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When a paper bag containing seven newborn puppies was found dumped in Glen Innes recently, Saving Hope in rural Silverdale leapt into action, as it has done so often before, in keeping with its motto, “Every dog deserves a chance”.
“Every dog deserves a chance,” says the charitable trust’s founder, Janine Hinton. “I do this and so does our team because we love these animals. I won’t put down a puppy – if a puppy wants to fight for its life, we’ll fight for it.”
Saving Hope quickly arranged foster homes and veterinary care for the puppies, which still had umbilical cords in place and were likely taken from their mother before even having had a chance to suckle. Several of them subsequently died, which Janine says had been “really hard for the foster carers”.
Janine says the plight of unwanted dogs has reached “crisis” proportions.
Since she founded the volunteer organisation six years ago, Janine says it has rescued and rehomed 3407 puppies, some from as far afield as Taranaki and Whangārei. Its busiest day saw 35 puppies arrive, and it currently has 128 puppies in care.
The group supplies food and bedding for pregnant dogs in the community, and a key part of its work is desexing mums after they have had a litter of pups – 43 in the last 6-8 weeks alone.
Saving Hope, which operates out of Janine’s home, relies on donations to carry out its work, and “every dollar counts”.
Eve, a six-week-old puppy found dumped alongside a road in Rotorua, had a fractured skull and an abscess on the brain, requiring $22,000 worth of surgery and medical care.
With funding a constant challenge, Janine says people sometimes say to her, “If you put down that puppy you could save others.”
“But I would rather close Saving Hope than say – sorry, you’re going to die; you can live.”
One day four chihuahua puppies arrived, about three inches in length and one weighing just 110 grams.
“And we thought, how on earth are we going to do this?” Janine recalls.
She and her granddaughter Tilly got to work, camping out in the lounge and bottle feeding them. Two of the tiny pups survived, and remain part of the family – Tilly adopted them.
Janine’s dream is to buy 20 acres of land to establish a “full-on” shelter, with a vet clinic and education area, where children with disabilities or the elderly could visit and “cuddle puppies”.
“I would have to win Lotto to do it,” she says. “But we’re going to do it some way!”
Saving Janine
Saving Hope founder, Janine Hinton, is battling stage 4 lung cancer. Her daughter has a Givealittle page to fund a drug called Osimertinib. Info and donations, visit https://bit.ly/3QbiE7m
