Animal Welfare Professionals

I wasn't quite sure which topic to post this under, so forgive me if it's in the wrong area.

How does everyone define "special needs?"  The rescue I work with takes on a lot of dogs with behavioral problems (dog-dog aggression; severe stranger aggression; etc.).  Unless the problem is something that can only be fixed/managed with medicine, I would not consider these dogs to be special needs, but some of the other people working with our rescue do.  This creates a problem when we create their bio on our website/PetFinder/etc.; some of us post the dogs as special needs and some of us do not.  I understand there isn't really a universal definition for special needs; I just wanted to see how other rescues defined it.

P.S. The dogs with severe behavioral issues are not necessarily up for adoption.  Most of these dogs are considered sanctuary dogs, but we still list them on the website/PetFinder/etc. to try and get sponsors for them.

I think most people assume medical when the term "special needs" is used. It's certainly reasonable to use it for common behavioral issues...needs to be only dog, no cats, no kids, etc. If a behavior issue has been resolved, I don't think you need to include "special needs" in the web listing, but definitely disclose to the adopter as part of the dog's history. To me, the important thing here would be to establish criteria and a formal procedure for your organization to ensure that each dog is consistently described in all locations...you don't want it "special needs" on petfinder but not "special needs" on adoptapet. As for the sanctuary dogs - and I definitely agree with the concept - I think I would limit fundraising to your website and socials. It might be considered misleading on the true matching sites. Will be interested  to see other perspectives....

We feel the same way about posting our sanctuary dogs on PetFinder, but the food bank we receive our food from requires that we post all of our dogs to PetFinder, regardless of adoptability.  It's very frustrating, but we do what we have to do.  We make sure we say in their bio that they are sanctuary dogs who are just looking for a sponsor (or some cuddle time in the case of severe medical issues).  Again, we hate it, and we wish PetFinder had a "Sanctuary" option, but we do what we have to.

Thanks for your reply!

Our rescue food bank has on the survey for food how many you have listed on Petfinders and how many are not listed. Does yours?

We get cat food from the rescue bank and rarely get enough cat food to even feed 25% to 50% of our cats. There are months where there is NO cat supplies available. I wonder if us not having every cat listed on Petfinders is hurting us on the amount of food we are allocated?