Saturday, September 27, 2008

Carol Crocker Update

We wrote a post on September 13th about Carol Crocker of Rainesville, Alabama. She has been the unofficial county shelter for a number of years but was suddenly taken to court by the city to force her to get rid of all but 3 dogs on her property. If she loses her appeal all the dogs will be removed and killed.

So, animal lovers posted and networked, and rescue groups arrived to assess the situation and see what can be done to help her. That was why I posted, to help spread the word.

This Thursday we received a copy of an email received by a friend from Dog Pack Rescue, and we asked if it is okay to post it. We sent a copy of this to a Georgia group that had just gotten the word and started an email campaign, telling them the dogs are safe because of this message: John was at Carrol Crocker's today in Rainsville and she told him that Best Friends came to meet with her, and they are coming on Sunday to remove all but three dogs from her shelter. They promised that no dog would be euthanized, some will be placed with rescue groups and some will go to Utah.

Friday, we decided before posting we would try to contact Best Friends to verify this information. We received this response:
Thank you for your concern regarding Carrol Crocker and her rescued dogs in Rainsville, Alabama. The Animal Help Department at Best Friends has been working with the rescue community to continue to put out the word about Carrol's dogs and to assist with networking to find homes for them. A couple of weeks ago we issued one of our member alerts to a very wide area, and there are a number of other alerts issued by other people concerned about Carrol and asking for assistance.

At this time our Sanctuary is full, and at times like this we try to use our Network to spread the word about animals in need.

We will continue to work with the rescuers closest to the situation to see if further publicity will help. At this time, because posts about Carrol have circulated so widely, we feel it is best to await the response to the information already in circulation. We will be checking in with Carrol to determine her needs as this moves along. Again, thank you for your compassion about Carrol and her dogs.

Well, we don't know about you, but we find this confusing. So we again emailed Best Friends. We wrote: There is some kind of a misunderstanding. Perhaps Carol Crocker was thinking of another rescue group coming in Sunday to pick up the dogs or ...... But there is quite a gap between this message and yours. Since others have read and passed on this message and I passed it on to a rescue group here in GA that Carol's dogs are already rescued, I feel terrible.

Is it okay to pass on your the information in your email message? Perhaps even to post it tomorrow? Because according to what you're telling me, Carol's dogs are still in jeapordy.

There was no response. So we're posting it anyway because it appears Carol Crocker does still need help.

As to Carol Crocker's dogs, your guess is as good as ours right now as to what is actually happening. We hope she is receiving the help she needs for those animals. And then we hope she will accept some help for her own circumstances. If we wore hats, we would tip them to this wonderful woman!

You can read our original post here.

23 comments:

  1. We hadn't read your original post so we just took a look, this is awful, we sincerely hope that the help is in time to save these dogs.
    Unfortunatley we are in the wrong country to help in the direct sense, but we will spread the word amongst the various doggy communitys we belong to just in case they are not already aware. We will keep checking back for updates, if there is anything we can do just let us know.

    Ben xxxx

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  2. We do hope the dogs are rescued and Carol receives some help herself. We think Rainsville AL must be a dreadful place to live. ~S, S & C

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  3. We send our purrs hoping things work out well for every paw and helping hand involved!

    Purrs,
    Abby & Stygia

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  4. Mom and I hope that you can help save these animals - we will pray for them. You are a good person to care so much.

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  5. I do hope she does have a solution in place, but if she doesn't it is very important that people still keep trying to help. It is wonderful that you actually tried to verify the accuracy of the contradictory information and let us all know that she may still need help. Thank you for getting the word out.

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  6. I hope that perhaps the people who respond to emails about Carols are just not in the loop of what is going on--perhaps Best Friends found someone who could take in the dogs who is more local?

    It is confusing and I hope you will keep us posted.

    BTW: we'd be interested in our take on one of the CC articles that we will post on Sunday. It's the one about pets being displaced because of people loosing their homes due to the mortgage crisis. You are always so good at keeping us up on world affairs!

