Meeting these dogs and the
other 173 dogs representing 37
breeds proved to be one of the
most emotionally wrenching experiences I've had in more
than 20 years of animal related
rescue work.
Dogs were acquired from a variety of sources; the
most common were friends or relatives (30 %), breeders (25 %), public or private animal shelter (15 %), with the remainder (less
than 10 % each) coming from a
breed rescue group, a newspaper advertisement, found as stray, being born at home, acquired from a pet store, and rare
other sources (Fig. 1).