Animal rescues

They're staffed by volunteers and if you find a lost dog, you have to take it to the pound so the owner might find it. By the time the hold is up, someone should have time to contact you. Perhaps you should volunteer your time to a rescue group and see how hard it is.

Most of them are overwhelmed because all the assholes that decided a dog made a nice accessory or toy during the pandemic put Fluffy on the curb when they went back to work.

Rescues are usually not allowed to take strays as rescues, only owner surrenders or from kill shelters. You need to take the dogs to animal control or whatever is in your area. They will try to find the owner and after whatever legal amount of time required will then find a rescue to take them.

I'm reluctant to do the pound. Theyll put them down.. For one, these dogs were abandoned. This area is notorious for animal dumping. No microchips, the pitty just had pups and her owners probably used her for breeding. Lots of illegal dogfighting here.

There are way too many dogs. It isn't realistic that every dog can find a comfortable home. Try going to Facebook and looking for a family that might be interested in adopting them directly, it would probably be a faster process.

Is it a rescue rescue?

just take it out in the woods and shoot it.

R7 = instablock

R3 is correct.

In my state, all strays must go to the county/city shelter which mandates a hold for the owner to find him/her. You as the 'finder' do not have the legal authority to give the dog to a rescue. Many shelters also operate as the city/county animal control and are obligated to follow state laws regarding lost cats/dogs with required holds. In my state, there are different categories of hold depending on whether the stray had a collar or not (3 days for those with no collar, 7 days for those with collars). Once the hold is done, the shelter decides whether to put the dog/cat up for adoption, to sign out to a rescue, or to put down. In those several days of the hold, the shelter staff assess the likelihood of finding the animal a permanent home and addresses any immediate medical needs.

The rescue I work with values these initial assessments from the shelter staff. We will sign out those dogs that the shelter staff find adoptable. We have limited resources (money for medical (spay, neuter, rabies, immunizations, surgery, homes for fostering, etc) which means that we cannot save every dog in every shelter. We focus on those who will likely find their permanent home quickly -- as well as those who will not need a lot of medical $$ to get to that point. Sadly, a dog that is heartworm positive will often not pass the $$ test. The treatment is costly, and most importantly it ties up a foster space for up to 2-3 months before it can be adopted out. In that same time, that foster home could have taken in and adopted out 2-3 other dogs to permanent homes.

I think a great many animal rescues are actually scams, and it's only a matter of time before the Justice Department or John Oliver busts them wide open for what they are.

They swoop in to pounds and adopt (for maybe $50) every purebred and non-problem dog they can find. They then turn around and SELL the dog at a vastly inflated price (maybe $500), using their soft status as an "Animal Rescue" to justify what is essentially a markup. They are flipping live animals. And where does that money go? Maybe some of it goes to administrative costs, but most of these outfits rely on volunteer labor, and are constantly raising funds to cover their expenses. Meanwhile, you're apt to see one or two leaders in the outfit collecting a salary, pocketing cash, or otherwise skirting the rules for profit.

Look how easily George Santos got away with several phony "Animal Rescue" rackets. They raise money for sick animals, then keep it. They buy dogs in cheap states, then flip them for a vast profit in wealthy states. They focus on a single breed, and raid animal shelters to the point that the only dogs you're apt to find at your local pound are mutts or Pit Bulls.

Like churches, cub scouts, and hookers with children, they prey on the sympathy of their marks in order to grift a little bit deeper. Let the dogs have them, I say!

Every one of the pets I have now and the ones I've had in the past, have been strays. I tried to find an animal rescue that would take them, but they were no help at all. Its upsetting.

R11 How many of your beloved pets have you tried to give away over the years?

R10:

While there are illegitimate rescue groups out there, there are also many very decent ones. The one I work with charges $350 as an adoption fee. Even after the discounts that we get from a vet clinic, a spay/neuter is generally around $150 and the initial round of immunizations/rabies and microchipping runs $90. The rescue provides us with dog food, monthly flea/tick and heartworm meds (an additional cost of around $50/month). That is $295 in costs for the first month (plus more if the dog is in foster care longer). Fos us, when a dog is adopted in less than one month, the rescue makes approximately $80.

