MAV'S RESCUE FRIENDS

This is a great article: http://business.time.com/2012/12/07/giving-it-away-5-ways-to-make-your-charity-dollars-go-further/.

The article mentions a novel idea called Giving Tuesday starting in New York with the idea that after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, people should focus on giving back around the holidays. This is such a great idea, I really hope it takes off. The article mentions that given the economy charities are having a more difficult time raising money, so the author gives a helpful background on ways to make sure your hard earned dollars are donated to organizations that will use them effectively. The ideas are common sense enough, but the article contains various websites and resources that will help you learn more about the organizations you are thinking of helping.

The five ideas are:

1) Read expert (and non-expert) reviews. This is straightforward enough. There are resources to read a charity’s financials, and there are websites that have people reviews charities they have interacted with over time. Additionally, you can certainly check out their websites, facebook pages, blogs, and do general google searches to get a broader view of an organization.

2) Check efficiency. This is very important and something we focus on a great deal. Some charities use a large percentage of donations for marketing, administrative purposes, and salaries. Not all expenses are bad, but the larger percentage that goes directly to those in need is typically better. The reason this is not always true is that an organization’s charter may be to spread awareness of a cause for instance and that may mean a lot of advertising for instance.

3) Check with the taxman. The idea is to dig into their form 990 to see how the organization spends money. You can see salaries of the top people for instance, and it is easy enough to do. If a charity does not file as a formal 501c3 then they may not have any documentation, and you should be extra careful to make sure your dollars are used in the manner you intend. We are not a 501c3 for instance and have donated money to others who are not as newer organizations may not have raised the money or had the time to do it yet, but you should be aware that donations to a non 501c3 are not tax deductible and there are fewer checks on the organization.

4) Don’t call me, I’ll call you. This is a good rule that I have not thought about much. The idea being that telemarketing is an expensive way to raise donations, so if you get a call from a telemarketer that the telemarketer may get a lot of your donation. I was unaware of this so if true it is interesting.

5) Be suspicious of soliciations that come out of the blue. This was an interesting section as well. The point made is that sometimes groups take names that sound like charities you may be familiar with and send you a letter or email asking for donations. You might assume it is a good cause, but it may not be what you think. Before you send a check, make sure to do a little bit of work and see if it is the charity you think it is and that they are going to do something you want them to with the money.

The article is well worth the read and Time did a great job on the piece. I think the idea of a Giving Tuesday is wonderful, so I am crossing my fingers it sticks.

A dog or cat seems like a great gift, but if an individual is not ready for the pet or does choose them, they have a very high chance of not being the right fit. Even if someone tells you they want a dog or cat, I would still generally say this is a bad idea. Different breeds and personalities tug on us in different ways and the decision to add a pet to one’s family is something that has ramifications for ten to twenty years. In summary, as nice as the idea is, I think it is a bad idea.

However, when thinking about this, I started wondering why people who give pets as gifts do not give rescue animals. Surely, this happens some, but I have not read about it often. I wonder what percent of pets that are bought as gifts are rescue animals. Using this line of logic, I have a suggestion for you if you are intent on giving a pet for someone for the holidays. Although I do not recommend doing so, if you are sure you want to proceed then why not give a donation to a local shelter or rescue to cover the adoption fee for a rescue animal. You can then spend time with the gift recipient over the next month or year or two years finding the pet that works for them best. If they end up deciding against adding a pet to their family, the money will have been a worthwhile donation to the rescue. The reason I would not recommend this is that the individual may just take a rescue animal because they feel obligated to after the gift when they did not really want him or her in the first place. You know your situation better than I do, so take all of this with a grain of salt. I think giving a pet as a gift is a bad idea, but if you are 110% sure you are making the right decision and I cannot dissuade you then think if the rescue idea may make more sense for your individual situation.

There was a great article in the WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324001104578163423121970336.html?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f on service dogs that have been trained to detect Diabetes in individuals.

The dogs are primarily used for Type 1 Diabetes, and can sniff out high or low blood sugar levels. We often think of service dogs being used to help the blind or trained to sniff out various things, and although I was aware they were being used for diabetics I was not aware of how much they are being used. In its simplest form, dogs have an instinct to track and hunt, so trainers just change the trigger to something else. The articles states they are being used to sniff out cancer now and oncoming seizures-that is incredible. Now, we have approximately 30,000 service dogs in the United States. What’s most fascinating is that the dogs pick up the scent faster than blood glucose meters. Sensibly, these are primarily used for people with Type 1 diabetes as they are more prone to really low blood sugar levels. The dogs are so helpful because over time individuals can become desensitized to the warning signs. An individual mentioned in the article has this “hypoglycemic awareness” and went unconscious six times in the previous two weeks before he got the dog and required emergency care. In the three months after adding the dog to his family, he only passed out once and required no emergency care.

