedding, and any little luxury these dogs have been without. We want to show them the good life and make sure they are healthy dogs that can finally be allowed to be a dog!
You can specify what you want your donation to be used for. We take all our donations very seriously whether it be $1 or $1,000. Every penny helps and our thanks can’t be expressed in words!
Our paypal donation address is urgentdogs@helpsaveone.org.
Help Us Help Them!
Cause Announcement from:
Help Save One, Inc - Stop The Gassing of Our Companion Animals
Hello Everyone,
I hope everyone had a wonderful labor day weekend. I know most of you are used to getting emails about our Urgent Dogs but this notice is a little different. While there are urgent dogs that need help, after this week Help Save One is placing a moratorium on pulling any dogs. To be painfully honest - we may need to close our doors which literally kills Meg and I as our lives are dedicated to what you see us doing every day.
Many people do not see what happens behind the scenes in our rescue. Anyone who follows us knows we pull dogs that no one else has stepped up for. There is a reason usually why people have not stepped up for them - they are either sick, an "undesirable" breed who will sit for a long time in a foster home, or in a shelter that is difficult to work with or in an area that is difficult to get to or has no procedures in place. All these things equal one thing - more money. What many do not see is us agreeing to take the dog that is tied up behind a house in rural Kentucky and sending a special transport just for that one dog. Transports like this cost more than picking up 10 dogs from a central location. Then this dog has never seen a vet in his life and most likely has parasites, heartworm, and needs to be updated on shots, frontlined, altered, etc....we run the rescue for those kinds of dogs. If you are a dog in a gassing shelter, left outside on your own, or find yourself being deemed "unadoptable" then you are the dog we want to save.
The conditions these dogs come from is horrific and the cost of quarantining and treating is astronomical. For example, We pulled a litter of Boston Terrier puppies who cost us close to $5000 and that EXCLUDES transport and normal vetting. There were only three of them and each adopted for $350 a piece. This is not one isolated example. I could name hundreds more just like this where the delta between adoption fees and actual treatment is enormous.
There are times where we get hate mail for spending thousands on one dog and being asked the question "do you know how many lives you could of saved"? One thing Meg and I believe strongly in is that this rescue's name has a meaning - HELP SAVE ONE. If we pull a dog then our commitment is to that dog - whether we need to spend $300 or $3000.
The issue is lately we have been hit with one thing after another and our expenses far far outweigh what we have. We have lowered our adoption fees in order to start the process of moving the dogs into forever homes and start the extremely painful process of potentially closing Help Save One until we can get back on our feet. We do not have benefactors, state, federal, or company funding. We have wonderful people like you all and rely solely on our adoption fees and donations. No one could of ever predicted the chain of events of these last 4-5 months where everything steadily went wrong. Our expenses far outweigh our donations/adoption fees.
We will of course not be finalizing anything until the end of 2009 since we still have a responsibility to our adopters and to our dogs, who our in essence family. We will always be reachable and will not be closing any doors until every option to keep us afloat is examined. In the end it will rely on if people can rally around us.
We try to keep somewhat of a low profile because where Meg and I live there is a lot of mixed emotions and strong opinions about bringing in out of state dogs etc...so we rarely quote how many dogs we have saved or sometimes we downplay that number. I will say proudly right now the number of dogs saved since July of 2008 is 948. Yes NINE HUNDRED AND FORTY EIGHT. All placed in loving homes from Florida to Maine.
Meg and I are so proud of Help Save One, and we want to continue but realistically this rescue is in debt in excess of $15,000 and has spent over $82,000 in vetting/transport expenses just in the past several months. Yes, those numbers are all too accurate and real. Meg and I get so wound up in the rescue that many times there just is no time left to show detailed updates on some of these dogs but we recently had a dog who cost us over $3800 in vetting and still has a long way too go. We are wiped out and a rescue can't survive week to week - its not fair to the dogs. Meg and I have exhausted all our personal funds and have done a good job of bankrupting ourselves and we also can not continue at this pace. If this rescue is going to be successful it needs to self support.