If a dog is heartworm positive, treatment is in excess of $1500. Other medical needs are also met by the rescue (surgeries, therapy, special diets, ongoing medications, etc). Pregnant dogs mean at least 2 months of cleaning supplies, puppy pads, puppy food, etc).

Santos and his ilk are out there who abuse the system for money. But most people I have met in rescue are in it for the animals.

I am currently fostering 6 dogs. Only 1 is a purebred anything. The other 5 are large breed mixes (Dane, mastiff, shepherd, lab, rottie mostly).

There are a LOT of dogs out there. Puppy mills and such are contributing to a plethora of rescues.

It's truly sad what we humans do to the animals we share this planet with.

Rescues know which dogs will or will not get adopted, so they can be picky

[quote]In my state, all strays must go to the county/city shelter which mandates a hold for the owner to find him/her. You as the 'finder' do not have the legal authority to give the dog to a rescue

Huh. I volunteer at a cat rescue and we take strays all the time. I don't know if it's different for dogs and cats, but we check them for a chip, the vet or tech does a quick check to make sure they are healthy enough that we aren't taking on an animal that's sick or likely to end up hospitalized, then take them into intake, they get fully checked by the vet, then they'll get tested for FIV and FelV, then chipped and vaxxed and we can adopt them. We get tons of stray kittens. Sometimes we have to refer them to other rescues and the city (who has to take them no matter what) because we have more cats than space. But they don't have to go to the city first.

Shelters are experiencing extreme overcrowding right now, OP, et al. Here in Austin, we* have 60+ large dogs living 24 hours in crates. Not kennels, crates. We do our best to give them three breaks a day but it’s hard when people keep bringing in more strays. Plus, there are 200 other dogs that need to get out every day! Staff and volunteer burnout is a constant issue.

*Austin Animal Center, which is the largest open intake shelter for Austin and Travis County, so we take in ALL animals then try to transfer them to more appropriate rescue groups (breed-specific, size-specific, etc). One of our partners has a massive marketing department and yes, they do good work, but they pay something like one dollar a year to the City of Austin for being in city property but barely take our dogs, which was part of the contract. Anyway, there are other municipal shelters all around but they’re struggling, too.

What can the average person do?

1. Consider fostering a medium to large dog for a week. This gives the dog a break (every moment out of the shelter reduces cortisol) and gives helpful home behavior notes for potential adopters.

2. Support your local shelter. Bring in old blankets and towels, donate peanut butter, dog treats, toys (check Amazon for wish lists) - we run out constantly and I personally spend close to $2000 a year on treats and toys.

3. Volunteer. You needn’t walk dogs if that makes you uncomfortable but honestly, I would give anything for someone to come organize the resource room in the main building where I volunteer! The animal care staff don’t have time and neither do the volunteers. Make adoption flyers for a few dogs, share posts on social media, attend adoption events and help staff put costumes on dogs, if appropriate (we have fashion shows fairly frequently and they are a hoot!) Be a greeter at the shelter and guide customers around. Answer questions. If you’re bilingual, all the better.

4. Spread the word. Again, social media works. Bump, comment on, and share posts.

Animal rescue is tough, sad, rewarding, exhausting work but we wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t meaningful to us and the animals. We see the worst and the best in humanity. We cry, we rage, we laugh, we fall, we go home completely filthy and go back the next day to do it again. And we feel very alone.

We know these dogs very well and can’t understand why they are overlooked.

One thing that drives me absolutely BANANAS at the cat rescue. People bring in the most friendly cats in the world and say they're a "stray" just so that we'll spay or neuter then and provide the testing, vaccination and then they'll ask if they can be a first hold to adopt the cat.

I feel like people are bringing in their pets for us to take care of because it's cheaper than taking them to the vet and they know (or we've developed a reputation) to allow the folks who bring in "strays" first option for adoption. It costs us so much more to test, spay/neuter, chip and vaccinate a cat than we get in adoption fees. I feel like people know this and are taking advantage of it. 😠

R18, they are cunts.

I volunteer for a rescue caring for and adopting out cats. I live in an affluent area. And still there are people who bitch and balk at the $175 adoption fee. Sure, you find a vet who will fix the cat, test it for disease, provide all the booster shots including rabies and preventative medication for less than $175. Walking thru my vet's doors with my 2 cats starts at $150. The bill goes up for anything beyond the standard exam.

