Depressed Dog Chelsea Saved from Euthanasia by Facebook Campaign

Here’s a heartwarming story for all you dog lovers out there, proving just how effective a social media campaign can be when it comes to rescuing terrified, neglected animals!

Until last Thursday, Chelsea, a gentle but traumatized one-year-old pit bull, was trapped in a San Bernardino Animal Control shelter in California, and her adoption prospects seemed very low. She spent all of her time huddled in a corner of her cage, unwilling to even look at people, and had been known to lash out against shelter workers in her fear. It is suspected that she may have been abused before entering the shelter.

Her euthanization date was set for Thursday, Feb. 13, and it looked as though she was about to become a nameless, faceless statistic – just another one of the estimated 3.5 million companion animals euthanized by U.S. shelters every year.

That is, until the intervention of the compassionate moderators of Save SBC Shelter Pups, a Facebook page set up with the sole intention of finding homes for San Bernardino’s shelter animals. On Saturday, Feb. 8, they posted this picture of Chelsea with her back turned to the camera:

The accompanying text read, “Not a great picture? Imagine how she feels ;( Chelsea is a one-year-old female pit bull, scared out of her mind here, this breaks my heart, she’s a really sweet dog, who does this?”

Melinda York-Rhinehart also recorded a video of the dejected dog. The photo and video quickly went viral, shared by dog lovers far and wide – until SBC Shelter Pups were able to update the caption of Chelsea’s picture:

Great news: the shelter has had overwhelming amounts of calls for adoption and there’s a FULL waiting list for Chelsea’s forever home! She is released from quarantine on the 13th and will be held for adoption until the 15th; with hundreds of people trying to adopt her, she will absolutely find a home. All that remains is finding homes for the rest of the shelter animals that have similar stories and plights.

Let’s hope Chelsea finds human companions who will love her for the rest of her days – and perhaps some of the people who don’t end up adopting her will open their hearts to another homeless dog at the shelter.