Oprah Does it Again - This Time It’s Dogs in Wheelchairs!
It would seem that Oprah wins the “Can You Top This” contest in which she appears to be the only contestant. Earlier in the month she responded to a frantic bill-board plea to expose the puppy mill industry by devoting an entire show to this subject.

The response was overwhelming. Many people had no idea about puppy mills and after watching the show raced to their local pet shelter to adopt a pet, while others vowed to adopt a pet only from a  shelter when purchasing a pet in future. On the negative side, some pet store owners got blasts from an angry public. Oprah has vowed that her next dog will be adopted.

As I said before, the next time I adopt a dog, I’m going to go to a no-kill shelter.  - Oprah

Another to make this adopt-only vow was lifelong animal lover, Jill Rappaport of The Today Show, who owns five dogs (one of which is a cancer survivor and amputee) and six horses. Jill was a guest on Oprah’s show yesterday and brought us the story of Susan Marino, a woman who’s devoted her life to caring for physically-challenged or seriously ill animals until their last days.

Susan, a registered pediatric nurse and vet technician, is the founder of the aptly-named  Angel’s Gate an animal hospice with rehab clinic on Long Island in New York, where 90 to 95 percent of the dogs come from a puppy mill. The work that Susan and her staff do to give these pets mobility is truly wonderful to see… dogs in wheelchairs cruising around the yard is great. One can sense the happiness here as physical challenges are overcome in creative and effective ways.

By giving the stage to this pet hospice that solely relies on doantions, Oprah has no doubt helped to boost the operating budget dramatically (beyond her own pledge of a donation) and has helped to bring awareness to the public of the unique and creative solutions available to help physically-challenged pets. If you want to help out donations can be made directly to Angel’s Gate.

Needless to say we’ll be waiting to see what’s next in Oprah’s “Can You Top This” arsenal. We really hope it will be looking into the possibility of getting a guide dog trained to help the Wilson family who have five autistic children and were featured on Oprah’s Big Give. That too would be amazing!

Check out our April 20th post  Autistic Children, Therapy Dogs and Oprah’s Big Give.