LAKELAND, Fla. — The Polk County Animal Shelter has been ranked as the top kill shelter in the state, but two women are on a mission to change that.
Shannon Medina and Angie Lorio founded the Polk County Bully Project in 2019. The non-profit takes the dogs that are considered unadoptable and gives them a second chance at their own shelter.
It's about dogs like Bessie who is a blind cur mix get attention and time to find that forever home.
“We take them out in public and we try to do some basic commands with them. We get them to one place, and we get them to sit then we try to socialize them with other dogs. We take them to places like Home Depot and stuff to get them socialized and get them around people. We take them on car rides so they can get used to the car and everything,” kennel lead Pippy Keesee said.
Rescuers at the Polk County Bully Project say their shelter took in half of the dogs from Polk County Animal Control in 2022. They're on track to do the same this year. A year ago, they moved into a new facility which was a major upgrade, but they could use a hand with a couple of projects like installing an astroturf play area for the dogs, fixing their fencing and upgrading their website.
"We had a local investor invest in us by purchasing this property and giving us a long-term lease on it for a dollar a year, so we're very, very thankful to him for that, so it's changed a lot of things and it's enabled us to help a lot more dogs,” Medina said.
They do have to pay the taxes, though. And when they’re not fundraising for the dogs, they’re trying to advocate for them.
"We've been super busy as far as being advocates through trying to get changes in legislation. We have been to Tallahassee on humane legislation day trying to get some of the changes Florida needs. Florida as far as euthanasia rates go is second of all the states," Medina said.
One of the dogs they’ve had in their care is Bo-Peep. Animal Control had taken her from her owner as part of a confiscate case. They say she had an embedded collar, was food-aggressive and very reactive to other dogs, but they've been able to get her to play in playgroups and hand-feed her as part of her training.
They transport dogs to states like New Hampshire to help them find forever homes, but they say about 85 percent of the dogs in their care are ultimately adopted locally.