Sunday, November 3, 2013

If you think you can do it better then why don't you....


If you think you can do a better job than any rescue group, then go ahead and try it yourself!!!

This is what you have to do....

Get all of those people who claim to be your "friends" and are in agreement with every word you say right now and create your own rescue group. Try to find ready and willing people (other then them) to foster and volunteer to help you on an every day basis...even a weekly basis....a monthly basis or even at all when you need it.

Try to raise funds enough to help ALL of the basset hounds you find in your local area (shelters, craigslist, other groups, etc.). Try to raise funds to transport dogs from all over the country to find good homes as well.

Try to raise the funds to get all of those dogs that you've rescued the vet care that they need and make the decisions on what treatments they can live without, because you don't really have the funds to pay for everything that is needed. Try to make those hard decisions on what is BEST for those dogs that you have rescued, but with whatever funds you have to work with since no vet will give you a break on cost.

Then try to gain a reputation, so that people will donate to your group on a regular basis and come to you to adopt whatever bassets you were able to get from wherever you found them. Try to explain to those people that the dogs you've rescued are just "badly bred" and just because they don't quite look like a basset hound they are still good dogs. Try to explain that those dogs come from terrible places and may have behavioral issues and need love and patience to be the dog they want them to be. Then try to explain to those same potential adopters that a 13 year old dog (none the less any dog over 7) is still an amazing dog, a good companion and there's nothing wrong with them other then they are not a puppy. Then try to make sure that ALL the potential adopters that you have selected are going to give those dogs you rescued a good home with the little information that you can get about said adopters.

And oh yeah, did I mention that all of this work that you're putting into the rescue has to be done in your spare time. You don't get paid for spending endless hours on the phone, writing emails and killing yourself to make everything happen. It is ALL totally volunteer. This doesn't include the sleepless nights that you have because you can't get the horrific stories of abused dogs and all of the issues of the rescue out of your head.

Now, remember those people you thought were your "friends"? You have to justify to them, the people who volunteer for your rescue (and of other rescues) and those who have supported your rescue that all of the decisions you've had to make are for the good of the rescue, so that you are able to continue to help homeless bassets. Oh and you have to justify that those same decisions were what was BEST for the dogs in your care.

Then deal with those "friends" and other people talking poorly about your rescue because you were unable help EVERY dog. Because you weren't able to give them the BEST vet care that money can buy. Because they just plain don't agree with the decisions you've made and it doesn't matter that your intentions were good.

Oh and maybe we should look at rescues who have failed...there are a lot of them. Rescues who made bad decisions and trusted the wrong people to help them. Rescues who've spent their donations on the "wrong things" and didn't handle funds properly. Rescues who weren't able to run the show like a business. Rescues who lost volunteers and donators and that reputation. You can't rewrite history using the same book, so you have to take other group's failures to heart. One bad fundraiser...a few bad decisions and you've failed like the rest before you and this is something you have to continually worry about.

Then come to me and tell me how easy this all is!!!

No one sees all of the crazy things that a rescue group deals with just trying to successfully help dogs, basset hounds or not. It's so easy to sit back and judge a rescue (or even an individual involved in a rescue). It's easy to post negative things on Facebook and write blogs and post things on the Internet on how a rescue isn't doing enough and/or are making bad decisions. Try doing it yourself instead of sitting at your computer writing how someone else isn't doing a good enough job!!

4 comments:

  1. I agree with you. I have been in the trenches day and night for many years, I founded an organization. I also learned in dealing in the public eye and with many rescues breed and all breed, that not all rescue are what they claim to be. I know of 4 rescue that have made a huge following basis for fundraising and followers as well as a huge reputation, that I know do not get care to the seniors unless there has been someone putting the dog out to public as needing vet care and the rescue can't hide it anymore, they actually allow them to suffer because they do not want to spend money on an old dogs and have told me that they save it for the more adoptable ones. Try watching an old dog (Basset) lay week after week hidden in a suite room in a kennel that was not taken to a Vet and slowly dies, while you are telling the President (who runs the kennel) and board members of the organization about many of the dogs needing vet care. Some of the people you talk about do not just sit in front of the computer, they are actually trying to help the dogs or Bassets in several of our cases get help, when the rescue denies them Vet care. or quietly puts them to sleep, because they do not want to spend the money, but yet wanst more donations.....

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  2. Very well said. I don't do 'rescue' but I am involved enough to know what goes on. I do fundraising for rescue. I transport. I sometimes foster. I mediate. I try to help folks with 'issue' bassets to solve those issues, so that they do not feel the need to get rid of the basset. At the end of the day if something I did helped a basset, I think I did ok. I support those who do the grunt work of rescue and shoulder the brunt of the responsibility as well as most of the BS that comes with it.

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  3. You have started an awesome blog. I will be a follower for sure. I have a blog for my bassets and need to get back to blogging. I do volunteer work with GABR and think the world of ABC Basset Rescue. I love that Shelly, girl! Keep up the good work and don't let people get you down you guys do awesome work. It is just a shame that there has to be so much bashing when really all we want to do is Save Bassets. Sherri

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    1. Hi, Sherri!!! I was at GABR's waddle this year with the Slobber Shoppe crew. Don't know if you remember me or not. Glad you like the blog!! Keep reading as there's a lot I want to write about.

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