By Ryan Nickerson, Staff writer

Homeless animals get a chance for a better life thanks to the volunteers at Rescued Pets Movement.

Homeless animals get a chance for a better life thanks to the volunteers at Rescued Pets Movement.

Homeless animals get a chance for a better life thanks to the volunteers at Rescued Pets Movement.

Homeless animals get a chance for a better life thanks to the volunteers at Rescued Pets Movement.

Rescued Pets Movement saves more than 53,000 animals

Freya wagged her tail as she boarded her kennel inside a Rescued Pets Movements van. It wasnt long ago that she was considered homeless after she was tossed from a truck along with her puppies in front of a Houston animal shelter.

Its a peculiar moment for Houstons Rescued Pets Movement. Shelters can only handle a limited intake of dogs and cats, demand for household pets is on the rise, and Houstons homeless animal population is still high.

RPM is a nonprofit that partners with animal shelters across the country by transporting potentially euthanized cats and dogs in Houston to areas of the country with high demand for adoptions. As of June this year, RPM has saved 53,487 animals.

Due to COVID-19, many Houston animal shelters like BARC are operating under special conditions and the process for residents to drop off animals is now through appointment only (except for sick or injured animals). BARC is encouraging residents to not pick up any stray animals unless they are prepared to care for them at home.

It may take a couple of days, it may take a couple of weeks before you can get an appointment, said RPM president and co-founder Cheryl Perini. Not only has this led to Freya being tossed from a truck but some have been abandoned and found leashed to BARCs fence.

RPM steps in and takes animals from BARC and provides medical care for them in their facility and ideally puts them in a foster home. If no fosters are available, they stay in RPMs temporary shelter until their transport date.

On Thursday, RPM boarded 112 cats and 41 dogs into their vans to be transported to rescue shelters in Colorado and California. They stop every six hours to walk and feed the animals, and they dont stay in hotels.

Its actually been hard to get dogs from the shelters because so many are closed because of COVID-19, said Perini. If you find a stray you need to prepare to keep it long term because you dont know when you would be accommodated.

I also think with the economy being bad there are more people needing help with their pets. Maybe they have to move, they cant care for them, its a really strange time, said Perini.

Perini has worked in traditional pet rescue starting in the early 2000s. She moved to New Mexico in 2008 and volunteered with local animal shelters there. When she moved back to Houston in 2013 she saw how many adoptable pets were on BARCs euthanasia list and they all needed help.

By September 2013, the RPM was created.

Nobody was coming for the moms and so many puppies were on the euthanasia list, said Perini. Now I would say probably 100 percent of the moms and puppies get out of BARC alive.

In September 2013, BARCs live release rate was 48 percent, according to their Asilomar report. At the end of 2019, BARCs live release rate was 88.5 percent.

With RPMs rapid growth, their need for animal foster homes grows too; there are always more animals than there are fosters.

If interested in becoming a foster parent, go to http://www.rescuedpetsmovement.org/.

ryan.nickerson@hcnonline.com

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Rescued Pets Movement saves more than 53,000 animals - Chron