Animal Welfare Professionals

What do you wish more people knew about shelters, rescues or animal welfare in general?

That we are there as a resource not as a "do it all" solution.  The more we get help from the community the more we can do.  We  tell people "help us help you".   We don't have the resources to come running and swoop up all the cats and take them away to magically find homes.   We can find a solution but you need to be part of helping the solution happen.

Exactly!  I agree 100%!

We like to tout that as a rescue, all of our animals live in foster homes and not in cages.  That doesn't mean that they magically lack any and all health and behavioral problems.  And just because we are a rescue and not a shelter does not mean we should be held to some sort of higher standard as far as returning the animal you adopted from us fifteen years ago when it was a kitten.  I had it for 4 weeks and you had it for fifteen years, now that your children are suddenly allergic to an elderly cat that has kidney disease, it is not my job to take YOUR cat to the vet and pay to have it euthanized, because I don't have adopters standing in line for a 15 year old cat in end-stage renal failure, or room in a foster home to let the poor thing live out its days comfortably.  ... old frustrations, sorry.  And this rarely if ever happens, but boy, when it does!

Also, I want people to know that adopting from a rescue may not be as cheap as a shelter, because we are taking animals from shelters that can't afford to treat them.  We are taking the HW+ dogs, the HBCs, the needs-amputations, the needs-enucleations, and god knows what else.  The neonates, the sickly kittens, they would be put down at our local shelters, not for want of caring or love from those who run those shelters but simply because there are too many healthy, fast-track animals coming in the door to put severely limited resources into longer-track animals.  When you adopt from our rescue, you save that animal's life, you save the life of the animal we pull from the shelter, and you save the life of the animal who can take that space at the shelter...it's three-fold.

It would be a bit easier if the public knew that many shelters/rescues are run by volunteers.  That would give them a better understanding of why they might not get a return phone call or message as quickly as they like.  

Heck yes.  Most if not all of us at PC work full-time, care for our own animals, and our fosters, and do other things for the rescue.  On top of that, some have human children to deal with as well!  We try very hard to return communications but we need our potential adopters to show a bit of patience and understand that they may not receive a response immediately, or even within 12 hours.

That without funding, we can't save any of them.  It costs money to save animals, plain and simple.  

That animals are not to blame for their homelessness, relinquishments, or behavior problems when they have such problems. That these are a result of the animals' past experiences and current conditions, largely from trying to survive by human rules and having to shoulder the responsibility for keeping humans happy. That their conditions can only improve if and when WE take actions to ensure that their conditions improve, since we control their conditions and therefore we control their behavior and all other outcomes. For example, we can stop training and handling animals with aversives such as shock and prong collars, squirt bottles, "dominance," and all the other forms of fear, intimidation, force, compulsion, and pain that too many of our beloved animals STILL endure because we have not yet evolved that far.  We can and should instead expect caretakers--ourselves included--to learn to handle and, if a need should arise, be able to train these beloved companion animals with kindness and positive reinforcement, going to any lengths to avoid aversive methods and equipment. Studies have shown over and over that aversives result in behavior problems, and behavior problems are the leading cause of euthanasia.

And that, due to the above, rescues who screen their adoption applicants do so not to annoy or discomfort any person, but in an effort to do our jobs as we have promised to do them, which is to protect the well-being of the animals for whom we are responsible.  That ultimately, we think of it this way:  If one of us died, we would want someone to do the same for our beloved companion animals.  If one of you died, we think you would want the same for yours. To know that their adopter was ready, willing, and able to treat, handle, and train if needed, your beloved dog or cat with kindness and positive reinforcement, not with punishment, fear, pain, force, etc., nor give up and return or have her euthanized.

"You are responsible forever for what you have tamed."