Who we are

Founded in March of 2015, Niagara Dog Rescue is a registered non-profit, volunteer-based charitable organization dedicated to helping homeless and unwanted dogs find a new home. We focus on dogs at immediate risk of being euthanized at high kill shelters.

Each year millions of innocent dogs are tortured, neglected, abandoned, and abused. These "castoffs" or strays struggle to survive under stressful and, often, horrific circumstances – alone at the mercy of the elements, without food or water, without the care or aid of human beings, without love and compassion, and without hope of companionship, friendship, help, or support from people. Ultimately, these animals end up in municipal animal shelters or welfare organizations, and if they are too weak or ill, black or too big, stressed out or quivering in fear, they will be killed.

Today, shelters are full and dogs have very limited time to be adopted and/or rescued since there are new dogs coming in every day.

Covid-19 has added a layer of complication to their situation as shelters have temporarily or permanently closed.

• We are a registered not for profit, charitable organization
• We are located in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario.
• We are 100% volunteer based.
• We work to help dogs in need, wherever they are. Our work starts in Canada and reaches the U.S.A., Korea, Antigua and Mexico.

Our Mission

We will save the lives of as many dogs as we can REGARDLESS of where they are from. If a dog is in need and we can, we will help.

How we help

We are a foster based rescue, we have no shelter. Our dogs are placed with foster families. That means we need volunteers to care for our dogs while we find forever homes for them. Each foster we have is a dog we can save.

How do we help dogs?

• By sharing information about dogs that are in dire need of help and asking for volunteers to foster or adopt them.
• By pulling dogs from kill shelters
• By spaying/neutering and vetting the dogs we rescue to make sure they are healthy
• By boarding them for a few days to allow them to recover.
• By finding transport for the dogs to their new family.
• By raising funds to cover the cost of vetting and boarding each dog
• By supporting their foster families.
• By finding each dog the best possible forever home
• By sharing their stories.

We have a group of around 150 volunteers.

Since March 2015, we have found loving, forever homes for over 9,150 dogs!!

Our work is being noticed not just in Canada, but abroad! The manager of one of the shelters we work with said:

“We cannot believe it is a Canadian rescue that is actually helping OUR dogs. These dogs that no one cares about, dogs that are just disposed of like garbage, dogs that have been abandoned, abused or just left behind.”

These words resonated with us and drive us every day.

Niagara Dog Rescue is totally against animal cruelty. We stand up and advocate for an end to animal abuse, especially in dogs.

COMPANIONSHIP INITIATIVE

In November 2023 Niagara Dog Rescue launched a unique new dog adoption program called Companionship Initiative (CI). This program is specifically designed to connect rescued dogs with veterans, police, firefighters and emergency medical services personnel while providing the support that strengthens the companionship between the adopter and the rescued dog.

We acknowledge that veterans and first responders contribute immensely to the protection of our rights and freedoms, our security, our health, and our well-being. Veterans, police, firefighters, and emergency medical services personnel serve selflessly. They often serve without recognition, and they willingly endure hardship so that we may live safely, and in peace.

CI is our way to recognize and thank them.

click here to learn more

The Numbers

In North America alone, every year people buy 17 million pets.

In North America, every year, 3 to 4 million pets are killed in shelters. This is 10,000 every day!

Our goal is to help dogs in need. Our rescue was created to SAVE the LIVES of DOGS that are OUT OF TIME in high kill shelters. Dogs that have done nothing wrong yet end up in a pound and are scheduled to die.

Our purpose is to save their lives and find each one of them a family that will love and care for them, a family that will hold them and make them feel safe, valued and worth loving.

Lives we've saved