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A dear friend had a much-loved dog (for 14 years) who recently died. She is looking for another and just filled out a 6 pg registration form from Northwestern Maltese rescue in Racine, WI. Has anyone here on the forum heard anything about this rescue? They charged her a $10 registration fee and I wondered about that, as I haven't heard of that before. maybe I'm being silly....but don't know how to find out if this is a legitimate orginization.
ah yes don't u just love the audacity of some of these rescues and I will also add that some are run by some real whacko nut jobs ....I can think of one imparticular that came to a friends house and this woman started Looking in her kitchen , her cabinets like it was ahuman child inspection ...unreal ...
I don't know anything about the rescue you mentioned, and I agree with other posters you should research them, but a $10 fee seems reasonable - if only as a nuisance fee to make sure you are really interested in working with the rescue for finding a dog that you want to adopt.
Here in Hawaii it's $250 adoption fee for the OSPCA (no kill shelter) and close to that for the Humane society. Once in a while you can adopt a dog for $60 from the Humane society (I think that's when the shelter gets close to capacity). Normally you get a variety of mutts, but now and again you'll see a purebred dog on an owner surrender (usually a military PSC to Germany, Japan, or Korea with travel/immigration restrictions on pets).
Here in Hawaii, the fee defrays some of the operating costs, and is intended to make sure you are commited to the dog, not looking for a "bait dog" or some other unethical or abusive purpose.
They also have a multiple page application, do a background check and have the option for a home visit before they place the dog. I was OK with all of it, and have two great purebred "Godonlyknows" dogs from the OSPCA. Somebody has to be the advocate for the dogs...
Some of the rescue groups in the North East, for the more popular breeds of dogs, have similar application fees ( non refundable) usually in the $ 25 range. Some have so many applications that they seem to think the fee weeds out the non-serious tire kickers.
Somehow doesn't feel right to me. My last adoption was from a local pound. I just wasn't willing to deal with application, having references checked, a home visit and maybe sometime in the future if they had a pet they thought would be a good match they would call me. I'm more of a " what do you have" and if I'm really interested, then I'll jump through a reasonable number of hoops to get it.
Going through the same procedure multiple times with multiple rescues on a chance they might at some point in time, have a pet I want is an imposition on friends and vets being called for references. It's an imposition on my time to have home visits. All of this just to be approved, without knowing if the pet I want is in their possession. Seems like many rescues today want to act as pet brokers. You pay them a fee and then they want to find you a dog or cat.
I think $10 application fee is damn cheap. I can't believe people are complaining about this. After an application is received somebody has to call vets and other references and do some background checks. of course there are some wackos in the rescue business but the legit ones have vet expenses, food, towels, heat, etc which somebody has to pay And believe me adoption fees for the cutie ones don't nearly cover the expenses of the really sick ones who need longer and more care. Also if somebody has a financial investment in adoption they might follow through. you have no idea how many people might send in a free application and after some volunteer has done some checks the people say "Oh we found a really cute dog down the street we decided to take in."
Thank you all for your help! I am just happy to be reassured that the rescue is legit....I couldn't find anything on the internet. Willow Wind, that is the rescue that my friend contacted...thanks! i have never heard of charging a fee to make an application, but I understand the reasoning behind it. There will be an additional adoption fee, of course, if they are approved and find a pet. The application form was 6 pgs. Again, thank you to all who responded.....I feel better now.
Somehow doesn't feel right to me. My last adoption was from a local pound. I just wasn't willing to deal with application, having references checked, a home visit and maybe sometime in the future if they had a pet they thought would be a good match they would call me. I'm more of a " what do you have" and if I'm really interested, then I'll jump through a reasonable number of hoops to get it.
Going through the same procedure multiple times with multiple rescues on a chance they might at some point in time, have a pet I want is an imposition on friends and vets being called for references. It's an imposition on my time to have home visits. All of this just to be approved, without knowing if the pet I want is in their possession. Seems like many rescues today want to act as pet brokers. You pay them a fee and then they want to find you a dog or cat.
+1. Rescues are too often very high-and-mighty about who can and can't have their dogs. I know they want what's best for the dogs, but it shouldn't be so difficult to adopt a dog from a rescue that really good adoptive families give up on doing just that. And I also agree that pound dogs are the best
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