Riders to the rescueue
With the help of an extended horse community, two horsemen have found new homes for more than 8,600 dogs in need.
With the help of an extended horse community, two horsemenn have found new homess for more than 8,600 dogs ogs in need.
Happy, a brighteyed eyed, Long Long-HairedHaired Dachshund, fell off her owner’s bed and ruptured a disc in her back. The accident left her partially paralyzed, and she would need extensive rehabilitation for a shot at a decent life---care her owner could not provide.
Fortunately, Happy was turned over to Danny Robertshaw and Ron Danta. In their professional lives, Robertshaw and Danta train show hunters. They also operate Danny & Ron’s Rescue, a nonprofit, no-kill rescue for dogs in need.
The rescue provided Happy the surgery she needed, as well as orthopedic therapy and lots of patience and kindness while she healed. Today, she can walk and run again. She will always require specialized care, but she
now has a permane permanent, loving home with a wo woman who manages her own handicaps a and understands firsthand the difference she can make in this little dog’s life.
Happy is one of more than 8,600 dogs that Robertshaw and Danta have rehabilitated and rehomed since Danny & Ron’s Rescue was established as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization in 2008. Back in the 1990s, the two began taking in shelter dogs facing imminent euthanasia, three and four at a time, and finding them homes. Then, after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and surrounding areas in 2005, leaving many pets abandoned and in need, their efforts expanded. Today, they continue to take in abused, abandoned and starving dogs of all ages and breeds--up to 1,500 per year. The rescue is strictly a no-kill operation, and they look at each dog as a lifetime
responsibility.
“Once the dog comes into our rescue, they’re in our rescue for life, whether they’re adoptable or not adoptable,” Danta says. “We promise every dog that we take out of a shelter, or a cruelty case or a court case or anywhere, that once they enter our rescue they’re in a safe haven.”
BRINGING THEM HOME
Danny & Ron’s Rescue doesn’t look like a typical dog shelter. “Our organization is very different, in that our dogs don’t live in kennels,” says Danta. “They live in the house, as part of the family.”
Most of the small- and mediumsized dogs taken into the rescue live in Robertshaw and Danta’s home in Camden, South Carolina. Larger dogs, and those that require rehabilitation, live nearby at Beaver River Farm, the 22-acre facility where Robertshaw and Danta keep their show horses. At any given time, says Danta, they might have from 30 to 60 dogs living with them in their home, including 14 non-adoptable permanent residents. They also house rescue dogs at their farm in Wellington, Florida, as well as in foster homes.
At each location, the dogs live together in a pack. This arrangement, says Danta, is natural for them, and it helps them learn canine social skills as well as recover from any social or mental issues they may have. Fearful dogs become braver, for example, in the company of more outgoing individuals, and high-energy dogs
settle down and learn better manners nners from the calmer ones. Dog trainerer John Martino also donates his time,me, working with the dogs on other behavioral issues they may have,, Danta says.
Newly rescued dogs receive a full range of veterinary treatment, as needed, including flea and tick prevention, heartworm testing and treatment, spaying and neutering, dentalntal care, grooming and bathing, and d vaccines. They come from all sources:urces: Some are surrendered by owners who can no longer care for them, or family members after the owner passes away. Some are “overflows” or dogs on the euthanasia lists at shelters. Others are abandoned dogs found wandering as strays.
“We are constantly getting calls like, ‘This dog is on the highway, can you come pick it up?’” says Danta. “We have to go pick them up. It’s an endless job.”
DOGS AND HORSES
Robertshaw and Danta are well-known on the show circuit. Robertshaw is a member of the U.S. Equestrian Federation (USEF) Licensed Officials Committee and serves with the USEF Hunter Breeding Judges’ Clinic. He received the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association (USHJA) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. Danta is Chairman of the USHJA International Hunter Derby Task Force and has received the USHJA President’s Distinguished Service Award four times.
Robertshaw and Danta balance the demands of operating a dog rescue out of their home while also keeping up with the travel schedule of the typical show season with the help of volunteers, as well as five full-time staff members, who care for the dogs at each location.
But their constant travel on the show circuit also works in the rescue’s favor ---Robertshaw and Danta take adoptable dogs with them wherever they go, and they seek potential adopters at each event. “We’ve gone to a lot of big horse shows, but any place we go, we’re always taking dogs,” says Robertshaw.
Robertshaw and Danta and their dogs receive a huge amount of support from their network of equestrian friends. No matter where they go, Danta says, they have never run across a horse show manager who didn’t encourage them to bring the dogs to be adopted. At the busy events, there are always volunteers ready to help Robertshaw and Danta manage the dogs they bring.
“We have a lot of horse show moms who love to give their time, and there are so many children who like to come and walk the dogs,” says Danta. “We set up a tent up at the top of the hill at the Grand Prix ring at a show recently, and