Network of auto writers driven to carry out cross-country beagle rescues

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Paul Eisenstein spotted the text message while in Paris celebrating his 72nd birthday and 17th wedding anniversary.
The words delivered a plea for help.
Eisenstein had been tapped as part of a rapid response team of beagle rescuers needed in Omaha, Nebraska, to make a trek to Portland, Oregon. His trip would include stopping at dog-friendly hotels in Laramie, Wyoming, and Salt Lake City.
On this mission, the team broke off — one group went to Seattle and the rest to Portland.
'They needed drivers. It was pretty desperate,' Eisenstein said.
'Normally they have months to prepare for things like this, because the dogs are coming from foster families. But we had just days to rescue these beagles. I looked at my wife and we had plans for the Memorial Day holiday and I said, 'I don't know what to do.' And my wife said to me, 'You know you've got to do it.''
So Eisenstein and his wife, Jennifer Queville, an ad executive who works from home in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, returned from France. She flew to Detroit. He flew to Dallas, for an important four-day Toyota event.
From Texas, Eisenstein (and Toyota) re-routed his ticket to Omaha.
He met up with a handful of other auto reporters — friendly competitors in everyday life but part of a single team committed to beagle rescue. Rescue vehicles usually have two humans each. They met up early on Friday, May 23, to take 14 dogs, including a very heavy adult named Big Booty Judy whose foster parents had a new foster beagle. Judy had to go.
'I saw beagles in a various state of concern, confusion and excitement,' Eisenstein said.
A team from Basset and Beagle Rescue of the Heartland sent a covert operative into an auction house in Missouri to bid on the beagle puppies and keep them out of medical testing. Then they met up with rescuers in Omaha — and headed west. Five beagles had foster homes waiting in Seattle.
The nine other beagles went to Lee Asher at his 240-acre Asher House sanctuary south of Portland. Asher, a 36-year-old animal advocate and social influencer, supports his nonprofit with ads on his video channels spotlighting dogs and cats.
The journalists tag team along the route. Some fly in to relieve those who needed to move on to other tasks. These busy reporters accrue airline points the way stones gather moss.
Eisenstein has traveled to 50 countries and every state in the U.S., working up to 80 hours a week. He writes for Forbes, The Economist, Cigar Aficionado and his website headlight.news and others.
'I don't get a lot of sleep,' he said. 'I love my job.'
Nik Miles, 60, of Portland, is the man behind the curtain of Operation Frodo. What began with a one-beagle rescue after the death of a pet in 2021 led to the launch of an ongoing 'mission from Dog' — so named by MotorTrend senior editor Aaron Gold, 52, of Los Angeles — in 2022.
Miles test drives cars all over the globe and may be spotted doing pieces for NBC Sports, Fox Sports, CNN and local stations in New York, Chicago and L.A.
'I spent years as a paramedic. I saw some of the worst things in the world. I have saved many lives and lost many lives,' Miles said. 'It's the hardest thing in the world to not cry continually when you're on this trip. I've realized that this trip isn't just saving these dogs, but saving ourselves.'
Miles doesn't work alone.
Harvey Briggs, 65, of Madison, Wisconsin, editor and publisher of ridesanddrives.com, overcame insane logistical challenges and put together the latest mission.
Briggs, a board member of the charity that supports these rescues, he made five trips including the one this week. 'When you see the people on the receiving end, it really does add another layer of meaning.'
Miles lined up a Kia Carnival, Ram Pro Master 2500 and a Volkswagen Atlas with just a few days' notice. It was up to Briggs to find people who would drive all or part of the 1,700 miles on a holiday weekend, plan hotels, meals and find supplies.
'We wanted to make sure we could deliver on the promise,' Briggs said.
How this big beagle campaign came to life is better than a movie script.
After Miles' beagle Joey died of respiratory disease, he spotted a look-alike named Frodo while on assignment in Germany and scrolling Facebook. He learned that the rescue group didn't have a physical shelter. It was run with foster families. Miles was intrigued. He talked to other journalists over dinner at a Toyota program in San Diego, and the conversation turned into a movement that has evolved over five years.
Miles discovered that puppy mills produce a lot of unwanted beagles that end up dumped if unsold. Hunters also abandon beagles in the woods at the end of the season, too. One breeder told a rescuer said if the excess pups weren't taken, the breeder would just shoot them.
'That's one of the things that motivates us,' Eisenstein said.
Beagles come from Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Meanwhile, people on the West Coast wanted beagles.
As someone who drives as many as 150 vehicles a year, Miles told automakers of the crazy mission and many offered to help. Cars, trucks and vans came from Jeep, Nissan, Mercedes, Toyota, Ford, Ram, Subaru, Hyundai, Kia, Genesis and VW. The first commitment came from Nissan, which built an animal rescue truck. It led to the creation of the animalrescuerigs.com nonprofit run by Miles, who has donated about one-third of his automotive journalist salary to the charity over the past five years.
