CRAWFORD COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — Dozens of dogs found in a Crawford County home are in need of the community's help after they were discovered by a rescue organization.
“It’s a pretty severe case. I’m not saying we haven’t seen cases like this before but it’s not often, so we knew it was urgent,” said Ashley Bartholomew, foster and adoption coordinator for the Artemis Project.
More than 80 dogs have now been accounted for at a home just outside of Van Buren. The Artemis Project is asking for the community to help to get the dogs and puppies the care and homes they need.
Bartholomew says the woman living in the house, who doesn’t want to be named, says she has been reaching out to other rescues for help for five or six years, but no one has stepped in until now.
“When we came in, she said 'who told you about us?' She was so excited and so happy. She said was heaven-sent," Bartholomew said. "You know we just happened to come up. We were actually turning around on this road. We were looking to feed a mom and puppies and then we saw this."
The Artemis Project medical director, Mary Scott says unfortunately in rural areas like where these dogs are is where a lot of people drop off animals they no longer want.
“She was kindhearted enough to take them in and do the best she can to feed them, but it was an obvious situation that got overwhelming real quickly with not having enough funds for spay and neuter, so they just kept reproducing and it became a much bigger issue then she initially thought it would be,” Scott said.
Scott says for now they are making sure the dogs are fed and next week they will be giving the dogs vaccines, tests for heartworms and flea and tick medicine. She says they only have one open kennel at their facility in Hackett and have a long list of animals that need to come to their facility, so they are asking the public to help in any way they can.
“We are kind of overwhelmed with the overpopulation in this area, so we’ll definitely need help from other rescues or fosters that are willing to open up their homes because we just don’t have the space at our facility,” Scott said.
Click here if you would like to help the Artemis Project take care of the dogs.