absolutely! When I got Daisy from Vigil she`d only been there a week and hadn`t been spayed / chipped etc. so I suppose you could say the donation I made was `profit`. But as we left I looked down the rows of kennels at all those big beautiful German Shepherds waiting for their chance (all dogs - I wanted a bitch) - and if my donation kept them going for a while then I was happy.

So you've seen every rescue's balance sheet have and they all get thousands of pounds in donations?

The vast majority of rescues are not in it to make money - try looking at some of the smaller rescues operating on a shoestring and relying on volunteers for the care of these dogs and then tell them should be looking at their charges. How are they supposed to pay for the next oldie that comes in battered and bruised and needing medical care?

As has been said many rescues will lower the charges for oldies and certainly the one I volunteer for will cover medical expenses wherever possible so before you start slating rescues maybe you should get your facts right.

Wooooahhh! I'm NOT slating any rescues, in my mind they do a fantastic job, I'm a dog lover remember?????? I just think, most of the LARGER RESCUE's should consider lowering their fees to enable an old dog to have a nice warm, comfortable home for the rest of it's life, rather than watch hundreds of people walking past it and deciding on a younger dog! That's my take on it!

I KNOW for a fact people leave legacies, very large legacies at that, to rescue homes. In fact, because we are childless ourselves, they'll all be in for a nice reward when we pop our cloggs! The woman who died leaving my current dog, left her entire house worth over £400K plus everything else to the rescue that took him on, on the promise that he would be found a very good home, which he has, with me!

Whilst we're at it, I was going to rescue again, but having been let down, time and time again on the dogs I wanted, found it near on impossible to speak to anyone who actually knows anything about certain dogs, or one telling me one thing, another person telling me something entirely different about the SAME dog, and then to have to wait for a home check, and then be put off because they're too busy, well, I'm taking the puppy route now as much as I didn't really want to! I now remember why I bought my last puppy 12 years ago too!I'm not going to mention the particular rescues I'm on about because it's not necessary, but quite honestly, I think some of them need shaking up! Yes, all the volunteers are doing a fantastic job, but the idea is, to rehome these dogs in the most suitable environment, get them in a proper home a.s.a.p. and charge the minimal amount they possibly can to do said job, so SOME of them need to get more organised and on the ball imo. If they have thousands and thousands coming in via legacies, PLUS, they are charging fees to cover what is spent on the dog (and as I've said before A LOT of these dogs are already speyed, microchipped, healthy etc. etc.)then the money received should be more than enough to keep them going.

I'm sorry to hear the smaller rescue centres don't get enough funds in, in fact, my own local small rescue is now in the red after spending a fortune on a little miniature horse they rescued, but if they don't have what I want, apart from just giving them a donation now and again what else am I expected to do??? Maybe they should all be merged into one big organisation then, is that the answer???? That way, everyone has to donate to the same charity, rather than a bit here and a bit there coming in for the smaller charities?

Quite honestly, I've had my fill of the ones around here, anyone would think I'm asking for the impossible offering a dog a very good home here, and it gets a bit wearing when you get answers like "oh I don't know what's happened with that dog" then you get somebody else saying it's gone and should have been taken off the website, or totally the wrong information when you get to speak to the fosterer who then tells you some information you really didn't want to hear. Oh it's all so stressful for me anyways, and if only, the little rescue man where I got Georgie from, came up with another suitable dog, then I'd take him in an instant, because I KNOW with HIM, it would be easy peasy, and I can't be a*sed to go through the rigmarole with some of these other concerns, I'm totally fed up with it now, so I'm taking the easy route, as I strongly suspect a lot of other people will! I'm fed up with spending hours,days on the phone, waiting for a reply back, then I e-mail, still wait for a reply, then get one from somebody who knows nothing about any of the dogs I want.... oh it's mind boggling! I don't have the time nor the inclination for it all I'm afraid, when all I have to offer is a perfect, warm, comfortable, caring,loving home, BUT, for the dog I like!!!

As i haven't worked out how to cut and paste quotes, i'll just reply to all at once

I should point out that i found the larger charities as helpful as the smaller ones except The Dogs Trust. The RSPCA for instance (who i have no faith in) most branches were willing to let their oldies go for a small donation or free, but then their adoption fees are cheaper to start with. Battersea Dogs home were also much more realistic and again put the dog's welfare first. Plus the Dogs Home actually state they charge less for an old dog as do the RSPCA probably because they have so many.