If you are bitching about the adoption fee, then perhaps you should reconsider adopting as the financial burden of caring for an animal may be too much for you.

A few years back I was interested in adopting a particular dog I saw online. I called four times and left messages, no return call. The dog's ad was still up. I called one more time and left a message saying how many times I called and how did they expect to place animals if they ignored calls. Within five minutes I received a call from the rescue ranting at me. Hung up and received several more rants from the rescue in succession. Fuck that, I went to a breeder and bought exactly what I wanted. I would have loved to have adopted that dog but I couldn't deal with the BS.

R20 They're often run by childless weirdo fraus who have way too much negative energy to function normally.

These clams LOVE to tell other people how to live. And doggies, unlike men, won't leave them for being psychotic bitches. The animals can barely sense how crazy they are, and that's just gravy to the rescue chicks.

[quote]I volunteer for a rescue caring for and adopting out cats. I live in an affluent area. And still there are people who bitch and balk at the $175 adoption fee.

DAMN!! And our adoption fee is only $100!!!

R20, shelters are so understaffed. It's bad that they called you back and bitched at you, but we don't return calls and our outgoing vm says EMAIL US. 90% of the calls are just dumb. "Do you have any hypoallergenic cats?" "Do you have any Russian blues, Maine Coons or Sphynxes?" "Is this cat still available?"

No, have stray cats. We're not hiding the purebred cats in the back in our exclusive cat boutique. And is that cat still on the website? No? Then it's gone.

R20, I meant to add-just walk in. See what they have. Don't pick a dog or cat based on a picture. Go and get to see who you like and who you bond with. I swear to you, the cutest cats and dogs are always the biggest assholes that we've been trying to adopt out for a year. They're hissy and scratchy and bite. And if someone's a real jerk, I'll let them adopt that cat.

I like the idea of animal rescuers I just don't actually like any of the animal rescuers I've ever met. There's something missing there and an evangelical gene that seems to have gone out of control.

I keep a healthy distance from the people and donate yearly to my local shelter.

My mom used to steal towels from hotels. When she died, she had tons of towels that I donated to the animal shelter.

[quote]I like the idea of animal rescuers I just don't actually like any of the animal rescuers I've ever met.

I hear ya. I'm one of them, but there are definitely folks that seem to like animals more than they like people. In my experience, the cat rescuers (like me) are one cat away from being a crazy cat lady (and I'm a big bear dude) but at least cat rescuers seem to like cats and dogs. Most of them have both The dog rescuers-fucking hate cats. They can be nice people, but they all just despise cats. And we all hate people.

Yes, a lot of scams out there. I found a cat and called around. One “rescue” wanted 500.00 to take her….

I have a question for the other rescuers: have you ever had to put a dog or a cat into the witness protection program?

We have multiple times. One was a hoarder who had her animals taken by the city and we had to rename them and keep them off our website because she was contacting us constantly asking if we had her cats. When the city steps in and takes them (and they were in AWFUL shape. Emaciated, worms, others illnesses, some were outside) we absolutely can't return them and have to hide them. I know that sounds like stealing someone's pets, but these were not pets. These were hostages.

We've also had fosters let 3 out of 4 kittens die through negligence (one was hospitalized for what was probably a drug exposure to something like meth) and had to have animal control take the 4th one back. And we had to change its name and keep it off the website so that they couldn't send a friend to adopt it (because they're crazy enough to do that).

We do get a call almost every week where someone's pet was adopted from us and they never changed the microchip registration and we reunite folks with their cats all the time. It's a good feeling. But there are some really awful people out there.

We work with lots of other local agencies and recently all of us had to come together because someone had 150 cats in a 2 bedroom home. 😳

[quote]Yes, a lot of scams out there. I found a cat and called around. One “rescue” wanted 500.00 to take her….

That's shady. We don't charge for strays or owner surrenders and most owner surrenders are awful stories. Family had a new baby. Baby is deathly allergic to cats. And they'll cry in the shelter for an hour saying goodbye and we'll tell them they can come back and visit them as often as they want and we'll update them when the cat has a new home. Or someone gets kicked out of an apartment and can't find a pet friendly place. Those are sad days and I've seen folks at the rescue go out of their way to make someone feel better.

