i believe animal rescue can be summed up in a nutshell....animal rescue is a responsibility.
it is not really about moving animals from the frying pan into the fire. it is not about "saving" them and then selling them to the first person with cash. it is not about trying your hardest but not knowing enough to do it well....rescue is not "it is the thought that counts"...it is the ultimate, well thought out, cover all the bases, make sure they are happy and safe FOREVER, rescue plan.....
in short, real rescue is about responsibility and accountability to the animals themselves.
you can get away with the the kind of things the video questions if you do not promote yourself as "rescue"...there are no laws against brokering...but from a moral stand point, it must be clear that the sale of dogs to dog seeking homes IS the primary mandate.
otherwise the questions of misrepresentation arise and i do believe there may be laws around that.
this is why, every single time we come under fire from someone with an ax to grind....i extend an open invitation to everyone in sight. no one could ever accuse us (and be right) of NOT medically caring for our animals...we have the vet and medical records to prove the care we provided....no one could accuse us of collecting and hoarding because we have the documentation to prove that some of our not so adoptable animals actually do find homes, no one can really ever accuse us of not euthanizing when the animal begins the dying process...we euthanize when the vets tell us, it now is time to let them go...and we have the records to prove that as well. no one can accuse us of making a living off the saints animals back..i have my own paying job and i pay the mortgage that provides saints animals a home. i pay for the gas that gets them to and from the pounds and here and i pay the gas and repair bills that takes them to vets and brings in the supplies to here and when saints has no money..i pay for many other neccessity things for the animals as well....and i pay for this as my responsibility for taking on the responsibilty for animals rescued by us and i have the banking records to prove that as well.
we have no closed doors here...there is not a single square inch on this property that visitors or volunteers are not able to go.
we have no hidden shelter, we have no off limits space...we have no place anywhere that is closed to public or private scrutiny..it is all open for all to see. we don't have blogs that you cannot respond to, we do not have closed yahoo groups to discuss things we don't want you to hear, we don't have message boards locked against intruders, we don't have hidden facebooks that people can't join.
when i write a blog on here...you can rest assure that what i just told you was probably also witnessed by someoine else (unless it is late at night, when i am alone in the house.) in any case, i always try to be honest, i tell you when i think i just fucked up, i tell you when i think i could have done something different that would have been better in retrospect.
part of being responsible in rescue is providing open accountability and open transparency in everything that we do. and we do this INTENTIONALLY to not only to protect ourselves from misunderstandings, and misrepresentation, but to ensure that you get to see...the real thing.
if interested in animal rescue, who wants to read a bunch of not really real fantasy?
rescue is simply one very large burden of responsiblity....to the animals, to the staff, to the volunteers, to the visitors, to the supportors, to the donors, to our compatriots in other shelters and rescues, to the communities we serve.
the only thing i can really say about that video is....i did not see a lot of responsibility in any of these areas demonstarted there.
you CANNOT hide shit in rescue...the second you start hiding is the second you know you just did something wrong...hiding becomes a bad habit..it gets easier and easier as the days flow along.
you cannot hide from responsibility...at least not for very long cuz sure as shit someone is going to find you and then you will be wishing you never started using and abusing the word "rescue" as well.
this kind of video is going to cause many unhappy ripples in the pond.
yikes...that is not ever going to happen..our accountants already charge us a couple of grand a quarter. they will charge even more than that for keeping the actual ledger pages current and updated on the website. and i ain't doing it...one... i wouldn't have a clue how to and 2... i already have 2 fulltime jobs...don't need another one added, esp. one that involves paper crap which i happen to despise anyway.
no one really cares how many cases of bleach we buy in the year as long as the place is kept nice and clean...having it listed with all of the other cleaning supplies is accurate enough for me.
and who cares if jewel's vet costs were 2222.34 and felix was 986.32 and someone else was 357.22 over the year (i am just making these numbers up as an example..i am at work on a break)...it is the 60k total for everyone that we needed to pay....who cares what each animal cost and what portion was surgical, diagnostic, medication, medical diet or de-worming/flea control? it is all medically needed care.
careful what you ask for especially if someone else has to pay the costs and do all the work..be fair...the on line stuff is fine to get an idea for most folks...the nitty gritty, every single detail ledger stuff is for when the auditors visit to make sure we do and did what we said.