VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Hope for Life is a no-kill shelter in Virginia Beach that rescues abandoned, abused, or neglected animals, but one rescue operation has overwhelmed the facility.
On average, Hope for Life brings in 1,200 animals a year. Recently, they got involved with a hoarding situation in North Carolina that flooded their facility with dogs.
“The expenses, medically, were beyond anything that we could have even imagined to save the lives of some of these animals,” said Hope for Life Founder and Director Pauline Cushman.
They reached capacity after taking in 18 of the more than 20 dogs inside the house. Cushman said animal control also discovered deceased dogs inside.
“It’s heart wrenching,” she said.
Now they’re caring for these dogs on top of so many other animals that need medical care.
“We have animals that are currently in the vet’s offices having eye enucleations,” Cushman said. “We have one little dog having a cancerous tumor removed from his arm.”
The emotional toll is high, especially, she said, with the puppies.
“These guys are only four-weeks-old,” she said. “And we posted a live video when they came in of the fleas crawling all over these puppies, so they needed a blood transfusion to save their lives.”