Central Georgia struggles to find homes for stray dogs. Meanwhile, Northeastern states desperately want dogs to adopt.

A collection of animal shelters has created a pipeline to ship unwanted canines north.

Next Friday (January 9), the Central Georgia Rescue Coalition will put 50 dogs on a transport vehicle bound for the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem Massachusetts -- one of the largest private shelters in New England.

Coalition organizer Kerri Fickling said she's drawing from a huge foster family base.

"Between all the different resuces, there's about five or six of them here in Middle Georgia, they have about 100 people who are in their foster system," she said.

The dogs will come from those foster families and stay two weeks in a temporary shelter in Fort Valley, Fickling said this will ensure the dogs don't have parvo. Then they'll head to the Salem shelter.

The Northeast Animal Shelter has just created an expansion to take in more dogs from out of state. The Salem facility has agreed to pay for the veternary services and the transportation to take in the Georgia dogs.

Fickling said 100 dogs from Central Georgia will head north each month under the agreement. Fickling says this long-distance connection is a help.

"We're very glad to have this relationship. We hope it lasts for a long time," she said. "But we hope one day we won't need them."

Central Georgia is working to enforce spay-and-neuter laws. Southern states lag behind the rest of the country in spaying and neutering regulation.

Tags: Central Georgia, middle Georgia, stray dogs, dogs, Macon, shelter