We are a young rescue but we feel we have accomplished alot. So much controversy follows us but whatever. We believe in what we are doing and see the results. Take a look at our success page should you doubt:
http://www.helpsaveone.org/success-stories.html
We know it is a long shot but we did set up a donation tracker on our main page for $25,000. This will pay off our current bills and leave some in reserve for future dog rescue expenses. We are asking if everyone can try their best to help. If these funds can be raised it will save Help Save One, who will in turn, will save another thousand dogs. We hate to send out a message like this but in a very short period of time all reserves have been exhausted.
Maybe we will get a miracle - we see them performed every week with these dogs. We have a benefit on September 27th at TT the Bears Place located at 10 Brookline Street in Cambridge MA. Tickets are $15 per person and include wine, cheese, and music. This event is being sponsored by Bonney the owner of TT's, Carmelita from Bay State Rock, and Sue from Out of the Blue Gallery. The event will be from 2-6PM and we are asking anyone who can attend to do so. Meg and I will be there and will be presenting a movie showcasing what Help Save One's mission is and some of our success stories.
Also - the power of the internet and groups like the one we have on Facebook is very powerful. If you truly believe in our cause and can spare even $5 we have 2,000 members to our group. It would give us half our goal.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and any questions please email us directly through Facebook and we are happy to answer them.
I will close with saying that if I had to list 3 things Help Save One has done to my life it is:
1. Opened my eyes to how lucky we are to share the planet with dogs. I still remember a Boston Terrier rescuer friend of mine saying he had no idea what dogs were but that they are little souls that are intertwined with human souls. It is very true. If you are on this email you most likely are a dog lover and have observed enough dogs to know what he meant.
2. Realized how severely abused and neglected so many dogs are.
3. Brought into my life my best friend Meg who I know will fight equally as hard as me to keep Help Save One afloat.
Sincerely,
Marissa and Meg
Co-Founders of Help Save One, Inc
Help Save One, Inc - Stop The Gassing of Our Companion Animals
Hello Everyone,
I hope everyone had a wonderful labor day weekend. I know most of you are used to getting emails about our Urgent Dogs but this notice is a little different. While there are urgent dogs that need help, after this week Help Save One is placing a moratorium on pulling any dogs. To be painfully honest - we may need to close our doors which literally kills Meg and I as our lives are dedicated to what you see us doing every day.
Many people do not see what happens behind the scenes in our rescue. Anyone who follows us knows we pull dogs that no one else has stepped up for. There is a reason usually why people have not stepped up for them - they are either sick, an "undesirable" breed who will sit for a long time in a foster home, or in a shelter that is difficult to work with or in an area that is difficult to get to or has no procedures in place. All these things equal one thing - more money. What many do not see is us agreeing to take the dog that is tied up behind a house in rural Kentucky and sending a special transport just for that one dog. Transports like this cost more than picking up 10 dogs from a central location. Then this dog has never seen a vet in his life and most likely has parasites, heartworm, and needs to be updated on shots, frontlined, altered, etc....we run the rescue for those kinds of dogs. If you are a dog in a gassing shelter, left outside on your own, or find yourself being deemed "unadoptable" then you are the dog we want to save.
The conditions these dogs come from is horrific and the cost of quarantining and treating is astronomical. For example, We pulled a litter of Boston Terrier puppies who cost us close to $5000 and that EXCLUDES transport and normal vetting. There were only three of them and each adopted for $350 a piece. This is not one isolated example. I could name hundreds more just like this where the delta between adoption fees and actual treatment is enormous.
There are times where we get hate mail for spending thousands on one dog and being asked the question "do you know how many lives you could of saved"? One thing Meg and I believe strongly in is that this rescue's name has a meaning - HELP SAVE ONE. If we pull a dog then our commitment is to that dog - whether we need to spend $300 or $3000.
