Second-year veterinary student Krista Gazzola\'s compassion for stray animals has given more than 600 homeless dogs and cats an opportunity to escape an otherwise grim fate by placing them in homes far from the Mississippi State University campus.
Along with fellow College of Veterinary Medicine classmates Megan Caulfield of Westchester, N.Y., and Amy White of Wilmington, N.C., the Deerfield, N.H., native started the Homeward Bound Project through the Humane Ethics and Animal Welfare program to match homeless pets in Mississippi with adoptive homes in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York.
"We have already found homes for 600 pets," Gazzola said, noting that people looking for dogs or cats often must purchase them from pet stores because of a lack of adoptable pets in their local animal shelters. "The pet overpopulation issue is not as big up there as it is here; you won\'t go to a shelter and find a litter of babies."
Gazzola said currently Homeward Bound sends pets straight to adoptive homes, but hopes that puppies and kittens eventually will be sent straight to no-kill shelters for adoption.