FREE PUPPIES.

These words may automatically elicit an excited, Pavlovian-type response from your inner child, but in the rescue world, this is a cry for help.

This is where we met Sansa and her siblings, the “Range Rover” puppies. Despite a luxurious name, they’ve had a tragic beginning to their short lives. They were found when they were about 3-4 weeks old abandoned in a field in freezing temperatures. They were effectively left to die, disposed of and left to bear the repercussions of a human’s mistake. It is has become sickeningly commonplace for an owner to not spay their dog, and when that dog subsequently has puppies, this is their means of “handling it.”

Fortunately, someone found them, but they were then posted as “free puppies.” Giving away puppies without payment and without proper vetting procedures, which may sound innocuous at first, puts puppies at a significantly higher rate of neglect or abuse. They can easily land themselves in the wrong hands or in a home who values the puppy for the price they paid for them.

Thank goodness for the Range Rover puppies, one of our rescue partners stepped in before any of these puppies were relinquished. They went from cardboard box to a crate in a warm home where four out of the five puppies awaited their freedom ride to Pennsylvania. One was even fortunate enough to find their furever home with their foster family!