Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Beyond A Buddy Board of Directors
E-Mail; contact@beyondabuddy.org
beyond a buddy foundation Terminates puppy foster program
Effective Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021 the Beyond A Buddy Foundation has terminated its Puppy Foster Program, where members of the general public were allowed to foster puppies destined to become services dogs. This decision from the organization’s Board of Directors, comes as a direct result of program participant failure to follow program guidelines. The termination of the program is also related to the inability to the organization to adequately cover programs costs, due to financial constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement from the Board, they said “As an organization we are sad to terminate this part of our programing, we relied heavily on our volunteer puppy fosters to maintain operations, but given the ongoing difficulty brought on by pandemic related financial constraints and a few “foster failures” we cannot in good conscience continue to run this program as is. The refundable deposit that we collect to ensure the safety of our puppies has become a source of contention and debate, we collect this deposit because these are living, breathing and feeling creatures. They deserve nothing short of complete dedication to their happiness and wellbeing from their foster parents, but as we saw earlier this year, some have a different idea of what that dedication looks like. So, given this unfortunate fact and the harm that came to one of our puppies earlier this year, due to the negligence of a previous foster, we are bringing our puppy raising program in house. We will not be accepting volunteers to raise puppies until we have secured a proper mechanism to ensure their safety.”
The Board, intends to resume this program when deposits are no longer necessary to ensure that program guidelines are followed and has a policy in place to fully vet potential volunteers.