All-volunteer WARF saves thousands of animals during 20 years of grassroots efforts

By Linda Eissmann

Located in beautiful Incline Village, on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, the Wylie Animal Rescue Foundation (WARF) is a truly grass-roots—but very successful—animal rescue organization for dogs, cats, and other small companion animals that come into their care.

“We are an all-breed rescue group focusing on animals who find themselves out of time and out of chances at high-kill shelters,” explains WARF Co-founder Sam Loudon.
“In 1988, after the death of Wylie, a beloved dog, we started out pulling dogs from Reno that were to be euthanized, fostering them, and then placing them. Things have just sort of snowballed from there.”

Thousands of Success Stories
Nearly 10,000 animals have been fortunate enough to pass through the organization’s program and have found loving, forever homes. Loudon gives much of the credit to Connie Nowlin, a co-founder, as well as dozens of other foster homes and volunteers.

An all-volunteer group with no shelter, office, staff, or overhead, WARF relies completely on foster homes, but also works with the no-kill Tahoe Vista Animal Shelter in Kings Beach, California (also at Lake Tahoe).

Adoptable animals and a wide variety of helpful resource topics are available on WARF’s website at: www.tahoewarf.com. Courtesy listings from other shelters, smaller rescues, and private citizens are also posted here.

Spay/Neuter Assistance
Beyond rescuing and finding homes for animals at Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area, WARF also takes a proactive approach to the devastating problem of companion animal overpopulation, providing low-or no-cost spay and neuter assistance, training, and medical care for low-income pet owners.

Offering another helping hand, WARF and the Tahoe Vista shelter have taken four of the Gabbs dogs and are working hard to find foster homes and adoptive families for Charles, Winnie, Polly, and Apple.

WARF is one of many rescue organizations that will offer pets for adoption during the Reno Super Adoption, Saturday, April 12, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center Exhibit Hall. The event is a highlight of the 1st Annual Nevada Week for Animals, April 5-13, 2008, a statewide celebration to build awareness and mobilize action on behalf of all animals in the Silver State and Lake Tahoe area.

What You Can Do
Meet the voluteers and animals from WARF at the Super Adoption in Reno on April 12. And visit the organization's website.

Posted by Julie Snyder, Best Friends Network

Photo of rescued pooches Trixie and Bella, courtesy of WARF