On Thursday, 29 homeless dogs and puppies from the Augusta Regional SPCA in Staunton, Virginia will be going for a ride that will save their lives.

These shelter dogs will be boarding PetSmart Charities’® Rescue Waggin’ ® vehicle, a national transport program sponsored by PEDIGREE®, transports homeless dogs and puppies to shelters where there is more adoption space and a guarantee of a good home. The dogs from Augusta Regional SPCA will be heading to the Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The Rescue Waggin’ vehicle visits the Augusta Regional SPCA every month, providing adoptable dogs and puppies with an air-conditioned custom ride, including piped-in lullabies, to their destination shelter, arriving the very same day.

Once they arrive, the dogs get 12 to 24 hours of ‘down time’ before getting a medical check-up, their spay/neuter surgery and placement on the adoption floor. Dogs are generally adopted within three days at their destination shelter.

This is the Rescue Waggin's 21st visit to Augusta Regional SPCA since the shelter joined the program in August 2008. So far, more than 268 dogs and puppies have taken this trip from Staunton.

“The Rescue Waggin has had a positive impact on our shelter,” says Debbie Caywood, Executive Director of the Augusta Regional SPCA. “By participating in this program, animals from our shelter are given a second chance to find new homes, and it also frees up space in our kennel, which gives us more opportunity to place the remaining dogs in our community. Our staff loves knowing the dogs sent on the Rescue Waggin’ will find homes more quickly than if they stayed in our community.”

PetSmart Charities Rescue Waggin’ program operates under professionally developed industry standards for humane transport. As one of 55 shelter partners in the program, Augusta Regional SPCA is also eligible for funding to expand spay/neuter services for cats and dogs as well as receive professional consultation to improve shelter facilities and operations.

It received a $34,000 PetSmart Charities grant last to replace block kennels with Mason Kennels and repair floors and walls throughout the kennel areas.

“With three to four million pets still euthanized across the nation each year, we created the Rescue Waggin’ program to help shelters achieve their goals of getting more adoptable pets placed into good homes, wherever those homes may be,” says Susana Della Maddalena, Executive Director of PetSmart Charities.

The Rescue Waggin’ Program, which operates in the East Coast, Midwest, Great Plains and South Central states, provides animal shelters with a viable alternative to euthanasia. More than 38,000 dogs and puppies have been saved through the Rescue Waggin’ program since it began in 2004.

To learn more about Rescue Waggin’ program, as well as other programs that PetSmart Charities supports and creates, click on the link below or call 800-423-7387.