Aimee
Boxer Insane
Re: Picking and choosing
I see your point as well but I can see how they would perceive it as picking and choosing. It's not because they are choosing a specific breed, it's because they choose which dogs of that breed to take. Not all breed specific rescues take all pure bred dogs out of the shelter. Be it they are too full or they don't find them to fit their criteria, or for lack of funding, or for whatever reason. Volunteering for rescue I see this. Not every time there is a boxer in the shelter does the closest rescue go running to get that one or any other breed for that matter. They all have the same goal yes, but rescues have what some would consider the luxury of choosing when and which dogs to take, they aren't just dropped off at our doors and we HAVE to take them. Now what I can say is that most rescues go out of their way to try and save as many as they can and it's no small feat! Many of the larger organizations have great relationships with their local shelters and I commend them. I just get tired of the shelters always getting blamed for the dogs being put down when it's society's problem in general, not the shelters or rescues.
I've decided to come back and add to this as I realize that I seem to be taking more of the shelters side rather than rescues. Which of course is not the intention or I am only slamming myself for the work that I do
I am trying to prove points on both ends which I'm obviously doing a poor job at 
I know why rescues pick and choose and the only reason they do is because when they run out of space they simply cannot take another dog in. We don't get state funding and are solely funded on donations. Rescues can only do so much in that regard so when I say that the shelters think we have a luxury--yes it seems that we do but not really. If we could, we would save them all, we simply just cannot. But I have learned to understand their side so that I myself can build better relationships with the shelters in order to save more dogs. I am not a strong enough person to work in a shelter and euthanize dogs needlessly because of the lack of responsible ownership in the world and I commend them for taking on that responsibility. So what I am saying I guess is that they have a purpose that needs to be respected as does rescue and IMHO more rescues need to try and build better relationships with the shelters. The shelters have alot of work to do that shouldn't consist of calling around to rescues to pick up dogs. Rescues should have volunteers combing the shelters for these dogs to lighten the load on the shelter workers.
And I'm one of them who works 2 jobs and does an array of different things for 3 different rescues as well as belong to a transport list. I do it for the love of animals as well but there are things that are still out of my control and it's best to be logical about those things than to drive myself insane over them.
I sat down with the Director of a local shelter here which is why I am now far more understanding of their point of view. She is a wonderful woman who has the dogs best intentions at heart. They are very rescue friendly because we have the same goals BUT with that said, she was very frank that she doesn't work with all rescues. It's a relationship that has to be built over time. She personally has been burned by rescues before and is not about to make the same mistakes again. Rescues and shelters should all work together in my opinion as well, it's just that I can see why it doesn't always happen that way.
I see your point as well but I can see how they would perceive it as picking and choosing. It's not because they are choosing a specific breed, it's because they choose which dogs of that breed to take. Not all breed specific rescues take all pure bred dogs out of the shelter. Be it they are too full or they don't find them to fit their criteria, or for lack of funding, or for whatever reason. Volunteering for rescue I see this. Not every time there is a boxer in the shelter does the closest rescue go running to get that one or any other breed for that matter. They all have the same goal yes, but rescues have what some would consider the luxury of choosing when and which dogs to take, they aren't just dropped off at our doors and we HAVE to take them. Now what I can say is that most rescues go out of their way to try and save as many as they can and it's no small feat! Many of the larger organizations have great relationships with their local shelters and I commend them. I just get tired of the shelters always getting blamed for the dogs being put down when it's society's problem in general, not the shelters or rescues.
I've decided to come back and add to this as I realize that I seem to be taking more of the shelters side rather than rescues. Which of course is not the intention or I am only slamming myself for the work that I do
I am trying to prove points on both ends which I'm obviously doing a poor job at I know why rescues pick and choose and the only reason they do is because when they run out of space they simply cannot take another dog in. We don't get state funding and are solely funded on donations. Rescues can only do so much in that regard so when I say that the shelters think we have a luxury--yes it seems that we do but not really. If we could, we would save them all, we simply just cannot. But I have learned to understand their side so that I myself can build better relationships with the shelters in order to save more dogs. I am not a strong enough person to work in a shelter and euthanize dogs needlessly because of the lack of responsible ownership in the world and I commend them for taking on that responsibility. So what I am saying I guess is that they have a purpose that needs to be respected as does rescue and IMHO more rescues need to try and build better relationships with the shelters. The shelters have alot of work to do that shouldn't consist of calling around to rescues to pick up dogs. Rescues should have volunteers combing the shelters for these dogs to lighten the load on the shelter workers. And I'm one of them who works 2 jobs and does an array of different things for 3 different rescues as well as belong to a transport list. I do it for the love of animals as well but there are things that are still out of my control and it's best to be logical about those things than to drive myself insane over them.
I sat down with the Director of a local shelter here which is why I am now far more understanding of their point of view. She is a wonderful woman who has the dogs best intentions at heart. They are very rescue friendly because we have the same goals BUT with that said, she was very frank that she doesn't work with all rescues. It's a relationship that has to be built over time. She personally has been burned by rescues before and is not about to make the same mistakes again. Rescues and shelters should all work together in my opinion as well, it's just that I can see why it doesn't always happen that way.
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