Forever Families for All

By Julie Duffin
Appears in the April 2024 issue.

Angel Dog Alliance supports animal rescues

While Teresa Ryan has been helping rescue dogs for years, it wasn’t until she received an urgent call from a shelter last August that she began pouring her whole heart into the effort.

When Ryan learned that funding was needed to support a transport of dogs being rescued from one of the highest kill-rate shelters in Georgia, she jumped in. Not only did she find a rescue to take them, she also agreed to help pay the costs. A month later she found out that a different rescue had stopped paying the facility where 25 dogs were being cared for. She took over the expenses for them as well.

With costs adding up, Ryan formed Angel Dog Alliance, a nonprofit that funds animal rescues, saving dogs from high-kill shelters and finding them loving homes. According to Ryan, the average cost to rescue a dog is roughly $1,300, which includes food, shelter, and other essentials until the dog is adopted. If the rescued animals have health problems—as many do—the cost can be thousands more. “Rescuers have a heart to help and serve and save the animals but they need the financial support to do so,” she says. With the nonprofit status, Ryan receives a rescue discount for medical expenses at local animal hospitals.

Once the organization’s current foster group of dogs is adopted, Ryan will focus on the nonprofit’s bigger mission of financially supporting other rescue organizations across the country. “I am not a rescue and I don’t want to be a rescue—I want to support and fund rescues. Each rescue has their own vision. Angel Dog Alliance is a collaboration that supports rescues financially and also helps find homes for the animals in their care,” Ryan explains.

Shelters all across the country are facing unprecedented overcrowding issues. Ryan attributes it to people returning the pets they adopted during the pandemic. “It’s the worst it’s ever been,” she says. “People bring their dogs back to the shelter and think they will find a home for them. In reality a very high rate of them get euthanized because the shelters just don’t have the capacity. We’re not going to adopt our way out of this problem. The real solution is spaying and neutering. But it is an immediate problem for the animals that do exist.”

In addition to the day-to-day costs, the nonprofit covers training expenses to help animals overcome behaviors resulting from previous trauma and mistreatment. “We want to get them trained to be good family pets so that they’ll find a permanent home,” Ryan says.

The organization also hosts adoption events almost every Saturday at Pet Supplies Plus at 720 East Ogden Avenue in Naperville. The organization’s website (angeldogalliance.com) features the animals available for fostering and adoption as well as donation and volunteer opportunities.

Photos: Angel Dog Alliance