Houston is in the midst of a stray animal crisis - part of a nationwide drop in adoptions coupled with an uptick in pandemic pet surrenders and abandoned animals - that is leaving volunteer-run rescues, fosters and shelter staff burned out. Shea, Contract Photographer / For the Chronicle Stray dogs eat after they were fed by K-911 Houston animal rescue volunteers on the corner of Peach St. You go to bed with that, you wake up with that, and you don’t forget those faces.” “When you’re out in the field and you have to leave an injured dog out on the street because you literally have no place for it to go, that weighs on you,” Tena Lundquist Faust, co-president of the nonprofit animal welfare organization Houston PetSet said.

“I can’t believe they are still itching after the provecta (flea medication),” Barbosa says.Īfter feeding, assessing and documenting the dogs’ condition, the women prepare to to leave as the strays head back to the culvert for relief from the blazing sun. Shea, Contract Photographer / For the Chronicle) Shea, Contract Photographer / For the Chronicle) Jane Wesson (left) and Anna Barbosa of the Houston animal rescue K-911 feed a pair of stray dogs on in Houston. Jane Wesson (left) and Anna Barbosa of the Houston animal rescue K-911 feed a pair of stray dogs on in Houston.

So until space opens up, or a foster agrees to take them, Barbosa and Wesson are feeding and treating strays right on the street, checking in every so often before they can bring them into the program. More from Rebecca Hennes: Texas horse rescue finds new home after being evicted due to COVID financial losses These two strays desperately need help, but K-911’s resources are maxed out. “She’s pregnant, see it, that bulge?” Wesson says of the brown-colored dog while loading up an aluminum tray of wet food and kibble.īarbosa and Wesson have been saving animals in Houston for more than a decade, earning K-911 a reputation as a rescue that takes extreme medical cases. The bumper sticker on the car reads “ Animal abusers should be put down.” Thomas B. The other keeps her distance.Ī stray dog is seen on the corner of Peach St. The brown-colored stray is more trusting and slowly makes her way to Wesson’s beat-up SUV.

Both are covered in mange, and one has a swollen belly. The strays slowly move out from the culvert at the corner of Peach Street and Haywood.

Free download feeding stray dogs