Animal
Rescue Foundation’s (ARF) Fifth Annual
Wag-A-Thon Event March 3, 2001
By Eve Link
ARF is an all breed
rescue that is a no-kill shelter that has many
volunteers that provide care to animals. It
serves the communities of Dana Point, Capistrano
Beach and Monarch Beach, California http://www.arfpets.org/wag-a-thon.htm.
Each year they coordinate an event that raises
money so that many animals can be cared for while
waiting to be adopted Each animal receives baths,
medical examinations when necessary and the money
is used so that they look and feel their best.
The Wag is a very
coordinated effort that involves sponsors,
volunteers and celebrity participations. Each
registered walker was encouraged to obtain
pledges that would also help sponsor the
foundation. Signs were posted from the main turn
off to the Dana Point harbor. Each volunteer was
very helpful and provided guidance to those who
asked. Everyone played a part in picking up after
their pet so that future Wag events would be
allowed to occur. There were booths with lots of
free goodies for the dogs and there were even
some for people too. T-shirts were included as
part of the registration fee.
This year, the Search and
Rescue Reserve Unit gave a Bloodhound
presentation and demonstrated how they find
missing people or hunt out criminals. Per Lt.
Hanson, 40,000 skin cells are eliminated from the
human body every hour. It is this scent that the
dogs track They may not actually track every step
that was made, but rather where the skin cells
land. It was difficult to fully demonstrate their
abilities because usually more distance is
involved. However, with the large crowd the
bloodhounds had their work cut out for them. Sgt.
Williams and Taffy searched out another officer
successfully and the crowd cheered!
As the demonstration
occurred before the crowd, four P51’s flew
overhead. They made several passes to show their
support for this wonderful event. Meanwhile, the
band (name) volunteered and played popular music,
which entertained every one of all ages.
Scheduled to appear
was the Dana Point Mayor, Harold Kaufman and the
ARF President, Sue Walshe. Also scheduled was the
celebrity Grand Marshal Gordon Jump who was known
for his role on WKRP in Cincinnati and is now the
Maytag Man for their commercials. The canine
celebrity was “Moose” (Eddie from TV
show Fraser).
Dogs and even some owners
were dressed in costume for the pet contests.
Ruth and Beatrice http://www.ocnow.com/groups/interests/pets/wag_slide027.html
were a delightful sight. Other people had their
animals dressed up with hats, bandannas or doggy
jackets. The German Shepherd Rescue in Burbank http://www.gsrescue.org
participated with 7 homeless dogs. Each wore a
purple doggy jacket with the words “homeless”
on it. A lot of people stopped to ask what it
meant. One of the dogs ended up adopted that day.
The German Shepherd Rescue
is a non-profit no kill shelter that primarily
takes German Shepherds in for adoption. They take
in solid black, black and tans, black and silvers
and even white shepherds. There were two white
shepherds participating that day wearing jackets.
Information was shared about the breed and
directions were given for viewing the rescue and
the AWSA website. The German Shepherd group
walked together during the 4K track. A local TV
station, OCNow, took 100 pictures, including the
white shepherds, to be viewed on the local news
web site.
German Shepherd Rescue
Volunteer, Diana and Homeless White Shepherd,
Dana: http://www.ocnow.com/groups/interests/pets/wag_slide035.html
AWSA Member Matt Link and
Sandy: http://www.ocnow.com/groups/interests/pets/wag_slide034.html
Found in attendance was one
other White Shepherd: http://www.ocnow.com/groups/interests/pets/wag_slide027.html
Bloodhounds: http://www.ocnow.com/groups/interests/pets/wag_slide094.html
GS Rescue Volunteers, Linda
and Cliff: http://www.ocnow.com/groups/interests/pets/wag_slide083.html
GS Rescue: http://www.ocnow.com/groups/interests/pets/wag_slide056.html
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