Abused Puppy Mill Dog rescued and given new life by caring prisoner

You know, this is not what comes to mind
when you think of a lab.

[crying now]
Flattened out, terrified like that.

We gotta do it Esther, come on baby.

[muffled talking and]
Look at her, she's peeing.

[Audio cut]
You get attached to them, especially

when they've been so traumatized.
It's a little bit hard for me to talk

about it, but, um, we love them.

So we have a lot of hopes for her.

And the prison program right now
is the best hope she probably has,

so, she's going today.

[Music]

[lyrics]
Give me one more chance.

From the time I started the program in
October of 2002,

we've had over 6,000 dogs go through the
program, and

2,367 of those dogs are rescues.

They come to us before they're taken to
the humane shelter.

When I get a dog for the program,
[tearing up]

I go to the Humane Society or sometimes
they're given to us because

they're somebody's unwanted dog.
[chuckle]

You know? And when you take a dog to a
humane shelter no matter how hard

that shelter tries, there is a percentage
of dogs that they can't place,

that are euthanized.

I go into the shelter and I look
at these dogs.

The staff will say, "You know, you might
want to look at dog number 620."

[Woman at shelter]
There's Esther.

Gotta love this one.

And what they're saying to me is,

"You know, if you can take that dog at
all please do because

they don't have very much time left."

[Woman at shelter]
See, she'll just pee.

See the pee coming out?
She's so scared.

These guys are so severe that we really
have to believe that

probably something a little more traumatic
happened to them than

just not being socialized.

I've never seen more terrified dogs.

So Debbie offered to try to give her
a different environment.

[To dog] It's alright.
It's alright, baby.

Esther, it's okay bubby.

It's okay, Esther.

[crying]

[muffled soothing speaking]

Well, if anybody wonders why we do what we
do, there's a good example of it.

Thanks.

So much. So much.
[Same time] You're welcome Debbie.

Let's hope we can help her

Yeah

I'm excited. I think we're
gonna make a difference.

Yeah. We always do.
It's everybody together,

you know, that gives a damn,
that makes a difference.

So—

[music]

Somebody said about that dog, "I don't
want this dog."

They took the chance of having him
euthanized and they drop him off,

at the shelter and we turn him around.

My offenders who basically cast away
people

and they take these castaway dogs and they
make them into family pets.

Or even better yet, sometimes these dogs
turn into service dogs,

that help people to achieve
more independent lives.

Or maybe they go into scent detection

and do law enforcement work, you know,
it's really kind of a funny turnaround

from being somebody's throwaway dog.

[Instructor]
Stop and down your dogs!

[Trainers]
Down. Stay.

[music]

Then I'm gonna ask her to come to me,
and if she doesn't come,

I'm gonna tug on the leash a little bit
and let her know that I'm there

and she needs to come.

As far as Esther's training goes I've just
been really patient with her and calm.

[music]

Yeah! Good girl! Yes! Yes! Yes!
Good girl.

[music]

Yeah! [claps]

Good girl!

Esther is awesome!
[chuckles]

Esther is a dog that has definitely
stolen my heart.

And I'm very sad to see her leaving today;
I love her very much.

She's been a great
learning experience for me,

and I hope that I've been able to
help her have a happy life.

'Cause she's a cool, cool dog.

I'm gonna miss her.

Come on baby, come on.
Alright, come on

I think the more work you have to put into
them,

the more special they become to you.

And she was a lot more than I've had to
put into a dog for a long time.

It was hard to let her go. She didn't want
to go. I'm gonna miss her.

I try to get pictures with most
of the dogs that I've had.

I just always remember them.

[music]