Pets Alive is looking to open a shelter outside of the continental United States. The organization explained to our Elaina Athans why there's a great need for help more than 1,600 miles away.

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Pets Alive wants to protect battered and neglected dogs in the Caribbean. The non-profit is opening an animal sanctuary in Puerto Rico and in a specific part of the island.

"We're focusing right now on the one called Dead Dog Beach." said Clair.

In two weeks, volunteers will head south to scope out properties.

Clair said, "We don't want anything less than three acres. Optimally we'd like something about ten acres."

The organization has already teamed up with another shelter there to help animals, volunteers say, are beaten since birth and abused daily.

"It's considered a sport in some areas down there to beat these dogs and we will feed them, take care of them and we provide fresh water from them. But sometimes we're go down day after day and the dogs that we were feeding the day before are now dead with their skulls crushed in," said Clair.

Pets Alive has already started caring for many of animals from Puerto Rico. They've been flying them in for proper care and treatment in the Town of Wallkill.

The organization has received a $250,000 grant for the project and to get the sanctuary off the ground, the non-profit is also looking to run a Bed and Breakfast, something that might entice people to help rescue these animals.

"They're suffering a fate we came to fix and Puerto Rico is not so overwhelming that this isn't fixable. It's actually quite fixable," said Clair.