A big, global non-profit called the International Fund for Animal Welfare, or IFAW, notified us a few weeks ago that we were one of the winners of their 2007 Animal Action Awards. The notification letter from IFAW’s president, Frederick O’Regan, said, "Congratulations on being selected to join an elite group of animal heroes worldwide who will receive a 2007 IFAW Animal Action Award. This international award recognizes your work to provide safe haven for disabled animals at the Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary."
Mr. Regan’s letter continued, "For the past 15 years, IFAW Animal Action Awards have honored extraordinary efforts to protect wild and domestic animals and their habitats, including such distinguished international recipients as Jane Goodall and Farley Mowat."
They aren’t publicly announcing this until they hold an awards ceremony in Santa Monica, California, in early October, but the wheels are already in motion for the publicity. They had a camera crew out here today to tape a piece on the sanctuary, which they will show at the October event. They will also air an Animal Action Awards special program about us and the other recipients that same week on the TV program Animal Rescue, which IFAW sponsors. (We don’t know who the other recipients are.)
Although we don’t like to be called "heroes" and frankly, it makes us uncomfortable — as Alayne told the camera crew today, it’s our animals who are the real heroes for overcoming their disabilities, certainly not us — this kind of recognition is a powerful tool in spreading the word about disabled animals. A lot more people will learn about the wonderful quality of life these animals can have if they’re only given a chance.
So I got this photo of Alayne talking on camera this morning about Baron, the little
blind-and-deaf guy who arrived a few weeks ago. The crew, who had
flown in from L.A. last night, seemed genuinely taken with our disabled
gang and were very happy with the video they got. The Dachshunds, Daisy on the left and Bailey on the right, were a bit nonchalant about the whole thing by this point, because they had already had their moment on camera!
(Click on photo for larger image.)
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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