Fundraiser for dog rescue facility to beat back storm damage

A fundraiser is scheduled Thursday for RezQ Dogs, a nonprofit that rescues abused, abandoned and feral dogs from Fort Belknap and Rocky Boy's Indian reservations, to help repair Oct. 4 flooding damage caused by a fall rainstorm.

Havre's Pizza Hut will donate 20 percent of the purchase price whenever someone makes an order in the name of RezQ Dogs. The money will help pay to repair damage caused by the flooding and to refurbish a shipping container that's already been bought so it can divided into several kennels.

RezQ Dogs is based out of the Fort Belknap home of Jim and Anita Wilke, who started the shelter in 2010 because they wanted to prevent stray and unwanted dogs from being destroyed.

Anita Wilke, executive director of RezQ, said there was 2 to 3 feet of water on the premises for many days after the early October storm and 30 dogs had to be evacuated to foster homes and humane societies in Kalispell and Missoula as a result of the flooding.

Wilke said many of the dogs are normally kept in a 53-by-8 foot refrigerator trailer, with each individual kennel having a doggy door that allows them to go outside into a closed run. The container is sealed and heated when needed.

The new shipping container will make it possible to provide the same shelter for more dogs, Wilke said. The money from the fundraiser will go to refurbishing it - insulating it and adding the outdoor kennels.

Before RezQ Dogs came along, Wilke said, about 300 to 400 dogs per year were being destroyed on Fort Belknap reservation. Ninety-eight percent of dogs had died because nobody claimed them in five days, she said.

Wilke said the dogs were being shot, not euthanized. She said she wasn't sure if that was because the officers lacked training or because it was cheaper.

The Wilkes already owned several dogs when they got a call, before RezQ Dogs existed, that the Fort Belknap animal control officer was going to have to shoot two puppies, she said. Wilke's husband went to get the dogs. But instead of two, Wilke said, her husband came back with eight dogs, including a pregnant female that gave birth soon afterward.

Wilke said she wanted other dogs to have a chance to have a life, like their own dogs.

"It was breaking our hearts that other dogs didn't have that," Wilke said.

So the Wilkes started a shelter right in their backyard.

"Our goal is to put safe animals into the public," Wilke said.

The difference has been immense, she added. Wilkes said that now only 2 percent of strays and unwanted dogs on the reservation are shot. The rest stay at the kennel until they are settled into homes.

"When you think about 300 to 400 versus a handful, that can be a big difference," Wilkes said.