The Girls Guide to Southern California Animal Rescue

Rescued from San Bernardino City Shelter in November 2013 because this is how happy all shelter dogs should be!

WHO: Bunch o bisches who love animals, work in animal rescue, are tired of drama, and bitch about the inefficiency of people asking the same questions over and over again (not because we dont want to answer them yet again - we love newbies! fresh meat! but because its time consuming and we gots lots of animals to save). And why, you ask, only GIRLS; dont men rescue too? Women do the majority of the Facebook networking and rescue. There are a few brave male souls who venture in but its by far and large female oriented. WHEN: This guidebook was produced in late summer 2013 content changes faster than plastic surgery trends in Hollywood, so put an * by EVERYTHING. Verify verify verify. By the time we actually get this typed and borrowing images from google it may all be invalid. Insert some legalese here about how no one involve is responsible for any information being invalid, outdated, or plain wrong. That should cover our butts. WHERE: This is primarily a guide to wading through the muck that is Facebook rescue. Note that there are plenty of people who dont use our dark overlord Zuckerbergs tools of intrusion to network. There are large email distribution lists and even more people who dont go online much at all (weirdos). Theyre too busy standing in line at shelters and cleaning poop and comforting terrified animals. Facebook is a wonderful tool for animal rescue. Its also a bigger pain in the ass than the mole on that-chick-who-married-Ryan-Reynolds face. Pardon our French. WHY: So why are we writing this, this for lack of better term, self-help manual? The #1 Rule is that LA Animal Rescue is insane. Like those annoying Insanity infomercials you wake up to when you fall asleep to the TV? This is like that only on a humid day with no deodorant in a closed gym with 20 hairy lumberjacks x100. WARNING

Crazy menopausal women + cute doggies & kitties + money/ power + threat of death =

So, pour yourself a glass of something nice (save the strong stuff for after your first frustrating animal rescue attempt; youre going to need your mind clear to digest this mess), put your feet up and let us tell you a tale. A tale of the largest geographical metropolitan area in the United States.

WHY LOS ANGELES SUCKS! (for animals) The HSUS estimates that animal shelters care for 6-8 million dogs and cats every year in the United States, of whom approximately 3-4 million are euthanized. At this time, there is no central data reporting agency for animal shelters, so these numbers are estimates. [source] Los Angeles is huge by itself. Biggest city in the United States. For purposes of this convo, rescue basically covers the entire Sothern California region SoCal. And by that we mean from Bakersfield (North), East to Palm Springs, and South to San Diego (sorry, San Diego, but you gotta admit its pretty much urbanized the whole distance between yall). 20 million people in the greater Los Angeles region. Youd think more of those selfish a-holes would open their homes to fostering and adopting, but this self-help manual is about what to do in a more reactionary way. Because being proactive would mean being organized and the shelters and sadists who run the scheme do their best to keep the system fragmented so rescue folks run around like chickens with their heads cut off. SQUAAAAAWK! Ha! Kidding; many of us are vegetarians too. To compound issues, there is an LA City shelter system, an overlapping LA County system, and then many cities that said Eff yall; were doing our own thing. Sometimes for better (Pasadena, respeck!), often for worse (e.g. Inland Humane Society and SPCA branch no joke). And this geographical region covers other counties that are not affiliated such as Orange County (yes, its a real place!). Gang Bangers, Illegal Immigrants, and a Depressed Economy.

LA City stats only Now let us be real. Not about that not-so-fresh feeling we ladies sometimes get, but about the geographical and population make-up of SoCal and how it impacts the animal population issue. The problems are L>A>R>G>E. And not large like an average size 12 woman getting side-eye for walking into a boutique on Rodeo Drive, but realistically large like enormous. Huge. Gigantic. Like to fix them will require many layers of cooperation among many different, often opposing factions, ranging from education to enforcement, to cultural to legislative, to financial to political. In a depressed economy, more people get into situations where

they can no longer care for their pets and have to give them up, or conversely they look at breeding as a quick way to make a few bucks. These all add to the population overflow. Some of the biggest impediments to reducing the animal over-population: Troubled economic times for pet owners Financial hardships for cities and counties with reduced staffs, fewer resources (vaccines, equipment), and an increase in animal population. The City of San Bernardino has declared itself in bankruptcy. Hispanic/ Latin culture that does not generally believe in spaying and neutering animals Gangs that use animals for all sorts of reasons (dog fighting, breeding, etc.) and many of them also encourage aggression through non-fixing such as the gangs in the projects in areas such as Watts, Compton, etc. as well as the biker gangs that congregate towards the eastern geographies No or little access to low cost spay/neuter and vaccine or vet services and increasingly high veterinarian costs in general High fees for animal surrender and owner recoveries Asinine laws of absolute pet number limits in homes & limited rental properties that are animal friendly

Seriously, folks; the only ones who get rich off this mess are the veterinarians. And possibly the rendering plants. There are over 35 shelters in the SoCal area. At any given day, PetHarbor (the POS software that the shelters rely on to manage intake and progress of an animal through the shelter system) shows how large the problems are. Remember that many of these animals are put to death within a few days of their intake.
Available animals on Friday May 17, 2013 Barstow Humane Society: Barstow, CA: 101 animals Burbank Animal Shelter: Burbank, CA: 151 animals Chula Vista Animal Care Facility: Chula Vista, CA: 186 animals City of Norco Animal Control Division: Norco, CA: 175 animals City of Rancho Cucamonga Animal Shelter: Rancho Cucamonga, CA: 192 animals East Valley Animal Care and Control Center: Van Nuys, CA: 417 animals Harbor Animal Care and Control Center: San Pedro, CA: 236 animals Henderson Animal Care and Control: Henderson, NV: 120 animals Humane Society of Ventura County: Ojai, CA: 64 animals Irvine Animal Care Center: Irvine, CA: 134 animals Kern County Animal Control - Bakersfield Shelter: Bakersfield, CA: 507 animals Kern County Animal Control - Mojave Shelter: Mojave, CA: 39 animals Kern River Valley Shelter: Lake Isabella, CA: 61 animals King County Animal Control: Hanford, CA: 400 animals Long Beach Animal Care Services Bureau: Long Beach, CA: 147 animals Los Angeles County Animal Control - Agoura: Agoura, CA: 88 animals Los Angeles County Animal Control - AV Adoption Center: Lancaster, CA: 9 animals Los Angeles County Animal Control - Baldwin Park: Baldwin Park, CA: 708 animals Los Angeles County Animal Control - Carson: Gardena, CA: 232 animals Los Angeles County Animal Control - Castaic: Castaic, CA: 67 animals Los Angeles County Animal Control - Downey: Downey, CA: 624 animals Los Angeles County Animal Control - Lancaster: Lancaster, CA: 461 animals Mission Viejo Animal Shelter: Mission Viejo, CA: 40 animals Moreno Valley Animal Services: Moreno Valley, CA: 218 animals North Central Animal Care and Control Center: Los Angeles, CA: 452 animals

Orange County Animal Care Center: Orange, CA: 426 animals Palm Springs Animal Shelter: Palm Springs, CA: 315 animals Pasadena Humane Society and SPCA: Pasadena, CA: 153 animals Redlands Animal Control: Redlands, CA: 103 animals Riverside County Animal Control - Blythe Shelter: Blythe, CA: 29 animals Riverside County Animal Control - Coachella Shelter: Thousand Palms, CA: 151 animals Riverside County Animal Control - Riverside Shelter: Riverside, CA: 620 animals San Bernardino City Animal Control: San Bernardino, CA: 290 animals San Bernardino County - Big Bear Shelter: Big Bear Lake, CA: 9 animals San Bernardino County - Devore Shelter: Devore, CA: 203 animals San Clemente - Dana Point Animal Services: San Clemente, CA: 101 animals San Diego County Department of Animal Services - Bonita: Bonita, CA: 234 animals San Diego County Department of Animal Services - Carlsbad: Carlsbad, CA: 100 animals San Diego County Department of Animal Services - San Diego: San Diego, CA: 230 animals Santa Barbara County Animal Services - Lompoc: Lompoc, CA: 75 animals Santa Barbara County Animal Services - Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara, CA: 257 animals Santa Barbara County Animal Services - Santa Maria: Santa Maria, CA: 161 animals Santa Monica Animal Shelter: Santa Monica, CA: 65 animals South Los Angeles Animal Care and Control Center: Los Angeles, CA: 456 animals The Animal Foundation - Las Vegas: Las Vegas, NV: 789 animals Tulare County Animal Control: Visalia, CA: 185 animals Upland Animal Shelter: Upland, CA: 116 animals Ventura County Animal Services - Camarillo: Camarillo, CA: 286 animals Ventura County Animal Services - Simi Valley: Simi Valley, CA: 30 animals West Los Angeles Animal Care and Control Center: Los Angeles, CA: 269 animals West Valley Animal Care and Control Center: Chatsworth, CA: 279 animals

stats from PetHarbor.com as of 5/17/13 Most of these animals were killed in the shelter.

