I’m not a pet owner other than my spiderplant. I never really paid attention to all the various places people get pets. I kinda-sorta thought shelters and rescues etc were all the same kind of entity but in this this threadthey are mentioned as fairly different animals with hugely varying levels of costs and contractual obligations when taking on a pet.
Can someone break down all the differences between shelters, rescues etc.
A lot of it is going to be semantics, and different terms may wind up being used interchangeably by different organizations.
But, AIUI (and my sister-in-law runs an animal rescue group), the primary distinction is between:
Public shelters / animal control organizations. These are, AIUI, either governmental agencies, or they receive funding from a governmental body (usually on the city or county level). Their mission is to take in strays found within their local boundaries, reunite them with owners (if possible), and facilitate adoptions of those animals who aren’t claimed by an owner. As a result of what they’re charged with, they may also wind up euthanizing animals who wind up in their care past a certain time frame (or have medical issues which preclude them from being adopted), though there are certainly public shelters which have adopted “no kill” policies.
Private rescue / humane groups. These have no direct affiliation with any governmental agency (though they may wind up working with public shelters in their area). They’re usually volunteer-run, and non-profit. They are, AIUI, free to set up whatever constraints they wish to on who adopts animals who they take in – for example, my sister-in-law’s group will do home visits, and it’s up to the volunteer who makes the visit to decide whether or not they think the family and home would be a suitable match for the animal – for example, they generally won’t adopt out a puppy to a family who doesn’t have someone at home during the day, and they have decided not to adopt animals out to some prospective families simply because “they didn’t feel good about it.”
Many (but certainly not all) private rescue groups may focus on a particular breed or type of dog (e.g., pit bull rescues, greyhound rescues, etc.) Many (if not most) of them don’t have dedicated “animal shelter” facilities, but instead rely on a network of foster homes to house their animals until such time as they’re adopted.
One of the big differences between my local county shelter (run by the Humane Society) and the rescue group from where I got my dogs is that the rescue group relies highly on fosters to take care of their dogs and cats before they are placed with an adoptive family.
The rescue I work with rents a very small space with room for a couple desks, 2 or 3 cages for dogs without a foster, laundry facilities, storage and a room for animals and prospective owners to meet. For the most part, the animals don’t live there - they live with a system of foster parents.
The shelter has a very large, new facility with dozens of cages for cats and dogs (and small animals like bunnies), a large training room, a large outdoor area, a meeting area and a huge garage for storing supplies. They also have a paid staff.
When I went to the shelter to look at dogs, they didn’t have any on hand that really fit what I wanted. But the shelter gave me a list of local rescues to check out, and I found my pups at one of them. From what I can tell the rescues work with the shelters to take some of the less-adoptable dogs and put them in foster family situations to help them become more adoptable. I think one of my dogs came all the way from southern Ohio, as his rabies record was from a shelter down there. The rescue up here must have had some sort of motivation to save him from there and eventually have him find his way to me!
This is something that always boggles my mind when I talk to my SIL about her group. She’s in suburban Chicago, but she is constantly taking in dogs from downstate, and from other states (Indiana, Kentucky, Wisconsin, etc.) It seems that there’s an informal network of rescue groups who spread word about particular dogs in need of fostering / adoption, and look for groups who are able to take them in, but it always surprises me when someone is driving hundreds of miles to drop off or pick up a dog for this purpose – was there seriously no local solution? (Apparently not, but, I still scratch my head.)
Also, my SIL’s group (among many other groups) is responsible for running the pet adoption program at several local PetSmarts. PetSmart doesn’t sell dogs or cats, but they do usually provide space for local adoption groups to have showings.
Is that code for some discriminatory practice?
Not from the sense of discriminating against certain races, ethnic groups, family structures, etc.
In every case that I’m aware of from my SIL’s group, it’s more that the volunteer got the sense that there was a good chance that the prospective owners were clueless about the responsibility of pet ownership, that the pet could be neglected or abused, that the household situation was chaotic and unsettled, and / or that the family already was having trouble taking care of the pets that they already had.
And, as they’re private groups, that sort of discrimination is apparently legitimate. But, hey, I’m not a lawyer.
