POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A South Florida high school student helped rescue 260 rabbits and guinea pigs when she heard about their plight.
The Sun-Sentinel reported that Dylan Warfel, a Pompano Beach senior, began a massive coordination effort to rescue dozens of the animals and find them new homes.
It unfolded across the state from Warfel, in the town of Alva near Fort Myers. Animals that also included horses and ducks, all living in squalor, uncared for, and many with horrifying injuries.
Warfel, who has been rescuing animals for five years, called animal rescue groups she’d worked with in the past and others that could offer help. In a matter of days, she’d found homes for the majority of the 260 rabbits and guinea pigs.
It was an exhausting, yet remarkable feat for 17-year-old Warfel.
Warfel and Marquelle Hendryx, owner and founder of Broken Oak Animal Sanctuary in Alva, got the animals to safety. The sorted them by gender and arranged them in the order they’d be dropped off, then set out across Florida in a rented cargo van to find facilities to take the rescues.
They said they made six stops on their nearly 24-hour trip, going from the west coast, to central Florida, to the east coast.
“We even ended up transporting 40 to Missouri,” Warfel said, who also took 21 rabbits and guinea pigs from Alva and hopes to find them homes.
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