Another stat I was unaware of is that Type 1 diabetes is growing in the US for some inexplicable reason. Fascinatingly, demand for these dogs is now outstripping the supply of trained dogs. They cost upwards of $20,000 so often people look for donations to help afford one or to charities. There is so much labor involved in training these dogs that I cannot really see how much cheaper you could get the price down unfortunately, but this is just another example of how much dogs do for our society.

The WSJ has an article recently about the overpopulation of Chihuahuas in California: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323316804578165243827123884.html?mod=wsj_share_tweet.

I knew this was a huge problem that started from movie stars and various movies showcasing people carrying around Chihuahuas in stores and in purses, leading people to run out and get Chihuahuas but I thought it had died down. The smaller the dog the better a few years back. The issue with this was/is a few fold. If you see teacup or super miniature version of a breed, these are often not healthy animals as to breed such small animals breeders often use the smallest dogs of the litters and inbreed them over and over again to get the smallest of dogs that were never meant to be that way. This is also true if you want a “designer color.” As these traits are so rare, breeders may not be following what is best for the breed and instead focusing on certain traits to make money.

The Chihuahua overpopulation is not the first overpopulation that has happened as a result of fame. This also happened to Pugs after they were showcased in a movie or two. The article discusses a few rescue heroes who are moving the Chihuahuas from CA to states that are short small dogs like Chihuahuas including Connecticut and Maine. This is a great idea. Many dogs are saved by moving them from areas where there is demand for a certain type of dog but not enough in the shelter system.

The article states that in some communities in Southern California, 30% of the dogs in shelters are Chihuahuas. That is a staggeringly large number. Even worse, the number of Chihuahuas that have entered the shelter system there has tripled since 2006. This is not all because of movies and movie stars, a great deal of this rise is as a result of the lack of spaying and neutering in low income communities there.

The article is worth a read because it encapsulates the problem in America using this example of pet overpopulation with one breed in one community. The good news is that rescues and volunteers are making a dent in the problem; however, there still needs to be a great deal of change to fix the problem permanently. Spaying and neutering, education, regulation of unscrupulous breeders, and community support is all needed in tandem if we are to fix the root of the problem. So, if you have been thinking about adding a Chihuahua to your family, they are great dogs so take a look at shelters in California and save a life!

Mav’s Rescue Friends was set up with the goal of helping animals in need. At this point, Mav’s Rescue Friends is currently in the very early innings, but long term we will have two primary causes: 1) to rescue and treat animals who have been abused and are in need of critical care, and 2) to provide funding to smaller rescue groups who have acute financial needs.

Over the past few years, we have been fortunate to meet a variety of amazing people and rescue groups that do incredible things for animals, and this will be our effort to help advance the animal rescue effort in our own small way. We are still just in the learning stage and are unsure how our thinking will evolve, but please visit us again down the road and see how we are progressing.

Sincerely,

Maverick, Cosita, Jen and Adrian Meli (aka the fourth wheel)

“Dogs have given us their absolute all.  We are the center of their universe.  We are the focus of their love and faith and trust.  They serve us in return for scraps.  It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made.” ~Roger Caras

Saw this interesting article today discussing whether allowing free adoptions leads to bad homes: http://www.examiner.com/article/does-free-adoptions-equal-bad-homes.

It is an interesting question as waiving adoption fees helps shelters find homes for animals, but the removal of an up front cost/commitment/hurdle theoretically should lead to worse homes on average. The article states that there have been studies on this topic and that it is not true that waiving fees lead to worse homes. This is something that needs to be looked into more carefully. I don’t know how many more people might adopt vs go to a breeder if adoption fees were waived in general, but if the percentage increase is substantial there should be other ways to find good homes without fees.

The adoption fees help the shelters, but from a finding a good home standpoint they represent an up front commitment from the adopting family. Why is this important? Well, once people are invested in something, they take care of it. After thinking about this for a bit, I think there are ways to create this up front investment mechanism without money. It could be done in a variety of ways, but off the top of my head one idea would be to have people volunteer for ten or twenty hours in lieu of the adoption fee. This would create an “investment” from adopters, would help shelters with volunteer hours, lead to some percentage of these people continuing to volunteer afterwards, and probably make the people more committed to animal rescue over time. There are other alternatives, but the point is that an investment can be created through time, emotion, energy, or other means and does not have to be financial.

I have read some responses to the waiving of fees with people saying that without seeing if someone has the financial ability to pay adoption fees, then they might not be able to care for the dog. This could be true sometimes and is clearly a negative. However, what I don’t know is how many more people who were considering buying a dog from a breeder for $250-1000 might opt for a rescue dog if they were free. I don’t have any idea of the percentage but it might be a way to get people who do not know how much need there is out there for rescue dogs to consider rescuing. Certainly, this would do this on the margin-the question is how much of a swing variable this will be.

