NORTH SYRACUSE — Helping Hounds Dog Rescue barely had time to settle into its new digs when the coronavirus pandemic hit last year. The organization, formerly located in DeWitt, moved into a newly renovated 9,000-square-foot building in North Syracuse on Jan. 21, 2020.
Exactly two months later, the operation was “cut off at the knees,” as Executive Director Kathy Gilmour put it.
“We had to shut down our transport program in March [2020]. We were just in that limbo land that everyone was in from March to late May 2020,” Gilmour said.
When Helping Hounds resumed the business of adopting out rescue dogs last spring, they could scarcely keep up with the demand from Central New Yorkers who were stuck at home found themselves in need of a furry friend. Helping Hounds’ website crashed because of the number of people attempting to download adoption applications.
“When we resumed our transport program, it was surreal. The demand for dogs was unlike any other time,” Gilmour said. “We rarely had more than one or two dogs at a time. We still have a good rate of adoption, but it’s definitely slowed.”
The rescue’s spacious facility on Caswell Avenue is still pretty quiet — the pandemic has paused Helping Hounds’ plans to host obedience training, humane education, family activities and workshops for rescuers and animal welfare workers— but Gilmour said her staff is looking forward to using the building to its full potential.
“We’re excited that the world keeps opening back up,” she said.
As the world continues to reopen, Gilmour said she hopes families are preparing their pets for people returning to offices and schools. She suggested people gradually leave their dogs at home for short periods of time to get the dog used to not having everyone around all the time.
So far, Helping Hounds has avoided the phenomenon of “adoption reversals” — when a family decides the dog they selected is not the right fit for them — that other rescues around the United States have been experiencing.
“There are places where they are seeing the adoptions that happened during the quarantine period and people are giving them back,” Gilmour said.
Many of the dogs Helping Hounds takes in come from the rural south, where the “intake rate far outpaces the rate of adoptions,” Gilmour said. Helping Hounds is trying to give back to its partner organizations in other states with fewer resources.
“It takes a lot of money and resources to do this — not only the veterinary services, but the transport costs,” Gilmour said. “We realized if we don’t throw them a lifeline, we’re going to lose them too.”
Helping Hounds’ adoption fees cover the costs of vaccinations, spay and neuter procedures, deworming and microchipping a rescue dog.
“The whole veterinary industry is in a little bit of a crisis too — the demand for veterinary services is up and access is down,” Gilmour said. “We still want to hold the same standard that we have always held that the dog leaves us as healthy as possible to start its new life.”
Helping Hounds is looking to the community to lend a paw with fundraising. The organization is holding a bottle and can drive from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, June 5, at its headquarters, located at 7268 Caswell Ave. in North Syracuse. Bottles and cans also accepted at Western Lights Bottle Return (4639 Onondaga Blvd., Syracuse), Plank Road Bottle Return (8097 Brewerton Road, Cicero) and Lyncourt Bottle Return (106 Arterial Road, Syracuse).
In addition to accepting monetary donations, Helping Hounds maintains a wishlist on its website — “Making a donation of a few rolls of paper towels is extremely helpful to us,” Gilmour said — and welcomes gift cards to The Home Depot and Tractor Supply Co. The public also can help by spreading the word about Helping Hounds’ mission via social media or signing up to volunteer. For more information, visit helpinghoundsdogrescue.org.
