End animal suffering in KCMO urban core

Chain of Hope works in the urban core of KCMO, helping animals and their owners. We also handle many  animal neglect and cruelty cases. One of those dogs that desperately needed help was a young husky momma that we named Marla.  

The owners called and said that they hadn’t even known that their dog was pregnant until her son found a newborn puppy in the back yard. They called Chain of Hope because they didn’t know what to do. We told them to bring them inside, so they brought them into their basement.

They called back and said that they didn’t think the puppies were nursing well. We told them that we would bring them some formula and bottles to have as a back-up way to feed them. We took supplies over and that’s when we saw momma, in the basement with her babies. She was missing a lot of hair and her skin was very red and inflamed. She did not look well and now she had babies to take care of. I asked the owner if they’d taken her to the vet, but they had not. I told them that we would pay for a veterinarian appointment for the momma dog, but they did not follow-up on that.

The owners contacted us a few days later and said that they were bottle-feeding the puppies-that they were not nursing for whatever reason. We stopped by a few days later with some more formula for them. We could hear the momma dog, crying and whining in the back yard. We went back there and she was tied to the clothesline pole. She had a dirty bowl of water and no food. She looked terrible and she was crying. Her skin condition looked very painful and it had obviously gone on for a long time with no treatment.

The man came back there and we asked them if they even wanted this dog. He said it wasn’t his, but he would ask the woman when she got home. The next day, we received a message from the woman that we could come and get the momma dog!

When we went over to get her, she was tied to the clothesline pole in the back yard, whining for help. Help had arrived!

We brought her to our rescue facility and named her Marla. She was only a year old and we got her right into the veterinarian. She had demodectic mange (the non-contagious kind), she was very much underweight, she actually had a broken hip and had given birth with a broken hip. She also has heartworms and needs treatment for that. All of her babies ended up dying. Marla’s entire life so far had been nothing but pain and sadness.

Chain of Hope has turned Marla’s life around for the best with lots of love and great care! Her skin is healing beautifully. She will have surgery to repair her hip in the near future, followed by heart worm treatment and getting spayed! Marla has a lot of things to go through, but we will get her through it all!

All of her needed procedures are expensive, so we very much appreciate any financial help with everything Marla needs. We are determined to give her a great life, get her through all of her medical issues and then find her the best forever home ever! We can’t think of a more deserving dog!

We are in a severe animal overpopulation crisis in Kansas City, MO and all across the United States. Our shelters here in KC are overflowing. This only leads to increased euthanasia due to not having enough space for all of them. There are always more coming in. We at Chain of Hope have a primary mission of reducing the pet overpopulation in our city.

The shelters are particularly trying to deal with multitudes of pit bulls. Chain of Hope believes that pit bulls are the most neglected dogs in the urban core in which we serve. Many are gotten to simply be guard dogs, yet they have just as much love to give as the Cocker Spaniel next door. They are often chained in the backyard and may or may not be fed and watered on a daily basis. They may or may not have shelter and are out in inclement weather. We don’t know how many of them survive at all.

When Chain of Hope visits a house, we meet with the owners. Sometimes they are receptive and sometimes they are not. When they are, we are happy to find out what their needs are for their animal and work together to improve that animal’s life. Our number one question when people ask for assistance is, “are your animals spayed and neutered?” If they are not fixed yet and the owner is receptive to having them fixed, we help them financially to get this done. Many people just don’t have the money.  That’s where we come in. Chain of Hope has always spayed and neutered pit bulls and pit bull mixes for free. We remove the financial barrier that low-income pet owners are often facing.

We are highly motivated to getting animals from the urban core of KCMO spayed and neutered. We have to lower the euthanasia rate in this city, instead of watching it increase. We have taken numerous pregnant moms, moms and litters and sometimes litters with no moms over to our city shelter and it breaks our hearts. There’s only so many foster and adoptive homes out there. We cannot adopt our way out of this crisis. We must continue to work hard on the prevention side, which means getting more animals spayed and neutered. Your continued support makes this happen in a critical area of our city! Many thanks to each of you!