January through December, 2007 has delivered phenomenal growth and change within the organization. We placed 17 trained bloodhounds to law enforcement agencies during the year, spanning the continental United States. We relied upon our volunteers (the best in the world!), and they came through with flying colors. Throughout the year, our placed bloodhounds continue to win recognition and awards for their work, saving lives, finding the lost, and finding bad guys.

Our foster program is an unqualified success, and this pivotal program is one of the building blocks that make our bloodhounds so effective. The foster parents take their time and effort to expose the puppies to every sight and sound possible. As we envision the environment in which these dogs are deployed, we recognize that they must be comfortable with noise, frenetic activity, lights, sirens and adrenaline. And that they are expected to maintain their focus in the face of this. Our sincere appreciation is extended to all of our foster parents—you have built a solid foundation for your puppies, and helped create an effective team member for law enforcement.

Our training program became more refined throughout this year. Economically, we could not continue to support the training kennel in Georgia, nor the expense of a full-time trainer. As a result, we relied more heavily on our volunteer trainers, who absolutely rose to the occasion. While we maintained the quality of training, those economics have affected the ‘seasoning’ of the dogs we produce, and we now must rely on the receiving departments to continue that portion of our bloodhound’s education.

On that note, we must address the fact that this organization is seriously under-funded. We have more requests than ever before, and must secure funding to expand the organization’s ability to meet those demands. Additionally, we understand that our bloodhounds will be most effective if we have the resources to continue the ‘seasoning’ of these trained dogs.

At our annual awards, recognition and fundraising banquet in September, we shared our vision of expansion. We officially launched our campaign to fund the following:

1) Capital Project Phase I—location and acquisition of a training and kennel facility

2) Capital Project Phase II—construction of a new classroom, storage and kennel on said property

3) Capital Project Phase III—construction of a dorm/lodging facility for law enforcement handlers as they learn how to work with their new bloodhound.

4) Operating Expense—increased funding to support a full-time kennel manager, and a full-time training director

To date, we have located the perfect property for Phase I, and have signed an option for the property. This requires us to secure funding of $425,000 before November, 2008. In support of our organization, the owner of the property (20 acres located east of Inverness, FL) has accepted our offer at a much-reduced price. This property has existing structures that can be modified for immediate use by the organization. In fact, the only instant expense to becoming functional will be the secure fencing of the property.

Blueprints have been approved for Phases II and III of the capital projects, and funding drives for those phases will commence after completion of Phase I.

Additionally, our kennel manager and training director are in place, as soon as funding can be secured.

Volunteers, along with our Chairman, have diligently pursued grant opportunities. Nearly 300 grant applications have been sent, however, the return on these applications have been disappointing. In summary, we are finding that we ‘fall through the cracks’. As an example, many organizations fund law enforcement, or children’s issues, or Alzheimer’s issues. But they do not fund organizations who support those areas. The response letters received applaud our efforts, however, state that we do not exactly match their funding parameters.

To this end, we understand the following:
We must locate 40 businesses/organizations willing to donate $10,000 each, or 400 entities willing to donate $1,000 each, or 4,000 entities willing to donate $100 each. And it will take everyone’s effort to locate and identify those who would be interested in partnering with us.

Duke Snodgrass
Executive Director

Addendum June, 2008:
Over the years, we’ve received copies of many articles that spotlight our bloodhounds within their communities, and their successes. We are proud to say that our regional television station, Bay News 9 in Tampa, Florida, recently aired a story about Angie and I, in a segment called “Everyday Heroes”. Of course, we all know that the volunteers, the dogs, and the handlers are the heroes here!.

Also, People Magazine sent a writer and photographer to do a story on the organization, under their column “Heroes Among Us”. We understand that the story is expected to appear in late June, 2008. We understand that their readers number 37 million. Wow!