Helping Homeless Hounds
Helping Homeless Hounds
Seattle Beagle Rescue is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, Federal Tax ID #03-0377785, dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and re-homing of unwanted beagles, education of owners on responsible dog ownership, and education of the public on the beagle breed. We are a volunteer run organization that relies solely on tax deductible donations to help dogs from shelters that may be overcrowded and assist private homes that can no longer care for them, as well as dogs from other rescue organizations that may be overwhelmed with beagles needing new homes and laboratories releasing beagles from testing. We have partnered with high kill shelters, international rescue groups, domestic rescue groups and individuals to safely bring pups to the Pacific Northwest. We are able to provide various types of assistance for beagles in our rescue, such as foster homes, training or medical care until each beagle can be placed in an appropriate loving, permanent home. In some cases, we may be able to provide hospice care for beagles that may not be adoptable due to health issues, but still deserve the love and warmth of a home in their final days.
We are a foster based rescue and do not have a traditional kennel facility. Our dogs are cared for by their foster families until we find a forever home for them. Therefore, our process to meet dogs and to adopt our rescue dogs may be different than an animal control facility, humane society or animal shelter.
Seattle Beagle Rescue’s mission is to rescue and rehome beagles and beagle mixes that may find themselves lost or abandoned, neglected or mistreated, or needing a new home, through care and compassion, shelter and adoption. We aspire to build a sense of a like-minded community through public education, events and volunteer opportunities where beagles are valued and treated with respect and kindness.
Seattle Beagle Rescue is a community of supporters and volunteers passionate about making a difference to the lives of beagles in need and keeping them out of harm’s way. Whatever the reason, we take the dogs in with dignity and respect... after all, It’s All About the Dogs.
Tipper the beagle is the one who started it all 2000! She was three years old and her family didn’t want her any more. The family made an appointment at their vet to have her euthanized. Their vet was also Judy’s vet, the founder of Seattle Beagle Rescue, and the vet staff did not want that sad job of saying goodbye to Tipper. Knowing Judy was a beagle person who had been volunteering with another rescue organization, learning the ins and outs of how to help beagles in need, the vet called and told her the situation and asked if she could help Tipper. How could anyone say no to that? Tipper became SBR’s very first foster beagle!
Using the website, PetShelterNetwork, which was new at that time, Judy and friends found so many fabulous potential homes for this one beagle, that they decided to find out if more needed help… and that’s how it all started. They were surprised to discover how big the need was for rehoming beagles across the Pacific Northwest. Things were different back then in the animal welfare world and shelters were beyond capacity and struggling to save as many dogs as they could. Sadly, shelters were having to euthanize adoptable dogs due to space. Judy would get multiple calls a week from local shelters, asking if they could take their beagles and beagle mixes that were out of time. They found ways to scale up to meet the demand – expanding the volunteer network, boarding dogs at their vet when short of foster homes and building a beagle community that helped out in various ways. And in 2002 Seattle Beagle Rescue was officially up and running as an approved non-profit organization, helping beagles in need! These initial actions have continued and SBR has continued to grow, adding many volunteers who now help with transportation, technology, fundraising events, fostering, arrivals and public education.
Around 2015, the overpopulation greatly reduced in the area and beagles needing rehoming were fewer and fewer, but the number of families wanting to adopt was continuing to grow. So SBR looked for other ways to help beagles in need meet their new forever families. In 2017, SBR started a new adventure working with a private group in South Korea that was helping all types of dog breeds. One of rescues with this initial group was from a puppy mill where dogs were bred to supply laboratory puppies but when the puppy mill owner became terminally ill, these beagles were left to be sold to the meat trade for human food. We were able to bring 11 of those beagles into the rescue to find safe, loving permanent homes. Then, in 2018, another organization, Beagle Rescue Network in South Korea, reached out to SBR for assistance in helping large numbers of dogs in their beagle-specific rescue. This group of dedicated volunteers take in beagles from high kill shelters, owner release, lab release as well as neglectful situations and provides medical care and socializing before sending them to SBR to find forever homes. Then in 2019, we were fortunate to be part of two wonderful rescue opportunities; our first US laboratory release of 3 Beagles, 2 of which made the trip to Washington and one that was lovingly adopted before the transport departed and secondly, we partnered up with an amazing rescue in Louisiana to help the unlimited number of discarded hunting dogs find their new lives as family members here in the Seattle area. SBR has been involved in many adventures and there many more stories from North Carolina, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Ohio, Mexico and Asia to warm the heart.
During our daily rescue efforts, we also aspire to educate others about all things beagle and help provide our area beagle fans a sense of community through our various events and volunteer opportunities.