OMG GET US OUT OF JAIL! (images Amanda Schuman 2013, dogs at OC shelter) 5

WHY RESCUE MATTERS If you were to ask most (not all, but most) shelter managers about rescues, youd get some eye rolls , and in a few cases some outright rants full of enough f-bombs to make Christian Bale hand over the bar of soap. The relationship between shelters and rescues (remember we are talking about 50 shades of crazy here on all sides) ranges from professional and respectful (hey, they DO exist!) to suspiciously cozy, to pitchfork wielding, bonfire-starting, outright contention. But the will of the people is strong, and in almost all cases, rescue assistance to get animals out of the shelter system actually HELPS shelters. Go figure. Freaking math. Here are recent stats for San Bernardino City Shelter one of the notoriously highest kill shelters in all of LA (and thats saying something. Being bankrupt doesnt give them the excuse they wish they could rely upon). Update on San Bernardino City Animal Shelter Statistics (2013) TOTAL ANIMALS: 15,657 RESCUED/ADOPTED: 7,457 | 47.63% EUTHANIZED: 5,971 | 38.14% DIED: 102 | 0.65% ESCAPED: 140 | 0.89% WTF? MISSING: 105 | 0.67% WTF? RETURNED TO OWNER: 863 | 5.51% DISPOSAL: 998 | 6.37% TRANSFERRED: 10 | 0.06% However, as recently as the previous June, their euthanization rates tickled the 90% mark. For those of you bad at math that means of every 10 animals that were carried through the doors to that unfortunate house of horrors, 9 did not make it out alive. And if you think that there is any excuse for this, any rationale that could possibly make sense to justify those kinds of statistics in this century, then we implore you to STOP reading this right now and go away. Youre not ready. Go read Us Weekly and forget we ever met. 87% - 38.1% = 48.9% drop. These improvements have been often hard won and are in great part due to the tireless networking of people who care. Still, in the past ten months in this one shelter alone there have been 5,246 animals put to death at San Bernardino City shelter, again, just one of over 35 shelters. FIVE THOUSAND! And while those rates are improved, thats still a lot of deaths. And let us be clear in many of these shelters its animals being often willy-nilly redlined (slotted for euthanization, often for no reason other than space), dragged to the back room, petrified and afraid, smelling death or sensing the poor souls that have suffered there before them, being injected and then wrapped in a plastic bag and stuck in the gigantic freezer before rendering/disposal. These animals are not being put to sleep. We put things to sleep under anesthesia when they undergo surgery. The goal is for them to wake back up. Not so in an injection of Phenobarbital. This is permanent, no undo feature on that. We say an animal is Put To Sleep or PTS to try not to offend our friends on Fakebook who do not understand why we do what we do. Doesnt make it any less real for the three month old puppy that never had a chance at life or the feral kitten whos never been touched by a human before or the senior family pet discarded callously by its family after years of loyal companionship. Take ALL the dogs you know your familys, friends, colleagues, neighbors, dogs you see walking in the park. Line them up. What are you up to 100? 150? 250? Multiply that by 50/35/20. Visualize that: would they fill up a football field? Two football fields? Thats what 5,971 dogs killed by ONE shelter in the course of 12 months looks like. 6

AWW THAT STUFFS DEPRESSING! Anyway, you know all this right? You see cute pictures of puppies and kitties and you are compelled to help. Whether you like big dogs and think BSL has an extra L in it, or small fluffy mops or Taco Bell dogs, Cats, Horses, even Birds and Pigs, most likely you will find what you like in the shelters. There is a thing we say in rescue. No one goes looking for rescue. It finds you; you are compelled. We speak for these creatures that, once in the system, are helpless and without voice and whose fates are at the behest of politics, weather (yes, weather affects adoptions believe it or not), policy shifts, mistakes, indifferent/ desensitized or even abusive staff, holidays, time/space, illness, and so many other factors working against them.

Only 4 out of the 8 of these perfectly adoptable animals made it out alive...you can probably guess which 4!

LOS ANGELES SHELTER STRUCTURE There are 6 County shelters run by a Board of Supervisors that either dont give a crap or are in blissful oblivion about the true happenings at many of the facilities and how they are run. 1. Agoura Animal Care Center 2. Baldwin Park 3. Carson 4. Castaic 5. Downey 6. Lancaster 7. Antelope Valley Adoption Center AVA (Pet Stop, not an intake shelter but adopts out animals) There are 6 shelters that make up the LA City shelter system that are overseen by a supervisor. The current position is often at odds with the rescue community and has led sadly led to hostile relationships within the community. 8. East Valley 9. Harbor Area (San Pedro) 10. West Los Angeles (WLA) 11. North Central 12. South Central (SLA) 13. West Valley There are several freestanding shelters and animal control agencies: 14. Apple Valley 15. spcaLA (Lawndale) 16. spcaLA (Long Beach) 17. Bellflower Animal Control >> feeds into Long Beach or Downey 18. Burbank Animal Shelter 19. Camarino 20. City of Commerce 21. Devore (County of San Bernardino) 22. Duarte Animal Control >> feeds into Baldwin Park 23. El Segundo Animal Control/ Police Department >> feeds into Harbor (San Pedro) 24. Glendale Humane Society >> feeds into Baldwin Park 25. Glendora Animal Control 26. Hermosa Beach Animal Control / Police Department >> feeds into Harbor (San Pedro) 27. Huntington Park Animal Control 28. Inland Valley Humane Society 29. Long Beach Animal Control 30. Manhattan Beach Animal Control>> feeds into Harbor (San Pedro) 31. Monterey Park Animal Control 32. Moreno Valley 33. Orange County Animal Control 34. Pasadena Humane Society 35. San Bernardino City Shelter 36. Santa Monica Animal Shelter >> feeds into WLA 37. San Gabriel Humane Society 38. South East Area Animal Control Authority (SEAACA) (in Downey, CA but not to be confused with Downey the county shelter) 39. Temple City Animal Control We probably are missing a couple of outliers. Bolded shelters are easier ones to work with/lower kill. 8

The City Shelters and the County shelters each (more or less) have sets of rules by which they operate. Lowdown: LA City Shelters All are high volume, most are high kill. Lowdown: LA County Shelters All are high volume and high kill. Some are worse than others. Some are mismanaged so badly that the word shelter should not be used for them. Maybe canine/cat concentration camps is apt. PLEASE: Do have some compassion for the staff though. They often have a really shitty job of smiling over and over all day long every day while people line up dumping off their family pet(s). Nothing breaks our hearts more than learning some family has dumped their 13 year old dog to die alone in the scary shelter. Imagine having to smile at the person doing the dumping, lest you be fired. Naturally, some desensitization occurs otherwise most normal people would not cope with what they do day in and day out. However, there are some scary and unreasonable people working in shelters too. Unfortunately, the remaining shelters all operate under their own set of policies and rules. These also change periodically. If we were cynics (har har) we would think that they do this to keep the rescues confused and wasting time so that we cant organize and consolidate. But even if thats not true (har har), the best way to get to know a shelters policies and where they are flexible and where they are not is to find the main networking thread(s) for that shelter and ask for help. Please note big pet peeve provide details if you want people to answer. Generic questions will get fewer answers because people are busy and the answers are always its complicated. If you want to rescue/adopt an animal, your best bet is to either straight-adopt the animal from the shelter yourself, watch the animal to see what rescue gets it and adopt from them. Yes, its ok to ask a rescue to rescue an animal and that you are interested in adopting it too. It can help incentivize a rescue to step up. It gets a lot harder if you are not local though. CONCLUSION: dont try to understand this mess yourself unless your goal is to immerse yourself in some serious policy change efforts. Given the layers of bureaucracy (probably) designed to obfuscate the true happenings at the shelters, you wont have any time for animal rescue, but help is needed there too. ASK find out whos doing what where and if you like them and agree with their methods and goals then join forces. Or pick a shelter, or a type of animal. Trust us thats the best way to keep your sanity to some degree. IS THIS LIKE AN ENDLESS EPISODE OF MEAN GIRLS FOR ADULTS? Yes. Dont take it personally if some people are snippy or throw sarcasm at you. But, if you are asking questions (e.g. demanding an update), that have already been answered earlier in the animals thread and you could find out yourself just by scrolling up a bit, or saying I want this dog without providing any details or info, you will most likely be ignored or someone will snap at you. Why? This is LA, bless your heart! Actually its because its so time consuming to answer and answers are complicated. Most people are working in a vortex of time and energy they only have so much of it to give away each day and they are not paid to do this.

