On the far side of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, halfway between the mountains and the ocean, stands the little town of Forks. In that town, in a quiet neighborhood of modest homes and shabby businesses, there remains a dilapidated pink warehouse. Packed inside that warehouse, living in deplorable conditions, were once over 120 dogs. Some of the dogs were kept in crates piled high on … piled high on shelves, arranged in rows along the walls, and shoved into corners behind heaps of garbage and urine-saturated straw. Some of the dogs were confined to wire-sided or glassed-in kennels. One was kept in an old horse trailer. Dead ones were stored in a cooler.
In one of the crates was a black dog named Daisy. This is her story.
It is also the story of the rescue of one hundred and twenty-four dogs—and one snake—from the Olympic Animal Sanctuary, the only large-scale dog rescue in the U.S. to be carried out with no support from local government. The OAS rescue was an epic narrative that extended over several years and featured small town politics, protests, assault, lawsuits, arrests, and a midnight escape, all played out to a nationwide audience.
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This is a non-fiction book that talks about the rescue of 124 dogs and how their fate was changed by a few animal lovers. This was a difficult book for me to read because of the content. What the book does is bring awareness to a problem that I think is more common than others realize. This book talks about what happens in a small town and the process that happened with the rescued dogs. This was an emotional story for me but I am happy that there is a positive ending.
Some stories are difficult but necessary to read. We need to witness and remember the possibilities of both human cruelty and human kindness. This is not the story of humans but rather the story of a special black dog named Daisy. Despite the horrific conditions Daisy lived in, she survived to become an important symbol to all who read her story. At times, the imagery can be triggering, and at other times it will fill the heart with so much love and joy it will spring as tears from the eyes.
This is a heart-wrenching tale of a true-life tragedy. It recounts the details of animal neglect and abuse at an infamous rescue in Washington State. It includes excerpts of pertinent regulations, plus snippets of real emails, letters and testimonials. The amount of research that went into this work is staggering, and every detail is dissected and analyzed well. Although ultimately the tale has a happy ending for Daisy, the primary dog at the center of this tale, many other dogs were not so lucky. It’s an eye-opening cautionary tale for every pet owner, especially since the text notes, repeatedly, that the abuses of that one terrible facility are widespread. The rollercoaster of emotions springing from the words and images will swing between outrage and tears of joy.