or 2 decades I have been an active animal advocate. Sometimes when life changed I was less active than other times for I have always spent time advocating, volunteering and rescuing animals. Often in my Summers I would travel to areas of animal different types of animal sanctuaries from exotic animals to domestic animals. Not only did this type of work help the animals but it helped me also. You see; I am a sexual assault and child abuse survivor. These tramatic experiences left me with depression, anxiety and ptsd. By helping others who could not help themselves and being a voice for the animals I was able to get our of my own head.
After many years of volunteering at animal sanctuaries, shelters, rescues all over the country I was able to see some truly excellent examples and some truly horrific places. After learning everything I could from these places from administrative reporting, management, animal care, animal training, recruiting volunteers, managing volunteers, health and wellness, animal nutrition, purchasing, and the list goes on I decided to share what I learned at some shelters in my home state that I had previously volunteered for. Many were great experiences that were open to new ideas and ways of getting closer to no kill status or at least lowering euthanasia but even more were horrible experiences who continued to say they wanted to work towards no kill and better care but never wanted to put in the leg work to achieve those goals. Every idea of suggestion was taken with offense and hostility.
This is when I decided I would love to open a no kill rescue of my own.
1. Pick Your Site Carefully
The first step was property. Where was I going to house this rescue that had enough room for growth to have cage free living environment in which I could house dogs indoors while still have plenty of room for exercise and training? I worked and worked and bought a house with land and worked to ready the property for this dream. We purchased a place with existing barns and shop buildings that could be easily converted to kennels and indoor living areas for the dogs. We made sure the location was properly fenced in to prevent dogs from escaping. We had electricity and water to the location to make caring for the animals easier. However as often happens and due to personal circumstances the dream had to be put on hold. Soon I moved back to the community I went to high school in and even though I continued volunteering and privately rescuing I was unable to pick up where I had left off until my cousin and lifelong friend stepped up to join the dream!
Again, we began preparing the property for the animals. We had 80 acres to work with in which we have a 10 acre tract fenced off for cage free living. This area will be free roam for the dogs during the day.. We will place a building on the 10 acre tract that will allow the dogs to have an indoor location to live and train. We have begun putting hiking trails in the land to allow off leash and on leash trails to train leash work and recall on as well as allowing free roaming exercise and play. The remaining property will allow supervised off leash and on leash play and training as well as a tank for water play and hopefully eventually have community days where we allow people to come out with their vaccinated and socialized pets to come for exercise and play.
2. Know What You Are Comfortable With
We are a rescue/sanctuary where animals come to live out their lives or live until they are adopted. We knew that learning to say farewell to animals and simultaneously trusting people to take proper care of them would be very challenging for us, so in the case of animals that have behavior issues due to neglect or abuse that never completely clear up and we don't trust others to have patience to deal with or handle those animals will be allowed to live their lives out with us and if they are easily rehabilitated with no behavior issues and just need proper house training, basic obedience and socialization to make them more adoptable will live until we are able to find proper forever homes for them.
3. Start Small and Learn to Say No
We have children, companion animals and jobs. We have learned that if we acquire too many animals, it is impossible to manage everything well, and it quickly makes life stressful and unfulfilling. We have also learned that in order to provide the best quality care for the animals we rescue we must maintain a managable number that we can financially support. So we try hard not to bite off more than we can chew. For now, we provide the daily animal care ourselves and with the generous donations of the community who stand for the animals. We handle vaccinating and home remedies for health and wellness care when appropriate and we turn to a professional vet for situations above our ability. We have 1 former bait dog who will probably remain with us for the remainder of her life as she does not trust humans easily. We have 1 deaf dog we are in the process of teaching sign language to. We have 2 severely abused dogs who are in the process of touch therapy and socialization to help them overcome their abuse. Then we 12 remaining dogs who just need groceries, basic obedience, house manners and some TLC. This number while large is manageable..
One of the most difficult aspects of having a rescue/sanctuary is having to say no to people looking to place animals. It is important to recognize when you will be stretched beyond your means, whether it’s having the time and skills to provide good quality care or the actual space to house an animal. It’s also vital to know when you have a good balance in terms of the animals’ social lives. IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT GIVING THEM SHELTER AND FOOD, but also about making sure they have a home and are happy. This is where many rescues begin to fail. They can't say no and try to save them all. While yes it is upsetting to know if you don't take an animal it may be euthanized at a kill shelter what good are you doing for that animal if you are not able to provide quality care and a quality life for them? Introducing new animals can go smoothly, but it takes time and patience. Consider how adding new animals to a pack will affect the new individuals and those who you already have.
Cage free living can often take more time and effort as well as patience. Not all rescues/sanctuaries provide cage free living for the animals in their care. Many rescues still house in kennels and crates or outdoor pens and while this may be fine for other rescues it is not ok for us.. We believe that dogs are pack animals and need plenty of space to roam and play in order to be stress free and happy.
When thinking about rescue/sanctuaries keep these things in mind. Understand that not everyone works the same as you might want to and keep in mind what it will take to provide the type of quality life you want to provide. Be careful of the pitfalls that many rescues/sanctuaries fall into causing them to feed the cheapest non quality foods, provide minimal health care, skimp on space when housing dogs and providing little to no time or space for exercise and play Remember these are many of the same issues many advocates complain about when criticizing kill shelters and falling into the same things will not keep you happy and satisfied nor will it allow you to provide the type of quality life you want for the animals in your care.
Also, for those of you who do not run a rescue/sanctuary remember when you reach out to rescues/sanctuaries to take animals and they have to say no that they would LOVE to be able to take them all and save them all but as any smart business person knows; sometimes you have to say no in order to maintain a quality level for those in your care. Be kind to them and do not judge or badger them when they say no. They know from a business stand point what they can do, what is needed and what will be too much and begin to effect the quality of rescue/sanctuary life they can provide.
#theysitforyouwillyoustandforthem
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