When we got our cat from a shelter in the Chicago suburbs, the woman noted that the cat was part of a litter abandoned in southern Illinois. No idea how that turned into a trip up north but I’m not in the cat sheltering business.
Rescue people can be a little obsessive when it comes to who gets one of their “babies”. So if for some reason they don’t think you are “good enough” (fence height, no/too small backyard, etc) they won’t adopt an animal out to you. The reason isn’t always logical.
I’ve found it’s easier to deal with shelters (both public and private) then rescues.
Absolutely. My SIL is, frankly, a few cards short of a deck herself, and she is definitely obsessive about the dogs that wind up in her group’s care. To that end, she has, and does, reject applicants who would very likely be good pet families, because they don’t meet her particular standards.
And, as I understand it, that sort of thing is pretty common among volunteers who run private rescue operations.
That’s one of the reason’s I stopped volunteering at one. They loved and cared for the animals, but seemed to not be able to relate to people that well. I got fed up with either being ignored, having people literally walk away when I tried to ask/tell them something about a dog and having them be friendly when I brought them donations/adopted a dog from them.
People living in apartments shouldn’t own dogs (of any size) according to them.
They viewed people with any skin color other than their own with suspicion and rarely adopted dogs out to them. God forbid that person look at a pit bull.:rolleyes:
They also disliked kids. Children could volunteer with their parents, but the workers would watch them like hawks and screech anytime the child even LOOKED like they would break a rule.
Lets not even discuss the $$$$ they fund raised to help one dog get a bilateral hip replacement and elbow surgery.
One big point for example, is fenced vs unfenced yards. Some rescues may decline adopting the pet if the yard is unfenced. In general, the shelters, if public, have little control to veto the possible owners. The rescues, OTOH, can afford to be more zealous.
I have volunteered and held board seats at two rescue groups. Another big difference is that municipal shelters generally don’t rehabilitate traumatized dogs but rescue groups do. That’s part of why we get “obsessive” about who we allow to adopt. Having said that I can tell you guys to avoid any group that has blanket policies. If they flat out refuse to adopt to any family with kids, or if you don’t have a fenced yard, etc. then don’t do business with them. Blanket policies are used by people with small minds and who are lazy. Every adoption application needs to be evaluated on it’s own merits. Groups with hard-ass blanket policies give the rest of us bad names.
If anybody has good knowledge of the inner workings of a muni shelter please do correct me if I’m wrong on this. But I think there is another business difference that people generally don’t understand: Shelters need to “move inventory”, ideally by rehoming as many animals as possible but also euthanization when necessary (if allowed by policy). They tend not to focus on long-term results, so they don’t screen potential homes as much.
The reason rescue groups are so vehement about screening potential adoptive families is because we do focus on the long game: we don’t want to home as many dogs as possible, we want to place dogs in one good home for the rest of it’s life. That’s the ideal we strive for. We track metrics of how many placements we make as well as how many returns we get. A really good rescue group has a very low percentage of returns.
I used to work a meet and greet in a local Petco at the same time as one of the larger rescue organizations. Theirs was an adoption event and they’d bring a van full of dogs to the store and send them home with people after a 5-minute form and payment. I was chatting with the store manager and she commented to me that they usually adopt about 50 dogs a month and got around 30 dogs/month returned. That’s a horrendous track record. My group adopted about 50 dogs/year (that year) and had only 3 returns.
It’s not just a numbers game. The end goal is the mental well-being of the dog. Being highly social creatures, they bond with their humans (duh). The more they’re “bounced” around, the more insecure and neurotic they become.
The reason in many areas, public shelters “move inventory”, is because they have constant input of animals and limited space. They can’t turn down animals brought in. Rescues and private shelters can refuse the animals.
I did work years ago with private and publuc shelters in different states. The private shelter would turn animals to the public shelter if they lacked space or foster homes (they tried telling the general public that they were not a drop off facility, with no success). The public shelter I worked with HAD to accept the animals, and there was daily euthanasia, although the vet tried her best to send dogs to rescues if possible, and also created “no-kill” zones were lucky animals had a chance of staying longer and getting adopted.
Are these people that are rejected because the volunteers just don’t feel good about them, told that they aren’t worthy because of bad vibes?