While emergency rescues come up throughout the year, it's the Christmas delivery that's planned in advance because puppy mills always have too many unsold beagles.
'Several carmakers have asked if they could have only their vehicles (involved) and pay all expenses at Christmas,' Miles said. 'But this is not about a car company or an individual. It's about a movement. It's about everybody working together. It's about being better human beings, standing in line and passing buckets to put the fire out. You can't have one person do it. You've got to have everybody do it together.'
Christmas is the big event every year: The team delivered four beagles in 2022, 12 beagles in 2023 and 20 beagles in 2024.
'There just seems to be a cadence,' Miles said.
'Our first year, Jeep loaned us a Wagoneer to come back and we hit the worst snowstorm in 100 years. It was minus 70 degrees in Wyoming. We got trapped in the snow, slid off the road, ended up face-down in the ditch. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face.'
So far, 62 beagles have been rescued by journalists with Operation Frodo, Miles said.
His time-sensitive rescue alerts usually come from Kathi Ortmeier, 57, of Omaha, when Basset and Beagle Rescue of the Heartland foster homes hit maximum capacity; she finds veterinarians, homes and supplies to make the epic journey.
'We do 300-350 dogs a year,' Ortmeier said.
This rescue at the end of May, however, was critical and significant.
'We have no open foster homes and the foster homes we have are getting burnt out. When we saw this latest batch come up for auction, we wanted to buy them and find homes so they wouldn't go back into breeding or medical testing,' Ortmeier said. '… If they hit shelters, there's no space. They'll die.'
Beagles are good family dogs because they love people, train easily with food and don't require a lot of grooming, Ortmeier said.
Miles has two beagles — plus two labradors, a golden retriever and a German shepherd.
Eisenstein adopted a beagle after the Christmas rescue last year. Melvyn Torme, the dog in question, had a home waiting for his arrival by Dec. 25, but Eisenstein fell in love the dog and pleaded to keep it. Miles negotiated a swap with Melvyn's brother, Fred, during a break at a truck stop between Denver and Salt Lake City.
Eisenstein cried with relief and joy.
He hopped a plane to Detroit to deliver Melvyn and then flew Fred to Portland. The two dogs had been found in the woods of Tennessee, abandoned by hunters.
'I love Melvyn,' said Eisenstein, who has another dog and two cats. 'We bonded instantly.'
The families of Melvyn and Fred have stayed in touch since Christmas 2024.
Fred's new beagle sibling, Kirby, was among the 4,000 beagles surrendered to the U.S. Humane Society after a federal investigation into an Enviro research breeding facility in Cumberland, Virginia. The company was fined $35 million by the U.S. Justice Department for animal welfare and environmental crimes.
Sara Stamper, 70, of Milwaukie, Oregon, is a retired vet clinic receptionist with two dogs plus Fred. 'He is sweet and gentle and funny. We're in love.'
That rescue trek inspired stories to remember forever.
Gold drove a Mercedes van on loan for review (for a year) from Los Angeles to Omaha to Portland with freelancer Jeff Zuschneide of Tillamook, Ore. They joined a dozen or so others to rescue 23 beagles, stopping in Denver and Boise.
Puppies weren't beaten but they hadn't been loved, Gold said. The animals went from cowering in the kennel to racing outdoors to explore the world.
'On that last morning, I was lying in bed just bawling,' he said. 'I later learned that the breeder was going to shoot those beagles if we didn't take them. I'm glad I didn't know that. At home, if you ask my landlord, I have one dog. If you walk into my place, you'll find four dogs.'
Cathy Faulkner, 58, of Beaverton, Oregon, said her heart was so broken after the loss of her 15-year-old beagle Sammy that she didn't want to ever get a beagle again. She had serious depression and adopted a yellow Labrador named Foster instead.
But then she found Buddy online through Miles and his rescue squad.
'Beagles are just very sweet,' Faulkner said. 'They love so hard. I swear, Buddy sees into my soul. Sammy, my other beagle, was the same way … They have a lot of energy and they're so enthusiastic and they want to explore everywhere.'
Rescuers sometimes name the dogs after cars — like Elantra, Nexio and Mercedes.
'Dogs make everything better,' said Gold, who is traveling in Korea this week. 'You can have the crappiest day where you feel unaccomplished and no one respects you and you feel like crying. You walk in the door — and no matter how low and how bad and how small you are made to feel — all you have to do to be loved by a dog is exist.'
'Nik told me, 'This will change you.' It changed me,' Gold said. 'I'll keep doing this until there are no dogs left to move.'
To help: animalrescuerigs.com values financial contributions and the gift of time. Needs include legal, social media, IT, web development and fundraising support.
Phoebe Wall Howard, who was a Free Press auto reporter for nearly seven years, writes a column on car culture, consumer trends and life that appear periodically on Freep.com and in print. Her Shifting Gears column appears on Substack at https://phoebewallhoward.substack.com. Contact her at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Auto writers are driven to carry out cross-country beagle rescues