HOW TO HELP
So you want to help, yes? Well get ready friend, as youre in for an exhilarating ride. Getting ready to be awed, annoyed, pissed off, grateful, disgusted, appalled, weepy, ecstatic sometimes all in the same day or even hour! Its like an extra layer of PMS! WHERE TO BEGIN Most people get called to help with animal rescue because of an urge to help. They are moved by a picture, a video, a story, volunteering, whatever grabs their attention and makes them dig further. Once they start to dip their toes in, the questions come fast and furious. At first the system appears to be a bunch of people screaming OMG THE DOG IS GOING TO DIE TOMORROW! Often this is true, but not always. [There is something to be said for the sensationalizing of urgency to get people to get motivated.] Here are a few things to keep in mind before you jump in. Nothing earth shattering here, just observations from wounded rescue warriors: You will never save them all. Its impossible. The animals that are networked online are a small fraction of the total number of animals needing help. The system is so ass-backwards right now and with too many shelter staff and bureaucrats actively resisting change and assistance the path is not easy. Plus there need to be cultural and ethical changes in our system of morals before we can actively address these issues on a larger, more humane manner. Lets hope and teach our children better. You dont have enough time, enough money, enough resources to help as many as you would like to. Pick a lane and stick to it, and you will find that you become more efficient at that particular thing and over time you will be saving more because you are more efficient. Pinball bouncing all over the place is the least effective reactionary response. You do matter. Especially to any animal that you help. By sharing, tagging, pledging, etc. you make the world of difference for that animal. Never, ever forget that much. Read the Starfish on the beach. Its maddening. You learn to drink. A lot. People remember things. If your behavior is erratic, you make a mistake and dont own up to it or learn from it, or act in a way inconsistent with sounding like a sane person, people take note and give you a wide berth. If you want to gain respect and have people help you when you need favors, first do favors for others, and also keep it all above board. Stealing or padding funds, lying, misleading especially if it hurts an animal, being greedy or price gouging, causing drama, all will bring the shun or wrath of the community upon your head. Its addicting. Some people stay up all night networking animals with which they have an emotional bond. If it starts to affect your job, your personal relationships, even your own pets, etc. or if you get soooo wrapped up in the drama of FB rescue, maybe its time to take a step back and reassess. Wed rather have you at half speed for the long haul than you see you burn out and give up. If you do need a break, were always here when you return (and so are the crazies. Cant say we didnt warn you). 10

#1. PICK A LANE Do you remember when you first learned to ride a bike? Or ice skate? Or put on lipstick? You sucked at it. You had a lot of help or learned by trial and error, and your learning curve might have been short or long but if you stuck with it, you became good. Same with rescue. If you want to make the most impact, choose something that moves you and become great at it. Here are some types of ways that you can become a guru and a great resource: Help a particular shelter or a cluster of shelters nearby each other. This way you can get to know their staff, their policies, the nuances of those policies (and more importantly when they can be flexible and when they are not), the type of people in the community, etc. Actively work to streamline things information, resources, etc. to make things efficient for everyone (you will save more animals that way). Pick a species. You like dogs, cats, horses, even pigs or birds? The shelters have them all. Mostly cats and dogs obviously but you could be the bird specialist for an area if that suits your fancy. Whatever you feel the most connection with is what you will do the best with and stick around for the longest. Select a breed. Pomeranians make you weep with joy? Join the Pommie Mommy networking group. There are similar groups for almost every type of breed and animal. The networkers comb the websites, listings, and visit shelters looking for any breed-specific animals to cross post and network. Some of them are almost cult-like in their followings and efficiently save many. Volunteer for a rescue or two. ALL rescues need help ALL THE TIME. Anything from online pictures and social media / website updates, events (fundraisers or adoption), home checks, transporting animals to vet visits or meet and greets, donate/ fundraise/ donation collection, grant writing, fostering, shelter visits. All are super rewarding. Remember what we said earlier- most recue people are some shade of cray-cray so just find a group you like and respect their policies and ethics and give them a hand or three. Organize. Find out what other volunteers are doing and dont duplicate their efforts but rather augment them. Working together is so obvious and yet infrequently done well in rescue. #2. DETERMINE YOUR ABILITY. Here are some WAYS TO HELP: The term it takes a village is really appropriate here. The numbers of times an animal has pulled a Hail Mary last minute save by someone who just happened to see a picture or a thread or get a call from a friend are too many to count. The networking is constant and relentless and needs to be. Making some noise for a particular animal raises its chances that much more. Way too many die alone, with no one championing them. Pledge from $3 up to whatever amount you are comfortable with, the price of rescuing animals is sadly going up and it seems like a lot of people have their hands out to make money off rescue animals, especially many of the veterinarians. If you post in a FB comment a pledge amount, you typically dont pay that until proof of the animal being safe is provided and then the rescue will message you their donation information. Foster temp fosters (for a few days while an animal is pulled from the shelter and arrangements are being made to get it to its rescue via transport) or fostering longer term for a rescue while the recue vets the animal and preps for forever adoption. Tag tagging friends and people who like that particular breed etc. on photos to share them far & wide. Share sharing an animals picture and story on your wall can be a powerful motivator and lets more eyeballs see. Encourage others to share. Lots people are pet shopping so the more people that see that animal the greater chance it has to get help or adopted which is always the end goal. 11

Call and email rescues rescues in SoCal are absolutely inundated with animals right now. They are treading water. They get tagged and messaged about way more animals than they can possibly take in and some are not even respectful of the type of animals a certain rescue saves. To rise above the noise, call or email a rescue so they know about a particular animal, especially if the animal is in immediate danger. And why not sweeten the pot and offer to pick-up the animal and take it to them, or give them some money to cover pull fees or transportation? They need it! Fundraise good rescues are constantly fundraising. Through donations, events, or partnerships, these efforts all take management and help. See how you can help a rescue fundraise so that they can save more animals. Call for updates and post information face it, calling the shelters is not fun. You are often on hold for a long time. You dont always get clear information or even the truth from overworked and desensitized staff. But calling the shelters and getting updates on particular animals is a huge help. Be sure to post that information so everyone can see it. Even better if one person can call a shelter on many animals all at once so that the shelter is not taking 100 calls asking about one animal (a possible adopter might be trying to get through!) Update Albums animals are moved off the Did you know? Use Facebook & Twitter shelters websites or PetHarbor when they #hashtags the # in front of whatever you are no longer available (either through being want to group in a subject. Animal IDs are a destroyed, owner reclaimed, adopted, great use of hashtags. Much like the @[name] rescued, lost, or deceased). The animals in Facebook, the hashtag automatically need to be uploaded to facebook, updated when their status changes, and moved to the creates a hyperlink to all other instances of appropriate no-longer-available album. In that term. Example Spot ID #A123456 many cases (ugh) there are also several threads on a particular animal. Linking those threads to each other to avoid duplicated efforts and to consolidate pledges is important. Also linking freedom pictures to the animals original post will help those see what the fate is of a particular animal they were following without having to ask. Coordinate probably the most in-the-background position but one of the most critical. An animal doesnt magically get pulled from a shelter and get automatically delivered in front of a rescues door. There are lots of logistics that need to take place to get an animal safe. Here is where your time is invaluable to getting an animal out. Transport whether picking up an animal and delivering it to a temporary foster, boarding, rescue, or adopter, transports are critical to the machine. Long distance transports are also helpful as the SoCal animals get networked far and wide and often people in other states would like an animal but the transport costs are prohibitive. Collect Pledges sending out a private message to all those who pledged on an animal and including the rescues name, status, link to freedom pictures, and where to send the pledge donation are important for collecting those pledges many rescues rely on to support their continued efforts of saving lives. Sending out gentle reminders and prodding folks to pay is a big part of the cycle. Collect goods (rescue) rescues (and many shelters) are always in need of donations of food, blankets, toys, wee-wee pads, etc. Contact your local rescue and ask them what they need. Start a drive in your own neighborhood or place of work and deliver the goods. Volunteer (shelters, rescues) each rescue and shelter needs feet on the ground. Write great stories for rescues, blurbs for animals, press releases to the media, etc. They need good writers! Photography are you a decent photographer? Trust us, you can probably take better pictures than most of the shelter staff photos. If you can donate time to take pictures of the shelter animals, pictures are everything in rescue. Just be sure to link them to the original/main networking thread so that people can find the information. 12

