By Liz R. Kover
Animal Assisted Activities Director Marleys Mutts Dog Rescue
Marley's Mutts Dog Rescue Ranch
Share
Tweet
As a dedicated group of animal rescuers, trainers, and community educators, we at Marley's Mutts Dog Rescue hold fast to a vision...that someday, very soon, our organization will have a "forever home" of its own. Marley's Mutts' Rescue Ranch will be a facility like none Kern County – or possibly the world -- has ever known. Our facility will be a sprawling compound that covers multiple acres of land, and holds within it the infrastructure crucial to the expansion and evolution of our unique programs and services: Like the strength of bone does for the spirit of a person, this foundation will house the soul of an entire animal welfare community.
Marley's Mutts' Rescue Ranch
will serve a multitude of purposes
Currently, all of our dogs reside in foster homes in the interim between rescue and adoption. With a facility like this, we would have the capacity to rescue and care for more dogs and also have the dedicated space and resources with which to socialize, exercise, train, and introduce the dogs we rescue to potential adopters.
Currently, our Director and some staff work from their homes in Tehachapi, CA, while the majority of foster families, volunteers, the shelters from which we pull dogs, and the vet hospitals with whom we partner, are spread across Bakersfield and surrounding cities. With a centralized location, we will be able to unite, organize, and mobilize. Furthermore, we plan for our place to be a "canine community center", open to the outside world by way of memberships to the dog parks and other amazing features of the facility!
Currently, we offer innovative vocational skills training courses to men and women in drug and alcohol recovery; we teach dog handling, dog walking, dog training, and dog grooming to people preparing to reenter the workforce after spending time in residential addiction programs, or after having been incarcerated. Having a facility that operates as a dog daycare and boarding complex as well as a rescue, we will be able to actually employ the people who come through our job training programs.
We will put Kern County on the map with regard to the progressive animal welfare movement, where currently we rank very low. A centralized facility will bolster volunteer involvement and community support, both locally and worldwide.
It will allow us to do what we do best, which is grow, foster connections with other rescue and rehabilitation operations, and reach ever farther in our quest to elevate the human-canine relationship to reach its fullest potential!
