Built for the
Hard Cases.
Detroit Needed
This.
Elizabeth and Maria started TWRDA because they kept seeing the same thing: animals with heartworm, behavioral histories, or medical needs being passed over by rescues with capacity limits and easy-case preferences.
Detroit's shelter system is under enormous pressure. Stray populations are high, resources are thin, and the animals who most need intervention are the ones who are hardest to place.
TWRDA exists to change that. We are licensed by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and we operate out of a network of foster homes in the Metro Detroit area.
Our Values
We don't take only the easy, adoptable animals. Seniors, medical cases, behavioral challenges — those are exactly who we show up for.
Every dog in our program works with a professional training partner before placement. We don't just move animals — we set them up for lifetime success.
Once a TWRDA animal, always a TWRDA animal. We have a no-surrender policy. If a placement doesn't work, the animal comes back to us — never to a shelter.
We share updates, challenges, and financials openly. You deserve to know exactly where your support goes.
Meet the Founders
Elizabeth
Elizabeth has spent years rescuing animals in the Metro Detroit area and recognized that the most vulnerable animals were falling through the cracks of existing systems. She built TWRDA to close that gap.
Maria
Maria brings organizational rigor to a world that often runs on passion alone. She coordinates fosters, vetting, and logistics to keep every animal in the program supported from intake to forever home.