But I also complained about the folks that I think purposefully bring in a cat they were given by a friend whose cat had kittens and just want us to spay/neuter, vax and chip it so they can adopt what was probably already their cat. In those cases, I almost understand a surrender fee. But you can't prove it, you just know it's happening.

People are really dumb. I could go on for hours about the dumb stuff I've seen (a guy brought his kids into to see if they were allergic to cats. Had them pet cats and then stand there with their arms out waiting to see if they had a reaction. Or someone submits a an application and they rent and they give you their friends number as their "landlord" because they're not allowed to have pets. And then they forget to tell the friend and the whole thing falls apart).

r28, we call that 'having a cookout'. bring your own hotdogs.

Rescue chick-you mean putting a dog into witness protection you call having a cookout? I'm not making the connection.

Yes, in emails.

The worst part is when someone lies on their application and then they come in and they're in your face and you realize "oh, there's no fucking way this person can leave with an animal today." Like, we ask if they plan to keep their cat indoor or outdoor. We require indoor but all of our adoption application questions are open ended so they don't lead people. Obviously we require they keep the cat inside as part of the adoption contract because outdoor cats have half the lifespan of indoor only cats.

And then you're standing there with some idiot who tells you how their cat goes out all the time and it sits on the fence taking swipes at coyotes.

I'm sorry sir, suddenly all of these cats are under vet care and unavailable. (Because I'm not sending a cat home with you to become a coyotes's lunchable).

Rescue-chick, I have to ask if you've done this (because I have and everyone I know has and I suspect every animal rescue volunteer has at some point).

You've got the sweetest, most outgoing dog or cat in the world and it comes up to everyone but for some reason, it just never seems to get adopted.

Then you reach your breaking point and you walk someone in and of course the cat or dog comes right up to them and wants attention. Have you ever *lied* and said "oh my god, he's been so shy since he got here. I've never seen him come right up to anyone like that before. I hope he's finally coming out of his shell. *Or maybe it's you. I think he just CHOSE you.*. I'm gonna leave you guys alone. Come find me if you have any questions"?

I both hate and love doing that.

r34, I lie like I have a gun to my head. Not about material things (temperament, age, breed) but every immaterial thing I am more than happy to lie about. why? because adopters want 2 things : 1- an appropriate pet and 2- a story to tell their friends.

^same. And exactly.

But I'll also be dead honest. Like if there's a real nightmare, usually it's the cutest cat in the place and people will point at her and go "oh and who is this?" and I'll quietly whisper "yeah. You don't want her. She's really a jerk".

R37, I prefer dogs to cats, but how is a cat a jerk?

R38, the rescue I work with is a free roaming cat rescue. And we have had cats that just HATE other cats. And they'll pick fights with them. Or some are super sweet one minute and then will just lose it and hiss and swipe at you. And some are just mean. And usually we end up putting them in foster homes and pray that the foster fails. Some cats just need a lot more patience than others

If someone has a cat at home and we know the cat they are interested in is going to cause problems, we'll steer them away. Because in all likelihood, they'll bring the cat back in a week. And the name of the game is NEVER have a cat returned.

There are some people that are just too frantic and will freak out the shyer cats. So we'll redirect them to the cats that can deal with a super high maintenance person.

Thanks, R39. How does a foster fail? Do you mean the foster "parents" end up adopting the cat, themselves?

I'm on the fence about cats. I could only deal with a cat that was dog-like, really friendly. If a cat took a swipe at me (for no apparent reason), I'd hate that cat.

R40, yup a foster fail is when the cat is being fostered and the foster ends up adopting it.

Most cats are good and can be extremely affectionate and friendly. But some have quirks. Like they're gonna be really affectionate and great lap cats, but they may not like being picked up. Some will let you carry them around like babies. Others hate it. And when you're trying to show an already manic person around and tell them things like who doesn't like to be picked up, the manic person will ignore you and immediately grab the cat from behind that you just told them doesn't like to be picked up, which is an instant disaster.

Even the most dog like cat isn't something I'd ever say was really dog like. We have cats that play fetch, but it's always on their terms. And I have two cats that are both harness and leash trained, but I'm never going to take them to a park.

But I have a five year old male cat that wants nothing but hugs all day and night. He makes me spoon him when we sleep. And if I do it wrong, he'll rearrange himself and ME until he's comfortable. 🙄