MOTLEY, Minn. — Go back a few years and you'd find strays and over-population problems in areas in northern Minnesota, like on the Leech Lake and Red Lake Reservations.
Services like spaying and neutering are costly — plus, vets are few and far between.
These issues are what got one woman wanting to do something to help.
When the snow pack is high and temperatures steadily remain below freezing, it's usually not puppy season.
"In the 11 years of doing this, I've never seen this many puppies this late in the year, this early in the year," founder of Leech Lake Legacy, Jenny Fitzer, said.
You can call Fitzer a connector of sorts. She's been responsible for transporting animals from Leech Lake and Red Lake Reservations to Humane Societies and animal rescues closer to the Twin Cities.
"I found out that they have an impound up in Cass Lake, which is the biggest city up in Leech Lake Reservation, and had dogs in there that the tribe, police would pick up," Fitzer explained. "And they didn't have any place for the animals to go. So I found out about this, reached out; we started working with them about 11 years ago, pulling animals out of the impound — mostly dogs at the time — and finding rescues to take them."
And now, more than a decade later, she's transporting dozens of animals every single Sunday. She usually starts with a volunteer meet-up in Motley, that brings down the animals from the reservations.
"What we're being slammed with these days is puppies," Fitzer said. "So puppy season starts in the spring; most of the dogs live outside. A lot of them have owners but they're community animals. A lot of the females are not spayed, because again, there's not a single vet on the reservation. Services we provide are the options for people, and we of course are limited in how many spays and neuters we do every year."
Here are how the numbers break down.
"They guestimate there are about 15,000 dogs up on Leech Lake Reservation — let's say half of those are females. And so, 7,000 of those are female dogs, and this doesn't even count cats," Fitzer said. "We may be do 300 spays a year, so just to say there are 6,500 intact female dogs on the reservation, most of them are going to be pregnant at some point in the year and have a litter."
So with that, and with more than enough animals to pack a van each Sunday, Fitzer drives.
She drops off a litter of pups and three cats at Tri-County Humane Society in St. Cloud.
"As far as last year, we took about 400 animals from Jenny all year," one of the staff members at Tri-County said. "And our total — we took about 4,500 animals all year."
Then it all ends at Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, where volunteers from other places also meet up with her to take some animals as well.
"I work with fantastic people, fantastic rescues. With not really a ton of effort, we're able to help so many animals," Fitzer said. "Giving animals and their owners hope — people who live on the reservation where life is hard and money doesn't come easy for a lot of people. Being able to provide services for animals they love, we're helping the animals, but we're helping the people too."
There are many ways to help Leech Lake Legacy. You can donate supplies, donate money, or donate your time.
You can find more information here.
Watch more Breaking The News:
Watch all of the latest stories from Breaking The News in our YouTube playlist: