# Working in Animal Welfare/Rescue



## jackie_hubert (Jun 2, 2010)

Those of you who have been around for a while know that I work in Animal Welfare (BC SPCA), just as all those of you do who work/volunteer with specific rescue groups or shelters.

I think all of us would agree that our job can be very emotionally taxing and frequently frustrating. Sometimes I just wanna give up and not think about it anymore. I was hoping to find a thread that addresses the difficulties we face in trying to help animals (and their solutions), but I couldn't find any ongoing thread. 

Would anyone be interested in contributing to a thread that can kinda serves as a place to vent, share ideas and find support?


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

*I would!* I'm a Volunteer with a Golden Rescue Group that serves the Coastal Counties of NC. I do a variety of things for them-I answer their email account, assist with Intake, do home visits, dog evaluations, shelter pulls, temporary foster, and transport, and also cover for the Adoption Coordinator whenever she is out of town. 

I vent my frustrations quiet often in the Rescue section in various threads which is really not the place when a dog's life is at stake. 

Since you volunteer with the BC SPCA, it would be interesting to hear your prospective. The shelters my group pulls from here in NC make it very difficult for Rescue Groups to work with some time and it's really frustrating along with dealing with Owner Surrenders. It's a toss up some times which one is more frustrating. 

I also have a Senior Golden boy, he's 15 and I get quite upset when a Senior dog is turned into a shelter or my group is contacted by someone wanting to surrender their Sr. Dog. I could go on and on about several other things that come to mind, but will hold off.


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

I'm in!

Right now waiting to pick up the puppy with a blockage, and see how he's doing. Frustrated with the vet in a way because every time I've called in I've gotten a different story as to the long term for him, yesterday it was 'he'll need a special diet and likely have the runs' for life. After telling his adoptive parents he'd be fine, so now I'm not sure what's up but will see. I get they don't want a dog with digestive problems, but it could have easily happened after they brought him home too.

And going to suggest to the rescue I work with again to have ONE person in charge of a group of dogs, so it's not so confusing. With these puppies there's been several times the pup has been adopted and waiting to go home, and they're sending applicants for the same puppy a few days later.

Lana


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## jackie_hubert (Jun 2, 2010)

Excellent! Hopefully other's will join us as time goes on.

Carolina Mom - you must be quite busy and have your hands full! How many dogs go through your rescue? Do they get adopted out quickly? We don't get a lot of senior dogs at my branch but we do get senior cats, some of whom have lived much of their life in the shelter ): Breaks my heart!

Lana - I know how you feel. We too have several staff and many volunteers and things can get confusing. Luckily we have an ok online database that (mostly) stays up to date with pending adoptions. 

About what I do - The branch I work at works a little differently from shelters that you're probably used to. Our location is somewhat of a new model for SPCA branches. We are an Education and Adoption Centre not a pound, so we don't take in animals we just get "highly adoptable animals" from other branches to adopt out - often young small dogs and puppies. Most of them come from northern BC where animals roam unspayed and unneutered and from cruelty investigations. We have a city pound (a no-killl shelter)that takes in the city strays and owner surrenders. We have an "approved breed specific rescue list" that we very frequently refer people to if they come in looking for a dog of a specific breed. That's kinda how we work with the rescues around here. Rescues that are questionable do not go on our list. Luckily because we only get highly adoptable animals at our branch we do not generally need rescue groups to take our animals out of the shelter (dogs will be at our shelter usually an average of 3 days before they get adopted. We get transfers twice a week). Other branches, however, do sometimes give animals to rescue groups. Pit bulls especially since they can be rehabed better and be found a home more easily if they go into a home environment. Euthansia of an animal doesn't occur much at my location and is very rare even at the other branches. Some dogs have been in the system transferring from branch to branch since before I began working there (that's 2.5 years)! All of the dogs at my branch are fostered out every single night to experience life in a home.

Having a mandate to educate we also run pet first aid courses, birthday parties and work in pushing for legislative change (hence our recent success to ban the sale of puppies at pet stores. yay!).


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

*Jackie Hubert-what an amazing program your SPCA branch has-that's awesome!* 

I'm with one of the smallest GR Rescue Groups here in NC-there are four groups, my group covers the Coastal Counties of NC. The Board Members of my group try to have no more than 10 dogs in Rescue at a given time with only 2 being a Golden mix.
Almost all of the dogs we take in are Heartworm positive, it's a rare occassion when one is negative. 

We've had a lot of Senior dogs come into Rescue this year-probably the most we've ever had. Really really sad-some were Owner Surrenders and the others were pulled from shelters. 

Most of the shelters we pull from are just god awful-filthy, horrible conditions, they do not provide any Vet care of any kind or do any testing, there are problems with outbreaks of Parvo frequently. When this happens the normal practice is to put all the dogs down. The euthansia rate is extremely high here due to irresponsible pet owners. It's very sad..........

Two of the members here on the GRF are with two of the other GR Groups.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

Jackie, your facility sounds wonderful!

I've been a volunteer at the local shelter for about 5-6 years now, I'm currently only doing one shift per week (2-3ish hours), I used to do 2-3 a week. A few years ago I worked for about 9 months at a boarding kennel/sanctuary. 

Lately it's been really hard. We have some dogs that have medical issues making it unlikely they will be adopted and resulting in a poor quality of life. I really do sometimes think these guess would be better off, but the heads and volunteers are so attached and do feel "no kill" is the best way to handle the environment. The dogs all have pain management (meds, specific exercises and not), but the underlying problems are not being addressed nor are there funds (or a likely home) for these animals.

We have some who have been there longer than I've been volunteering, meaning. It's really sad. Some are fine and very happy in the environment, but others are super stressed.

I wish they would go to running it like a more modern/educational type facility, we would probably get more adoptions, better help the community, and provide better quality of life for the animals. 

Interestingly, the sanctuary was different (and no kill), high quality food, special safe cleaners rather than bleach, huge outdoor play yards, paid staff from 7am-11pm, but I couldn't take spending 8-10 hours there a day and seeing the stressed out animals. I'm doing better just at our shelter, shorter shifts, knowing the animals have downtime, but things could be a lot better.


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## jackie_hubert (Jun 2, 2010)

The last week has been taxing at work. We have staff sick so I was on shift alone all weekend and while I was there the one dog we had, 2 adult cats and 5 kittens fell sick. The dog had a staph and ear infection (now in a foster-to-adopt home, yay!), one cat had the worst case of ear mites I've ever seen (he was brought back with them from an adopter who didn't want the cat any more. Bah!), that cat gave mites to another cat, and the 5 kittens all had various stages of upper respitory infection. Today my boss called me to ask me to cover for her while she took two of the kittens to the vet. Mini and Lana actually had Calici virus. Unfortunately, they didn't make it. I wish I would have caught it earlier. ): The 3 other kittens are doing so poorly they are now on IVs at another vet. I hope they make it. I spent my entire shift in a hazmat suit disinfecting everything! I did, however, adopt out a lovely adult cat to the best family ever - in my hazmat suit!


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

Oh Jackie-I am so sorry to hear you've had such a rough week, it's always heart breaking when a little one doesn't make it.

The Rescue I'm with over this past year has taken in several Goldens that were either in such bad shape or had advanced stages of cancer, that basically the only thing we could do for them, was provide them with a safe, warm, loving home until it was their time. A few of them had never known a loving home or family until they came into Rescue. 

I don't know how these hospice fosters do it.......


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## cham (Feb 21, 2008)

I think this thread is a wonderful idea. I just typed up and got myself all wound up, then the computer froze so I think someone was trying to tell me something!:bigangel:
I work with several different groups out of CT and MA, and anyone who knows rescue knows what working in MA is like. 
I will be back after I calm down and get more coffee... LOL


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## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*Jackie*

Jackie

I, too, am so sorry you had such a bad week-so happy that you adopted a cat to a WONDERFUL family in your Hazmat suit!

I would love to join a thread on here about frustrations in trying to save dogs and cats, even though I am not a rescuer, but just an ordinary person in Illinois that contributes to saving animals IN High Kill Shelters, by emailing rescues for them!


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

Hope it's not the same cold that's out here, it's just NASTY! Keep drinking the tea and water to flush it out.

Hope the next week gets better and cross your fingers for me here. Down to one puppy and mom to find homes for...

Lana


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

What you all do matters. I took all of my rescue contacts of my FB page because I just got burned out. My family removed me from their newsfeed because I posted so many dogs in need. I was depressing them and it did become overwhelming. 

I came on here the other day, saw a need, and a few of those rescues are once again on my friends list. I just cannot help myself! I not only have people in my life trying to save dogs, but horses, too. 

The world is a better place because of YOU!


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## jackie_hubert (Jun 2, 2010)

I'm so glad more of you have joined. I'm about to go to work. Hopefully this weekend brings lots of adoptions!


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## jackie_hubert (Jun 2, 2010)

Someone at the shelter just shared this with me. Story of my life lately...


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

I would love to tell people exactly what this video does! 

My biggest frustration right now is when we take in an owner surrender dog that has had no socialization and no training, they are hyper and out of control, and I'm wondering if we even have a foster home that can deal with a dog like that.


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## Jackson'sMom (Oct 13, 2007)

I was employed by the largest humane society on the West Coast for 8 years. I was the communications director so I didn't have to deal with the idiot public most of the time. But I was the photographer for cruelty cases, documenting the animals' condition for possible prosecution of the offending party. I've been gone from the shelter for 22 years, and in that time, the humane society built a wonderful new animal community center (Humane Society Silicon Valley) that is environmentally friendly, cageless and emphasizes education. Things have improved considerably in the past 22 years, but there are still far too many irresponsible, moronic people with companion animals.


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