Beagle Rescue Victoria knew they had some work to do to get their kennel facility up to new council requirements; thankfully our grant came along at just the right time!
Beagle Rescue Victoria have been saving abandoned and vulnerable Beagles since 2006. They also work in a very unique space with their sister organisation Beagle Freedom Australia who accept both dogs (of all breeds) and cats from laboratories (medical testing, research and teaching). Their organisation is the only one in Australia to have formed relationships with laboratories and as such they have so far been able to take many hundreds of dogs and cats who would have otherwise been euthanised at the end of their laboratory use. Their aim is to do anything at all that is needed both medically and behaviourally to get these animals in a fit state to enjoy life in a real home once they are released from the laboratories.
Having a safe place where dogs can arrive into care and stay as long as needed is imperative to Beagle Rescue being able to successfully save and rehome dogs. For those dogs saved from a laboratory it gives them the time and space they need to acclimatise to the real world and allow them to decompress from past traumas and become ready for adoption or until a suitable foster home is found. While some of the other dogs don't need the intensive work to acclimate to home environment, Beagle Rescue take the time to see how they will behave and react in certain situations, in order to properly place them into the right foster or adoptive home and prevent them re-entering rescue at any stage down the track.
With a recent change in local council regulations, Beagle Rescue Victoria found themselves needing to overhaul their kennel facility and wanted to improve their outdoor enclosures at the same time - that's where we come in!
We are very happy to announce that we have awarded Beagle Rescue Victoria with a grant of $50,000 to do all required building work to allow them to continue saving lives!
The project involves stripping out the existing kennel facility back to an empty building, re-sealing the concrete floor with anti slip epoxy, installing a separate wastewater/septic system that is dedicated to just the kennel building, installing hot water, water tank, pump, sink and all associated plumbing, and rebuilding all 7 of the internal pens using updated materials. The fencing around the yards must be updated, and they will build a small deck and install shade sails across them to provide a dry and shady area.
Most of the materials required to rebuild the pens were donated to Beagle Rescue from a local shelter in Melbourne (Australian Animal Protection Society) who recently had a purpose-built facility built in a new location and moved out of their temporary facility. In return for providing all their volunteers to help them re-locate, Beagle Rescue were donated all the building materials - we love seeing rescue groups work together!
We're very proud to be able to help such a fantastic organisation save more dogs and we can't wait to see some more of the happy faces that come through their doors!
