Who we are:
The vision for Big Dog Ranch Rescue to be a place of comfort and safety — a “Disneyland for dogs” — has become a reality on our unparalleled, state-of-the-art campus, located in Loxahatchee Gardens, Florida, with a new expansion in Shorter, Alabama.
Our mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and educate until every dog has a loving and safe place to call home. We believe we can, and we will see an end to dog homelessness and abuse through legislative efforts, hard work and strategic partnerships near and far. We will never give up, and we will never back down from the needs of all heartbeats because every life matters.
We are extremely grateful for the service of our veterans and active military. That’s why we introduced our Veteran Service Dog Training Program — to help military veterans by using the power of the human-animal bond while providing a second chance for rescue dogs by training and matching them up with military veterans who can benefit from having a trained service dog in their lives. In the next year we are building a veteran boarding facility, so that service members will have a place to board their animals that is safe, loving and free to board while they are away on deployment.
What we need most:
These last 12 months have proved to be even more challenging than the preceding year. As we were recovering financially, physically, and spiritually from the effects of the pandemic, we were immediately faced with a new challenge: While adoptions had been robust during the height of COVID-19, the current economic difficulties, including the high cost of everyday goods such as food, gas, housing, and veterinary care, have forced some people to make the heart-wrenching decision to give up their pets.
At this point, we are experiencing record high numbers of owner-surrenders and the lowest adoption rates in the history of Big Dog Ranch Rescue. We are not alone — shelters all over the South are actually euthanizing dogs due to space and time constraints at a rate we have never seen before. Perfectly adoptable pets are dying needlessly, and we are doing all we can to save them.
We are eternally grateful for the funding we have received, but we need to ask for your help right now. The Big Dog Ranch Rescue campus is at 110% capacity. We have 749 dogs that we need to feed, care for and treat medically every day. To compound our challenges, the current economic crisis means we are not reaching our annual fundraising goals.
There is no donation too small to make an impact! The sad reality is that when dollars are raised, lives are saved.