Home for Good Dog Rescue (HFGDR) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in Berkeley Heights, NJ. We rescue dogs from high-kill shelters in the South, transport them to our rescue, and give them a second chance at life. As a uniquely 100-percent foster-based rescue, we place each dog into a loving foster home until adoption, and since our inception, we have rescued over 12,000 dogs and given them loving homes for good.
Our story began in 2010. At that time, a group of eight local New Jersey volunteers quite literally launched our rescue efforts out of a living room in Summit, NJ.
Our co-founders decided to focus their attention on areas throughout South Carolina and Georgia—namely in locales that demonstrated considerable populations of unwanted dogs, high rates of euthanasia, and a significant need for animal rescue respite.
On our first-ever trip to the South that year, we created the ‘five-to-ten rule,’ wherein we agreed to only bring north as many dogs as we reasonably thought we could adopt out, a manageable number between five and ten. However, that first trip ultimately saw the transport of 30 rescued dogs to New Jersey, and every single one found a family that weekend. Eleven years later, we now save over 1000 lives a year.
Our volunteer base has grown from our eight original members to over 300, and we boast 130 active foster families who allow us to continue doing the work we do. And while we now operate out of an office, grooming, and retail space in Berkeley Heights, famous on Springfield Avenue for our signature blue front doors, our unprecedented fostering program remains the cornerstone of our mission.
Our dogs do not live in a shelter or kennel, but rather in a loving, volunteer home, right up to the point of adoption.
