What is it with rescues?

This the second time I've emailed a rescue asking for more information about a dog and saying upfront that I might be able to help, and gotten no reply. The first was when a cousin of Quinn's ended up in a shelter in BC - we emailed numerous times, no reply. Finally over a week later we actually phoned BC and he was just adopted out but seriously, I had to call across the country to speak to someone?

Now I'm waiting on another rescue to email me back. It's been five days and no response - I emailed once, then a couple days send them another one just reminding them that I would like to help this dog! They are a small private rescue and only have a few dogs in their care - you'd think they could take 10 minutes to reply to emails once in 5 days. I have a feeling I'll end up having to call them, too.

My mom used to work for AC and she gets way more frustrated than I do even about this, LOL. She said even with crappy management and a ton of dogs and cats, potential homes were always given top priority. And this was before the convenience of email.

From being somewhat of a 'receptionist' for a rescue... I can say that it was a priority to at least return phone calls and emails no matter what the status of the pet. However, the majority of the time, I just had to forward the message to the appropriate person. What happend from there was not my business. Sometimes the pet was pending for whatever reason, and they waited to return the call until that was cleared up. Tons of phone calls usually come into any rescue on any given day.

Regardless, it must be frustrating that you haven't heard anything! Hopefully (for the dog) that means that they don't need much help anymore, or the dog has already been adopted! I would try contacting them via a different manner.

The BC rescue I wasn't expecting a super quick reply seeing as they were a big provincial rescue that worked all through foster homes so I didn't know if they'd have to speak to other people, the foster home, etc. This rescue though I'm a little surprised at! I'm okay waiting a couple days, I don't always get to my emails immediately, but we're approaching a week and that's disappointing. Even if the dog is adopted it would be nice to know! I will probably end up calling, which kind of sucks because they're in the USA so definitely not local.

I know from volunteering at a rescue that they are almost always understaffed with volunteers, and the few volunteers they have are stretched thin. My mom is the adoption coordinator for the rabbit rescue in town, and that was in addition to working full time (and overtime), raising kids, and playing taxi driver for us to all our activities.

She would make it into the shelter once/twice a week to check the messages and pick up any applications, take all the paperwork home, and call sporadically when she had a free moment. Sometimes it took a week or two to get back, and sometimes messages were missed. Some weeks, she just plain forgot to return a phone call. She was (is!) good--99% of stuff is handled as it should be, but in a volunteer organization, you can't expect people to treat it like a paying job. Her work and family came first--as they should.

On the receiving end of those forwarded e-mails, I can't tell you how many I've accidentally deleted as spam I don't do forwarded messages, like chains and all that, so I fully admit I've accidentally deleted messages asking me about home visits or whatnot.

Does it cost you extra to call to the states? Maybe someone kore local could call for you... Just a thought

How frustrating!

Remember that, especially with these small rescues, you are often trying to contact a single person who is running it, and sometimes life does get in the way. Is it ideal? Of course not. But I know the rescue I am connected with most closely is that way. It is one person, dealing with caring for the rescue dogs, a toddler, and her actual business that funds the rescue. When the kid is sick (or the adult), when it is the busy time for the business, when a new load of transport dogs come in...email may have to wait. People will cheerfully trash rescues for it over the course of this thread, I have no doubt.

I think a phone call (polite, not "why the heck aren't you calling me back?!") may be the best thing. Email is convenient, but phone calls are more personal and harder to ignore.

The rescue I volunteer for never take that long to respond to an e-mail, unless the e-mail got lost or deleted accidentally. We are a small very small group too that work provincially with foster homes (not a shelter) While I understand that people have full-time jobs, families, their own dogs, I don't find that as an excuse to never respond back especially if it's someone that wants to help. I work full-time, have 5 dogs plus whatever foster at the moment and a great husband that isn't always the most helpful (lol) but I will make it a point to take 5-10 minutes out of my day to at least acknowledge someones e-mail.
Many rescues (not all) are always complaining they don't have enough help, but do nothing about it because they're "too busy?" Rescue dogs need to be adopted out to bring in new rescues that need help. If people genuinely don't have enough time then they should be either getting someone else in to help or give the responsibility to some on else that does have the extra time.

