Rescue Hope is a veterinarian owned non-profit organization dedicated to providing desperately needed assistance to the stray, abandoned, neglected and abused animals in the Birmingham, Alabama area and surrounding communities. Our goals include building a veterinary clinic to provide low or no cost veterinary services to individuals in need who participate in animal rescue or take in stray or abandoned animals. We also dream of building a housing facility in which to care for these animals with needed medical attention, spaying and neutering, social rehabilitation, and loving attention with the ultimate goal of placing them in loving homes.
Humane societies in the United States euthanize millions of unwanted or lost animals each year. Thousands of others are simply left to fend for themselves in an inherently hostile environment. These are the unnoticed victims of hunger, disease, parasites and injury. Facing the elements, (usually with little access to shelter and water)they scavenge when they're able and starve when they're not. Because they breed freely, many kittens and puppies are born into these same hardships. Most will die miserably of malnutrition and exposure.
Where do they come from?
They come from homes which allow them to wander. They come from owners who abandon them by the side of the road. They come from families who move away and leave them behind with the rest of their unwanted belongings . They come from endless litters of unwanted puppies and kittens dumped on someone's doorstep or left in cardboard boxes on the streets.
They come from us.
Many in our community are doing everything possible to save these lost ones. They are ordinary people doing extraordinary things, sharing their homes, their love and their money towards this effort often at great personal sacrifice. It's an overwhelming task because there are so many who need help, and so few places to put them. It is to these quiet heros that we dedicate our hearts and our services, and to the animals they care for.
On these pages we offer information to educate and enlighten the general public concerning routine health care for pets and access to lots of other important information about caring for them; these are the lucky ones who are loved and protected by you. But you'll also find grim reminders of animal abuse and neglect in alarming numbers across the country. From puppy mills to pet "collectors", from individuals who deliberately torture animals to uncaring and uneducated pet owners, these accounts will disturb and sadden. They are meant to. The nature of these abuses is such that so many of them go unrecognised and unseen until it's too late. If ill treated animals can be retrieved, they often require special medical care and very special people who can care for and rehabilitate them. In the state of Alabama, resources to manage this situation are minimal at best. As a result thousands of animals in need cannot be rescued. But with the support of this community there is much that can be done...
Until recently, our laws did not support the animals' best interests. Alabama has only this year enacted a law that makes cruelty a felony offense. Before then, animal mistreatment was punishable only as a misdemeanor. With the enactment of this law, there will be more power available to remove these innocent victims from bad situations and mete out real punishment to the offenders. We hope to offer medical assistance to as many rescued and stray animals as we can and someday build a facility to house and care for them; rehabilitate them when necessary, and offer to the community those that are adoptable. To do this, we need your help...
