Our Mission Statement
Our mission is to take unwanted, neglected, abused, homeless beagles, and beagles at risk of euthanasia and provide them with emotional, medical, and behavioral support so that they can be adopted into loving permanent homes.
CBR History
2005 – In the beginning…
Cascade Beagle Rescue was formed by beagle-lovers who are passionate about helping the breed. So many beagles end up on death row in shelters or dumped in shelters by their owners and there was nobody in the Portland, OR area to help. In 1999, Denise Lowe joined the Columbia-Willamette Beagle Club and spearheaded the beagle rescue effort under the wing of the club. In subsequent years, new club members, Stephanie & Gary Frye of Tualatin, OR, became volunteers in beagle rescue along with Denise. It became clear that their vision for rescue exceeded the constraints of the work that was being done within the beagle club. They decided a greater impact could be made if a new, seperate entity were formed. In early 2005 they began pulling together mounds of legal documents required to form Cascade Beagle Rescue, an Oregon nonprofit corporation. The initial Board of Directors consisted of Denise Lowe, President; Stephanie Frye, Vice President; Gary Frye, Treasurer. The next step was to apply for our 501(c)(3) tax status which would ensure our donors a tax deduction and the organization’s tax exemption. Late in 2005 we received approval from the IRS, which was a milestone! CBR was the very first 501(c)(3) charitable organization in Oregon to focus on the welfare of beagles.
Changes in 2006
In 2006 this organization found itself reaching farther than just the Portland, Oregon area. During our first year of operation, we were able to help beagles throughout the Pacific Northwest. It was decided that we would establish operations on the east coast so that we could increase our effort to help beagles. We recruited volunteers to begin the rescue effort on the “other” coast. This proved to be a successful expansion that furthered our mission. At this time we decided to call our two divisions “Cascade Beagle Rescue – West” and “Cascade Beagle Rescue – East”. Although there were two geographic designations, CBR is, and always has been, only one organization; one entity with the official legal name of Cascade Beagle Rescue. Some people got the impression that east and west were two distinct separate entities..not true! This year also marked the start of our B.A.R.C. Program (Beagles Across R Country). With this program, we are able to rescue beagles from all across the nation and transport them to Portland, OR for adoption.
Changes in 2010
This year marked changes in our eastern region coordinators. We welcomed Rochelle & Andy Bohaty onto the team who continue pulling beagles and doing adoptions. They are located in the Washington DC metro area, but the geographic area they cover is inclusive of many states. With the CBR crew growing every day, we have been able to do rescue work in over half the states in the USA, including Alaska and Hawaii!
Changes in 2012
On March 5, 2012 we celebrate our 7th year of operation! Hundreds of beagles later and still going strong…thanks to our supporters, volunteers and adopters. We give special thanks to shelter workers who have a never ending job of trying to find homes for animals that end up in their facilities. This also marks the year where Facebook, Twitter and You Tube became a relied upon tool to promote CBR and available beagles. We hit 5,000 fans in February, 2012 on Facebook!
On this, our 7th anniversary, we will be launching a brand new web site. We found that the “old” site was outdated, cumbersome, and just needed a facelift. Special thanks to Team Lowell for getting it all together!
In the field of rescue, people come and go for many reasons, but the rescued beagles of CBR will always be grateful for every minute they were here.