Can we talk? Here goes my unpopular opinion: Animal rescues are fertile territory for scammers and hoarders. A few weeks back, a person and her dog whom I knew from Twitter made local news for the dozens of special-needs dogs she was hoarding in horrific conditions and using to gain social media clout and money via her "rescue." As the owner of a special needs dog myself, many people sent me links to the woman's videos of Clyde, her wobbly husky, who has (like my Little Chevy dog) a neurological condition. Those videos, promptly picked up by the Dodo and other large accounts, made her famous. She parlayed that into one of those famous "raising awareness" careers, which soon fulfilled whatever was missing in her life so fully that she began bringing home more and more unfortunate dogs with mobility issues - wheelie dogs. Soon her small home on the east side of the Phoenix metropolitan area was filled with these dogs - dogs in crates, dogs in their own feces, dogs in misery, dead dogs in her freezer - all while her "rescue" pages were filled with lies about them being adopted, and while her stroke-ridden elderly mother slept on a couch in air so filthy hazmat suits were donned by responders. The people who kept sending these dogs (and money) to the woman were ... other rescues. They bought into her excuses as to why they weren't allowed in the home to see her dogs and the conditions they were in. There's no excuse for any of this.
This week, another rescue made the news. A horse rescue also on the east side of the valley is seeking more donations, but there's a twist. The woman who founded and ran this ill-fated rescue died recently, and she left the entire set-up to another woman, who is now having to deal with the utter mess. When she inherited the property, it included sixty (SIXTY!) horses on a ... get this ... 2.5 acre property. SIXTY horses on a two and a half acre property. People have been funding this debacle for years. There's simply no excuse for this. It's no more humane to rescue an aging, crippled, neglected horse from slaughter only to send them to a cramped, manure-filled, run-down postage-stamp of a stable than it is to euthanize it. The stalls are bent, mismatched, damaged pipe tied together - literally - with baling twine. How can a horse run, or so much as trot around, when packed together as tightly as a trailer full of beef cattle on their way to market? How can they get any of the care they need?
The heiress of this shambolic "rescue" is, to her credit, openly addressing the issues. She's acknowledged that the deceased owner was hoarding horses, and that two dozen horses need immediate placement, and that the entire "facility" needs immediate repair and a makeover. The city where this mess resides is working with her (to their credit) as she tries to resolve the issues, but there's the threat of dozens of code citations hanging over her head. She has spent $13,000 in veterinary bills in the past five weeks since taking over. Gee, thanks for remembering me in your will, lady. I can't imagine the stress and worry she will contend with as she makes some very difficult-but-necessary decisions on behalf of the animals on the property. On the rescue website (which predates the new owner), numerous horses are listed as "not available for adoption" because they are either A) "sponsored", B) "in training", or C) "rescue ambassador." Sixty horses, but no one is allowed to adopt most of them because the owner had opted to remove that option.
I don't think the majority of people get into the "rescue" business because they intend to scam or hoard. They start out with genuine compassion, in most cases. I think they, like Munchausen by Proxy parents, happen upon the attention it generates for them initially and thrive on it. They become addicted to it. They stand in front of cameras wailing about the cruelty perpetrated upon a certain animal, and the attention - and money - flows their way. Too often they're middle-aged blue-eyed women who are missing the attention they once had when young - let's face it, middle-aged femaleness is a time when most of lose the attention and influence we once enjoyed - and they use their "rescues" as a means of exerting control over their on self-image. They feel needed, they feel useful, and they have the fringe benefits of having someone else fund their horse ownership.
Yes, this is harsh, and admittedly so. I'm not, obviously, talking about everyone in the rescue business, and in no way do I want to diminish the efforts of those who run good, practical, sensible, humane rescues. There are many such good people and reliable rescues and I've known several absolute saints in the business. But again and again I see the Munchausen by Rescue profile pop up - and every damned time, the animals suffer as much, or more, than they did in their original neglectful conditions. Worse, the second-time-around for these second-chance animals is exploited for the material and emotional needs of humans who, themselves, need rescue of sorts.
