How I Failed as a Rescuer, a must read.

This has been a heavy, heart breaking week in the world of animal welfare. A few days ago a formerly reputable sanctuary in Texas called Spindletop Refuge was raided by authorities. Close to 300 dogs, mostly pit bulls, were discovered living in terrible conditions. It was just one of many failures this week.

The reason why this particular case is so upsetting is that this was supposed to a “good†sanctuary. Rescue groups and families from around the country have been sending their dogs to live there, paying hefty boarding fees, in the hopes that the dogs would have a chance at another life out in Texas. Some dogs were adopted out, others lived at the sanctuary for life.

Apparently, on the surface, this place seemed a like a good one. People have come forward to say that they visited Spindletop as recently as the first week of July and were satisfied that it was a safe, clean facility. Turns out they weren’t seeing the whole facility – only a small part of it.

The woman who ran the organization has a long and positive history in animal welfare and at one point, I believe this really was a good place for dogs, mostly pit bulls, that no one else would care for. But something went terribly wrong and the dogs kept coming and now, rescues and families are scrambling in panic to get the dogs back.

They must feel beyond guilty for sending the animals that they love into this situation. I know I did.

continue reading....http://notesfromadogwalker.com/2012/07/21/how-i-failed-as-a-rescuer-lessons-from-a-sanctuary/

:hail:

I don't like sanctuarys. Best friends that gets so much attention sent a bunch of pits here to a " trainer" who dumped them at the pound and pocketed the cash. If you can't adopted them out put them down. The money can be better spent elsewhere. Sad but true. If your so full your giving that many dogs away your overwhelmed.

I am just so sick of people anymore. And some people really can't see it's better to put them down than be killed on the street or have thirty pups before starving etc. I just had this argument with someone. Good intentions don't keep pets alive.

Really great read, thanks for sharing.
I am one of those who gets a little nervous with the “no kill” philosophy. The intention is good, but the reality is often not so good. There really are worse things than humane euthanasia.

I wish those who run sanctuaries would put work into making them SUSTAINABLE long term (one way is learning to say NO when you have to). Whenever one fails, it makes other rescues and sanctuaries look bad. It also furthers the mentality that the only choice for shelter animals is death or a hoarding situation/horrible situation, which is not true.

Oh, and the no kill philosophy is NOT about keeping animals alive just so they can exist, not at all. Actually, many of us in the "no-kill" camp would be really happy if shelters would stop abusing/torturing and killing animals just because they can. I mean, the only reason a shelter kills animals when it has a rescuer on route to pull 8 dogs from them is because they WANT to. I can't think of any other reason. Source: http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/the-staff-at-the-lewisburg-pound-wants-to-kill-dogs/

The no-kill movement is LARGELY about making shelters actually CARE about the animals on their property and HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE for, well, being douchebags.

Sanctuaries need to know when to say no. Fair enough.
Shelters don’t get to say no.
But shelters are the douchebags?
Huh....

Shelters have to take in everything surrendered to them, fair enough.
But there are numerous documented examples of shelters killing animals FOR NO REASON, neglecting them just as bad as the sanctuary this thread is about, even outright torturing them.

And all that is perfectly okay because they have to take in everything surrendered to them?
Huh....

Most No-Kill facilities are not something I would wish on my least favorite dogs. It's very sad, I do hope however there are better options out there.

Great read.

One of my issues lie in rescues that take on dogs that need an incredible amount of medical or emotional care. I've seen very senior dogs with a host of medical problems get pulled really fast, while 1yr old healthy mixes sit there. Granted they have the least chance of being privately adopted, but my opinion is that they should probably be put to sleep. I don't think it's fair to put them through 6 months of medical procedures, living in foster care, to pass on anyway another 6 months later from an age related condition. I don't think it's 'helping' them. I think probably if it was owner surrendered or dumped there, they couldn't afford to humanely euthanize, and expected that to be the outcome. I don't know...if a 6 year old and an 80 year old were drowning, and you could only save one, isn't the obvious choice the 6 year old?

I wouldn’t say its the obvious choice. It depends on who the 6 year old is to you and who the 80 year old is.

I too have a hard time with what I call heroics when it comes to rescue. It does sometimes seem the more extreme cases get scooped up while the “normal†ones get passed over.

But then, rescue is also a very personal thing. We chose to pull a senior HW+ dane with behavior issues and leave all the other perfectly sound dogs there. Why? I don’t know, it was as much an emotional decision as a logical one. I could rationalize it all day long, but the true, honest reason is that we wanted to help the dane just that little bit more than we wanted to help the other dogs. Harsh, but honest.
The other truth is that we were fully prepared to PTS if he didn’t work out or if that funky leg he had turned out to be cancer. Honestly, I never expected him to still be here. I figured we had a few months, who knew three years later he’d still be here - thriving.

I think if we all do what we can do, and what we’re good at, it gets done. I’m good at big dogs, I’m good at certain types of behavior issues, but I suck at medical ones, so that’s where I put my efforts. Others are great at fostering or transport or fundraising or whatever. I’m not going to judge anyone for ANY effort they make. If we all did the same thing a whole lot more dogs would fall through the cracks.

It was a hard post to read (emotionally), but very thought provoking and very true. I get so sad when I go to auctions and see all these old horses go through--most headed for slaughter. Many are sold by otherwise well meaning people who seem to believe that everyone bidding is there to buy old horses and let them live out there lives on a farm when the reality is often a stressful, horrible end in a foreign slaughter house. It's so much kinder to go an old horse that can no longer kept a quick, humane end in familiar surroundings.