How to Help

Wow, where do we begin? Breed Specific Legislation (aka BSL) is a ban against Pit Bull type dogs (amongst others) in many cities. This restricts housing options available to many bully breed owners.  In this poor economy, more families have been forced to give up their homes and were not able to take their pets with them. Often times, other family members have circumstances that prevent them from caring for their relative’s pets. Owners are discriminated against by landlords that aren’t really familiar with the breed. Therefore, the number of bully breed type dogs coming into shelters or rescue is on the rise. Our particular rescue is a network of foster homes and we strive to keep the dogs in a home-like setting until they are adopted. Sadly, we just don’t have enough fosters for all the dogs in need, so in order save some of these dogs we have had to resort to putting dogs in boarding.

MABBR is focusing on some fundraising efforts so that we can get more of these dogs out of shelters/bad situations and into decent, loving homes.  This is where you can help!  As with most 501(c)(3) not for profit organizations, donations from the general public are relied upon to help cover expenses and the cost of operating a rescue. Donations made to MABBR are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. If you are interested in helping us solicit donations from businesses, we can provide you with a form letter telling about our mission.

On the average, a healthy dog in foster care costs us around $410. This covers the pull fee from the shelter, vetting, food and monthly flea tick/heartworm prevention for 6 months. Those dogs I mentioned earlier in boarding? They cost us the initial $410, PLUS an additional $200 per month in boarding fees. Our adoption fees are considerably less than that, so you can see that we don’t recover a majority of the costs.

On top of that, most dogs that enter our program weren’t well taken care of so they have a variety of medical issues such as mange, heartworms, skin, eye problems. Spaying, neutering and vaccinating all of our dogs is another expense we incur. Sadly, even dogs that were properly taken care of but ended up in a shelter, can contract kennel cough or intestinal parasites (aka worms) from their stay there. Everyone says “take puppies, they don’t have as many health problems”. Well, in a perfect world they wouldn’t, but in rescue you’ll find that many of those pups come from parents that have not had vaccinations, nor have they been kept in a clean environment. It’s not unusual for one or more pups in a litter to come down with parvo. These are the kind of unpredictable events that can wipe out what little funds a rescue might have.