OMD I SEE A DOG I LIKE! I WANT THIS DOG! SOMEONE HELP ME SAVE THIS DOG! HELPPPPP! First of all, take a breath. Youll help the animal a lot more if youre calm and acting from a place of efficiency over emotional hyperbole. You can help in a LOT of ways weve already listed other than taking an animal just to save its life. [Please note this is not in reference to those who are in the market for an addition to their fur family, but those reacting to an animal thats nearly out of time.] In most of these shelters, time is of the essence. If you are local, adopt the animal directly, OR ask a rescue to get him and indicate that if its a good fit you will adopt through them and/or foster. But I Live in Montana/ Tennessee/ Maryland/ Russia/ the Moon and I Want to Adopt That Dog! First, know that its not easy to get an animal from a far away shelter and have it transported to you. But, dont let that discourage you! Its doable. You just need to go into this eyes wide open.
FYI: Networkers, the people who post pictures and descriptions of animals, are not always able to help. Manually uploading and updating images and animal descriptions is very time consuming. Dont rely on them to help you pull, advise, or rescue any particular animal.

We do animal rescue and networking because (most of us) we care about animals. Unfortunately, there are bad seeds that take advantage of these emotions and high stress environments to take advantage, scam folks, or get animals at low or no costs to turn around and sell or use for horrible things such as research or dog fighting. Second, these collective rules most of the rescue networks try to abide by are for protection firstly for the animal, but also for the rescues. For reasons that seem obvious but may not be to everyone, even the most well intentioned person is getting an animal without meeting it. This is dangerous what happens if the animal is not a fit for that family? What resources or recourse do they have? None. Often these animals find themselves in yet another high kill shelter or worse. When a (good) rescue takes on an animal, they take it on for Life. Their contracts stipulate that should an adopters circumstances change, the rescue will take back the pet, no questions asked and indeed when signed the adopter is under legal obligation to do so (rather than dumping an animal back into the shelter system).This is not realistic if the rescue is in Santa Barbara and the adopter lives in Maine. The rescue also has no way to do a home check or assessment. The main goal of any good rescues is to get as many animals saved as possible and place them in homes that are a good fit for that animal forever. Thus age, health, financial, situational, behavioral etc. issues are all taken into account. As far as rescues are concerned, the L word in this case means Liability. If a rescue rescues an animal, ships it sight unseen to a far-away place, and that dog bites someone, they could be held liable. Most rescues obviously do not want to lose their rights, get sued into oblivion, or get into trouble. So how can you get an animal you like from far away? If you are willing to stick with it, ASK a lot of questions and be patient to wait for the answers and wade through some muck, be ready to pony up some money (its still cheaper than paying a breeder with a fancy website thousands of dollars to ship their purebred to you from Missouri were puppy-mills would make you vomit if you saw your purebreds parents), and be patient the best way all around is for it to happen following these basic guidelines below. See our FAQs at the end of this guide, too, along with a helpful checklist to assist you.

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GUIDELINES FOR ADOPTING AN ANIMAL LONG DISTANCE: 1. Express interest on the animals thread so that people are aware and ask for help. Be specific and provide details about yourself. The more you demand people to help you, or the more vague (which translates into shady), the more you will be ignored. Dont assume that the person posting the pictures will know anything about that animals status, will see your comment, or be able to help. Ask in the thread so many will see it. 2. Be prepared to pay for adoption fees, temporary boarding and necessary tests prior to transport, and transportation costs. This can run a few hundred dollars. 3. Find a local rescue (near you) that would be willing to do a rescue to rescue transfer agreement. Agree to cover the costs of getting the animal, and a rescue will basically rescue the animal and transfer ownership to the new rescue (near you) and you will adopt the animal from them. That way the animal has a safety net should anything happen. 4. If you dont have a rescue or they all say no, get some local references to help. A job, your veterinarian, other rescue friends who are active in your local rescue scene etc. 5. Submit this information to the thread and usually someone will reach out or tell you people to whom you should discuss the matter. Ask them what they need and be willing to sign their agreements (transfers etc) and pay for at least part of the costs right away in good faith (the rescues have to pay immediately for pull fees, boarding, vet visits etc. they dont have the luxury of getting invoiced). 6. Be prepared to provide whatever the rescue needs to make it happen [within reason]. 7. Make sure whoever is helping you is a legit rescue or seems to have good relations with the rescue community. 8. There are lists of transport services of all types, from ground to air. Just ask! 9. Post follow up pictures and stories so those who helped will be willing to do so again in the future.

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SOME RESCUE BEST PRACTICES This list was modified from Guidelines for Responsible Rescuing, Drafted by a well known Animal Rights Attorney that was instrumental in effecting and changing Los Angeles County Animal Control Practices. 1. Know that getting an animal out of the shelter is the BEGINNING, not the end of a rescue. Do not pull animals unless you have a solid plan in place for their placement. 2. Do your due diligence. How well do you know the person you are asking to pull or transport an animal or who is asking you to pull or transport for or to them? What do you know about the rescue/ foster/ adopter to whom you are entrusting care of the animal? 3. Due diligence should ALWAYS include home checks, foster agreements, adoption agreements, which should be done before an animal is entrusted, not after. 4. Once an animal is placed, be persistent about checking in on the well-being of the animal with home checks. If too far for you, get someone you trust to do it. 5. Know your limits. To be an effective rescuer, you must not overextend yourself. Getting in over your head is not good for you or the animals. 6. If you do find yourself in trouble, ask for help. Dont wait until the animals well-being is compromised. If you arent getting help from those you ask privately, take it public and ask for help there (eg on social media sites). You may get some backlash but you can choose to ignore it and focus on the welfare of the animals who did not ask for this situation to be thrust upon them.

HOW TO TELL IF A RESCUE IS GOOD Hoo boy. This is a touchy subject. We could write a book on it, but well spare you. No one would believe it anyway (but itd make a great reality show! No one would believe that either) Not all rescues are benevolent non-profits. Some may be in the business of selling animals that are unhealthy or posting fake sick animals to raise funds, or worse, real animals to raise funds then take the money and do not treat the animal (or worse). And even when rescues have their heart in the right place, sometimes rescues act as covers for animal hoarders. And sometimes well intentioned rescue people get in over their heads and for whatever reason (pride/ego, fear of reprisal, etc.) they are too afraid to ask for assistance. In addition, not all rescues are actually non-profits although this does not automatically make them bad. In light of all this, there are several things that you can do to make sure that a rescue is legitimate. First, if the rescue claims to be a 501(c)(3), you can double check this using the Guidestar website. Guidestar can provide information such as the non-profits mission statement and recent 990 tax filings. A rescues 990 can explain more about where an organization receives its funding, funded and how much it spends on administration and fundraising versus costs of caring for animals. California also requires federally designated 501(c)3s to file articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State and a current list of board officers and register and file financial reports with the Attorney General's Registry of Charitable Trusts. The Attorney General's Charities website offers resources to help charities with registration and reporting compliance. Compliance and enforcement are handled by the Attorney General's Charitable Trusts Section. Next, any good rescue should have all parties sign a written adoption contract that complies with all legal obligations. Any decent rescue will likely also have a contractual provision that requires the adopter to return the animal to the rescue if the adopter can no longer care for the animal.

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Here are some possible red flags to watch out for: The rescue claims to be a 501(c)(3), but you can find no information using Guidestar or state regulatory sites. Please note a 501(c)(3) is merely a tax The rescue uses an unusually high percentage of funds for designation. Contrary to what many administrative costs, rather than costs directly related to people say online, you do not have to be a 501(c)(3) to solicit donations. Anyone can care of the animals, such as veterinary care, food, training ask for donations for anything (we are and boarding. NOTE: some rescues specialize in sick/ thinking of starting one to support our hospice or elderly animals. Their vet bills are often increasing plastic surgery addiction, for example!) but they are NOT tax disproportionately higher than a rescue that only rescues deductible. young, mostly healthy animals. But also note that shelters Also, there is NO OVERSIGHT to how a often have illnesses running rampant among the rescue is run or managed outside the populations, all of which can cost a lot of money to treat. purview of its finances. This mistake gets touted out especially in heated arguments. The rescue does not have a contract. Or it has a contract, All the IRS cares about the tax designation but the contract lacks key provisions, such as allowing an of donations. Anyone can rescue and ask adopter to take out an animal that has not been spayed or for donations. They only cannot say those neutered, or return the animal to the rescue if the adopter donations are tax deductible (or even imply that they are). can no longer care for the animal. The rescue cannot produce identifying information and veterinary records for their animals. The rescue charges high adoption fees, and has a website promising to sell you the perfect purebred or designer breed puppies or kittens. Take a look at the ASPCAs website for more information on scams.

