Meet the Board: Board Member Toni Hammond

Hi! My name is Toni Hammond and I am currently on the new Board of Directors for the Pyrenean Mastiff Association of America.

I am the Executive Director of Palmetto Pyr Haven. We are a Great Pyrenees and Pyrenean Mastiff sanctuary for seniors and special needs fluffies. We are a small nonprofit but try to help as many as we can. Along with our Great Pyrenees, we also have two Pyrenean Mastiffs here right now. We got involved with the Pyrenean Mastiffs when we saved a senior (what we thought was a Pyr/St. Bernard mix) from an Alabama shelter who had Degenerative Myelopathy. We had a DNA test done on him because he seemed like something else and he turned out to be 100% Pyrenean Mastiff. He was a beautiful, sweet boy who we only had for about a year before his advanced disease took him from us but we fell in love with the breed and have been involved ever since.

I hope to bring my experience in science and genomics along with my years in rescue to help the Pyrenean Mastiffs continue to grow and flourish here in the US. Along with my degree in Medical Laboratory Technology, I also have a certificate as a Vet Assistant and all the classes for a Vet Tech degree except for the internships. I wanted to be able to help the seniors and special needs guys that came through here as much as I could and loved taking the classes.

Along with serving on the board, we are also going to help with any rescue efforts that might arise for our breed. As more of them are bred in the US, this need will start to show up and we want to try to get ahead of it and hope education about the breed will keep it to a minimum.

I am looking forward to watching our breed grow here in the US.