Central Point, Ore.- It’s something that the Southern Oregon Kennel Club has working on since 2016. A reunite trailer for disaster relief situations, helping to bring animals back to their owners as they work through whatever disaster has struck their community.
It all started with money raised at The Salmon Run Cluster All Breed Dog Show, Southern Oregon’s only all breed dog show.
Fees raised from the show are now helping animals in need.
Salmon Run Cluster All Breed dog show Announcer Tony Paxton says, “We’re trying to do the best we can to help the animals and make sure they are safe.”
In order to collect the $12,000 needed for the reunite trailer, a combination of entry fee costs for the all breed dog show, along with donations from Southern Oregon Kennel Club members’ were pooled together starting over a year ago.
Inside of the relief trailer is dog food, cat food, generators, and administrative supplies to keep track of the animals.
Today is the first time that the public could see it.
But for the past 5 years things were a little different in Jackson County. The county had a reunite trailer that was owned by the state of Oregon. However, after experiencing so many difficult fire seasons and seeing the disaster that has struck throughout the state over the years, the Southern Oregon Kennel Club wanted to be sure that Jackson County had its own reunite trailer.
“At a moments notice the state could’ve said, ‘Hey we want it here.’ And off it goes. And we would be without anything to help our local citizens,” Paxton says.
The reunite truck is only one of two in Oregon.
Now that the Southern Oregon Kennel Club has Jackson County animals taken care of in case of an emergency, members are looking to see how they can help elsewhere.
Tony Paxton says their plan is to talk to both Medford and Central Point Police with the idea of,”Hey what can we do to help with making sure your animal is safe.”
The final day of the Salmon Run Cluster dog show is tomorrow.
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