Rocket Dog Rescue

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rocket Dog Rescue is a volunteer nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California, devoted to pet adoption and animal rescue. It is the most prominent of several local private organizations that save dogs from euthenasia by caring for them and finding new families.[1] The program places dogs from animal shelters in the San Francisco Bay Area into foster homes while awaiting adoption. It also treats medical and behavioral problems such as socialization issues, neuters and spays the animals, and provides vaccines, so as to make their animals adoptable.[2]

[edit] History

The organization was founded in by Pali Boucher, daughter of a hippie mother, and Paul Boucher, a program director of San Francisco radio station KSAN (formerly "Jive 95"; now 107.7, "the Bone").[3][4] An HIV victim and former foster child and drug addict whose mother died when she was ten.[5] After being homeless for more than ten years after, she adopted an abandoned coonhound puppy from the local dog pound she named Leadbelly.[6][5] She lived on the street with Leadbelly for several more years. After spending six months in jail[7] then entered the Good Shepherd Gracenter,[6] a women's residential recovery program run by the Roman Catholic order, the Good Shepherd Sisters.[8][9] She credits the program and her dog with saving her life.[10].

In the late 1990s Boucher began working for Hopalong Animal Rescue, based in Oakland, California.[6] In 2000, while she was working for the SPCA, she inspired San Francisco veterinarians to found VetSOS, a nonprofit mobile clinic that helps homeless people who are unable to care for their pets.[11]

In 2001, the year after Leadbelly's death, she started Rocket Dog Rescue and won a Points of Light award for volunteerism.[10]. She claims to have rescued 150 dogs in the first year.[10] In 2006 the organization was profiled on Discovery's Animal Planet network in a one-hour documentary, Rocket Dogs.[12] By 2007 the organization had saved approximately 3,000 animals, and was spending $150,000 per year of donated funds on veterinary bills for sick animals.[5]

In December, 2007 her home burned in a fire, making her homless once again and killing three dogs, a parrot, and a pigeon for which she was caring.[5][13]

[edit] External Links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hank Pellissier. "Saving Pit Bulls from the Death Chamber", San Francisco Chronicle, March 3, 2003. Retrieved on 2007-12-28. 
  2. ^ About Us. Rocket Dog Rescue. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
  3. ^ Ben Fong-Torres. "Radio Waves", San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved on 2007-12-28. 
  4. ^ Where are they now. KSAN. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
  5. ^ a b c d Jill Tucker. "Dog rescuer loses her home in a fire:3 canines she was fostering are killed in destructive blaze", San Francisco Chronicle, December 23, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-28. 
  6. ^ a b c Erica Kohnke. "Homeless Dogs Find a Pal in Pali Boucher", The Noe Valley Voice. Retrieved on 2007-12-28. 
  7. ^ Sally Stephens. "For the Love of a Dog", The Woofer Times, January, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-12-28. 
  8. ^ The Sisters of the Good Shepherd. Good Shepherd GraceCenter. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
  9. ^ Gracecenter. the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
  10. ^ a b c Lord Martine. "Saving dogs helped her save herself", http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/11/29/WB241239.DTL, November 29, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-12-28. 
  11. ^ Suzanne Pullen. "Jefferson Award: Ilana Strubel, vet for pets of homeless", San Francisco Chronicle, January 7, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-12-28. 
  12. ^ Rocket Dogs documentary. Studio B Films.
  13. ^ "3 Dogs, 2 Birds Die In SF Animal Foster Home Fire", CBS Broadcasting, December 21, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.