Abaco Shelter is a sanctuary for stray and abandoned dogs located just outside of Marsh Harbour, Abaco, The Bahamas. As the island’s only shelter, it is well maintained and affords green spaces for dogs to exercise whilst providing adequate shelter in the form of covered areas and hand-made wooden kennels. These serve as secure places for pups to grow in safety, and as havens for those in need of special care.

The shelter was the brainchild of Willis “Pops” Weatherford, a local resident and retired businessman. Pop always had a love for dogs and started feeding the stray dogs that came by his restaurant in Marsh Harbour. Realizing that the plight of homeless dogs was a bigger issue than he first thought, he sought out a location where he could have a kennel. He approached the government for assistance and in 2010 he was given permission to use the rear portion of the old public dump area off S. C. Bootle Highway. Since Pop’s retirement in 2012, the shelter has continued to grow and flourish as the result of the dedication and hard work of volunteers. In 2019 the Abaco Shelter Animal Rescue became incorporated and licensed as a non-profit organization. As the only facility of its kind on the island it is an extremely valuable resource. Not only does it provide a place for needy dogs to live in safety but also as a facility where sick dogs can be nursed back to health.

The shelter aims to spay and neuter all the dogs and provide them with essential medications and veterinary care. It facilitates adoptions, animal welfare education, and flights for pups en route to homes in the USA and Canada. In order to do this, and to provide all animals with a nourishing diet, financial donations from the public are essential. The shelter runs completely on voluntary aid and has no paid employees.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

If you would like to help us with this immensely rewarding, and literally, life-saving organization, please contact us at abacoshelter@gmail.com. Any assistance you can offer, particularly if you can volunteer a few hours a week to help at the shelter, would be wonderful. Financial donations are crucial to the success of the ongoing needs of the shelter which includes regular spay/neuter clinics around the island.

HURRICANE DORIAN & BEYOND

Before Dorian hit Abaco as a Category 5 hurricane on September 1, 2019 Abaco Shelter was a shady, beautifully treed sanctuary for about 45 rescued dogs. Our volunteers, amidst readying their own homes for the storm, searched to find safe housing for as many dogs as possible. Some were taken in by volunteers, some were moved to a warehouse near Maxwell’s supermarket where they were housed and taken care of during and after the storm. As we would find, the warehouse was one of the few buildings in Marsh Harbour to survive the storm.

After Dorian passed, the devastation was so bad that no one was able to get to the shelter until days later. When volunteers finally were able to get there, there was nothing but wreckage but fortunately, several dogs miraculously survived. The dogs who were housed in the warehouse could not return to the shelter, as there was no shelter in which to return. That’s when some wonderful folks in Florida stepped in and arranged to airlift them out to the US. So, after a week of being kenneled in a warehouse, 22 dogs were driven 50 miles to Sandy Point by our dedicated volunteer, Chris Roberts. They were then vaccinated and loaded onto a plane to Florida. One must admire the stamina and fortitude of an Abaco Potcake!

THANK YOU

If it were not for the dedication and selflessness of the shelter’s volunteers, many more dogs would have perished in Abaco due to the hurricane. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the many individuals and NGOs who stepped in to assist in rescuing many more abandoned dogs and in rebuilding and supporting Abaco Shelter. We would like to thank IFAW, American Humane, South Florida Helping Hands, Bullies and Beyond, BAARK, Jeff & Mayumi Survance, Brandon & Lucy Samuels, Steve & Carole Lee, and Dr. Tom & Cyndi Griffith for their generosity. Thank you. One year later (September 2020), the roofs are built back, the fencing has been replaced, and the shelter is fully operational.

MOBILE CLINIC

Our regular spay/neuter clinics are a critical piece in keeping the stray population under control. Even without a fully functioning shelter in early 2020, we were able to have two spay/neuter clinics using our new mobile clinic and truck to spay and neuter more than 100 animals.