Animal Rescue

What is animal rescue? Let me first say what is not animal rescue.  Animal rescue is not bringing in a stray, or taking an animal from another person because they are no longer willing or able to take care of that animal.  Animal rescue is generally “rescuing” a stray or an owner surrender that has made it into one of the animal shelters or an animal that has been surrendered to a rescue group. 

Although the term “shelter” is a misnomer, in fact most places that are called “shelters” are actually a death sentence for the fast majority of animals that end up there.  The nationwide average is 60 – 80 percent of animals that end up in a “shelter” are euthanized. Shelters are run by receiving very limited public funds and sometime private donations.  There are very limited resources for these places and some of the directors of these places have been quoted saying things like “We are just not equipped to care for these animals, we are equipped to kill them.” Or “It only cost us $2.00 to kill them, why would we spend money to save them.” 

Across the nation there are thousands of “rescue groups”.  Rescue groups are for the generally made-up mostly or entirely of volunteers.  Rescue groups establish relationships with shelters and to “rescue” animals they think they can place into volunteer foster homes, list on the Internet, take to adoption events, and try to place them in appropriate homes. 

Still with tens of thousands of volunteers in rescue groups and people in shelters trying to save as many animals as possible millions of our domestic companion animals are killed every year.