Several times a month specially equipped vans are sent to pick up unwanted dogs from Southern over crowded Shelters and bring them to a new life in the North. The trip takes almost an entire day in each direction but is one that seems to fulfill a great need. In the South there are more dogs then homes and in the Northeast there are more potential homes then dogs in shelters waiting to be adopted. Instead of buying dogs from some unknown source to fill the cages in shelters or bring them in from other countries the Northern shelters contract with Puppy Pipeline to deliver a certain amount of dogs each month.
The pipeline got its start in 2006, when Atlanta resident Mike Dougherty went to a shelter in rural Georgia to pick up two dogs for rescue. Just outside the shelter, he saw animal control officers throwing euthanized dogs into a Dumpster. After researching and networking with other dog rescue operations, Dougherty determined that many Southern dogs were being euthanized primarily because of supply and demand. Funding for shelters in the South is much lower then funding in say Maine or New Jersey and people as a whole look at dogs differently there. Because there is such a major difference in funding there are less low cost or free spay and neuter programs in the South.
The Puppy Pipeline makes sure the dogs it transports have their shots and health certificates. It also requires that the animals be spayed or neutered and that the receiving shelters agree not to euthanize older dogs to accommodate new additions from the pipeline.
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