After my last dog but one died, I was looking for a new friend of a particular breed. It’s not an incredibly rare breed, but several months of searching didn’t turn up any candidates in the local shelters (those within a hundred mile radius), so I turned to a breed rescue group. That rescue was located two states away, so all of our business was conducted by phone and email. We had multiple discussions of what I was looking for in terms of personality, they sent a volunteer from a local rescue to interview me and inspect my home, and they interviewed my vet and a personal reference before approving my application. Then they found a beautiful middle-aged dog of my chosen breed in foster care in Texas, and eventually sent her on a road trip north to Kansas. (It was actually an elaborate trip–three dogs all coming from fosters or shelters in the Dallas/Ft Worth area and a line of volunteers who each drove an hour or so, with one dog dropped off at a different foster in the Oklahoma City area, a second branching off at OKC for someplace west, and the third coming north to me.)
There are even networks oflong-haul truck drivers and pilots who will transport critters to adoptive homes.
Part of the reason is regional differences. The northern and northeastern states have lots of potential adopters, but the widespread availability of low-cost spay/neuter means fewer dogs seeking new homes. Down south, fewer cheap vet services and lower spay/neuter rates lead to shelters overflowing with adoptable critters. There are organizations whose entire purpose is to pull dogs from high-kill shelters in the Gulf States and bring them to shelters in New England, where they have a better chance of finding homes.
When did the term “rescue dog” become popular to describe a dog adopted from a rescue organization?
I ask because some years ago while I was walking in my neighborhood I met a woman walking her dog. As is my wont, I praised the dog.
“Thanks,” she replied proudly, “he’s a rescue dog.”
Some instinct prevented me from asking who the dog had rescued. And in fact for some time after that I thought rescue dogs were dogs that had retired from service with the fire or police department or other organization where they participated in rescue activities.
I don’t like to make comparisons between animal vs people welfare. As much as I love animals I realize people are more important. But yes, it’s sort of like the difference between adopting a child and being a foster parent. Adoption is a private, expensive affair whereas fostering is a service the community needs and therefore people get paid to do it. And, consequently, the vetting process for potential adoptive parents is much more stringent than for foster parents.
Similar things apply to public shelters (or ‘pounds’ as they used to be called) versus private rescue groups. I adopted a cat from a private rescue group and they wanted to know if I was a previous pet owner, then they wanted to know who my vet was, then they called my vet’s office to make sure I was telling the truth. They also had me sign a contract stating among other things that I will strictly keep the cat indoors (not indoor/outdoor) and that if for any reason I can no longer care for them I promise to return them to the shelter (and they in turn promise to take them back no questions asked). Rather than be offended I applaud their effort (especially for cats, who often get casually neglected).
And although things of course can vary given different circumstances, where I live both public shelters and private rescues charge about the same fees for their animals.
I’m in New England, and almost all the dogs in local shelters have been imported from elsewhere. The spray/neuter and leash laws have been successful, and there are almost no accidental puppies.
We do have local stray cats.
Anyhow, the shelter i got my animals from, and that i used to volunteer for, sounds like something between the “shelters” and “rescues” described above. Some animals are in foster care, but most of the adoptable ones are housed at the shelter, where prospective owners can interact with them. I believe it is privately funded. I used to foster kittens until they were old enough to be adopted out. I would watch the website, and see how long it took them to be adopted. Often, they’d go the first weekend after their surgery. (Spay/neuter). The shelter had a long form you had to fill out, but they were much more relaxed than some shelters nearer to my home, that i didn’t want to work with. I think the key questions were “who is your vet?” and “how much do you think it will cost per year to care for this animal?” I think if you had an established relationship with a vet, or estimated a high enough cost, you could adopt. (If a suitable animal was available. A few of the cats and many of the dogs had specific restrictions, like “this cat can’t live in a home with dogs” or “this dog can’t live in a home with young children”)
It’s a no-kill shelter, and an unusually antisocial cat i fostered (she was the mom) lived there for months before someone took her. But most of the animals moved pretty fast. That being said, they didn’t have too many returns.
Twenty years ago? I’ve heard the term at least that long.