I just feel potentially good oldies are overlooked because people are put off by donations. People pay into charities so that animals can be rescued and given the vetinary treatment they need, they shouldn't need such large donations to rehome them. l believe that if someone is happy about the treatment they get from a charity that that chartiy will then benefit as happy customers wll be inclined to help that charity out, i know i would. Also it's not much of a rescue if you have a poor old dog, not eating, sitting shivering in a kennel all winter in a stressed out and confused state, too timid to even move. I know the staff at centres do all they can to help these dogs but we all know that every centre has at least one if not more. and not all of them are lucky enough to be taken home by a member of staff or fostered

I filled in about 8 applications and i only got a reply from 1, which i copied on here and 1 phone call from a much smaller charity who were very helpful but had no dogs suitable. Most other charities i called and discussed individual dogs on their websites.

Also the application forms are too outdated. Most had a tick box for the length of time a dog is left on its own, usually with a box that for "more than 4 hours" If this box is ticked you might as well forget trying to get a rescue. Our dog will be left on his own for up to 5 hours 2 days a week, which makes us unsuitable for a clingy dog but shouldn't for an old one that likes a good sleep in the day although most charities won't consider you if that box is ticked

Glad it's not just me then I know they're all very busy, but they should get their priorities right, which is, to rehome these dogs, so in my view, they should have somebody manning some phones or puters for e-mailing somewhere along the line, so that all enquiries for specific dogs get answered, coz not ALL of the rescues have a kennel to visit like Dog's Trust where you can just go along and see all the dogs. Take that Vigil for instance (gsd rescue), I know they have a kennel in Guildford which is only an hour's drive for me, but I can't for the life of me find an address for it!!! Their website has everything BUT the address or even a contact office number for the kennels to arrange an appointment to just go up there, this is really strange. I won't be phoning the Treasurer either, coz I had a bust up with her 12 years ago when I went out and bought my puppy. It's almost as if they want to keep these dogs to themselves, or at the very least find respective homes in-house or something, by that I mean, somebody who knows of somebody who is looking for, dah de dah! It's all such a closed shop to me, except for places like the Dog's Trust, and they never have anything suitable that fits our needs quite honestly, and that's why I've now given up my hunt for a rescue, just as I did over 12 years ago Such a sad shame, you're much better off trawling through the for sale ads on pet sites to find a suitable rescue if you want to be breed specific, and that shouldn't be the case when we have breed rescue sites, who also charge too much sometimes! I've seen 1yr. old 2 yr. old gsd's for sale on private ads where people have split up or suchlike and want to rehome their beloved pets (genuine or not, they sound very genuine to me!)and some of them ask as low as £50, which would be unheard of in a rescue, and YES, the dog has been well cared for, micro-chipped, neutred or speyed etc. etc. toboot!

ok you really do have a problem with rescues, i'm sorry you've had a bad experience, but please don't tar all rescues with the same brush, most of the smaller ones are manned by volunteers, who also have jobs, families, dogs of their own to sort out, and thats before they start. You want to try getting in from work, cooking tea, seeing to your dogs then picking the messages up, dogs to come in, people wanting dogs, trips to the vets, homechecks to sort, speaking to other volunteers about homechecks done, picking dogs up, sorting the next fundraising event because you need the money because people still see rescue as a cheap option to getting a dog and see fit to leave you a £50 donation for a 1yr old dog that has been vacinated, microchipped, neutered flead and wormed by said rescue, before you condemn us all as people who just want to rehome to people we know or hang on to dogs i suggest you walk a mile in our shoes, and for what its worth i'm not complaining its something i chose to do, because i love dogs and i love my breed and i want to make a diiferenc no matter how small

Well, having checked their website, it clearly states they are volunteers that dont get paid!
quite possibly, the kennels they use are a private boarding kennel whose staff are paid to work for them and not the rescue, so dont the rescue putting the address on the site hence having to contact a vigil volunteer first?
just a thouhgt
you have also said you wont contact this rescues' Treasurer either, as you have personal differences.
so that's more to do with the problem, surely?

BTW - i just googled and found an address

If donations were entirely optional rescues would not survive. Fact of life.

Have you considered volunteering?