When a private animal rescue in Ashdown, Arkansas — a small town in the southwest corner of the state — was shut down by authorities, 51 dogs were left in limbo. Many had lived there for years, spending their days in increasingly restricted conditions with no clear path forward. Then the Animal Rescue Corps stepped in.
ARC, a national nonprofit that has been responding to large-scale animal welfare crises since 2010, launched what it called Operation Broken Ties. After securing the dogs' surrender through a court order, the organisation's field team moved in — executing a large-scale rescue operation. The dogs, mostly large breeds and described by responders as friendly, had all been spayed or neutered. Some had previously been kept in small cages with limited time outside each day; by the time ARC arrived, they had been moved to outdoor kennels, which the team described as austere.
All 51 dogs were transported to ARC's Rescue Center outside Nashville, Tennessee, where they are now receiving veterinary assessments, enrichment activities, and individualised long-term care plans — the kind of stability they hadn't known in years. ARC does not manage adoptions directly, but works with a network of trusted partner organisations to find the dogs permanent homes.
ARC's Executive Director, Tim Woodward — a 2025 CNN Hero and finalist for CNN Hero of the Year — described the mission simply: giving these dogs the space, care, and stability they had been missing. Operation Broken Ties was ARC's third major rescue operation of 2026 alone, bringing the total number of dogs the organisation had saved in just six weeks to more than 100.