Donations sought to care for dogs saved from fire

DAYTONA BEACH — The Halifax Humane Society is trying to raise at least $10,000 by Tuesday to help pay for medication and treatment for 30 neglected dogs that were saved from a house fire in Port Orange last week.

The Humane Society has already burned through the roughly $3,000 in its emergency medical fund to provide antibiotics to all 30 dogs, according to Barry KuKes, community outreach director. It costs $200 to medicate each dog for just one week.

The organization raised $4,595 through its Facebook page by Wednesday afternoon.

The dogs need grooming, specialty shampoos and other medications to prepare them for adoption. One of the dogs doesn’t have use of his hind legs and needs a wheelchair device.

As of Wednesday, none of the dogs were ready to be adopted.

“A lot of things we need people can’t donate, we have to go purchase,” KuKes said. “So that’s why we’re asking people to make donations to our emergency medical fund, which we always have, but we went through a lot of the money that was in reserve just to do the antibiotics for these 30 dogs.”

All of the dogs, except one, are expected to make a full recovery. The dog in question is older, blind and deaf.

“We have no intention of euthanizing, we just don’t know if that dog will make it on its own or not,” KuKes said.

The dogs were brought to the Humane Society on Nov. 19 following a house fire at 431 Leslie Drive, Port Orange. The Port Orange Police Department rescued more than 30 animals from the fire, according to its Facebook post.