Present Reservation Rewards Animal Rescue:
Reservation Rewards Animal Rescue was founded in 2004 by Sheila K. Iyengar, out of the necessary call for a change. She started by taking in homeless or abandoned dogs running around the reservation foraging for food. At that time she could only take in one or two dogs at a time, having four of her own and using her own money. She would care for feed, shelter and train them. Give them the needed vaccinations, spay/neuter, and a loving home. At the time she new that this was just a band aid on the much growing problem on the reservation. Families had multiple dogs that roamed about, breeding amongst themselves, adding to the growing population. The reservation had and still has a poor facility for animal control were they adopt out dogs with no vaccinations, un spayed and neutered, some carrying distemper already. Not to mention the countless dogs that were being dropped off on the highway from city goers. These dogs not having proper food, water, and shelter, not trained, not vaccinated. Never given a chance to be someone’s best friend, never given a chance at all you can see that the fate of some is to be run over by the busy hunt hwy in the early mornings or rush hour in the evenings. She saw a chance to make a change, to do something great, to give back to animals, to a community. So she founded Reservation Rewards Animal Rescue, a not for profit organization committed to helping the animals on Indian Reservations as well as the local Queen Creek area. We are achieving this goal through spay/neuter programs, vaccinations clinics and education. We rescue the animals in need and give them proper medical care, spay/neuter, vaccinations, heartworm testing and socialization. Our organization helps to modify behavioral issues and train them prior to adopting them to their forever homes. We at Reservation Rewards Animal Rescue believe that by empowering the community, especially the youth we can make a greater impact on our world. By educating the children and teaching compassion and responsibility we are moving forward to decrease the amount of euthanized, abused, neglected and victimized animals. We depend heavily on your donations to realize our goals for our children, our animals, and our community.
Future of Reservation Rewards Animal Rescue:
The long term goal Reservation Rewards Animal Rescue is to instill a program on the reservation designed to help children help animals. The Majority of our dogs and puppies are from the Gila River Indian Community. The children participating in the Reservation Reward program learn responsibility and compassion for living animals by taking care of the dogs and puppies in our program. They learn all aspects of animal care from feeding and cleaning to basic obedience. Some of the animals have medical issues; some don’t know how to walk on a leash and most of them just need TLC. The kids in the Reservation Rewards program take care of all the animals’ needs, once the dogs/puppies have been spayed/nurtured, & vaccinated. When they have been obedience trained they are placed for adoption. Many of the Reservation Rewards children come from disadvantaged situations. We have found that by working with animals —especially animals in need—the children break through their own emotional barriers. Taking care of, training and adopting out homeless dogs is an invaluable service to the community, and in turn instills a sense of pride in children who go through the program. We are in the grass roots stage of our development. Our goals, however, are attainable. We are all volunteers and depend heavily on your donations.
