Hundreds of puppies left to die break the heart of the woman who helps save them.

e’s been to hell and back, but now he’s the most beautiful boy.” These words spoken by 67-year-old Silverdale woman Janine Hinton, describe the plight of a 12-month-old abandoned puppy who suffered horrific injuries after being dragged tied to a moving car.

“He had half his feet missing and his skin was peeling off,” she says. “It makes me so cross, puppies like him don’t deserve this, they feel pain just like we do.”

Fortunately this pup’s story had a happy ending. Thanks to Hinton’s Saving Hope Foundation — a voluntary dog rescue organisation she established with her daughter Anita in 2017 — he was rescued, rehabilitated and has been adopted by a loving family.

Since setting up the foundation, Hinton and her team have saved and re-homed a staggering 641 dogs (at the time of writing another 13 were awaiting adoption), heartfelt work which has earned Saving Hope an ASB Good as Gold award. The bank is giving the foundation $10,000 which Hinton says will be used to pay vet bills.

“Janine is truly one in a million,” says ASB North Harbour regional manager Warren Bregman. “She has changed the future of these animals, many of whom would not have had a future at all.

“It’s not just about the dogs either. Janine’s work has also changed the lives of the countless people who have adopted a dog into their family and the fact she does this all of this through donations alone is astounding. We hope this award will help her continue this amazing work.”

The foundation, which takes in puppies and dogs and fosters them until they find a home, faces huge costs. In one case alone the bill for treatment to a pup who suffered two broken legs after being run over and left on the side of the road totalled $15,000, while Hinton says well over $80,000 was spent on vets in the foundation’s first year: “I’d hate to think what that figure is now.”

But this is the least of Hinton’s concern. “I do so love them (dogs). They give unconditional love and as humans we could learn so much from them. We fight for every dog we’ve got and I do admit I cry a lot when I see the state some of them are in. “I could tell you a lot of horror stories, it can be quite upsetting,” she says. “We’ve had week old pups left to die in a bag, dogs tied to trees to die, isn’t that disgraceful. It’s a never-ending story, something is going drastically wrong.

“The trouble is there are no consequences (for those who ill-treat dogs). Who pays the price? We need higher penalties and if I had my way I’d have every male dog in the country de-sexed.”

Hinton’s heart is constantly going out to the animals: “They are like little babies. I hold them and talk to them, I tell them they are safe now and you get a little lick back, oh my gosh it breaks my heart.”

One of the foundation’s foster carers, Shereena Rolland, says Hinton never says no when she gets the call for help. “They (dogs) come in droves and Janine at some stages has had pups all over her place; it would be awesome for her to receive some help as she has to ask for donations to pay for the vet bills.”

Hinton launched the foundation after adopting a young pup due to be euthanised. She called the pup Hope, hence the name of her foundation, the Saving Hope Foundation.

“Our first rescue was 10 o’clock one night and it has escalated from there,” she says. “There is hardly ever less than 100 dogs in our care and once we had 35 turn up in one day, you should have seen my house.”

The foundation has over 400 volunteers who not only work with Hinton to foster and adopt dogs, but help carry out the huge amount of administration required.

Yet it is Hinton who bears much of the brunt — her home often literally overrun with dogs awaiting adoption.

As if she’s not already busy enough. Together with her husband Clive she runs a trucking operation, a business they’ve had since the mid-1980s; her daughter and granddaughter live with them and between them they have seven children, 17 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Oh, and there’s her own pet dogs. She’s got 13 of them padding around her Silverdale lifestyle property (“half of them are rescues”) along with a pet miniature pony.

“Our lives are really busy but I don’t have any regrets,” she says. “I can’t sit still anyway and this keeps me going. I’m 67, but you can put me down as 25 — and I’ll still be wearing stilettos at 96.”

The foundation has a Give a Little page for those wanting to make a donation while more information on its work can be found at https:// savinghope.co.nz

View the video here: asb.co.nz/good-as-gold