Mission Statement

Save a Dog and Kids Inc.
Mission Statement

Established June 1998 by Denise De Vynck, Founder, Board President and Director, Save A Dog & Kids Inc. has one main purpose to achieve: Teaching our youth appreciation, compassion and responsibility for God's creations.

Save A Dog & Kids Inc. gives kids of ages 12 to 18 opportunities to care for, train
and perform with homeless and unwanted puppies. By providing a loving and responsible home for a dependent puppy, the kids learn how rewarding responsibility, hard work and nurturing can be. By training the puppies, the kids learn how much satisfaction
can be gained from their hard work. By performing with their trained puppies, the
kids get praise and compliments for their positive efforts, develop many skills and
build confidence, as well as educate others to want to follow in their footsteps.

We tour schools, perform at family events and advertise our program in brochures
and on the internet. Our kids and their trained puppies have been seen by thousands
of people who have seen the benefits our program has for kids. Other kids' programs have invited us to bring our program to their kids who need positive involvements such as the Salt Lake Youth Corrections and Detention Centers, the YMCA after school program for homeless children, and the Foster Care Program for Kids to name a few. We plan to bring puppy training classes at these facilities to extend these opportunities to children who have very little to care for or be proud of. We would like to have our classes and programs in all the school districts of Utah as part of the Community Caring Programs for kids to learn to do something worthwhile in their community.

Save a Dog & Kids Inc. was founded because we feel a tremendous responsibility
toward our most precious resource - our children. The instilling of compassion and responsibility is one of our most important tasks as adults. Where better to learn
these values than in dealing with our abandoned and displaced animals?

Save A Dog & Kids program includes plans to build a Save A Dog & Kids Ranch where kids and teens can come to work with the orphaned and abandoned animals. Adult volunteers, experienced in child welfare, animal care and related fields, will help the kids learn the value of caring for a loving animal, the responsibilities that come with it, and the gift of selfless compassion. Other plans are in the works to produce a Kids-Hosted TV program about all the wonderful things dogs do for people. We hope to involve many professionals who have a strong dream to work with animals and kids, and who know that kids could benefit from such a program.

In a world of growing violence and self-indulgence, more and more of our youth are becoming desensitized to the suffering of others. Save A Dog & Kids, Inc. gives our youth and their families an opportunity to give the care needed by helpless, innocent and loving creatures, and feel the joy and satisfaction of giving of themselves. The program teaches our youth responsibility, appreciation for God's creations, and unconditional love. Our society throws away pets by the millions every year into shelters that are forced to euthanize the majority of them. By showing our younger generation that it is acceptable to walk away from the responsibility of a dependent life, and that it is acceptable as a nation to continue breeding, selling, buying, throwing away and killing these creatures, we are telling our youth there is no value to Living Things. The most dangerous consequence of these kinds of behaviors is that we are teaching our youth to have no regard for life. Research into America's abuse problem supports this in a frightening way. Our program can prevent this chain of abuse.

Save A Dog & Kids, Inc. has been able to find loving homes for over 600 discarded dogs since its establishment in July of 1999 as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization with the help of volunteer foster families, volunteer trainers who worked for a discount, volunteers to help at adoptions, teens earning scouting badges, teens doing community service hours and teens who just love helping animals and wanted to participate in our Kids Program. We have not only saved wonderful pets that would have been euthanized senselessly, but we have given over 500 families who adopted these loving dogs, and all the hundreds of kids and volunteers who helped care for, train and place them, the gift of love and appreciation for helpless but valuable life. What better way to teach compassion to our children? Save A Dog & Kids Inc. has plans to expand our program into Utah schools, kids' programs that need positive activities and other facilities for kids. There is much to be done if we are to slow down this wasteful killing of these beautiful creations of God, to teach our youth the value of life, and to slow down the growing acceptance of violence. Save A Dog & Kids Inc. has many plans for programs that will give our youth opportunities to want to save lives instead of senselessly taking them.

Save A Dog & Kids Inc. proposes to set up a Kids Ranch, a 20 year dream of founder Denise De Vynck: a natural place away from the hustle and bustle of the city where kids and animals can feel safe, loved and valued; a place where kids are given the opportunity to find a sense of self-worth where they can learn compassion for all of God's creatures. These are just a few of the descriptions of the Save A Dog and Kids Ranch. What better way to teach our kids the value of life, giving and hard work than by having them care for, gain the trust of, and save innocent animals. All of us have felt the wonderful feeling created by movies like Where the Red Fern Grows, Lassie, Born Free, The Black Stallion and so many more -- a feeling of love, deep happiness and caring for animals. Our young generations are losing this appreciation of the innocence, helplessness and suffering animals and children experience as well as the joy, satisfaction and beauty of life. They're not learning about the wonderful relationships that can develop between a human being and a loving "best friend."

Our farming communities are disappearing, and our natural habitats are fighting for survival against human consumption and technology. As we lose the farming way of life, we also lose the old-fashioned values like a hard work ethic and appreciation for the the simple things that are most valuable: life, love, sacrifice, responsibility, honor, morality, and the miracle of God's creations. We hope to give these values back to our young generation as well as remind our older generation of their existence. By working with animals that need special care, love and training, the kids will learn the value of hard work, patience and giving all they can for results that are more rewarding than anything else they could have done for themselves. No virtual reality man can create can compare to the experience, joy and satisfaction nature gives us unconditionally, free of charge and so wisely. Let's give this great gift to our children by giving them this beautiful, peaceful and loving place to go.

Save A Dog & Kids wants to bring puppies and trainers to the schools, programs and facilities for kids as well as bring kids to our own ranch to work extensively with the animals that need them. We will need to house and care for the puppies at the ranch, transport them to the Veterinary Clinics, kids in public and private programs, events and adoption opportunities. The costs of buying the land, building the needed facilities for the animals, facilities for care givers and trainers, needed supplies and food, phones and other communication mediums, salaries for the care givers and trainers, transportation vehicle for the animals and for the kids, and other administrative costs could add up to $500,000 or more. We would like to expand our program for the first Phase to at least include the rental of a temporary facility for the housing of the animals, transportation of the animals to schools and kids' programs that kids cannot leave from, and funds to provide food, supplies, costs of running the first Phase of at least $100,000. We would graciously request a donation of $20,000 from your foundation to start the first Phase of the program this Spring.

Denise Devynck, Founder

(801) 808-4424
email us at: littledogangel2@animail.net