For every one of these Munchausen by Rescue owners, there are dozens if not hundreds of kindhearted "useful idiots" enabling them. These are the people bringing animals to them; volunteering to clean the stalls; donating dollars; training the horses; donating items for the big annual fundraising party; running the social media accounts, or amplifying the bandwidth of them; or otherwise allowing themselves to be exploited for the benefit of animal exploitation. And they're good people, and they're being taken advantage of.
So how do we determine if a rescue is legitimate? How do we avoid being used, manipulated, and exploited? How do we know if our dollars are helping a legitimate cause? How do we know, most of all, that the animals are being provided safe, compassionate, and reasonable shelter and care?
First, SEE the facility. Look at their social media pages and website. Tour the facility. So what if they don't want to let you, because (pick an excuse)? There are humane societies and shelters just about everywhere. It's not hard to find one that will let you see the conditions the animals are kept in. Heck, it's impossible to avoid getting those nice address stickers from a lot of them.
Second, do some background on the owners. The gal who was reaping a living off her exploitation of special needs dogs was using many, many different names. Why? You don't need to dox someone, or publicly shame them - just do a little basic web sleuthing and find out what you can, and make an informed decision. You can check to see how much litigation a person has been involved in on some county sites. If everyone is suing a particular rescue owner, or they've been arrested dozens of times for fraud schemes, can you trust your donations of time or money are going to the intended purpose?
Third, ask about local reputation. Does the "rescue" pay its bills? Do the horseshoers donate their time? How long have they been shoeing for the rescue? Does the hay broker on the corner have a long list of unpaid deliveries? One "rescue" I knew of had the kindest old hay seller deliver and stack hundreds of dollars of feed, only to go unpaid. If the rescue isn't kind to the people who serve them, are they kind to the voiceless animals? Another "rescue" I knew was owned by a man who cursed out the employees of a local business in front of me because the line was too long at checkout. He humiliated them, yelled profanities, obstructed business, and then drove away in his "horse sanctuary" truck. No way in hell I'd donate money to a rescue where the owner treats other human beings that way.
Fourth, are the owners making a living off the rescue? Are they driving a shiny new truck with the rescue name and logo emblazoned on the side - as their own personal vehicle? Are they paying themselves a salary from donations? Because if they are, they aren't volunteers, they're staff and / or business owners. And if they're staff, are they paying the stall cleaners and horse trainers and people who come groom the animals? Or are THOSE people expected to work for free?
Fifth, HOW BIG IS THE FACILITY? If it's a horse rescue and it's on less than five acres, reconsider your donations. Horses are large animals and they need room to move around. If they're locked into tiny stalls with tarps for shade and have no turnout space, move on. Do not enable the people who bring horses home from auction only to live in soul-stifling mind-numbing warehouse conditions.
Sixth, how controlling is the owner? Look at the "adoption" application. Are they asking for thousands of dollars to adopt a horse? Are they mandating that you feed what they tell you to, or that - if you must re-home the horse - that you have to bring it back to them? Are they denying adoption to people based on overly-restrictive criteria? Are they denying adoption of many of the animals because the animal is "sponsored," or "in training," or "an ambassador" for the rescue? If it's a rescue, and not a sanctuary where animals are intentionally kept for the duration of their natural lives, they should be adopting out animals. Not selling them for thousands; not denying them to owners; not keeping them as ambassadors - but finding them good, loving homes. And once the animal goes to the home, that owner - if they're a loving owner - should have the right to make decisions for the animal from that point forward.
Many years ago, I would donate money regularly to a certain small animal rescue near my home at the time. I toured the facility; I met the owner; I followed their efforts in the news and through their newsletter. I stopped my support the day I found out they denied adopting animals out to senior citizens. Why? Because the adoptive owner might die. Well, none of us come with warranties or expiration dates. How awful to deny an elderly man the joy of a companion animal because he's elderly. How horrible to keep animals in CAGES at a shelter because they wouldn't let an elderly person take those animals home. At the time, 43,000 dogs and cats were being euthanized annually at the county pound, yet ... they denied adoption to a person based on age. Hideous.