This is one of my pet peeves. When we were looking for a dog (and ultimately got Maisy), I had called and emailed various numerous rescues about interest in meeting various dogs for weeks and weeks and I would say I had a less than 50% response rate -- including at least two that were marked URGENT!!! all over their Petfinder listings. :/

In my experience, the rescues either contacted me back within 24-48 hours, or not at all. I understand that they are busy, but honestly I am busy too and I'm not interested in spending my time hounding someone who doesn't seem interested in even talking to me when there are a number of other organizations who clearly are. *shrug*

I too had a heard time finding a rescue that would take me in as a volunteer. I am so thankful that I found my way to the rescue i'm with now. Many would never respond to my e-mails about wanting to volunteer or would not accept me for various reasons. You would think they would be all over someone wanting to help or to adopt a rescue dog.

Sounds like a shelter I used to volunteer at, and left because it was unprofessional and I was getting freakin' bullied!

Seriously, the animals get priority. If there's a home willing to take them that sounds like a good match, you don't twiddle your thumbs.

Some shelters do better with phone calls, some with emails. I know the one I work with does better with emails, but good luck getting the one one county over to ever respond without calling.
When I was interested in Gambit, I think I had a reply by the next morning (I had emailed at 3 am. What, you've never been a little tipsy and looking at petfinder?), an application the next day, and was driving out to get him in a week. That was a very tiny rural shelter.

Precisely. Just like looking for breeders, if you find one where you are not comfortable with how they handle things, just move on. There will be others who you do agree with.

Take priority over what? Your child? Your career that pays to keep these dogs fed? Your personal dogs and their well being? Your health? Your spouse? I'm not saying that any one of these things is happening; they could very well be disorganized, or just don't reply to emails from out of the country, or don't reply to inquiries about a dog who has already been spoken for, or they may be the devil incarnate. But really, the rescue bashing gets old.

What would a business do if they said "well, we can't call you back, we're too busy!" They wouldn't have a lot of customers. You have to treat your rescue like a business, and put good customer service practices in place. You are in the business of placing animals, and like it or not, the animals are a form of product you need to market to the people. That's why it is encouraged to have good pictures on your website, and appropriate bios that show the best of the animals, and not bios that, for example, say a dog is a fence-jumping cat killer.

Rescues want homes for their animals, and they want help with the rescue, but if they have poor customer service, they aren't going to get much of either.

:hail: This. You (general you) don't know if they had to forward the email to somebody else, you don't know what they have going on in their life -- for all you know, somebody could be in the hospital or dying and is taking up their time.

Rescues are run by volunteers. Volunteers that have children, have full time jobs, have other family they need to care for, have their own pets, have spouses, etc. I will admit, at the ferret rescue, if we get an email about a ferret that has been adopted, has passed away, or is no longer up for adoption, it can take a couple weeks for our president or vice-president to reply to the emails. Life gets in the way.

I suggest calling, or getting somebody else to call to ask about the dog, so atleast first you know if the dog is available still or not.

Key word here is 'volunteer'. Yes unexpected things happen in life all-the-time. That does not mean the the world stops turning for everyone else. If something happens in life, get another volunteer to step in and help with the work load. What does that take, a couple of minutes to send a text or one line e-mail? Communication between the volunteers in a rescue/shelter is very important.

If someone truly does not have the time then why be a volunteer to begin with? It's not rocket science, you either have some extra time or you don't.

This is not rescue bashing, it's called difference of opinions on the way rescues are run.

It is not as easy to just pass off duties. Not at all. Some, yes, you can. You can always pass off an email and ask somebody else to reply -- we have even done that. But how do you expect somebody to reply to an email about a dog/cat/ferret/what have you, if they have never met the dog? If they do not see the dog on a day to day basis?

Heck, when it comes down to it, my job in the rescue is not even all that important, but I could NEVER just pass off a responsibility to somebody else. They simply would not know how to do it. In the end, it would make *more* work for me.

Wait, so they are supposed to know that something is going to pop up and they should not volunteer cause something happened for a couple of days? Things happen. People get sick, accidents happen.

SitStay -- I have free calling to the US, so if you wanted I could even call for you and see if it would be worth it to call and pay the long distance fees.

We're not talking about a couple of day here. It's when a rescue does not respond at all or a month later.

Who says all rescues have volunteers? The three rescues I know of well enough to speak about are all run by a single person. A spouse or a friend (*waves*) may jump in to help if there is a serious illness or emergency, but otherwise, it is a single person. And no, not one of them is whining about not having volunteers or not being able to find the perfect homes. The rescue is basically their "hobby".

There are certainly large rescues that run as businesses, and I can't speak for why they may or may not answer an email, since I have very little experience with them. As I have no idea what sort of rescues the OP was referring to, I offered my thoughts on why the mail may not have been answered.