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Originally Posted by QuickSilver  That's correct, which is why you shouldn't generalize. The "shelter" I volunteer at is a rescue. The dogs all come from death row at kill shelters in the surrounding areas. If necessary, the dogs are rehabilitated before they are made eligible for adoption. The dogs stay as long as necessary before they are adopted.
Reasonable practices are in place to ensure good matches. The entire family, including pets, must spend several hours with the potential adoptee to make sure everyone gets along, for instance. And still, most dogs are adopted within a few weeks, and the return rate is incredibly low.
I will say as a caveat that we generally take small-to-medium sized dogs, and almost never take dogs with serious aggression problems.
I think the problem with some rescues is stated in your original quote - they wait for the perfect applicant to apply, rather than someone very good. They think they are doing the animals a favor, but they are not. It's sad, really, that a pure-bred animal in a rescue is more likely to spend time in this stressful environment (and no matter how nice the facilities are, it's still stressful) than a mixed breed who goes to a place with more reasonable adoption standards. |
I would have to agree that all rescues are not alike as we can see from people that have posted their stories right in this thread. There are good rescues and there are bad rescues and sadly there are rescues that even turn into hoarders because they think it is doing the dogs good.
A lot of rescues deal with dogs that would otherwise have been put down. Look at Truman, the foster that I have right now. The shelter had him on a list to be PTS, they gave him no medical care and he is was so malnourished that he was literally falling over.
Nobody else wanted him and if you look at him now he is a totally different dog. All it took was a love and attention~plus a good groomer and vetting but he is thriving. He will make someone a wonderful pet and I hope very soon.
The fact that you work for a rescue that has a facility that is capable of taking larger quantities of dog on death row is wonderful. This of course also puts a different burned on your shelter. Would they be capable of taking in a dog that had hundreds or even thousands of dollars in medical expenses, nursing it back to health and rehoming at a fraction of what was invested? Many rescues specialize in this type of rehabilitation so they in turn want to be sure that if they do rehome one of their dogs that further medical care will be given. Yes, both a shelter and a rescue take in homeless animals but you really can not fairly compare the two.
I have adopted from both a shelter and a rescue. By far I had to jump through more hoop and pay a high price all around for Doodlebug than for Bogey. I also looked into my local shelter and they would not even allow me to look at the small dogs because my daughter was 12 and considered too young by their standard. I moved on and found a rescue that would allow me to adopt from them.