FOX 5 Special: Exporting Pets

ATLANTA (MyFOX ATLANTA) - When acts of cruelty are committed on animals, the agencies that nurse them back to health are flooded with calls from people wanting to adopt them.

Ironically, every year 8 million mostly healthy pets are put to death in the U.S. because people abandon them, lose them or can no longer afford to care for them.

"I think we need to do a better job on it. I think we need to get the word out shelter euthanasia is the number one killer of companion animals," said Rebecca Guinn of the Lifeline Animal Project.

About 120,000 dogs and cats go in to shelters in the Metro Atlanta area each year and only about a third of those animals make it out alive.

A stray dog or cat can be euthanized by a shelter within three days just to make room for the next batch of animals.

Shelters across Georgia are exploding at the seams, but in Plainville, Connecticut it's difficult to find pets to adopt.

"In the northeast it's not an acceptable practice to let your animals reproduce and here in the south we have great spay and neuter clinics and people just don't take advantage of them. There are even free spay and neuter programs and it's like pulling teeth trying to get people to take their animals," said Stacey Hall of Southern Hope Humane Society.

At Lifeline Animal Project in Avondale, cats and dogs are spayed and neutered in the hopes of reducing the metro areas pet overpopulation problem.

The Southern Hope Humane Society is now offering hope for pets that have been handed death sentences. Last week, the lives of more 200 Georgia dogs were saved by sending them on a 16 hour trip to Connecticut.

"When you bring animals like this up here and they turn out in these numbers and they're willing to wait in line and come from long distances. We had somebody come from Vermont," said Frederick Acker of the SPCA of Connecticut.

The program was called the Spring Puppy Fling and over one weekend every dog from Metro Atlanta was adopted.

"This is lifesaving. It's incredible, I really feel like the people in the northeast want to adopt and they're frustrated with the adoption experience," said Acker.

A dog named Patches was adopted by the Bowers family.

"My dad and I waited in the rain for three hours to just meet the dogs," said Leah Bowers.

"We don't think he was feeling very well the first couple days.  He got a bath, he wasn't eating very well and now he's getting a lot more energy," said Lonnie Bowers.

Patches joined a rescue greyhound the Bowers had previously adopted. The Bowers family said they wanted an older dog that was friendly with kids and already housebroken.

"It's just a great situation [because] you're saving a life and you're getting a dog that fits right into your family immediately and it doesn't have to be trained," said Lonnie Bowers.

Larah Bowers was excited about her new friend saying, "He loves his tummy rubbed!"

For Larah Bowers, Patches may be an older dog, but he's still her puppy.

"He's a very good dog and he's very good for our family to have," said Larah Bowers.