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Out of curiosity… how many here do organized animal rescue? By organized, I mean work with an actual animal rescue group? Is the group 501c3 a nonprofit organization? How do you maintain a good reputation? And what type of guidelines does your organization follow to ensure that it’s run properly and upholds a great reputation?
I do.
We have been organized for years and years but just recently acquired our first-ever FACILITY.
We do good work-that’s how we maintain a good reputation-we are all volunteers-so people can see that we are there only for our love of animals….and it’s hard, dirty work.
That said, you can’t please everyone-many people don’t like us because we don’t, "help" them—-in otherwords, we don’t take THEIR problem. We don’t have an open-door policy-we simply can’t as we would be overwhelmed in minutes-literally. We get 90% of our animals from the pound where they face CERTAIN DEATH.
Had a lady come by Tuesday with 9 black puppies-wanted to take them-3rd time her dog has had pups…..what took the cake was that she had a frickin’ SPAY/NEUTER LICENSE PLATE! I have no problem not helping people like this-and I told her she needs to take some responsibility and have her animal spayed.
As far as guidelines….we have PROCEDURES as far as taking care of animals–cleaning—quarantine, etc…..but when you are small and you have NO PAID employee, it’s very dificult all-around.Why, what’s on your mind, DIAMONDTIGER?
Thank you for your reply. 🙂
What’s on my mind is, I recently resigned from a Pit Bull rescue group in my area because the director was following procedures that go against my own personal integrity. She was actually barred from pulling dogs from one of the shelters in our area. I wasn’t the only board member to resign, and those of us who left this organization have decided to form a new rescue with solid policies and procedures. (Hence all of my questions about reputation and so on.)
While I was on the board of this other rescue, several people questioned me about certain practices. For example, why were the majority of the dogs that they listed puppies? Did they turn away adult dogs? I felt like a part of a puppy broker outfit, because I too had the same questions. I was also asked about temperament testing a couple of times, for which I could not give answers because dogs were taken in and listed immediately with no adjustment period given to discover behavioral issues. I brought this issue up a few times and was told to hush. A dog was put down for "jumping on people." Dogs were being crated together, allowed to run freely without supervision, and allowed to "work it out on their own" (in other words, fight). Shortly after I left, I learned that one dog was euthanized for being dog aggressive. And still another dog "got away" when he was allowed off leash in the front yard of the directors home. They got the dog back, after chasing him down the street… but this should have never happened to begin with. All of these things happened with dogs in the directors care.
I’ve talked to others who do organized animal rescue, about the issues that caused me (as well as the other 2 members, as we all had very similar reasons) to resign, and was assured that my decision was the right one and that the "group" in fact was following bad practice. There were other issues as well, with the "inner workings" of this organization that brought about my resignation, however I will not list those here. I’ll just say that I was told that I should keep my mouth shut because my experience lies with the breed and not with the politics of rescue. I understand that organized rescue is very political. I don’t understand for the life of me why this is, because we all have a common goal, but I guess that’s just how people are. In the same token though… so much seems like it should be common sense. This is why I ask so many questions… lol Because I’d like to know if I am indeed expecting too much, or making things harder than they have to be. The rescue that I was on the board of, was my first experience in organized rescue. I wouldn’t say that it left a bad taste in my mouth, but rather the things that I witnessed made me want to do it right.
At any rate, we have put together many policies and written bylaws for our new organization to follow (none of which this other rescue had done, and again when I asked I was told to shut up). We are a breed specific rescue, Pit Bull, and so one of our policies is that all members and volunteers should have a clear understanding of the breed and BSL. We will require that our fosters (and anyone handling the dogs) have experience and knowledge of the breeds that we take in, and that fosters work with dogs in obediance and on going socialization.
As for my questions about policies and such, what I’m wondering is… how many of your (those of you in organized rescue) policies are made available to the public? Do you allow people to view these things before making a decision as to whether or not to foster/adopt from your organization? Do you make information regarding vets who care for animals and shelters that you pull from available to the public, that way if a person wants to check you out first they can?
Vaccinations and other routine procedures… do you do this yourself, or do you have a vet do these things? (I’ve heard of rescues doing this both ways) When asking for donations, do you ask for medications and other items that will be used to treat sick or injured animals? (I ask this because the rescue that I was formerly a member of did ask for such donations and they would accept used products. I do not agree with this, because you never know what could be put into these products that will harm the dogs.)
