Compassion in Action: The Year in Videos with Animal Rescue Corps

Join Animal Rescue Corps for this Rescue Roundup as we look back on some of our most impactful moments of 2023.  Each video tells a poignant story of relief, recovery, and the unwavering spirit of compassion that fuels our work. From heartwarming rescue to transformative rehabilitation, join us in celebrating the milestones, challenges, and, most importantly, the more than 1,000 lives the incredible efforts of Animal Rescue Corps and each of you, our life-saving donors and generous volunteers, touched this year. Together, we’ve accomplished so much. As this year of rescues draws to a close, let’s take a moment to remember all we’ve done, together.

Animal Rescue Corps started the year with three urgent rescue operations taking place in just 11 days. 48 dogs and 5 cats were rescued from lives of severe neglect in Operation Daylight Save. Inhumanely caged, many of the dogs indoors lived trapped in cruel confinement and toxic levels of ammonia fumes. Even the dogs outdoors were chained and caged before ARC arrived on the scene.

Soon after, ARC deployed to rescue nearly three dozen dogs in Operation Interstate Blues. The dogs ran, bred, and fought unchecked near a highway truckstop. They ran on the highway in traffic, begged for food at the truck stop across the street, and had little individual care in their lifetimes, if ever, until ARC stepped in.

Less than two weeks later, ARC responded to a third urgent request in Operation Gentle Giants. Law enforcement requested ARC’s assistance recovering animals from a backyard breeder with multiple large-breed dogs, Great Danes and others, living in severely neglectful conditions along with seven cats and two chinchillas. ARC’s Field Team discovered the animals in states of severe neglect and dire medical need. Animal Rescue Corps did not leave a single animal behind.

In April, Animal Rescue Corps deployed to assist law enforcement with another neglectful backyard breeding operation in Operation Cruel Confines. ARC assisted in the recovery of approximately 175 animals, including dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, and turkeys. Each cage trapped 2-3 animals without access to food, water, or the space to freely move. Awful conditions and long-term neglect left many of the animals ill, injured, and in need of urgent medical attention. Along with making sure every animal received all the necessary care, ARC continued to assist  law enforcement with evidence and documentation.

ARC rescued another 28 dogs and puppies in Operation Eviction Emergency when the former tenants of a property in Arkansas abandoned them after their eviction in June.

July saw ARC setting out to Newton, Mississippi for Operation Skin and Bones. The Field Team rescued dogs from some of the most deplorable circumstances ARC saw all year, saving more than 70 surviving dogs from a so-called “rescuer” who left the dogs to go days without anyone coming to provide food, water, or care in the grueling Mississippi heat . Illness spread fast and widely among the abandoned dogs, and many were in dire physical condition when ARC and cooperating organizations arrived.

Soon after, ARC rescued 9 cruelly chained dogs in Operation Mississippi Chains, then 17 more in two separate and near-simultaneous rescues in Operation Last Chance.

ARC stayed busy with a series of rescues filling the autumn season, rescuing 14 abandoned labradors and 18 dogs and puppies living uncared for in a dangerous cornfield in Operation September Sweep and approximately 65 more dogs and cats hoarded and then abandoned in a vacated trailer without electricity or running water in Operation New Hope. They suffered from fur loss, eye infections, ear infections, parasite infestations, untreated illnesses and injuries, and more, before ARC recovered them from the grim circumstances.

In Operation Mountain Misery, ARC answered a call for help to rescue over 20 dogs & puppies living in the woods in one of West Virginia’s most impoverished counties. After the property owner died, her son was left overwhelmed, with few resources and no recourse but to try to care for the dogs himself. ARC rescued every dog on the property when no one else could.

Arc rescued 17 surviving dogs and puppies left on their own and without care on a dangerously dilapidated property in Operation Clean Slate . Their former guardian left these animals behind with no care after abandoning the property. Fortunately, the ARC Field Team was on the scene to rescue each of them, transport them to the Rescue Center, and provide treatment and rehabilitation they needed to begin their journey to a new life, free from the suffering and neglect they previously endured.

With winter on the way and temperatures dropping, ARC rescued more than 120 dogs in Operation Unchained Heart and Operation Holiday Express. These two puppy mill operations rescued dogs and puppies mistreated and used for profit, neglected, or simply abandoned and left unwanted after a mill shutdown. Every animal deserves more than to be used and then forgotten, and ARC closed out the year by ensuring that each dog and puppy stayed safe, warm, and well-cared for over the holiday season.