RESCUING DOGS & CATS from georgia kill shelters--approved by leon

[drcy]

My mom belongs to a local interchurch group that gathers and distributes food and clothes to local homeless. It is done with people from different churches doing it under the same network umbrella, but with no fixed home base. Just saying this to point out that you can have a network of like-minded people that help out and work together.

And, of relevant note, a few of the served homeless have dogs, so the network also distributes dog food.

[steve B]

Another group to talk to would be saveadog. http://www.saveadog.org/

One of our dogs came from them and was originally a foster dog we had. One that would constantly climb on my lap when it was football time. We already had one dog, so it took me a month or so to cave and ask if we could keep her.

A couple things I picked up from them, or from a newsletter by someone else.

A general rather than breed specific rescue is easier. For a few reasons, like the shelter staff not being good at identifying breeds.
Many kill shelters won't deal with rescue. Seems odd, but as it was put, the sheer numbers make the job pretty much suck. Adding some usually fanatical person who gets on them for working for a kill shelter and railing on about how every dog should be saved makes the job just that much worse.

I think saveadogs approach was setting things up in advance, arriving with space in the truck for "about x dogs" and asking the shelter staff to give them the most adoptable among the ones with little time left. They then drive to their area, and distribute the rescued to foster homes. That works well since there's less required in facilities, and the foster homes can give them an idea what the dog is like.

Either way, be open to there being a few that simply can't/shouldn't be rescued. Like large dogs that have a serious dislike of kids. That usually doesn't lead anywhere good.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by steve B

Another group to talk to would be saveadog. http://www.saveadog.org/

One of our dogs came from them and was originally a foster dog we had. One that would constantly climb on my lap when it was football time. We already had one dog, so it took me a month or so to cave and ask if we could keep her.

A couple things I picked up from them, or from a newsletter by someone else.

A general rather than breed specific rescue is easier. For a few reasons, like the shelter staff not being good at identifying breeds.
Many kill shelters won't deal with rescue. Seems odd, but as it was put, the sheer numbers make the job pretty much suck. Adding some usually fanatical person who gets on them for working for a kill shelter and railing on about how every dog should be saved makes the job just that much worse.

I think saveadogs approach was setting things up in advance, arriving with space in the truck for "about x dogs" and asking the shelter staff to give them the most adoptable among the ones with little time left. They then drive to their area, and distribute the rescued to foster homes. That works well since there's less required in facilities, and the foster homes can give them an idea what the dog is like.

Either way, be open to there being a few that simply can't/shouldn't be rescued. Like large dogs that have a serious dislike of kids. That usually doesn't lead anywhere good.

Concerning your last comments, I couldn't (politely) disagree more except for dogs that are completely sick with no hope of recovery. To me this is like saying, well, some people don't deserve to be cared for. I think that is pathetic.

[Luke]

This is a wonderful idea Bill! Our puppy Cassie came from a kill shelter in Texas. A rescue organization up here sent out a call for people to foster and she came on a truck with 6 or 7 other dogs last winter. I pretty much knew after the first day that I wasn't going to give her up. We've had her just over a year now. Here she is with one of her Christmas presents last week and on her birthday a few weeks back. My wife dressed them up like that, not me

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Leon

Concerning your last comments, I couldn't (politely) disagree more except for dogs that are completely sick with no hope of recovery. To me this is like saying, well, some people don't deserve to be cared for. I think that is pathetic.

I can respect that.

The dogs do deserve to be cared for.

I've had dogs pretty much my entire life, the most recent died of cancer about 5 1/2 years ago. My daughter who was maybe 18 months at the time sort of still remembers her. (That was a surprise!)


I put it pretty much the way it's been told to me by a few people in rescue. It may be harsh as it's phrased, but it's their reality.

The hard side of things is that the situation that allows that care AND safety for everyone else can sometimes be hard to find.
One of the fosters we had for a Border Colie rescue killed one of our cats while I was in the shower. The rescue gave me heck for not having the dog in a crate almost constantly. (Which is why that was our last foster for them. ) Of the fosters we had it had appeared to be the most mellow and sane of the bunch. one little incident with a cat that seemed to be quickly sorted out.
I liked that one, but if they hadn't come for it fairly quickly......
They did add no cats as a caution on their website.

With thousands of dogs in shelters and running out of time, the rescues tend to focus on the adoptable. Aggression to kids or other animals (except natural stuff like squirrels of course, never had a foster or dog of my own that tolerated them) Makes adoption harder. Aggression towards kids makes it nearly impossible. Here, in the fall we had a 7 year old killed by two dogs not too many blocks from our house. No rescue wants any part of that.

[rjackson44]

god bless you and your wife ...octavio

[pawpawdiv9]

Here is a nice video (Chris stapleton) for ALL our ANIMAL LOVERS
Stop Animal Cruelty
https://youtu.be/qnI5se3OdeM

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Leon

Concerning your last comments, I couldn't (politely) disagree more except for dogs that are completely sick with no hope of recovery. To me this is like saying, well, some people don't deserve to be cared for. I think that is pathetic.

+1


Bill- All I can offer you at this point is encouragement. It is a great adventure you are taking on and I wish you the very best!


-Raymond