I’ll let you rest your eyes now. LOL!! I’ll have more questions later no doubt, but I’m sure that right now you get the gist. 🙂lol
Okay, I’ll have to go back and read that several times.
No, we don’t request meds. We have had volunteers bring things like antibiotic OINTMENT (that worked WONDERS by the way).
We have PLAY GROUPS-these are small groups of dogs(about the same size) that have proven to play well together under CONSTANT SUPERVISION.
We just had a situation where a volunteer let a jack russell, who was known to literally ATTACK big dogs-there were NOTES not to let him play with others and of course the play group lists…..well, a volunteer didn’t pay attention and letthis dog out with the BIGGEST (MASTIFF) we had…..the little dog attacked and had to be put down as his injuies were fatal….several people wanted to put the MASTIFF down-we are NO-KILL—-I was the biggest advocate for Baxter (the mastiff)…..he is a very sweet dog—ANY dog, no matter the size will PROTECT themselves-this was 100% OUR FAULT—-we knew this could happen and someone didn’t pay attention—-for Baxter to pay the ultimate price because WE FAILED him is UNSPEAKABLE—-Baxter was adopted to a loving home 2 weeks ago.
This was the 1st time we had a situation like this….and Baxter was never agressive towards PEOPLE OR OTHER DOGS—-he is just a big, powerful dog that protected himself.
MONEY, MONEY MONEY–when you aren’t government funded and rely only donations, maintaining your existence is very difficult.
We don’t take euthnasia lightly—we have exceptions, of course—-but have never done so until this situation—only because the VET recommended the jack russell be put downs his injuries were so severe and he was not likely to even make it through surgery….
On that note—I have kennel duty today and must go to volunteer!Oh–and this is just a guess, but I would say that they took mostly pups as they felt this presented less liability than an adult.
Our vet does most vaccianations-occassionally we do the pups. We give dewormer….err…well really ONE person does it. If we have AM & PM meds, there are directions posted-the KEY person must sign showing who and when they gave meds….this would be for like bacterial infections, kennel cough, etc.
If there is ANY sign an animal is sick-they go to the vet—we don’t make a million phone calls for that to be decided—-if, when I go today, I feel an animal needs to see the vet-I take them—-though I have been with this organization for nearly 10 years and am secretary and also used to work with a vet…..so I know when an animal needs to be vetted.DiamondTiger I have learned that there is often major conflicts within rescue groups. I think it’s because people are very emotional when it concerns animals.
I was one of the 4 original board members of Tampa Bay Beagle Rescue. We held every meeting at my house and everyone got along great. Then we voted a new board member on and started having trouble shortly after. He is so difficult to get along with that within 2 years he ran off our President (&founder) and Vice President. I nominated him as the new President hoping we could put our differences aside and from that moment on we quit functioning as a board. With him in charge we brought a dog to a crowded dog park (with kids) even though we knew he has bitten someone 3 times. He has bitten again since. We brought a dog to the same dog park we knew had kennel cough. I found out because I agreed to foster him and all 8 of the other dogs I had became ill. When I asked them why they would bring a dog they knew was infected to a dog park they said other people there may have sick dogs too. But the last straw came when another board member and I were trying to rescue a beagle who had been left chained to a dog house for 11 years and was being treated inhumanely. He was covered with fleas, often without food or water and had an injured leg. I didn’t realize until I agreed to foster him that he was on the property of the woman who started the rescue. She had her heart in the right place but unfortunately the dogs at her place were often mistreated. We had managed to get all the rescue dogs off her place already into foster homes and this was the last one left. The President of the rescue said since the dog has lived his life this way there’s no need to change it. We persisited in rescuing him and so our President sent the founder the emails we wrote saying how bad the dog’s conditions were. Then the President emails everyone involved with the rescue an email from the founder saying what a terrible pet owner I am and I’m a hoarder. Since very few people in the group had been to my place and knew the truth I was extremely upset. I sent back an email to everyone and told them some of the awful things that happened on the founders property. We did finally managed to get that poor dog out of there but I’ll never forget what we went through to do it.
