CDC import ban makes Bend group’s efforts to rescue dogs abroad challenging

Ban applies to 113 countries, including China

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Amanda Jo kept hearing horror stories about the abuse and killing of dogs in Asia, so she decided to take action.

"I mean they'd be boiled alive, burned to death, just horrifying," Jo said Tuesday. "I told my husband, 'We're going to start a dog rescue, because I can't not do anything about this.'"

So she and her husband, Kyle, founded Bunny's Buddies, a dog-rescue agency that has saved the lives of hundreds of canines from places like China and South Korea.

Which has led her to help people like Jennee Elliff of Sunriver, who reached out to Bunny's Buddies after hearing some gruesome dog abuse stories of her own.

"Actually," Elliff said, "my folks went to China, and when they came back, they told me stories about the dogs, on the backs of motorcycles, people had dogs in cages, you go to restaurants and they serve dogs."

So Elliff has adopted three of her own.

But a recent ban by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has made the rescue group's mission more difficult.

Jo says despite what many may think, it does not relate to the pandemic.

"The CDC ban has nothing to do with COVID" she said. "The CDC has decided that rescue dogs are too great of risk to import rabies."

The ban applies to 113 countries, including China, India and Russia.

It follows an incident from last last month that involved a group of 33 dogs brought to the U.S. from Azerbaijan.

One of those dogs tested positive for rabies, which the CDC said was eradicated in the U.S. back in 2007.

But Jo feels the ban is an overreaction.

"No dogs have been imported from 111 countries, so it doesn't make sense," she said.

And Elliff believes the group's efforts are too important to stop now.

"Amanda just has a way of finding these crazy, cool dogs and matching them with the best families," Ellif said. "The families that Bunny's Buddies have are amazing."