As with anything, dont just rely on the rescues website. Do some digging on them. Check out their social media sites and see how they interact with their networkers and pledgers. Check their photos and see if they include freedom pictures and hopefully follow up pictures of their animals. See if they allow payments or donations to go directly to the veterinarian or are providing contact information and validation of expenses they are collecting for (receipts, invoices, medical charts etc). NOTE: there exceptions to almost every one of these rules (other than whether a 501c3 for tax deduction purposes). Dont immediately condemn a rescue just for one thing ask questions. You might be getting information from someone with a personal vendetta against a rescue or oddly enough, a breed (e.g. someone mentally unstable bashing a good rescue because she hates all poodles). The Facebook Networking Phenomenon Dont Get Scammed Put yourself in the mindset of a scammer for a minute.imagine how enticing the thought of passively earn income by posting up a few pictures and stories and letting the donations roll in could be to such people. You could do that all day long and scam money. Well, sadly, there have been too many who have, and they of course have ruined if for everyone else. From mentally ill people who feel compelled to lie for attention or other reasons, to downright evil/greedy people who are playing off the volatile emotions of people wanting to help animals in need, the temptation may be too great for some.

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Some Advice from the Trenches: Pledge only amounts you can afford to pay. Assume any and all animals you pledge on WILL be saved and you WILL be called upon to pay up. If you pledge $1,000 each in the excitement of the save on 1,000 animals and all 1,000 animals are rescued you should be able to afford making good on your pledges. Did you know? Stipulate if you have any conditions that must be met before Some of the costs that might go into rescuing payment, such as to 501c3s only (note again that having a an animal may include any or all of the 501c3 does not a good rescue make, and many good rescue following and even more (sometime people do not have their 501c3s yet but be smart about the astronomically more) if an animal requires tax implications your donations are not deductible unless to medical attention or has behavioral issues, which many of the animals coming out of the a legitimate 501c3) or upon proof of freedom picture etc. shelter system do: then state that up front. Pull fees from $0 to $130 ASK! There are plenty of people with opinions on the internet Local transport to/from shelter (really there are!) and people are not afraid to share their Temporary boarding experiences with a particular group. Local transport to/from vet or clinic Research do some digging on the entity asking for your Spay/Neuter money. Shots, vetting Flea & tick treatment Be wary of anyone who asks you to pay before the animal is Health certificates for travel OTB and/or proof of this is shown without a valid reason. Grooming If you have an issue with a rescue or rescuer, take it up Transportation to final destination privately with them first before blasting it on the thread or The adoption fees usually do not even cover accusing them of something until you have all your facts. these costs. Dont be surprised if they call you out for non-payment. Rescues, especially the smaller ones, often make the decisions on whether to take a particular animal or how many animals they can take at a time based on how many pledges are posted. Some people feel that rescues should not be taking any animals if they dont have funds to cover the fees. Other people believe that the fees are not fair to ask rescues to pay to shelters in the first place, and use pledges to cover those costs of animal extraction (many other shelters in the U.S. work closely with rescues and provide them free to rescues; only a small number of them do in SoCal. And some fees are quite high.) Pay promptly. These are all volunteers working this system, not salaried debt collectors. The more time they have to spend chasing you down the less time they are helping animals. Its rare that all pledges are collected so please pay and pay promptly, or dont pledge (there are other ways to help!) Dont demand a rescue immediately answer your list of 90 questions before you will pay your $5 pledge. While they are grateful for money, they are also in the trenches and its hard work and time consuming. If you pledge often, or large amounts, expect to get tagged by everyone. The desperation is for the animals, not to bleed you dry. Just pledge whatever you are comfortable for any animal that you want to and do not be pressured into anything else. You can also do anonymous pledges. Dont assume that you will always get updated on every animal. There are still a lot of rescues that dont (gasp!) use Facebook. They go to the shelters regularly and rescue and only post to their own sites. They are missing out!

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TIP: Alison Hector has written a very comprehensive piece on Facebook animal rescue, pledging and donations. Again, there are exceptions to many of these cautionary items, such as a rescue not necessarily having a paypal that matches their name as many are set up as attached to the founders and having an email ResceXYZ@gmail.com does not necessarily make them any more legitimate. Speaking of Personal Vendettas, What Do We Think of Pages (on FB) or Sites that Purport to OUT Bad Rescues or Rescue People? The concept is great; in our opinion, however, the execution leaves serious gaping holes. First of all, anyone who wants to proclaim themselves as the police of anything (online rescue etc) yet hides behind anonymity is a red flag. Second, if they are not willing to listen to involved parties before posting up unverified information, or receive information disclaiming a fact posted and refuse to remove it or even address it, this is not responsible. If they truly want to provide a good service, rather than just posting rumors and innuendos and a good forum for duking-it-out among angry parties, then there should be a stated system for submission, a transparent process for determining if the information is legitimate, and a grievance process for those to address what they feel are the subject of erroneous stories or comments. There majority of the people posted to those sites are scum of the earth sucking parasites who dont event deserve to have a drivers license let alone care for another living being, but hey, the internet is the wild, wild west! Use your own judgment. A good motto be part of the solution, or dont bother.

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IN CONCLUSION
No words needed:

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ADDENDUMS helpful crap

Least useful Facebook networking/cross-posting comments, in descending order:
1. That is NOT a Swedish Vallhund/ Bedlington Terrier/ Catahoula Leopard Dog! That is TOTALLY a Peruvian Inca Orchid/Thai Ridgeback/Lagotta Romagnolo! Who cares?? Its an animal in need, and while identifying the breed might help the breed-specific only rescues that refuse mixes, stating it in a condescending manner is pretentious & annoying. 2. OMG SOMEONE PLEASE SAVE THIS DOG! Why dont you? You are someone too. 3. Needs pledges! Youre on the computer, so you are most likely living in the first world. Give up that latte and pitch in five bucks instead of telling other people to. If you are strapped, then share, do a pledge recap, ask your friends for a couple of bucks etc but dont pass the buck (literally) to everyone else all the time. 4. Father, Please bless these precious ones with most loving forever home. In Jesus Name. Amen. Were probably going to Hell anyway but your praying doesnt do an ounce of tactical good to the folks in the trenches. Post the prayer on your own page or say it before you go to sleep, but posting it in the comments just seems like youre more interested in people seeing you praying. 5. Damn it! They killed her? Why there was no one to save her life? Why cant someone in CA foster her? Murderers! POS shelter! I hate them! How can they sleep at night! Im done! These comments are pathetic when the RIP comments are triple the number comments/ sharing when the dog was still alive. 6. Why cant they groom the dog so s/hell have a better chance at getting adopted? Why waste money on a dog thats probably going to die anyway? (shelter mentality) but most shelters welcome volunteers coming in to groom and take better pictures (hint hint). 7. If I lived closer, I would save this dog in a heartbeat! Uh huh. If we had a dollar for every time that was said wed be rich and could save more animals 8. Why are the rescues not rescuing this dog?/ Where are all the rescues? Probably standing in line at a shelter, on hold with a shelter, driving to or from a shelter, comforting sick or scared dogs taken from the shelter, or arranging events to get shelter animals placed. 9. Where is this dog? (when the location and contact information is clearly listed in the photos description) 10. I want this dog. Can someone get this dog for me? [[crickets]] 11. Looks just like my dog when I was a kid. Great! Why not honor your pets memory by actually trying to help this one or this one is soon to join your dog in doggie heaven. 12. (p)Update??? or a perennial favorite STATUS?? (when they dont bother reading up the comments a bit to see for themselves. Even better is when they demand an update when they have given nothing to contribute (sharing, tagging, pledges etc)). 13. s Laziest form of shared ever. Plus it looks like a 5 as in a $5 pledge so you might be expected to pay up. 14. Shared. At lease you typed it out. 15. I will foster! Then the person never responds again. 16. Anything the clucking hens are screeching at you to do because according to them were all stupid and lazy. We await a cease & desist from their LOLyers for calling them screeching banshees who add nothing to the conversation. 20