The issue is lately we have been hit with one thing after another and our expenses far far outweigh what we have. We have lowered our adoption fees in order to start the process of moving the dogs into forever homes and start the extremely painful process of potentially closing Help Save One until we can get back on our feet. We do not have benefactors, state, federal, or company funding. We have wonderful people like you all and rely solely on our adoption fees and donations. No one could of ever predicted the chain of events of these last 4-5 months where everything steadily went wrong. Our expenses far outweigh our donations/adoption fees.
We will of course not be finalizing anything until the end of 2009 since we still have a responsibility to our adopters and to our dogs, who our in essence family. We will always be reachable and will not be closing any doors until every option to keep us afloat is examined. In the end it will rely on if people can rally around us.
We try to keep somewhat of a low profile because where Meg and I live there is a lot of mixed emotions and strong opinions about bringing in out of state dogs etc...so we rarely quote how many dogs we have saved or sometimes we downplay that number. I will say proudly right now the number of dogs saved since July of 2008 is 948. Yes NINE HUNDRED AND FORTY EIGHT. All placed in loving homes from Florida to Maine.
Meg and I are so proud of Help Save One, and we want to continue but realistically this rescue is in debt in excess of $15,000 and has spent over $82,000 in vetting/transport expenses just in the past several months. Yes, those numbers are all too accurate and real. Meg and I get so wound up in the rescue that many times there just is no time left to show detailed updates on some of these dogs but we recently had a dog who cost us over $3800 in vetting and still has a long way too go. We are wiped out and a rescue can't survive week to week - its not fair to the dogs. Meg and I have exhausted all our personal funds and have done a good job of bankrupting ourselves and we also can not continue at this pace. If this rescue is going to be successful it needs to self support.
We are a young rescue but we feel we have accomplished alot. So much controversy follows us but whatever. We believe in what we are doing and see the results. Take a look at our success page should you doubt:
http://www.helpsaveone.org/success-stories.html
We know it is a long shot but we did set up a donation tracker on our main page for $25,000. This will pay off our current bills and leave some in reserve for future dog rescue expenses. We are asking if everyone can try their best to help. If these funds can be raised it will save Help Save One, who will in turn, will save another thousand dogs. We hate to send out a message like this but in a very short period of time all reserves have been exhausted.
Maybe we will get a miracle - we see them performed every week with these dogs. We have a benefit on September 27th at TT the Bears Place located at 10 Brookline Street in Cambridge MA. Tickets are $15 per person and include wine, cheese, and music. This event is being sponsored by Bonney the owner of TT's, Carmelita from Bay State Rock, and Sue from Out of the Blue Gallery. The event will be from 2-6PM and we are asking anyone who can attend to do so. Meg and I will be there and will be presenting a movie showcasing what Help Save One's mission is and some of our success stories.
Also - the power of the internet and groups like the one we have on Facebook is very powerful. If you truly believe in our cause and can spare even $5 we have 2,000 members to our group. It would give us half our goal.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and any questions please email us directly through Facebook and we are happy to answer them.
I will close with saying that if I had to list 3 things Help Save One has done to my life it is:
1. Opened my eyes to how lucky we are to share the planet with dogs. I still remember a Boston Terrier rescuer friend of mine saying he had no idea what dogs were but that they are little souls that are intertwined with human souls. It is very true. If you are on this email you most likely are a dog lover and have observed enough dogs to know what he meant.
2. Realized how severely abused and neglected so many dogs are.
3. Brought into my life my best friend Meg who I know will fight equally as hard as me to keep Help Save One afloat.
Sincerely,
Marissa and Meg
Co-Founders of Help Save One, Inc
Our dogs love to sleep on Kuranda Dog beds, but we don't have enough for everyone. If you would like to donate a bed at a special wholesale price for a another dog to sleep in comfort, please click here.
Spay & Neuter Fund
Our goal is to raise enough money to buy 30 spay & neuter certificates for dogs in need. Spaying and neutering is an essential part of the rescue process. We want to support this effort with these dogs as well as other rescue/shelter dogs in need. These funds will be specifically allocated to purchasing 30 certificates. Please consider donating to our cause. Thanks!
