On a triple-digit day in early August of 2012, ranchers at Kit and Charlie Moncrief’s Parker County ranch stumbled across a pug mix wandering the property alone and almost dead. Her mouth had been taped shut, her tongue swollen and protruding in the sweltering heat. Her abusers had attempted to cut off her head and her ear, and she’d been stabbed multiple times. She was taken to Bowie Drive Animal Hospital in Weatherford, where Dr. Kevin Buchanan and his vet tech, Rhonda Sears, worked to save her. Her internal temperature was over 105 degrees, and the dog’s outcome was bleak. After surgery that required 100 stitches to close her wounds and at-home care from Sears, the dog, soon named Hope, survived.
Disturbed by such a horrific case of animal abuse, Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler put out a $35,000 reward for those who could help lead the way to arrest Hope’s abuser. Thousands of calls came in from people wanting to adopt Hope, so Fowler turned to the Moncriefs for help. “He told us about all the calls coming in about adopting Hope and said you’ve got to take this dog so I don’t have to worry about it anymore. She was found on your ranch, so you’ve got to take her,” says Kit Moncrief. Fowler knew of Kit’s love for animals, and soon enough, Hope found herself at home with the Moncriefs in Fort Worth.
Before Hope came along, the Moncriefs had already been looking for a way to help with the animal overpopulation problem in Fort Worth. The city’s animal shelters are always reaching capacity due to the number of animals coming into shelters versus the number of those being adopted and fostered. As of September 2022, the live release rate for the fiscal year was 87%, down from 97% in 2021, a direct result of increased intakes and decreased adoptions. And this isn’t a new phenomenon, as Fort Worth shelters have struggled with an increased animal population for years. After Hope returned home with the Moncriefs in 2012, Kit, alongside her daughters, Gloria Moncrief Holmsten and Adelaide Moncrief Royer, started the Saving Hope Foundation to focus on the issues of animal welfare and the lack of humane education in Fort Worth and Tarrant County.
In the DFW metroplex alone, roughly 200,000 animals are euthanized every year. And on average, one female and one male dog and their offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in just six years. “So many animals are euthanized every day because people allow them to breed,” Kit says. “So, we came up with the Saving Hope Foundation, my daughters and I, so that we could offer free spays and neuters and other services to the community.”
Saving Hope Foundation’s first focus is the animal overpopulation problem in the area. To combat this, Saving Hope works alongside Fort Worth
Animal Control, the Humane Society of North Texas, the Spay and Neuter Network, and the Texas Coalition for Animal Protection in a coalition called Fort Worth Partnership for Pets, a team effort working to improve animal welfare in Fort Worth through free vaccinations, spays, neuters, and medical care. One such example of this is the Spay and Neuter Network’s Hope Mobile, which drives to parking lots across the area in targeted ZIP codes to offer free vaccinations and sterilizations. In July of 2019, Saving Hope launched its own campaign, Snip, Snip, Hooray!, in an effort to get ahead of the birth rate and reduce the number of unplanned litters born and free-roaming pets in the area by increasing spay/neuter surgeries over a four-year time frame. The $4.4 million endeavor is committed to providing 33,000 free spay/neuter surgeries for dogs and cats, including microchips and vaccinations, and 10,000 wellness exams through their clinic at 3117 E. Seminary Drive. The clinic, located in southeast Fort Worth, serves an area that was formerly in a “veterinary desert” and helps meet the needs of pet owners in 12 low-income ZIP codes: 76103, 76104, 76105, 76106, 76107, 76110, 76112, 76115, 76116, 76119, and 76140. To date, the project has completed 27,508 spay/neuter surgeries, which is 83% of the goal.
Education is also a huge aspect of Saving Hope’s Snip, Snip, Hooray! campaign, as it focuses on reaching 12 high-risk neighborhoods with the highest rates of child dog bites and loose animals. These educational programs and after-school events, which reach 14,500 Fort Worth ISD students, not only help elementary-aged kids learn how to not get bit by animals, but also what responsible pet care looks like and what animals need for a healthy life. Students in grades kindergarten through second are given a book that covers what pets need to be healthy and happy at home, and each student who attends a program gets a voucher for a free spay or neuter at the clinic, plus information on animal welfare and responsible pet ownership.
