Child-Friendly Rescue Organizations
 

I thought it would be interesting to create thread listing child-friendly rescue organizations and shelters. This could possibly save families with children from spending a lot of time applying to rescued organizations that will disregard their application because they have children.

I adopted my four-year-old Yorkie, Tika, from the Pennington County Humane Society in Minneapolis. The operations manager, Dawn, is a doll and was only concerned with the best interests of the dog. She saw how my five-year-old daughter interacted with Tika and the cats in the shelter. I was so impressed with Dawn and the organization that I am volunteering my time to design them a new website.

Any other rescue organizations out there that will adopt to families with children?

Another thing I forgot to mention is the website www.petfinder.com.

This website is where I found my Tika - who was ready for adoption at the Humane Society in Thief River Falls. Surprisingly the adoption cost only $60 U.S. (and a $10 fee when crossing the border back into Canada). They had no problem with the fact that I had a six-year-old daughter and were just happy to adopt her into a good, loving home.

I also noticed that my responses to email inquiries to Humane Societies were generally more open than responses from Yorkie Rescue organizations, many of whom sent me rejection form letters. Only a hand full of rescue organizations took the time to write back telling me I don't qualify for adoption because I have a child.

I hope this helps families with children to find the right Yorkie.

The only organizations that come to mind are the City/County Humane societies. The specific rescue orgs. have more stringent adoption policies + higher adoption fees.

Why are the fees of rescue organizations so much higher than Humane Society fees?

My Tika was very, very sick when the Thief River Falls Humane Society seized her from a neglectful home. She had to undergo a series of very aggressive treatments to get rid of her horrible infestation of fleas. Not only did the Humane Society treat her for fleas numerous times, but they gave her all her shots, had her microchipped and adopted her to me for a nominal fee/donation of $60 U.S.

They were selective in that they turned down a couple other applicants before adopting her to me. Tika is young (4 years old), absolutely adorable and a complete joy. See photograph below.

After having such an positive, inexpensive experience adopting Tika from a Humane Society, I don't understand how certain rescue organizations can survive by:

a) Refusing to adopt any of their rescue Yorkies to families with children

b) Charging high adoption fees for older dogs that often require ongoing medical attention and require extra attention/love/work because of previous abuse and neglect. How can a Humane Society offer this service for $60 and a rescue group charge between $400 and $800 for a similar dog? (This is the approximate price range I have gathered from my research in reviewing rescue dogs in the same age and health range as my Tika.) I understand that there are vet costs associated with rescued dogs, but why such a huge difference in pricing?

c) Charging adoption fees for rescue dogs that are comparable to the cost of buying a new Yorkshire Terrier puppy (which is what many families prefer). I got this information by reviewing online classified ads for Yorkshire Terrier puppies.

I absolutely respect and admire what rescue organizations do and want to make that clear.

However I have to wonder if keeping a rescued dog in a foster home for an extended period of time (allowing the dog to get attached to the people and animals in the home) is better for the dog than going directly into a home with responsible owners (who have children) at a lower adoption fee. I would think the quicker the dog could be placed with a permanent home, the better off the dog would be. As well, expensive adoption fees for older dogs also lessens the chances they'll be adopted.

Below is a cut and paste of a form rejection letter I received. My commentary is written in blue.

**************************************************

Your application to adopt has been reviewed by the Chris' Rescue Angels staff. Unfortunately, we are unable to approve an adoption at this time.

Many factors can be involved in the decision to place a dog in a specific home, including:

- The temperament of the dog, such as shy, not good with children, excessively fearful, potentially aggressive, etc. Understandable, but the organization has numerous rescue dogs available and I find it hard to believe every single Yorkie they have would be bad with chidren. This is the only response in this letter that I could have been rejected for. I am able to offer everything else they require.

- The health of the dog and/or the ability of an applicant to absorb unanticipated expenses for medical needs beyond basic veterinary care. (Some of our dogs require more health care than your typical pet.) This is taken care of as I am able to provide unlimited veterinary care - which I mentioned in the application form.

- The understanding of a dogs' needs by the applicant. I have experience in adopting two rescued Yorkies, have done a lot of research and am open to learning more.

- The ability to provide an appropriate, secure outdoor area. I own a house with a fenced back yard.

- The number of dogs or other pets currently living in a household. I have one rescued Yorkie ... that's all.

- The need for more supervision/interaction than an applicant's lifestyle allows, for optimal rehabilitation and socialization. I work from home during the day and any pets would rarely be left alone.

- Having an unaltered dog in your home. My Tika is spayed and I have no interest in breeding.

- Other needs which are specific to the individual dog.

Your desire to provide a home for a rescue dog is admirable. There are many rescue organizations and shelters, both local and nationwide, each with its own criteria for adoption. Almost all of the major breeds also have rescues. You may be able to find a better "fit" for your situation with another group.

Thank you for applying to adopt, we wish you success in your pursuit of the right rescue dog for your environment and lifestyle.