By time I decided to quit the rescue I had 6 friends who had already quit and we decided to form a new rescue, Florida Doggie Paws, Inc. We then had 5 other former volunteers of TBBR join us too so it was great to work with them again. We decided to learn from the mistakes that drove us all away TBBR. The first thing we decided is to make every volunteer feel appreciated no matter how much they contributed and to treat them with respect. We also decided that we would work harder to protect our reputation by trying to avoid conflicts with people and resolving the ones that arise. We hold regular board meetings and everyone is pleasant to work with.
We do our own shots except rabies. We have a mission statement on our website but it doesn’t go into detail. We just finished our volunteer manuel so all the information they need will be available to them. We wrote our bylaws at the first meeting but we didn’t make them public.
As far as reputation goes I think it’s important to be truthful with people and flexable.at times. At TBBR we would adopt a dog out without telling the person the dog has displayed aggession issues. We are honest with people about issues are dogs are having. And sometimes it’s best to do what’s needed to promote good will. We had a volunteer let someone she knows watch one of our fosters for us for a weekend and she wouldn’t return the dog. We were assured by the volunteer that it was a good place for the dog. They not only refused to return the dog they also to go through our adoption process. We decided that if we fought and got the dog back it would cause people to start bad mouthing us. So though we didn;t really want to we decided not to fight them. See had seen battles like this before and they can really get out of hand.
Here’s a link to our website.…honestly, if there were another no-kill rescue in my town, I would probably join them immediately…and HOUNDHELPER you are correct….because of conflict and just some things I don’t agree with….it IS VERY emotional.
Conflict happens everywhere, so I totally understand that it would/will happen in rescue. If that was the only issue with the rescue that I was with, I could have set aside my differences for the dogs. The acts of the director of this organization though, were/ARE out right irresponsible and that’s something that I cannot ignore.
Myself and another ex-board member are currently in the process of writing policies, contracts and bylaws for the new organization that we plan to open in the next few months. Our goal for our board is to gather a team of like minded, RESPONSIBLE bully lovers, who understand the breed(s) we’ll be rescuing, and who can and will accept everything about these dogs. This may sound a bit "snotty" of me to say, but these dogs cannot afford to have people rescuing them, who do it to save them all. We need people who are able to preform temperament evaluations and make the tough calls on unsound animals. We need a team who understands limits and can, even though it’s hard, turn dogs away when we have no space for them or funds to care for more.
I do expect issues to arise, but our hope is to be able to discuss concerns and not make people feel as if their worries or questions are invalid. I don’t expect that everyone will always agree… and I know that people will probably come and go. Maybe I’m wrong in feeling the way I do, but to me rescue isn’t so much about making friends as it is helping animals in need. Friendships will develop in that as we learn to trust our team mates.If I were only in it for the people–I would have quit LONG, LONG ago….but I do have to remind myself (pretty often) the reason that I AM there.
At 31, I am the youngest – and always have been (for 10 years now)- board member at my shelter. We have only had a facility for ONE year now-foster homes before that—it is very difficult for some (one really)of the foster peeps to realize that it is a COMPROMISE now and they will not be the only ones caring for the animals….and that they aren’t always right….and they cannot always have it THEIR way….this has been very difficult-that transition.
"Emotional" is definately an understatement! lolUgh… they’ve lost more dogs. I got a text from a friend this morning telling me to look at Craigslist. The director posted an ad in the pets section regarding a male that’s still missing. Four dogs total, and they managed to find 3, but Dexter is still missing.
What is it gonna take for people to wake up and realize that this is NOT a reputable organization? More so, what’s it gonna take to have this org put on a DNA/DNR list so that more dogs aren’t handled irresponsibly? This is ridiculous! If you want to see the add and the PROOF that the dog was in the rescues care before he went missing, PM me and I’ll send links.Have you reported to Dept of Agriculture?
I would urge any rescue to exercise EXTREME caution in administrating any kind of vaccination or prescription level medication to an animal. In the vast majority if not all states you can be prosecuted for practicing veterinary medicine without a license. Your better bet is to find a rescue friendly vet.
I have been part of 2 rescue groups for 2 years and have seen plenty of conflict. You have to make sure that everyone is asking themselves Why am I doing this? If the answer isn’t For the dogs then that person needs to be encouraged to find another way to help. The other issue is that EVERYONE needs to be accountable to the group. I had a foster dog that was killed (accidentally) literally within hours of placement in an adopter’s home because of an adoption pushed through by one board member. It still haunts me that even as a new member I didn’t stand up to that person more but I thought, Well, this is after all a board member and I’m new to rescue so…
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