Good post. Small correction.

DT figures record an average 50,000 unclaimed strays per year (which obviously doesn't include direct surrenders), iirc.

Yes and yes.

Sorry that's the number PTS, you are right John, got carried away in the heat of the post

Actually, people who love animals don`t necessarily like people Which is not to say that she shouldn`t have told you they wouldn`t see you on the phone. I`ve only had the `job` of rehoming a dog once and I kept her because of the stream of unsuitable peope who came along, so I can see why they might get a bit...tetchy!
The purpose of a `real` rescue is to ensure the welfare of the dog, and sometimes good PR gets lost.

i thought that too... they seem to be great with animals, not so fantastic with people :P

haha!

Oh right, cool, thanks for the info.

The one we went to was kinda weird, they dont do any home checks... they just asked us to take in two utility bills and a photo of the garden. but surely you could take in a pic of anyones garden? seems a bit odd if you ask me. it only took us 10 mins to sign all the forms and take her!

I think with the bigger charitys who have lots of money maybe not but the rescues I foster for have certainly do. ESSW have 2 old girls and they have offered to pay for their medication for life and my local small rescue does help out with older dogs often waivering the donation fee.

IMO it dosnt matter what the figure is for adopting a dog, most people want younger dogs I agree, but there are MANY that prefer older dogs, if the right dog is going to the right home then the charge IS appropriate because the people ARE getting the preferred choice of dog, if someone dosnt want an older dog then reducing the price of one IS NOT going to change their minds into having one, where I work we dont do home checks, we have approx 30 dogs A DAY coming in via strays or people just surrendering their dogs for rehoming, the strays HAVE to stay a full 7 days before the can be rehomed to give owners a chance to come a collect, the dogs given up for adoption can go up for adoption straight away. many of the rescue that do EMPLOY staff pay minimum or slightly above minimum wage, shelters such as DT do have vast sums in their coffers, because of the publicity they get, other homes do not have the luxury of of having such amounts of money in their coffers and NEED to charge set figures for dogs, many will give lee way on older dogs prices, but this is normally based on the individual dog and the family, if someone phones into our home to see if we do "cheaper" dogs we tell them the set charges, cheap dogs do not always end up being a "cheap " option because they may have medical problems, if they cannot pay the charge how are they going to pay for the medical bills? rescues have a hard enough time, working all year round trying to raise funds (I know this because its my job) putting doubt into peoples minds and making out that we are all in it for the money is not fair. we WANT dogs to go out to good homes, we DONT want to hold onto dogs for more than required, we KNOW dogs do not fair well in kennels, we have the dogs BEST interest in mind. does anyone really know the cost that are incurred running a large facility, the maintenance of the building/kennels, the fuel bills, food bills, medical bill, the running of vehicles, bedding, cleaning materials, insurances, training, courses for staff, stationary especially when doing a fund raising drive, advertising (we dont get it cheap because we are a rescue) accountants, staff wages, the list goes on, this all has to be paid for somehow, do rescues a favour dont make them out to be the bad guys, if it wasnt for them the dogs wandering the streets would probaly end up dead in a road accident, the dogs not taken in by them to rehome would probably end up on the streets homeless, and the old dogs would not have chance of having a good warm home to live out there lives.

Mo

Exactly.

In addition a prudent rescue will try to maintain financial reserves sufficient to cover running costs for 6 - 12 months in the event of an unforeseen cessation of income. This is often not considered when people peruse the public accounts.

Sorry but I feel if people think an older dog is not worth as much as a younger one, maybe they are not the right home for the dog in the first place, would they also feel that as it was an older dog it wasn’t worth the vets fees either?


So at first it was the vast majority of rescues will not give a reduced rate – yet one of the ones you did approach did reduce the rate.


So what your saying is if you donate say to the main RSPCA (none of which goes to the local branches) you should be entitled to a cut rate dog? How many charities are paid into like that? Certainly not the smaller run rescues – they rely on the donations, OK some have sponsor dogs that you can pay towards but that hardly covers the keep of that dog let alone the next one to come in possibly with medical problems.

Also yes some rescues do have kennels and have very little choice about keeping dogs in there – what would you rather, they rehome to an unsuitable home who will not be able to afford to keep an older dog or have them pts? Many rescues have foster homes just for those sort of dogs so do we really all know that every rescue has them being kept like that? Well I know of a few who do not!

Surely it is better to call and actually talk about the dogs themselves than fill out a form or fill out the form and then contact them when its convenient for them? That way you can discuss individual circumstances like wanting a cheaper dog because its old or the fact that you would only be working those hours.

Again as many have said the donation is not to pay for the dog you are taking home its to help more of these poor dogs off the streets or under threat of PTS and into homes. Most are run by and staffed by volunteers – maybe you could do some volunteer work for the charities you approve of to see what its really like at the pointy end (pun slightly intended_.


Why is one dogs life less worth than another? AS you’ve already stated yourself a lot of rescues do do this – you just have to speak to them.

Put it another way, these old wonky dogs have probably cost the rescues far more than a younger dog – so should they actually charge more for them to cover their costs? Of course not but they do have to pay for what can be thousands of pounds of medical expenses so if someone is willing to pay the full donation (something I would always do) then why shouldn’t they take that money. AS I said if someone wants a dog because its cheaper than the one in the next kennel – forget it as I don’t see taking a dog on as am I getting value for my money.



Would they? Really? Because from what Ive seen, and Ive been searching for an oldie for my parents, the vast majority of rescues Ive spoken to will reduce the cost and some will even cover the cost of medication, so just how are they trying to keep hold of these dogs? If they give these dogs away how do they care for the next one to come in, how do they cover the costs of heating, feeding them etc? They would have to then put up the cost of adopting all the other dogs which going by what you say would put people off.