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  7. Hope that the doggies get to a safe place. I don't understand why three doggies cannot say at where they are?????? Three isn't too many is it? thanks for getting the word, the more that know about things the more we can help those that need it.
    Did you know in Italy there are all safe shelters???? Great isn't it.

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  8. We sure hope that the dogs got rescued and that things have worked out for Carol. We've had some issues similar where we are and we heard most of the animals were saved through other shelters.

    Mom says thanks for the birthday wishes last week. Sorry we are late with this.

    Mindy & Moe

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  9. Thanks for trying to work out what was really going on. It's confusing, but we're just keep purring hard for happy outcomes for all involved.

    Purrs

    Gypsy & Tasha

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  10. Oh goodness, we are purrin hard fur the doggies and fur Carol!

    Kittyhugs and purrs from MaoMao!

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  11. Those are confusing. We hope someone in authority steps up to change the zoning or whatever needs to happen so Carol can keep doing great things!

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  12. I have an award for you waiting at my blog!

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  13. Very confusing. I hope she gets the help she needs, for those dogs' sake. :(

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  14. gee, we hope those dogs are going to be okay. That is a scary situation.

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  15. I'm purring that the dogs will be all right!

    And I'm glad you were able to comment at my site finally!

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  16. I'm purring hard for a good outcome for Carol and her furriends.

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  17. Let's hope it all works out okay.

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  18. oh dear, we are confused also. we will purray that all the dogs are rescued!

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  19. Hey to you all, just stopping by to let you know I am thinking of you.
    xoxoxo,
    Sas

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  20. Hi. I'm a volunteer with Forgotten Paws Dog Rescue, working in conjunction with Best Friends Society for Carol's dogs. We have been on site with Carol and all of her wonderful dogs.

    As an up to the minute update (9/28at 10:00 p.m.) we have pulled one dog from Carol's today and transported to an FP foster home. We will be pulling 2 more on Tuesday, one to FP foster and the other to a permanent home. 2 are scheduled to move on 10/6 to a permanent home if all goes well. There are a few rescues in the northeast who are interested in taking a few of the dogs and a few individuals from whom we are accepting applications.

    This is very much still a desperate situation so please continue to post far and wide.

    Also, please sign the petition (google Rainsville petition). This is an effort to stop the city from destroying these beautiful animals.

    Also, write to the Oprah show at www.Oprah.com\contactus. Put Help Rainsville Dogs in the subject line. She needs as much exposure as she can get and as quick as she can get it! Thank you for caring! These dogs are AWESOME! Friendly, sweet, loveable and so very deserving of a great life.

    The email is NOT correct and has served only to hinder a very desperate rescue effort.

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  21. We took some time to meet Carrol Crocker for ourselves on Sunday. We spent the day bathing, mowing lawns, filling water buckets, talking and crying with Carrol. This lady is amazing. Her dogs are happy, loving and healthy. Not one aggressive or dog that suffers. Still has over 70 dogs needing rescue.

    She watched her house burn to the ground and listen to the crys of 18 handicap dogs die that she could not save. The fire was an attempt to kill. No one is investigating, her government has failed her, her people have failed, her town has failed her. Where the hell is her community to help her? When is the next fire?

    Its a matter of time before it gets cold. She has no heat, no hot water, no firewood, she sleeps on a army type cot, why, because she is selfless, these dogs are her livelihood and every penny goes to help the dogs of Rainsville that people threw out.

    Spend a day with this woman. Talk to her, laugh with her, hug her, help her. You will come home unable to quit thinking of her. Mow her lawn, weed wack, help cut trees for firewood, spend a day with her before you can judge her. She does not deserve the ignorance. This woman should be the town hero. Good things are going to happen for her and her dogs.

    Thank you to all the amazing people who donated to her, donated their time and their prayers. She is thankful more then you will know.

    This is my visit and my photos. Please sign her petition she needs everyone to fight for her. If you are interested in adopting a dog all adoptions will go thru Forgotten Paws. All links listed below!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/heatherbphotos/sets/72157607560908374/

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  22. It's hard to believe something like this is going on. It just breaks your heart...
    xoxo
    Chef

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