I am assuming rescue orgs. charge more to spread out the costs over many dogs, and since they are a smaller group - recieve less donations.

Humane society's are often publicly funded (your tax dollars at work). Where every rescue I know is run soley by volunteers and exists primarily through the rescue fees.

I'm so happy you found your girl!

Private rescues also do a more thorough vetting of dogs that are turned over to them than pets from shelters.

Pets from shelters get the basic shots and spay/neuter. Private breed rescues also do dentals which run into the hundreds. They also take dogs with special medical needs and do expensive surgeries for liver shunts, luxating patellas, etc. All this is financed on private donations rather than tax dollars.

Another wonderful benefit of adopting from a breed rescue is that all the dogs are placed in private foster homes and get basic housebreaking and behavior training and evaluation before being adopted out. It's a much better way to match a potential adopter with the perfect dog for them than choosing a dog in a cage from a shelter.

Rescues also provide lifelong support and assistance with issues/problems that may arise after adoption.

OUr Shelter is a private own shelter. they give their shots and they are treated vet cared. they do take donations, but they sale all their Pets Dogs and cats for $60.00 I think it is.

What is the name of your shelter?

I am a volunteer for a yorkie rescue. I can tell you from experience that the vetting that we provide for our yorkies are more costly than one of a human society. Most shelters have their own private vets, techs, and state money. While we don't get any of that. Most vets don't give rescues a discount and vetting is extremely costly. For example my previous foster had about $900 worth of vetting his adoption fee was $250. So we have 650 that we have to come up with by donations. We run only on volunteer work and spending our own money. That is why our adoption costs are more than a shelter and it is case by case. The puppies that we get cost more because it helps pay for the sick vet bills. I hope this clears it up.

THANK YOU!! Ours is very small and there isn't a single Yorkie that is surrendered to us that doesn't have the same identical care that our own receive. They eat the same food and receive the same training. They have their veterinary needs addressed whether it's little ears almost rotting off due to mites, etc. or neglected teeth rotting out of their gums! We have gotten them with deformities, liver shunt, kidney problems, etc. and only through the Grace of God have wonderful, compassionate people wanted them in spite of any problem that they may have. They look for the inner beauty that we see in these babies rather than their outward appearance. We also give every scrap on information that we have to the new owners which is more than most who surrender them do for us! We also keep up with them because we honestly care about each one of them and their wellbeing.

God bless you for volunteering and for pointing out what "the other side of the coin" is when you rescue these little ones!

I don't personally know of any, but I think this is a great idea. I can't tell you how frustrating it was to get turned down time and time again because of my four-year-old. She is really sweet and very kind to animals. Don't get me wrong, she is still a four year old who still needs supervision, but it would have been nice for a rescue organization to have taken the whole family into consideration and not just the fact that we have a small child. We ended up buying a puppy. She is really good with him and we just love him to pieces, but it is also too bad because we could have given a homeless dog a very good home. Good Luck!

GREAT post!

I can understand why it is frustrating but you also need to look at it in our eyes. 9 out of 10 times a yorkie comes into rescue because of a child. four of fosters this year came in because of children. We aren't trying to be mean or harsh but trying to protect our little ones so they don't come back. This does not mean that we think that all children are bad just kids are kids and are not aware how to handle dogs at a young age. Of course there are exceptions and we take that into consideration. Please don't be discouraged by rescues just realize that we have the best interest of the pups first. We are not in the business in making families happy but are in the business of finding the right home for our pups.

:goodpost:

Forgive my lack of knowledge; but, what happens to the Yorkies that are not rescued?

The ones that have been turned into shelters or private groups have already been "rescued". Do you mean the ones that are not adopted?

Private breed rescues take them in for life. Sometimes very old or ill dogs can't be adopted out and are often adopted by their foster parents or just remain with them unofficially.

Yorkies who are turned into no kill shelters stay there until they find their new home. If a Yorkie ends up in a kill shelter, they can be euthanized after a period of time. Fortunately, many private rescue groups have already arranged with local shelters to be called when a Yorkie is turned in and they make arrangements to "pull" the dog and put in their care.

Having been very involved with Yorkie rescue myself your response was excellent. Some of these little ones have passed through many homes and end up in rescue for the most part because they could not be potty trained or they came from a family with young children. It used to be on the AKC website (not there any longer due to the change in the standard) that this breed is not recommended for small children. I do think there is always exceptions to the rule but rescue's just can't take the chance a rescue bites a child as then the rescue organization could be sued. I ended up with 3 biters that would have been put down (humane society and animal control called me and gave them to me - if I hadn't taken them they would have been put down for biting) and I could not adopt them out. We manage to get along fine but I have been nailed during grooming or when they get overly excited.

Most of our little rescue's have already had their hearts broken, bones broken or just plain ignored and we have to heal them and help them transition to a new life. A reputable rescue has already put their hearts into these dogs along with their own money to make them well again and we have to always think of the pups first. For some of these dogs another mistake could cost them their life so finding the perfect home is what is most important.

Yes, that's what I meant to say. Thanks for explaining.

