American Boston Terrier Rescue is a rescue group whose focus is saving dogs from kill shelters. It does not mean if you put your dog in a shelter that we will automatically save it. If a dog is owner surrendered to a shelter, they do not have to keep him alive or turn him over to a rescue group. The shelter can walk him directly to the back room and euthanize him. Some shelters give the owners twenty-four hours to change their minds, but with the overcrowding that is going on right now, most shelters are not giving that small window of time. They are crowded and they have to hold the strays and found dogs a certain number of days/hours before they can euthanize them, but an owner surrender they can euthanize immediately to make room for more dogs. Bottom line - if you put your dog in a shelter, you are usually signing his death warrant as there are more dogs in shelters than there are people looking to adopt a dog.

ABTR only has a certain number of rescue spots available and a limited amount of rescue funds to help dogs. When the general rescue funds are low, we cannot help as many shelter dogs. We rely on donations and fundraisers to help the dogs, and due to the downturn in the economy, those donations have fallen off by about fifty percent. Despite the huge decrease in available funds, the number of incoming dogs has tripled in the last two years. We're trying to do more with less, but a dollar only stretches so far.

For that reason, ABTR is currently NOT accepting owner surrenders, Craigslist dogs or found dogs. Found dogs should be taken to the closest shelter so the owners can find them if they are looking for them. Make sure you tell the shelter that you found the dog and where you found them.

However, we will be happy to work with you to find a new home for your dog if you're willing to the following:

We would appreciate any tax deductible donation that you could make to ABTR so we may continue to help the Bostons that we're able to save from the kill shelters at this time. Thank you.