Another rescue - a horse rescue - I was familiar with was wrapped up in litigation over ownership of one of the rescue's horses. The money spent on lawyers could have done so much for more animal care, but nah. Two of the people involved with control of the rescue were vying for the ownership of one horse. They were too interested in fighting for control of the animal rather than in seeing the stall open up to potentially care for another horse. Hey, if you own a rescue and someone is willing to take and provide care for one of the horses - absent allegations / suspicion of cruelty - let the animal go! If the rescue owner is that committed to keeping an animal, aren't you really just funding their private animal ownership?
Seventh, HOW MANY ANIMALS ARE ON SITE? Are animals actually being moved out to homes? Are there documents to show records of adoption, deaths, veterinary care, and so on? There were so many red flags involved in the case of the woman running the special-needs dog rescue, it's absurd she wasn't found out. Posting "adopted!" on the animal's profile on her website was apparently a euphemism for "dead and in the freezer" or "living in a tiny cage on a stack of other cages in my storage room."
Eighth, how is your donated money being used? How transparent is the rescue, and can you see their financial statements? Are you funding a new truck for the rescue chairman to drive as his POV? Is the rescue sending unsolicited "gifts" to try to recruit donors? (It's okay if they do - but is that how you want your money spent?) Are you paying for salaries of staffers? (Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing - but shouldn't you know?)
Ninth, are animals who've suffered great cruelty being kept alive for the sake of news broadcasts that lead to more donations, when the compassionate thing to do would be to euthanize them? Is it kinder to keep an animal alive in great pain while healthy, adoptable animals are being euthanized? I can't really answer this one; I just encourage donors to think about it. Certainly animals have a survival instinct and the fact they have pain doesn't mean they should be put down. Giving an animal a chance at a joyful life after they've suffered is an honorable and kind thing. But there are sometimes animals displayed on news / social media that are truly suffering - but they're worth their weight in gold to the rescue / shelter. Those sad faces of horribly abused animals on the mailers sent to potential donors are cruelty porn. I quit donating to any facility that engages in cruelty porn. I don't need to see photos of abused animals to know that abuse exists. I'm not judging you for choosing to donate every time you see a story of a grossly abused animal; that's compassionate. I'm not saying I'm right here. I'm just encouraging you to think about whether it's kind or fair to keep a suffering animal alive to exploit the public's compassion for sure-fire donations.
Tenth, is the rescue a registered non-profit? And if they claim to be, have you checked it out to be sure? Being registered as such offers certain compliance requirements - and it also allows you to write off your donations. If they claim non-profit status, and they are NOT a registered non-profit, realize you are not accurately claiming your deduction - and the IRS doesn't like that.
In summation ... I think it's amazing and wonderful that people want to donate to help the animals. None of this is intended to discourage you from doing so - or to discourage you from wanting to run your own animal rescue. I'm just encouraging you to make informed decisions and, if you're a rescuer, to make ethical ones. If you're an animal hoarder, contact your local humane society and seek their help. There's no shame in realizing you have an issue and in addressing it. If, however, you're hoarding animals because you make a lot of money in donated funds - well, rot in hell.
A final point: A lot of times I hear people say, "Someone abused this animal and people just suck. People are awful. I hate the world!" Think about this: Let's say you've just read an article about a person abusing an animal in a horrifying way, and the animal is rescued by the local humane society. There was, indeed, a horrible human being who did the abuse - but look at the dozens, hundreds, even thousands of people involved in rescuing the animal. The person who made the initial call; the law enforcement officers responding; the humane society who sent out a team to pick up the animal/s; the veterinarians at the shelter; the volunteers who care for the animal as it recovers; the thousands of people who - like you - saw the article and are horrified and want to help with their donations of time or money - all these people grossly outnumber the sick twist who abused the animal. There are more caring people than there are abusive people. Go walk the aisles at Petsmart and look at the everyday people buying toys and treats and silly sweaters for their animals. Look at the people in the lobby of your local veterinary clinic, getting the best of care for their beloved companion - or sobbing as they say goodbye in the most compassionate possible way. There are more caring people than there are abusive people. And this is certainly true of animal rescuers. But informed is forewarned; help keep the rescues honest and compassionate by making your own informed decisions.
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