WILSALL — When nearly 60 dogs were left in dire conditions, Prairie Song Rescue in Park County stepped up to make sure they got the care they needed.
"So, there were community members that were very aware of this man and had been calling law enforcement, trying to get animal control out there for years. And so, there was a couple of people who were in direct community and reached out to us immediately," says Jessica Zimmerman, Prairie Song president.
Zimmerman explains that after the owner was suddenly incarcerated, 58 dogs living on his property were left to fend for themselves.
"We were very overwhelmed by the number of dogs and the conditions of dogs. The amount it was going to take us for vet care and food alone was astronomical," she says. "A lot of them were kenneled in a dank basement in their own feces and a lot of them had been fighting aggressively over females in heat."
Despite these challenges, Prairie Song and partners managed to remove a majority of the dogs and have already adopted more than three-quarters of them to loving homes and foster families. But the work isn’t done yet.
Zimmerman says, "I believe we have somewhere around 15 that are still either not medically able to be adopted into homes or are just too scared and semi-feral and are not prepared mentally and emotionally to be in homes."
Prairie Song is a nonprofit, and their work is largely funded by donations and volunteers.
"It just seemed like people came out of the woodwork to be able to help us with this, which was amazing—we could never have done it without them," says Zimmerman.
If you’d like to help the Prairie Song rescue effort, visit their website.