GLOSSARY
Available date animals in-taken often have to be held for a certain amount of time (min 72 hours per Haydens law) before they can be made available for adoption or rescue. Most shelters give priority to adoptions over rescues and often have available dates for adoption and then allow rescues to pull an animal after that legal hold time has expired. Owner surrenders are usually available right away (and killed first) whereas stray holds usually held the longest because it takes people that long to figure out how to navigate PetHarbor. BSL Breed Specific Legislation. Cities or municipalities that have taken it upon themselves to disallow a certain type of breed for ANYONE to own (mainly focuses on those breeds deemed aggressive such as pitbulls etc. Very biased legislation and it gives them the right to snatch your dog at any time. So if anyone is adopting or helping someone get any of the listed breeds, check local laws first or the animal could be confiscated). BYB Back Yard Breeder. Most in rescue consider anyone who breeds who is not licensed by the AKC to be a backyard breeder. Even if not intentional, it still adds animals to the already over-burdened system. Cross-post/ cross-poster not to be confused with a cross dresser, the cross posters play a vital role in connecting like-minded people to animals or breeds they care about. Cross dressers are cool, too, so long as they dont hate animals and dont wear fur. CTA Commitment to Adopt this refers to someone who has called the shelter and placed their commitment to get an animal (could be a rescue or a private adopter). NOTE: CTAs are often no-shows and if so the animal is usually in more danger. Never consider an animal with a CTA safe. DNA/DNR Do Not Adopt/Assist/Rescue (do not assist in any way or help them to get an animal, usually a breeder or nefarious person, or a bad rescue). DOT Due Out Today means this animal is urgent and must exit this day. E-List or Euth-List Euthanasia List. Exactly what it sounds like. The list of animals is red-lined for euthanization. Some, but not all, shelters will send these lists around to rescues to save them before putting them down. Any animal e-listed is mega urgent (and may already have been put down). ETA Estimated Arrival Time used in coordinating transportation usually. Fostering temporarily housing an animal in a private residence with the backing (usually) of a rescue organization until a permanent home can be found. Freedom pictures pictures taken after the animal is safe and left the building. This is often used as proof that the animal has been safely rescued and helps to avoid scammers. Fucktard/Twatwaffle sigh. LOL. sigh. HBC Hit by car HEAP Happily Ever After Page mainly used for Orange County networking when a dogs status has been moved to the safe page by the shelter. HW Heartworm. Nasty disease for animals; easily preventable with pills. HW tests are often required before animals can enter certain states. Intake date the date the animal officially entered the shelter system and the clock begins ticking. Available dates are based off the intake date and whether the dog is a stray/lost & found or owner surrender. IP in some shelters this means an Intent to Pull but it doesnt always mean that! In some cases it means Interested Party so please be sure to get clarification because they have differing meanings and can affect the outcome of an individual animal.

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ISO Isolation often an area of the shelter (or boarding) where animals are isolated from the other dogs for being sick or behavioral. These animals are often not seen by the public and not even listed on PetHarbor. KC Kennel Cough. Annoying cold-like cough that dogs get frequently in the kennel. Easily treatable; horrible to listen to. Can develop into more serious issues such as URIs or pneumonia. Kenneled/Boarded commercial facility that temporarily boards animals in kennels for a daily/ weekly/ monthly fee. NLL No Longer Listed. This means the official posting posted by the shelter is no longer listed. This could before any reason adopted, rescued, returned to owner, or put to death. Note that some shelters actually pull listings down before animals are euthanized, so CALL THE SHELTER AND ASK. OMD Oh My Dog. OTB Out of The Building when an animal has successfully exited the shelters grounds and is no longer in danger (at least from the shelter). OTB Pic/picture proof, often called a Freedom picture, via a picture that the animal is actually gone from the shelter and safe (at least from the shelter). This is kind of like proof of life and to help avoid scammers from scamming pledge money. OTI Owner Turn In. Funny how so many good citizens find so many animals wandering the streets and return them to the shelter while the animals strain to stay with their owners who are in reality dumping them and calling them strays to avoid paying a fee. Owner dumps are almost always in the gravest danger because they do not have to be held for their owners who may be searching for them. Also OS (Owner Surrender). PetHarbor crappy software written in 1987 that has never been updated, is clumsy to navigate, and costs too much for the government bid contracts to extract themselves from to change to a new, better system. Not to be confused with PetFinder or AdoptAPet, which were all owned by the same company at one point (Chameleon Software) but are infinitely better in their interfaces. [PetFinder is now owned by Purina.] Pledge a posted amount on an animals thread to be paid upon proof the animals is safe. Pledges are tallied and the unofficial rules are that pledges only go to rescues not private adoptions, pledges are voluntary and pledgers can put caveats they need (within reason) in order to honor the pledge such as freedom pictures, 501c3 status, reputable rescue, etc. Pledge recap a tally of the promised pledges to date, usually done to entice a rescue to take a particular animal so they know some of the costs to pull can be covered. PM Private message obviously private communications but also refers to the way pledge collections are done. Folks may say check your messages or check your PMs for pledge collection info. POS Piece. of. Caca. ~OR~ Positive (such as Positive for Heartworm). Check the context. PTS/ PTD Put To Sleep/Death - no explanation required. Pull/ Puller term used for when an animal is taken into responsibility by a third party. Pullers either work for free, for a shelter, for money, or for a rescue. Often shelters require rescues to be registered with them and in return get reduced rates off the pull fees. Pullers are most times required to be authorized by the rescue to pull animals for them. Sometimes they exit with the animal but not always. Some pulls can be called or emailed in, while others require a puller to be there in person but the animals can then be sent to the vet or clinic for shots and spay/neuter etc. Pull Fees the amounts charged/scammed by the shelters for pulling animals and what is included that vary from shelter to shelter from $0 and includes nothing to $110+ and includes shots, microchip, spay/neuter.

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Rescue Coordinator often a staff member but sometimes a volunteer in the rescue community who helps facilitate assistance to rescues wanting to get animals out of a particular shelter. HINT: they are often your BFFs in rescue. RO Rescue Only. This label is used far too liberally to stigmatize animals labeled for fear, aggression, illness or other reason by shelter staff and this animal cannot be adopted by the public. A rescue MUST step up for the animal to save it. RR Reputable Rescue(r). Often added as a * caveat note to a pledge that someone wants their pledge money to go to a known rescue or rescue person to help avoid scamming. RS Re-Shar(ing) when a person indicates they are sharing the same animal again. RTO Returned to Owner when a lost animal has been reunited with its owner(s). Shared adding a comment that the animal is being shared on the persons network. S lazy form of Shared. We propose a ban on the S because it looks too much like 5 as in a $5 pledge. Or we could just start assuming all Ss are 5s and charge them $5? Hey, always looking to raise money. S/N spay/ neuter or speuter. Safe term used by networkers to show that an animal is (usually) out of the shelter and into caring arms whether by a rescue, an individual, an adopter etc. Dont assume because someone says an animal is safe that it is. Shelters sometimes give out incorrect info or info gets mixed up. Assume an animal is safe when the person who has the animal in his/her arms shows proof (or is a reliable source saying they know 100%). Tagging the act of adding tags to an image or video on Facebook (or other social media sites) that both alert the person being tagged that there is an animal of interest and also to help cross post them on the recipients walls so more people can see the animal. Transporters free or fee-based private transportation either locally or long distance. URI Upper Respiratory Infection kind of like having the flu for animals. Needs to be treated and can turn more serious such as hearing or vision issues, pneumonia etc. UTD Up To Date usually refers to shots (if the animals are up to date on all their vaccines etc.) X mix, as in a mixed breed. y.o. or yo years old as in 8yo = 8 years old.

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FAQs
Q: How/where do I pledge on an animal? A: If you see an animal youd like to help, in the current dysfunctional system, the best way is to just leave a comment with the amount youre pledging. If you have stipulations on your pledge, be sure to state them there, such as $50 to a reputable rescue. When/if an animal is saved, oftentimes (but not always remember not everyone uses facebook) the rescue will return to the thread and say that they have the animal and its Safe. They will (and should) provide freedom pictures showing proof the animal is out of the building and safe. Usually then someone sends around a pledge collection Private Message telling you how and where to send your donation. NOTE: Please check your Other folder in your Facebook messages. Many PM requests for pledge collection end up in there.

