Ken-Mar Rescue
United States
| Animals/Wildlife
More information
Ken Guild and Martie Petrie have had dogs all of their lives. Since 2007, when they opened Ken-Mar Rescue, they have saved hundreds of dogs’ lives. They’ve developed a track record of effective adoptions. They’ve cultivated hundreds of Foster Parents, to care for the dogs as they wait to be adopted, including many Fosters who have ultimately adopted their dogs. Ironically, it took Martie losing one of her own dogs for rescue dogs to come into focus for Ken & Martie. When one of Martie’s Pomeranians, the frailest, skinniest and deaf, Moxie, got loose the reality of losing a dog to the “system” became all too real. After posting “lost dog” signs, Martie moved her search to a list of 18 dog places in the Silver Lake area. One such place was a pet store with an overriding holistic spirit. The owner recommended that Martie immediately visit a shelter in the area. The owner was so insistent and spoke with such conviction that Martie went directly to that shelter. It was there, among crates of dogs with high-end collars and tags, that Martie discovered that most shelters were not even trying to reconnect dogs with their owners. When she asked for help from the staff, to find Moxie, she was told “Your dog ain’t here.” Undeterred, she went cage by cage, for two and a half hours, searching for her dog. She showed every person at the shelter a picture of Moxie and finally, the one helpful volunteer took her in the back where she found her dog. Moxie had been labeled “defective” because of her deafness and was slated for euthanization. Finding Moxie gave Martie a cause to follow. She signed up as a volunteer at a shelter and discovered that hundreds of dogs are killed each week. She and Ken created a plan to network homeless dogs via the Internet to help find homes for adoptable dogs that would otherwise be killed. By focusing on one or two dogs at a time, they could transport the dogs to interim homes where they could “buy time” for the dogs until adopted. This gave both Martie & Ken a satisfaction that lead them to file for 501c3 to become a bona fide animal welfare non-profit organization. Ken-Mar Rescue was born.
