On Saturday, the local organization moved more than 50 dogs and cats from its original kennel in Valley Forge to a new, larger facility located in East Vincent Township.

Now one of the most popular places to adopt cats and dogs on the Main Line, Main Line Animal Rescue began nearly 10 years ago with only a few dogs that needed new homes.

"In the beginning, it was my mom, myself, a few volunteers and seven or eight dogs that needed adopting," said Bill Smith, founder of the animal rescue. In just a few short years, those seven or eight dogs grew to hundreds of dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, pigs and even turtles and iguanas, all in need of loving homes.

The kennel was originally located on the property of Dee Solitario on Yellow Springs Road in Valley Forge. Last year, Main Line Animal Rescue was forced to find a new place for its animals when Solitario's home was taken from her due to eminent domain and a new highway slip ramp that would be built right through her property.

Panicked, the group began looking for a new place that could house their animals and discovered land, previously the Pickering Hunt Club, for sale.

The property, complete with 58 acres that was protected and could never be developed, was the perfect place for the new Main Line Animal Rescue center.

"We've always wanted a permanent place of our own, always. This property is just amazing, we knew it was for us," Smith said.
For now, a temporary kennel on the property will house the Main Line Animal Rescue animals and the new kennel will begin construction in the fall with hopes of completion next spring.

The new facility and grounds will allow the cats and dogs to live a happy and normal life before they are adopted. A place to train the dogs, walking paths and a cat habitat are just a few of the things the facility in East Vincent will have.

"Most of the dogs that come to us from puppy mills and other places have never even felt grass," Smith explained. "Now they will have 58 acres of trails to walk and run and play on."

Main Line Animal Rescue's new center will not only allow for continued adoptions, but also for the organization's continued advocacy on animal cruelty.

"I never thought I would get into the advocacy part of this business, but seeing where some of these animals come from, you have to," Smith said.

One of the group's main focuses is the cruelty associated with puppy mills. Lancaster County, only a few short miles away, is home to one of the largest concentration of puppy mills in the United States. At these mills, some dogs are bred for profit in horrible living conditions. The animals live in small cages and when they cannot be sold, are used for further breeding or become sick, and no longer seen as being of any value.

A majority of the puppies that are sold in pet stores come from these breeding facilities.

"We've seen just about every type of cruelty," Smith explained, "but nothing compares to what we see from these puppy mills. From cigarette burns, to broken jaws, many of these dogs are tortured."
The volunteers of Main Line Animal Rescue save many of these "useless" dogs from death and provide them with new homes and loving families.

Though the organization has had a stressful and sometimes difficult year, they have a large support system around and outside the Main Line. Soon, the company Iams will be delivering 35,000 pounds of free dog and cat food to the facility, and volunteers continue to work endlessly to keep the organization running smoothly.

"The sky is the limit with this new place," Smith said. "We can now do a better job of helping these animals find their way home."