It’s an animal rescue like you've never seen and the volunteers that have been rescuing and rehabbing some of the smallest animals are this week's KRLD Difference Makers.
“It's really much more than guinea pigs,” said Tonie Auer, a volunteer for the Texas Rustlers Small Animal Rescue since 2011.
It started as a guinea pig rescue, but has turned into so much more.
“Guinea pigs, rabbits, chinchillas, gerbils, hamsters, mice, rats. We’ve had a hedgehog, we’ve had a prairie dog,” Tonie said.
The organization is 100% volunteer run. Katie Love has been volunteering for more than a decade. She says this is a common story…
“A lot of people get their animals from a pet store or a breeder and not have done enough research on them and get tired of them and so they’ll just dump at an animal control,” said Katie Love, who has been volunteering for the organization for more than a decade. “Unfortunately, most animal controls aren’t properly equipped to handle small pets.”
Along with rescuing small animals from hoarder situations, various animal controls centers and more, the volunteers at the rescue also try to educate people as much as possible on the responsibilities of having a small pet.
One of the issues many people face is they buy guinea pigs from a pet store, but many times the employees don’t know how to properly tell the sex of the animal. Weeks later, people will call the rescue because one of their guinea pigs is pregnant.
While they take in as many animals as possible, there is one ultimate goal.
“Yes, our ultimate purpose is to get these animals into their ‘furr-ever’ homes,” Tonie said. “The ultimate goal is to get these pets adopted.”
We’re proud to call Texas Rustlers Small Animal Rescue this week's KRLD Difference Maker.
If you know someone making a difference in the community, send us an email at differencemaker@krld.com.
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