Q: Why dont they groom the animals before they list them or take really good pictures or videos of the animals? It is like they don't want the animals to look decent so they can get adopted or take pictures that flatter them instead of making them look sick, or mean or timid or ugly. A: Shelters are usually understaffed. So many of them have high volume intake that the finances just dont make sense. In addition, they cannot legally groom or treat an animal (unless medical emergency) until they give the time frame for the owner to reclaim. Many shelters welcome the photographers and groomers to get set up and come into the shelters to donate their times. Pictures are critical to getting noticed and pictures of groomed, beautiful, readyto-take-home pets place faster. Q: Why are some animals only available to rescues, Rescue Only? A: Shelter staff have a wide berth to determine the final outcome of all in-taken animals. An animal may be listed as rescue only for a variety of reasons including any of the following: Pregnant or nursing Medical issues Injury Behavioral issues An RO animal can ONLY be removed from the shelter by a 501c3 rescue. In addition, many rescues need the rescue to be set up as a partner with that particular shelter, although there is some question to the legality of this (at least in California). Note that some shelters are easier about this than others. If you seen an RO animal you would like, find a rescue partner and consider adopting from the rescue. However, a shelter is bound by law to make animals available to rescues if they request. Dont let the shelter deter you. Q: What is wrong with California/Americans/Your Crappy Throw-Away Society? A: Well there is a lot wrong with the great state of CA that is unique to this state, but every state has its own issues as does every country. In rescue, yelling and hollering on an animals thread - where people are already networking that animal - is a sure way to annoy people and make enemies. The people who are dumping the animals in the first place, breeding them, abusing them etc. are the ones who need to be told and they are not

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on the threads desperately trying to save the animals lives. If you want to complain, do it on your own page and use it as a lesson to draw in other people to help. When you come yell at folks who are the ones doing a lot with limited resources youre not going to do anything but alienate the people trying to help that animal. Would you go to a social workers convention yell AT the social workers demanding to know whats wrong with them as if they are the cause of so many neglected/abused children in the welfare system? Exactly. Q: Who are the local Beagle/Pitbull/Cat rescues surely one of them will take this animal? A: First, please understand that they are *swamped* with animals and requests. As mentioned, 40 shelters x hundreds of animals at each one = overwhelming. However, they dont always see every animal at each of those. Tagging them or mentioning them in comments doesnt work they get tagged and sent so many every day. Send them an email, pick up the phone, etc. yourself. Make sure you have all the information about the animal included (try calling the shelter first). Offer to help pick-up/pull, transport, foster, or defray costs. The animal *might* then have a chance of getting some attention. Q: Why wont the rescues respond to me? A: They are overwhelmed. Remember that anyone can start a rescue, just like anyone can start a business. It doesnt mean that the rescue is run well, and for many, this is done in their spare time on top of their own jobs, pets, and families! Most of the rescues get notified of animals in need all over and all of the time and the volume is staggering. Send them a message with as much information as possible. They dont have time to answer a generic, vague Can you pull a dog from XYZ shelter? Instead say I am Joe Blow and I am interested in ID #A12345 from xyz shelter. Here is the animals link: www.samplelink. I would like to rescue/adopt/pull this dog for my rescue/ myself/ etc. Can I partner with you to do ___. Give them as many specifics and details and show them the plan and you are more likely to get a response. If you are just notifying them of an animal they might be interested in, include any additional information that can help them make a decision, such as if the animal has pledges (and offer to help collect them), any fosters offers etc. Get any fosters offers to go to the rescues website and fill out the application so its ready to go. Offer to drive or foster. Get it done. Dont flake on them. They cant do it without you. Q: Why wont anyone help me rescue a dog and get it to Texas/ New York/ Cambodia? A: This has been addressed in more detail above but succinctly there are too many ways for things to go wrong. Liability, safety of the animal etc. Its doable, but you must be willing to take the time and effort and cover the costs. Q: How much does it cost to rescue/adopt an animal from XYZ shelter? A: Most of the shelters have their adoption fees on their site. They are often (but not always) calculated by amount of time the animal has been there or possibly its size. Fees usually include a first round of shots, spay/neuter, microchip. It usually does not include rabies, heartworm tests, fecal tests, or pain meds post spay/neuter surgery or health certificates required for interstate transport. Q: How can I help? A: There are lots of ways to help. Assess what your time, commitment and availability are. Consistency and dependability are critical. To make the most use of your time to maximize efficiency, there is a spectrum of ways to help - see the How To Help section in this guide. Q: Why are rescues so difficult to adopt from? A: Rescues can only save so many animals. From a sheer logistics constraint, higher volume rescues might save a few hundred per year and smaller ones even fewer. Given the costs, time and effort, space etc. there is only so much they can do. So for every animal that they put the effort into saving, including all the logistics of getting the animal out, healthy (often a protracted, expensive endeavor right there), dealing with behavioral issues, getting them groomed etc. they care very much that each animal is placed in the BEST home for that family and that animal both. If they place a animal and its returned in two months or two years later, they have to start all over and that takes time and money away from animals that are in need. Its up to them to

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make judgment calls on whats the best fit for that animal. If you have a negative experience with a rescue, try another one, but also be patient with their long adoption applications and understand why they have to ask these questions. If you are family of 6 with young kids there are certain animal personalities that will not thrive there. If you are sedentary and live a peaceful, quiet life then certain animal personalities arent a fit there either. The rescues job and everything they do is to make the best placement so the animal is happy and with you FUR-ever. Most good rescues also spend time getting to know their animals so they can assess and help you find the right fur-friend for your family and lifestyle. Q: Why are rescues adoption fees so high? A: The animals usually come FULLY vetted, up to date on shots, fixed, microchipped, and groomed. Youd pay a LOT more to get that all done yourself or heaven forbid from a breeder. You can always go to the shelter and adopt an animal yourself too. They will probably be in need of shots and a grooming but they are no less of making a great pet. In addition the commitment to an adopted pet is forever. If for any reason circumstances change and an adopter is forced to give back the animal, the rescue takes it on for life. Q: What does fostering entail? A: Opening your home temporarily to a rescue animal saves its life. Thats the bottom line. Usually fostering is basically giving the animal a place to stay, bringing it or making it available for adoption events to get seen as well as potential adoption meetings, feeding and keeping up on grooming and medications, and keeping the animal safe until adopted. The rescues will usually provide blankets, beds, food etc. and will be responsible for any medical needs the animal has. FOSTERING SAVES LIVES. Without fosters, most rescues cannot take more animals they want to save. Q: Why cant someone just pull this animal and put in boarding and figure out a plan later? A: This is a hot button topic. Shelters put deadlines to remove animals, and animal rescuers react. Often these animals have been available for a while but the looming deadline creates action often in a panic. It might seem reasonable to pull an animal and put in boarding and then try to formulate a plan, but heres the funny thing about humans: the same desperation that motivated them to spring into action only when the animals life is in imminent danger also dissipates as soon as the animal is (relatively) safe. Its surprising how many of these cases suddenly turn into a silent sea of no one responding, no one caring, no one PAYING THE BILL, and the animal is sitting in boarding (which is no better life for the animal) or worse, abandoned. What happens to those animals? They are often returned right back to the shelter for non-payment. Only do this if there is a plan in place or taking shape and additional time absolutely cannot be gotten from the shelter. Q: Can I use the money people have pledged to adopt an animal? A: There is no rule about this. Contrary to what many people think, it does not require a 501c3 to collect pledges for a rescued animal. Anyone can set up a pledge drive or collection for anything if we want to set one up to buy a new convertible and you donate, thats perfectly legal. What is NOT legal, however, and discussed earlier in this guide, is that those donations are not tax deductible. That is an important point because along with the benefit of taking in donations that donors can write-off in their taxes, a 501c3 doesnt pay taxes and with that comes the responsibility of being transparent so people know what their funds are being used for. Many people donate with the intention of having a write-off. So the short answer is Not usually. Mostly this is so that scammers wont jump in, collect the pledges, then neglect an animal (or worse). Sadly, this does happen. Private adoptions are by private parties. The fees are usually higher than the rescue rates. However, there are some exceptions. Sometimes independent rescuers will rescue an animal and get backing later, or just find a home for an animal themselves. Use your common sense. If you want to designate your pledge will only go to a qualified rescue/rescuer or 501c3 then state that when you pledge. Note that some shelters use the words Adopted to mean Rescued as well. And if a private adopter cant afford the adoption fee, the fear is also to wonder how they will afford vet care if the animal is sick?

