DENVER — A Denver foster family has saved an 8-month-old golden retriever puppy from euthanasia at a Texas animal shelter that has struggled to save half of the 8,000 pets dropped off there every year, according to a news release Friday from the nonprofit organization Austin Pets Alive! (APA!).
Darla faced being put down because of lack of space at Laredo Animal Care Services (LACS) in south Texas.
But APA! shared her story with animal rescue groups across the country, and Darla caught the eye of Mile High Lab Rescue in Denver.
APA! was able to stop Darla's death seconds before the procedure, as she was being wheeled into the euthanasia room because she was too scared to walk, according to an APA! news release Friday.
“We had to pull her, we had to save her,” Jordana Moerbe, APA!'s national shelter support director, said. “We hope that she’s able to come out of her shell and be the happy puppy she deserves to be. It's what every one of the pets in the shelter deserves, and that's what we're working so hard for, hand in hand with the LACS staff."
APA! flew Darla to meet her new foster family Friday, making her just one of the 5,000 pets APA! said it's been able to save since the nonprofit organization's transport program started in 2021.
The program was born out of the need created by the historic 2021 winter storm that stranded many shelter pets.
Darla is now available for adoption. To learn more about adopting her, or any of Mile High Lab Rescue's other available dogs, click here.
She is just one of the many dogs at this south Texas shelter that need saving, including four purebred golden retrievers, a Frenchie mix, a purebred Yorkie, an akita, Great Dane and a shar-pei mix. To find out more info about APA's Transport Program, click here.
There's also countless dogs in the Denver metro looking to be adopted, including at the Denver Dumb Friends League.
