What We Do
Carolina Animal Rescue Experts was founded in 1998 by myself, Shawn Andrews. Starting in my garage, I took in two or three animals a month, healed them, vetted them, and sent them to their new homes.
By the year 2002, we were rescuing at a much larger scale, up to 100 animals a month using a network of dedicated foster homes, and a small central shelter. We focused on dogs and cats, and some exotics.
October of 2004 we rescued over 75 cats and kittens from a hoarder. In the wake of their tremendous vet bills, and the loss of almost 80% of the cats to disease and malnutrition, we were tragically bankrupted and closed our doors for a hiatus.
It weighed heavily on my heart not being able to take in animals and help them, knowing how many were dying in shelters every day. I would try every now and then to focus on one dog, one cat, one ferret, and go from there. Ferrets became my specialty-
so many people adopted/purchased them with no idea how to really care them, that I founded the Tarheel ferret club and rescue, at Tarheelferrets.com . While I have passed the torch to someone else to lead the club, I am still
a great lover of carpet sharks, and will still take in Ferrets in need. Unfortunatly, I developed severe allergies to the oil in ferrets coat and had to take a step back from being overly involved.
In 2006 I slowly began rescuing in earnest again. I had donated almost all of our rescue gear to the Katrina Relief the year before, so I had to pick up crates, toys, food and supplies as I went. We focused mainly on exotics- ferrets, of course, as well as rabbits, guinea pigs,
birds and reptiles- those who usually don't have a place to go with traditional rescue groups. 2007 we began pulling from death rows across the state whenever other rescue groups contacted us and asked us to take in a dog or two, and finally, in 2008
we began pulling in earnest from Gaston County Animal Control's death row, where up to 500 animals a month are gassed. Strictly working with dogs, our mission is to pull 3-4 animals a week from Gaston County animal control before they are gassed, and place
them in loving, caring foster homes where they can be vetted, healed, loved and socialized before finding their forever home. Currently we have the capacity for 32 dogs at a time. Every week, I see lists of animals scheduled to go down at Gaston County, and
I start shifting dogs again, calling foster homes, seeing who has the room, trying to make the room at my own home where we usually are overflowing. We pull any breed, any size, any age, any condition, so long as we believe they can be helped. We still work with
exotics, but we do not work with cats at this time. Also, in our belief that the greatest need is to remove animals before they are gassed so they have a chance at a full life- we do NOT at this time take in owner surrenders. We are always in the need of foster homes,
crates, leashes, collars, bowls, buckets, dog beds, old comforters, sheets etc. If you would like to help please visit This Link . We are located in Cramerton, NC, near Belmont, about 10 minutes from Downtown Charlotte.
To contact us, please email us Email Shawn .
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