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Q: How do I get a Temperament Test (or Temp Test) done on an animal Im interested in fostering/ adopting? A: If you are interested in an animal in a shelter and want to know if it gets along with other animals/ younger children, has any training, or any other behavioral issues, you can at some shelters request a temp test be done. Now, will this get done well? Who knows! Shelters are all run by humans, and wherever humans get involved, things differ. They can differ from shelter to shelter, even shift to shift. A temp test can be as simple as a shelter staff member taking an animal into an area with other animals and observing the animals behavior, to a more sophisticated one where they are scored by a professional. Many shelters will test aggressively, especially for breeds like pitbulls. If you have someone you trust locally, thats always the best way to go to evaluate an animal. HEADS UP! Failed temperament tests: Sometimes even failed temp test animals do great outside the shelter environment. Dont let the RO or aggression label necessarily deter you. Go or get someone you trust to go see the animal in person and also remember that every rescue has stories of animals labeled as aggressive and even designated RO due to aggression that have thrived once they were out of the shelter and stabilized. Many animals are dumped or lost, scared, living on the streets, possibly abused, often hurt, then are caught (often with a pole stick), stuck in a cage, and thrown into a cell often with other strange animals where they can smell the fear and hear the desperate barking and howling. Youd probably be scared too and might lash out at someone trying to examine you, especially if sick. Q: Am I legally obligated to pay my pledge? (or I see this animal now has over $700 in pledges; surely they dont need my money now). A: Were not sure in what circumstances this question would be asked, but apparently a lot of people must at least think it, because there is a hefty percentage of people who refuse to pay their pledges. This is despicable. The worst are those who see or read the message on FB, but ignore it. Then if you try to harass them for paying WHAT THEY PLEDGED (no one held a Phenobarbital needle to your vein), they call you a stalker/ harasser/ report you to FB and still refuse to pay. Lets break it down into what it actually costs a rescue to get an animal out of the shelter and then you decide if you can live with your conscience to stiff them: Pull fee -$0 -110/120 for rescues (higher) for straight adoptions spay/neuter - anywhere from $60-150 depending on the vet (some shelters include in the pull fee) local transport, usually not too bad, let's say $10-20 (but if going further, $85-100 for local drivers) boarding ($10-15/night) while the animal is assessed to make sure it's not carrying communicable diseases like the puppy that died from parvo and exposed several other dogs vetting (exam + shots + whatever medical, hopefully nothing more serious than the usual kennel cough or URIs) varies dental work if needed (anywhere from $60-250) blood panel ($60-200) grooming ($25-80) plus food, tags, harnesses, etc. And that's if they're healthy and don't have major behavioral problems, which many of them do. Many rescues can't adopt out certain breeds for very much; $50 adoption fees, if they're lucky. Even a dummy can see the financial math doesnt add up. It's costly to get animals out and ready for public adoption. This is a responsibility every rescue takes on with EVERY animal pulled. So for them to see an animal, decide if it's a good candidate for their rescue, then make the logistics happen to get an animal out, it requires time & money. If you refuse to pay an amount YOU pledged, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your crotch and your arms be too short to itch!! If you have over-extended yourself (it happens!) then dont avoid the

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pledge collections or rescue. Send them a private message theyre more than understanding. If they are rude to you, then put an * next to your pledge saying that youll pay to any rescue but them [Also keep in mind that often the pledge collectors are online volunteers and dont speak as or for the rescue itself.] Even if an animal has a lot of pledges, many rescues will grab several dogs when they do a shelter run and those often dont have any pledges. And one sick dog that needs to see a vet for anything remotely serious will eat up that contingency immediately. So yes, you pledge, you need to pay. Its the ethical thing to do. Q: I want to foster but the rescue says Im too far. A: Some rescues are very particular about location of their fosters. Others are not as picky. Either way you must be willing to make the animal available for adoption events and meet & greets and some will be more flexible so factor that into your commitment. Harder-to-adopt breeds may remain in foster for up to a few months before finding their forever home so be prepared. Q: Whats the best breed to rescue? A: The FREEDOM breed.

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CHECKLIST FOR NON-LOCAL ADOPTIONS /PULLS/ RESCUES:

Upon identifying an animal you are interested in rescuing/adopting: READ the information in the description and/or comments if being networked will often contain critical information that can save you time, money, and heartache. POST post your interest on the thread and ask for help. Give pertinent information such as your location and state seriousness and request guidance from the locals. PREPARE non-local rescues/adoptions are not easy and not always inexpensive, but theyre doable. Be prepared for questions, questions, and more questions. Answer them patiently while some people may lack social graces in HOW they ask, they are asking for the good of the animal. CALL the shelter. Ask for a kennel supervisor (or someone who has actually seen this animal). Get all the information you can about the animal health/medical, intake information, behavior. Ask if the shelter can perform a temperament test. Find a local rescue that is willing to have the animal transferred TO them so you can adopt from them (this gives the animal a back-up plan in case the adoption does not work out). * If the animal is RO (Rescue Only) you need to find a rescue partner of the shelter in good standing who will be willing to pull the animal and transfer to your local rescue. If you cannot find any local rescue willing, get references lined up. Your vet, any rescue work youve done in the past, landlord (if renting/leasing), take pictures of your yard and where the animal will live, etc. Be proactive if you want people to take you seriously. To pull a animal from a shelter you may need any of the following: Someone to physically go there and get the animal and adopt or PULL from the shelter (note, some shelters require a registered puller to physically visit the facility to adopt/pull and then to return to pick-up the animal post surgery for spay/neuter) Someone to TRANSPORT the animal to a temporary foster home or boarding facility MONEY to pay the pull fee(s), and/or the puller/transporter A PLAN where the animal is going and how it will get there.

HOME CHECK someone to come to your home (or the foster home) and make sure its situated for the safety and concern of both the family & the animal Upon pulling: Verify that you have the right animal, and that the paperwork is in order. Check the ID#, the date, the gender, and what vaccines (if any) the animal has been given. Take a picture! Especially if you are collecting pledges for an animal for a rescue or rescuer, getting that proof that the animal is OTB can help get those pledge collections going immediately. Transportation There are many transport options from private transporters to long-haul truckers and pilots to commercial airlines. To travel, check with the DESTINATION state for required documents which may include any of the following listed below. You will need to arrange a vet visit to acquire these within the specified travel period and to cover those costs (which can widely range): Health certificate (good for 10-30 days depending) Proof of Rabies shot

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Parvo snap test Heartworm test (negative) Microchip/ proof of ownership

Upon meeting the transporter and getting your animal: Bring harness and leash with you to meet the transporter. Animals can slip out of leads or collars (or even harnesses if theyre too big) easily especially if scared. If you have time, get an engraved tag with your cell phone # in case anything happens during transport. Transfer the animal INSIDE one of the cars (best to bring the crate into the car and coax the animal out into the new car). A frightened animal can bolt and being in an unknown area can run in fear and get lost. If that is not possible, open two crates next to each other (doors facing each other) so the animal cannot escape. Bring: Water/ bowl (often the animals have been transported and are thirsty) Harness and leash for safety and to take for a walk to go potty Treats Safe way to transport (crate or seatbelt harness) Rags/towels/wipes animals often soil themselves in the transport or coming from the shelter are often quite stinky. MAKE SURE: Double and triple check that you have the correct animals. Especially if meeting late at night and/or far away bring a printed picture of the animals with you and check indentifying marks and description (and gender!) Youd be surprised how many animals dont look like their intake picture from the shelter or look similar to other animals also on the transport. Its a nightmare fixing that situation where animals are going far. Get your paperwork (and make sure its the right paperwork). This may include outtake papers from the shelter, microchips, vet records, receipts. Check for any medicines that may have come along with the animal from the shelter or vet. Make sure its clear whos paying for transportation and ensure transporter is paid and this is effectively communicated ahead of time. Bringing home your new pet(s)/foster(s): Isolate your new animal from your own pets until the newcomer can be seen by your vet. Be diligent in ensuring you are also not tracking in any illnesses with you (hands, shoes, clothes). Make sure they have a comforting, safe place for them to hang out. Once a vet has seen your animal and given the OK to introduce your new pet into your household, there are lots of good practice instructions out there for how to make peaceful introductions of new pets. Update the microchip information to your contact info. Its always a good idea to leave the originating rescue (if one exists) as a back-up contact in case you move or change phones and forget to update the microchip information, the rescue can ensure your pet stays safe. Post pictures so that folks who helped can know that networking works!

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