Cindy and Jenn,

You two are both so eloquent at explaining rescue. The unwanted yorkies of the world are very lucky to have you.

I have to agree it is very frustrating that we are being turned down because we have a child :(

After reading i do understand why it is in the best interest of the dog not to be with children but it is just hard to imagine that people like myself and others will have to wait years to able to rescue a yorkie :(

I know it is very hard hard to understand the rules....But as stated above one has to understand that 'most' of the time, these Yorkies have literally been to hell and back, now while they are still good dogs, they can exhibit behaviors from their horrible past. They need lots of time to heal and they need the space and the right family to learn to love and trust.

I know it is very hard to envision, b/c for the most part ALL of our Yorkies are our BABIES, loving, playful, cuddles and kisses. But these 'abandoned and abused Yorkies' have NEVER had that showed to them so they don't know how to show that back.

I may not be explaining this right :(

Anyway, I have to agree with the decisions of the Rescues. I did have the honor, and YES I do mean that, of taking care of a Rescue. He was 7 yrs. old, not neutered and had been passed around 4 to 5 times. In that time he was neglected and abused. Now while he has a very sweet side, he had sadness in his eyes and at no fault of his, he was a sharp and quick biter. He was nicknamed "devil dog" (heheehehe). But without witnessing this type of behavior coming from a sweet 5 lb Yorkie, who also gave me kisses, I would go on believing all Yorkies had NO issues, and that is very nieve of me.

We have put to faith in the people that are willing to go into the pits of hell to save these poor souls. I know it can suck at times, but we can not be selfish, we must put the needs of these Rescued Yorkies over our needs. We are capable of taking care of ourselves, while they depend on human for that care.

Ok, I may be going in circles now, so I am just going to end now :rolleyes:

You said it so perfectly thank you i now totally understand :) :thumbup:

Nicole - wow, you did a fabulous job of explaining why a reputable rescue will always place the pups needs over a human's needs. I also think it is very important for people to understand these little ones will bite. It is the only defense they have and while time, love and patience will heal their fears, it takes someone who understands they can be bitten. For the longest time I thought all Yorkies would bite, but that is only because I worked with rescues and they all took a little taste of my hand.:p at first. All of my dogs are rescue except my Biewer, Little Man and he wouldn't even understand that concept..thank goodness and what a sweetie pie. My other Yorkies now would not try except for 2 of them but it was a long process for them to learn to trust.

Thank you Nicole for being there for these little ones.

Wonderful post.:) :) :)

I understand, respect and admire what the rescue organizations do, but my frustration lies in those rescues that have a blanket policy of never adopting to families with children. Rather than take each Yorkie's personality individually into account, some just say "no children ... ever."

The Canadian Yorkie Rescue has this policy. Not only do they say it in each dog's profile on their website, but they responded to my email inquiring about future dogs that may be good with kids with their blanket policy of "no children ... ever."

If the Pennington County Human Society had a "no child" policy we wouldn't have Tika - who seems to think she's Hannah's new mother. Being so tiny (six lbs) and previously abused/neglected, if Tika were in a rescue with these policies we would not have had this wonderful, sweet little joy in our lives and been able to adopt her.

The relationship between Tika and my daughter, Hannah is incredible to watch. Here are some examples:

Tika stands up beside the bathtub when I'm giving Hannah a bath and watches to make sure I'm doing it right .... LOL

If I lower my voice to discipline Tika for doing something wrong (i.e. peeing somewhere besides the pee pad) she runs to Hannah - which is very heartwarming to see.

When I wake up Hannah in the morning for school, she jumps on the bed and licks Hannah's face to help wake her up.

Hannah is in bed and I'm sitting on my couch working on my laptop. For the first little while Tika was always beside me on the couch. Now she has chosen to snuggle in bed with Hannah when she goes to bed.

Children and dogs (for the most part) are a natural match as they are both unconditionally loving, innocent and loving.

Sounds like you have a match made in heaven with those 2 sweethearts :D

I love adopting from rescues but had such a hard time doing so that I am not going to do it again. I love persian cats, so I thought that I would adopt a persian from a rescue near me, well the requirements said must be in san bernadino or riverside county...I am, 2nd must currently have a persian and or have knowledge...I have a red tabby persian and have lots of experience. Well my husband and I applied for this cute blue and white van and the lady emalied me back saying no that we are too far and we didn't own a house. Well after informing her that we were actually closing on a house in a week and that we are in the county she still said no. That poor cat remained up for adoption for 7 months!! Needless to say I now only get my persians from a local breeder. Recently though we had a child who is now 2, so we wanted to adopt a dog....it took 6 months before we found an awesome rescue who said that she would never deny an application without meeting the applicant and seeing how the child interacts with the dog. I wish more rescues were like that

QUOTE=Brianna2191;1678714]it took 6 months before we found an awesome rescue who said that she would never deny an application without meeting the applicant and seeing how the child interacts with the dog. I wish more rescues were like that[/QUOTE]


I wish they were all like that...........that place deserves :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: