A Mobile man’s routine trip to a dumpster behind a business on Halls Mill Road turned into a rescue mission earlier this month after he noticed a plastic trash bag moving on its own beside the bin. Inside were three puppies — one black, one brown and one white with black spots — all severely dehydrated and malnourished after apparently being sealed inside the bag and left for dead in the summer heat.
The man quickly reached out to friends connected with a local animal rescue organization, and within a short time the surviving puppies were in the hands of volunteers who could give them the emergency care they needed. The smallest and weakest of the three, the black puppy, did not survive; he died the following day, unable to recover from the dehydration and trauma of being trapped without water or shelter.
The two puppies that survived are now recovering and growing stronger in the care of Save-a-Stray, a Mobile County-based nonprofit animal rescue group led by Stephanie Williamson. The organization has spent the past several weeks nursing the pair back to health, and officials with the group say both dogs are expected to be ready for adoption into permanent homes in the coming weeks.
Founded three years ago, Save-a-Stray focuses on improving outcomes for shelter animals across the Mobile County area, an effort that has become especially important given how often local shelters take in more strays than they can place. The group’s best-known program is a monthly transport effort that pulls between 40 and 60 dogs at a time from area shelters and drives them roughly 24 hours north to the Helping Hounds Rescue shelter in Dewitt, New York.
Volunteers say the trips fill a real need. Shelters in the Syracuse, New York, region generally see far fewer stray dogs than shelters in Alabama do, in part because harsh winters make it much harder for abandoned or stray animals to survive there. As a result, dogs transported north from South Alabama tend to find adoptive families quickly, with an average shelter stay of about nine days once they arrive; some dogs are even claimed before the transport van pulls in, according to the rescue group, because prospective adopters are drawn to the idea of taking home a dog from the South.
Before making the trip, animals in the program typically spend about two weeks in foster homes with local volunteers, who provide temporary shelter, feeding and positive human interaction to help prepare the dogs for their eventual adoptive families.
Save-a-Stray relies heavily on the community to keep its rescue and transport programs running, and organizers say the group is always looking for monetary donations as well as volunteers willing to open their homes as foster placements. Anyone interested in donating, fostering or adopting can find more information and an application on the group’s website, saveastray.org.
The nonprofit is also gearing up for a fundraiser called Tails of Service, scheduled for Sept. 24 at the Pillars. The event will showcase large-format portraits of service animals, honoring the working dogs that support veterans, first responders and people with disabilities.
Cases like the one on Halls Mill Road are a reminder to local animal welfare advocates that abandonment and neglect remain an ongoing problem in the Mobile area, and that organizations like Save-a-Stray depend on tips from the public to intervene quickly when animals are in danger. Anyone who witnesses suspected animal cruelty or abandonment is encouraged to contact local animal control or law enforcement.