“It’s been great because like anything else, if you’re not taught, you’re not going to know,” says Kit. “Another goal is to work with under-resourced areas of Fort Worth that don’t have chain-link fences around their playgrounds, where these children are used to dogs coming in and chasing them away or getting into the schools. So, we try to teach them how to behave when they see a stray dog and how to not get bit.” Kit says they’re also working to get these school districts to do better fencing around the play yards, as well, to prevent strays from coming near kids during playtime.
And of course, the campaign is working to educate pet owners on the need to sterilize, vaccinate, and provide care for their pets, which is partially done through Spay Squad Walks in partnership with the Spay Neuter Network. The walks, which occur in low-income neighborhoods, educate residents on the importance of spaying and neutering, while also scheduling surgeries and vaccinations and arranging transportation to the clinic if needed. Since July 1, 2019, more than 16,000 face-to-face conversations with these residents have occurred, and information on sterilization has been supplied at more than 11,500 of these homes.
As part of the Partnership for Pets, Saving Hope is also working to help children in the hospital feel calm and safe during stressful times. The foundation collaborates with Cook Children’s Sit, Stay, Play program, where trained dogs sit by children’s sides to help them feel loved, safe, and less anxious while in the hospital. This also helps kids focus more on interacting with the dogs and less about the pain they’re currently experiencing. The foundation also works with Don’t Forget to Feed Me, an organization providing pet food for pet owners during difficult times, which in turn allows owners to keep their pets rather than abandoning them or taking them to a shelter if food insecurities arise.
Another important area of Saving Hope is pet adoptions, rescues, and fostering pets. In March of 2018, Saving Hope split away from the rescue portion of things, and the Saving Hope Animal Rescue was formed, its focus on animal rescues, adoptions, animal fosters, and rehabilitation. The
rescue, which includes over 50 volunteers and fosters, also provides veterinary services, educational outreach in the community, and behavioral enrichment for animals. To date, Saving Hope Rescue has rescued and adopted out over 5,000 dogs and cats and currently has more than 285 dogs and more than 300 cats in its care. In 2020 alone, the rescue spayed and neutered more than 1,000 dogs and cats, plus provided emergency and vet care including microchipping, vaccinations, and heartworm treatments — an effort that cost the rescue around $600,000 in expenses. Last year alone, Saving Hope’s executive director Lauren Anton helped coordinate 1,200 adoptions, with many of these animals being pulled from Tarrant County kill shelters. “Mayor Mattie Parker just adopted one from Saving Hope, and former mayor Betsy Price had a Saving Hope cat that she adopted. Taylor Sheridan even adopted a dog from us, too,” says Kit.
The Moncriefs are working on building a new facility on their land in Aledo that will operate as a foster and rescue program and allow potential adopters to come out and interact with the animals they’re adopting. It will also offer public training sessions and serve as an animal welfare community center for school children to visit and hold educational events centered around spaying, neutering, and caring for animals. Unlike an animal shelter environment, the facility will house dogs and cats in cage-free spaces with limited noise and provide medical care and animal services.
And because northern states have avoided animal overpopulation, the rescue works to regularly transport animals to Washington, Oregon, and the Northeast for a new start in life. Colder temperatures in northern states mean animals can’t live outside like they do in Texas, plus these places have stricter spay/neuter and vaccination laws in place, creating a space for these animals to thrive. Transports to the north are done for adopted dogs when necessary, and the rescue works with other rescues and animal organizations to transport animals north during times of extreme shelter crowding and crisis.
Today, Hope still trots around the Moncriefs’ Fort Worth home, curling up in Kit’s lap and offering love to anyone extending a hand. Against all odds, she survived her abuser and became the catalyst for an organization striving to end the animal overpopulation problem, animal abuse, and neglect. Unfortunately, the overpopulation problem continues to exist, meaning that organizations like Saving Hope are and will always be in need. “I think Saving Hope is just going to get bigger and bigger, because the need is there,” says Kit. “But the more people we can involve and the more people who understand how important it is to take care of their animals, the less abuse and population problem we will see. Everyone can be involved, and it’s going to take us all to change this.”
