French Riviera Rescue - From the Pound to Provence

By Carole Raphaelle Davis
Photos courtesy of CAPS.org

This summer, the Companion Animal Protection Society and the Santa Cruz SPCA teamed up with Air France and the French Societé Défense des Animaux (SDA) to launch Riviera Rescue, a new international project to save red-listed dogs in California and airlift them to the south of France.

Every year 500,000 pets are killed in California shelters while in France, small dogs are very rarely up for adoption at the fourrière municipale (the pound). The lack of available small dogs for adoption in France combined with the high demand for such dogs and the unacceptable euthanasia rates in the U.S., compelled the organizers of Riviera Rescue to take action. According to the representatives of the French department of agriculture we worked with, Riviera Rescue was the first American dog rescue ever to take place in France.

The Santa Cruz SPCA rescued over twenty small dogs who would be evaluated to determine which dogs would be adopted out locally and which six were healthy enough and best suited to make the journey to their new homes in Provence. The lucky dogs were rescued from different southern California shelters and transported to Santa Cruz, where the four-legged asylum seekers were sterilized, micro-chipped and vaccinated. They were then pampered for twenty-one days in "quarantine" at Santa Cruz's Bed & Biscuits before they could take their flight to freedom on the Riviera.

Their flight took them from San Francisco to Paris, where they were checked up on and held in transit before being transferred to their flight to Nice. When the "Riviera Rescues" arrived at the historic Promenade a des Anglais in the heart of Nice and scrambled out of the caravan, they were welcomed with cheers of joy by a large welcome party, including the mayor's office and the press.

"The Riviera Rescue airlift is a way to avert puppy mill sales in pet stores on the Riviera and to promote adoption while saving lives," said Mireille Rudeau, French CAPS representative. Lisa Carter, Executive Director of the Santa Cruz SPCA, credits the local legislation that made the international rescue possible. "Because of our spay/neuter ordinance decreasing euthanasia over 70% in Santa Cruz County," she said, "Rescue Riviera was made possible"¦ saving dogs that were on death row from Los Angeles. Most people don't realize that pet overpopulation in the United States is an epidemic and innocent adoptable dogs are dying as they wait for a loving home."

All the Riviera Rescue dogs have since been adopted by local families and are adapting to their new, happy lives in Nice. One of the Riviera Rescue dogs, Charlie, a Malti-Poo who had lived his entire life in a puppy mill and had been debarked, has become a happy little Frenchman who hangs out in cafés and spends weekends sailing in the Bay of Angels on his own boat. "He's learning new things every day," says his adoptive mom, Jocelyne Dechaume. "He'll have nothing but love and kisses from now on."