A South Florida man has his hands and heart full trying to rescue dogs abandoned in Miami-Dade County. NBC6’s Julia Bagg reports.
A South Florida man has his hands and his heart full trying to rescue abandoned dogs in Miami-Dade County and now he's asking for help to find homes for the homeless pups.
Eddy Alvarez won't give up.
Every day, he rides a 30-mile loop through South Miami-Dade's farmlands in his pickup, looking for hungry, homeless dogs.
They're not hard to find.
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He shows up to a nursery off Southwest 316th Street and 132nd Avenue. They've been waiting for him. Two dogs greet Alvarez gratefully, and he fills up food dishes for each.
But there's one dog that's not there.
"Missing for two days," Alvarez said, worriedly. But he keeps looking for the black-and-white canine. He doesn't name the dogs he feeds. That would make it too hard.
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He knows many animals meet their end on Southwest 316th Street.
"We call this 'Dead Dog Alley,'" he said. Too many dogs get struck by cars on the narrow, bumpy backroad.
Alvarez figures he feeds 20-25 dogs a day, seven days a week. His route runs through little known dirt roads off of Black Point Marina, passing near Homestead Air Reserve Base and to the edge of the Everglades. But he can only reach so many dogs in a single day.
"There's more," he said. "I just can't get to them on time."
Not only does he feed them, Alvarez will do his best to make the dogs comfortable.
"I deworm them, give them their shots, booster shots, take care of their flea problems and that sort of thing," he said.
He said last week he set a broken paw for one dog, noting it was pretty simple.
For more serious care, he will take the animals to a veterinarian.
But getting them spayed and neutered can be a challenge, because there's no one to care for the animals after they have surgery.
NBC6 reached out to Animal Services about people dumping dogs in the area, but so far, a spokesperson has not shared an official response.
Alvarez himself just wants one thing, for people to adopt his dogs.
"Get 'em off the streets, get 'em out, where they're safe," he said.
If you would like to help the abandoned dogs, you can go to eddysdogs.com.
