International dog rescue group eyes Canton for headquarters

Mr. Beri said he intends to build an animal hospital, a dog training and rehabilitation facility and two large kennels where he expects to house nearly 200 dogs.

Mr. Beri was a designer and manufacturer of high-end jewelry, trained at the Allami Penzero Academy in Budapest, Hungary, when in 2016 he left that career behind to travel to East Asia to rescue 121 dogs bound for a slaughterhouse.

Since that initial mission, Mr. Beri, in addition to continuing to fight the dog meat market in East Asia, has rescued dogs from around the world, including Ukraine and Afghanistan.

The war dogs, he said, are traumatized and need intensive care and training to be safe to be around people.

As Mr. Beri walks around the property on Route 68 near Crary Mills, he is followed by his five personal dogs, Stam, Yellow, Prince, Aitna, and Brooklyn; three are Belgian malinois, one is a German shepherd and one is a Spanish galgo. He speaks Mandarin and English to his companions, who work hard to stay near him.

Mr. Beri said he would hire as many local people and firms as possible to build his facility and, when it is completed, will employ about 26 people to run it.

Mr. Beri was operating out of East Asia and Canada because Centers For Disease Control and Prevention regulations kept him from importing dogs to the U.S. When those regulations were changed, he began looking for a U.S. headquarters.

“I traveled 13,000 miles,” he said.

He looked in California, Texas, Oregon and Pennsylvania. He said he looked at almost 50 properties before coming to Canton.

“None of those places had the moons align like in Canton,” he said.

Mr. Beris said the proximity to the colleges, the property, which had a functioning kennel and relatively level terrain for building, made Canton ideal.

No Dogs Left Behind is a 501c-3 non-profit organization that relies on donations for funding.

According to a press release from NDLB, they are looking for local people to take an interest.

“NDLB is also working to add team members in the areas of adoption, foster, kennel attendants, cleaning crew, and accounting, the news release reads. People can apply to volunteer at nodogsleftbehind.com/volunteer.

Mr. Beri said his facility would bring international attention to Canton due to the global nature of his mission.

“We go where no one is willing nor able to go, the most dangerous places in the world, areas hard-hit by natural disasters and war-infested combat zones,” Mr. Beri said in his release.

The non-profit’s mission remains the same, he said in a press release, to fight to end the dog meat trade, bring about global animal welfare laws and save lives in East Asia and elsewhere.

Improvements to the grounds this week will be just enough to get his programs running. He said his builder would be in Canton next week to survey the property and start drawing up final plans. The job could be finished in as little as six months, Mr. Beri said.

Mr. Beri said he hopes to have an outsized impact on Canton and the surrounding area.

“We don’t bring an army,” he said. “We build them.”