Quote:
Originally Posted by zugor
About 3/4 of the dogs that the Floyd County Humane Society pulls from the local pound go on to other groups, both in VA and out of state, even as far away as Vancouver, BC.
Being able to work with bigger organizations has helped cut the euthanasia rate at our pound from around 80% down to about 10%. The biggest drawback is that the groups tend to cherry pick and take the easiest ones to adopt (small, young, etc.). That means that our group tends to wind up with the older, larger dogs that take longer to find a home for and they are often in foster care for many months and some have been with us for over a year before someone in our rural area takes a fancy to them. I understand that they want to be able to adopt out dogs quickly and I'm not asking them to only take the harder cases but if they would sometimes take one or two and let us have the litter of pups that will go in a heartbeat that would be a nice change.
A major investment for our group was the purchase of a new utility van so that we could haul a good number of dogs in crates and the members would not have to use their own vehicles, especially since those of us who do have bigger units have ones that are old and high mileage.
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same situations we face here in Missouri.... shelter dogs in the southern and more rural areas have no chance at all to find a good home.... spay and neuter and even vaccinations are foreign concepts
rescues in the upper midwest and New England states are able to give these dogs the chance they deserve.....
Quote:
Originally Posted by dualie
A problem with shipping lost dogs all over the country is it makes it dang near impossible for the original owner to ever find them. Many shelters will only keep a dog 3 days, some 5 days, then that dog is available. If pulled and shipped thousands of miles away...
We have rescues asking hundreds and hundreds of dollars for dogs. More $$ for the very cute, more $$ for purebred and or very young puppies. I understand recouping costs, but are we now seeing some of these rescues pulling certain types of dogs because they bring better money?
This is proving to be a very profitable business! Did you ever take a look at what some of the higher ups in the big operations are making salary wise? North Shore Animal League in NY- president is paid over $300,000 a yr! All while begging the community for donations. Just does not see quite right to me.
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most shelters have only a 3 - 5 day "stray hold" ..... that should be PLENTY of time for a caring owner to come looking for a lost dog.... most don't because they don't want to receive a dog at large ticket with the associated fine.... after all, it is just a dog.... and it is so easy to go get another from whoever has the latest litter of puppies.....
once a stray hold is up, the dog can be euthanized immediately.....
Quote:
Originally Posted by zugor
You just had to mention NSAL, didn't you. We worked with them just once. They came to our area when several rescues got together with them and they took maybe 60 or more dogs and pups. We had 19 for them. The reason we did not continue to try and place dogs with them is that, unlike many smaller organizations, they were not willing to reimburse us for any of our expenses. Someone from NSAL told us that "That is what fund raisers are for". So our small, all volunteer group was subsidizing them! IIRC we spend nearly a thousand bucks on those 19 dogs. (No spay/neuter, which is a big part of the overall cost). We justified it because it was saving those lives but knew that we could not do that on a regular basis and the smaller groups that we work with do reimburse us our costs. Some pay us our exact cost and others pay us what they would spend if they did the basics themselves and it is often a little bit more than our actual costs. NSAL gives the impression that they come and pull directly from the pounds and that is not the case. They work with local rescue groups. In Virginia they can not legally get any dogs or cats directly from the pound, not sure it that is the case in other states. I don't know if they have changed their policy when it comes to expenses incurred by the local groups.
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EXCELLENT and informative post, as always..... cherry picking has become endemic in the last year or so.... one of the rescues I transport for has instituted a policy that if a rescue agrees to take a frou-frou dog, they must also take one of the larger, less adoptable dogs..... while I see the logic, I am on the fence whether this is a good idea or not....
Quote:
Originally Posted by dualie
For some, it has become big business and there are people making a dang good living off of it.NSAL continues to beg for money from the uninformed, PETA and the HSUS uses heart wrenching TV ads to tug at your heart string.... all pleading for funds. And they do something like that to a small rescue, and pay a huge paycheck to their President.
We also have many groups importing dogs from overseas! If it's that hard to find dogs here to save, if we are seeing dogs drug around the country and brought in from Taiwan and Iran.... maybe the pet over population deal is either over or way overblown?
My hat is off to local folks who pull dogs, to breed specific groups who work to get their dog new hones and to breeders who do their best to help rehome dogs they have bred!
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this is why it is ALWAYS better to donate money and resources to the smaller, local organizations that are doing the real work in the trenches and not wasting money on exorbitant salaries.....
HSUS and PETA actually have no connection at all to shelters and rescues......
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