By Emma Buker
ATLANTA — Four dogs rescued from dangerous environments greeted potential new owners at a free dog adoption event hosted by LifeLine Animal Project at an Atlanta Petco Saturday afternoon.
LifeLine, Georgia’s largest animal welfare organization, hosted the event to showcase some of its many rescue dogs that are up for adoption. The animals, such as 8-year-old Tiger and 3-year-old Jared, are already microchipped, vaccinated, and neutered.
“Many of our pets come to us from difficult circumstances and need extra love and support,” said Tiki Artist, LifeLine’s public relations representative. “By adopting a shelter animal, the owner helps the animal and the animal brings unconditional love and emotional support.”
The mission of LifeLine is to maintain clean shelters and place pets into safe foster homes. Of the organization’s 700 volunteers, many of them also serve as foster parents. To foster with LifeLine, one must pass a home inspection and attend multiple safety classes, said Jennifer Humphrey, a volunteer and pet foster with LifeLine.
“Before, I would’ve thought to adopt straight from the shelter, but the fostering helps them get used to living in a home around a family,” Humphrey said. “Even if you’re new to dogs in general, there’s a lot of support.”
Fostering pets is not the only service that LifeLine provides. According to LifeLine’s official website, the Pets for Life program supplies communities with accessible pet care services. These services come in the form of support for both animals and the humans fostering them.
“Our PFL program is amazing because we can help provide food, litter boxes, collars, and leashes,” said Brantlee Vickers, LifeLine’s event coordinator. “With PFL, we have our free vaccination clinics that we do four times a year where we provide free microchips, vaccines for dogs and cats, and we provide supplies, whatever people need. Really, if we have it and we can find someone that needs to use it, we’ll help them find supplies.”
LifeLine’s mission is to end the practice of shelter euthanasia for healthy animals, according to its website. Every LifeLine shelter is classified as no-kill and has been for years, Vickers said. In animal welfare, a no-kill rate is above 90%. She said that LifeLine has recently upped its efforts to try and accomplish its mission.
Vickers said that dogs can end up in LifeLine’s care due to various circumstances. Some common causes of pet homelessness, according to her, are eviction, divorce, a lack of community support, and even lifestyle changes such as a new job or baby. One of the dogs at the Feb. 25 event, the 8-year-old mixed breed named Tiger, ended up with LifeLine due to a criminal neglect case, said Humphrey, his current foster parent.
Vickers said that she believes LifeLine’s goal is to keep pets in the homes that they love with people that take care of them, and if the organization has to help provide that care, that is okay because it prevents animals from ending up in shelters in the first place.
“We can get the word out about what we do, about all the amazing dogs and cats we have that need homes,” Vickers said. “They are absolutely wonderful and they’re gonna make anyone’s home one thousand times better just by being there with their sweet personalities.”
LifeLine is an Atlanta-based nonprofit that aims to find safe homes for rescue dogs. Throughout February, LifeLine waived its adoption fees to encourage people to foster or adopt the pets overseen by the organization. The event at Petco was just one of the organization’s free adoption events that have occurred so far.
Emma Buker is a student at Kennesaw State University