Working Dogs Rescue in Phoenix damaged during powerful monsoon storm – Arizona’s Family

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Tarps were torn to shreds, cooling systems were damaged and fencing toppled over at a dog rescue near Interstate 10 and 40th Street during Sunday night’s storm.

“Everything was just flying everywhere,” said Alicia Via, who is part of the foundation for Working Dogs Rescue. “These kennels over here had tarps on the outside of them, so what they did was act like a parachute to the wind and literally we had to hurry and get dogs out and into safety because the kennels were going with the wind.”

Via was at the rescue when the storm hit and quickly got the dogs into a safer area. “They were barking, and some of them were scared; they were going under their beds, but those were the ones that we picked up and we put them over here, and we had people sitting down with them,” Via said.

The next day, they got a better look at the damage and started cleaning up. “It lifted up all of the roofing for all the kennels and tore the corrugated plastic roofing off that was anchored to the kennels and tore the tarps off that were underneath the kennels,” said Cherlynn Berry, founder of 2 Share Foundation, which works closely with Working Dogs Rescue. “The misters got wrapped up into the fans and so it stopped the fans from working because the blades got bent.”

The rescue also lost most of its cooling systems in the storms, which are placed in every other kennel to keep the dogs cool. “They’re little Arctic air conditioners and they’re chargeable and every other pen has one on the back so it blows cold air,” explained Via. “What happened is when they bent they came off, they dropped in water.”

Now, volunteers are trying to keep the dogs cool as they try to find the money to replace the coolers and misting system. “It’s pretty bad because it’s very hard to cool them down and dogs are very heat sensitive, so we’re trying to get this done as quick as possible to get them shade and get them some kind of cooling going,” said Berry. “They’re trying desperately to get shade and coolness to these dogs before they start having dogs going down with heat stroke. They’ve been pouring ice in all of their water buckets and whatever they can do temporarily because the whole place needs a lot of work.”

Volunteers are also rotating shifts monitoring the dogs to ensure they do not get overheated. Working Dogs Rescue is in need of tarps for shade, fans, and various other items, as well as monetary donations. They currently are at total capacity, with 57 dogs waiting to be adopted. The rescue set up a GoFundMe page to help repair the damages and replace the cooling systems.

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