Either way, regardless of adoption fee or not, it is important that shelters and rescues meet and do reference checks on the families as well as watch them interact with the dogs. This seems like a much more important factor in the adoption process than the fee.

We are still learning ever more about the rescue world, reading interesting ideas, following law changes around the country, and developing our own ideas. We have found that perhaps the greatest source of education for us has been reading the many great rescue blogs out there. Some of them are very informative, while others are more inspirational-most are both. We do not know the people behind most of the blogs, but we feel connected to them as we are always reading their thoughts. Jen and I spend a great deal of time reading many different kinds of blogs, and we find them to be an often underestimated source of value. For instance, beyond rescue blogs, I read tons of venture capital, economics, investment, and general information blogs. My greater point is that whether your passion is animal rescue or education, the dynamic content on blogs is often more informative and entertaining to read then encylopedic websites that were created once upon a time.

With regard to the various rescue blogs we follow, some of them are posted on multiple times a day with incredible layers of depth and content. I am always surprised by how much people are willing to share online and admittedly I have to even push myself to write this small blog. It seems much more comfortable to keep to myself, but we have to start somewhere if we want to be connected in the new world. That said, as we have no followers, I suppose this is more of a “journal” than anything else at this point.

The efforts of the many in the rescue community who post on blogs, write articles, and call for action is already having a huge impact. Awareness is growing, laws are changing, and the euthanasia rate is decreasing. Incredibly, the animal rescue community has grown all over the world. We have found rescue sites in so many different countries, and we can easily see that the global rescue community has become unified in their pursuit of lasting change for animal welfare. A great deal has already been accomplished and the seeds for ending euthanasia have been planted.

In our time spent online, we have started cataloging websites and a list of rescues that we have found valuable so that if we are fortunate enough to launch Mav’s Friends as a 501c3 long term we will already have a running list of rescues that we hope to be able to help. For now, we will just continue learning and volunteering until we have the time to launch a larger effort, but if you are looking for places to donate there are tons of rescues out there who need your help!

I came across this article and thought it was pretty balanced, but more importantly I think its greater point is sound: http://www.examiner.com/article/if-you-bought-your-dog-i-m-not-judging-you?cid=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter. The main point of the article is that the dog rescue community should not attempt to vilify those who for one reason or another purchase a pet from a breeder but instead attempt to educate them.

I think a lot of people in the rescue community are very harsh to people who are not knowledgeable about the number of animals euthanized every year and about the ethics of a lot of breeders and pet stores. This does not make people who go to a pet store and buy a $2,000 chihuahua bad by any means so I agree with the premise of the article. The best of the rescue community is full of people who seek to educate the public about the issues and work on making rescue dogs easier to adopt. Taking an approach that shows people the light seems much more constructive than the alternative to me. If not for all these great rescuers out there, we would have had no idea about the issues. I was very ignorant myself (and still am about most things), and so I am extremely appreciative that people have helped spend their time educating me.

There is a big difference between an individual buying a pure bred dog and a breeder breeding hundreds of dogs and selling them online. There is also a big difference between this breeder and a family breeding their beloved pet. I would argue very aggressively of course that people should have their pets spayed or neutered and not breed them but not everyone is aware that by breeding their animals it helps contribute to an overpopulation.

So, in summary, if you know someone looking to add a pet to their family, please help inform them in a constructive way that their are lots of dogs out their that need homes that would be perfect for them. Whether they want a puppy or adult dog, a purebred or mix, a housetrained animal or whatever, there are thousands of dogs out there that need homes and with a little bit of internet searching they can find the perfect pet for them.

Just read this pretty heartbreaking story about a 3 year old chow named Chen that was waiting for his owner to return for three years before someone rescued him: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/15/atlanta-dog-abandoned-three-years-new-home-ohio/1707377/

Chen was abandoned at a house and kept sleeping on top of the carport for three years waiting for his owners to return. He would scavenge garbage and around the neighborhood to get food while he waited for his family. Some people even threw rocks at the dog trying to get him to leave because he stuck around. Chen would not leave. It is horrifying that such a loyal dog was abandoned and it took three years for a rescuer to finally take Chen and post him online to find a new home. Well, Chen is on to greener pastures and has a new family. Chen deserves it to say the least.

Who knows what happened to the family or what the circumstances were behind leaving Chen like this. Maybe a lost job or divorce or whatever. It is a sad story but far too often people take on dogs and then move on from them for whatever reason. In many countries it is common to let dogs roam the streets but it is very dangerous and the dogs are domesticated so if for some reason you cannot take care of your dog please find a new home for her or him. If you cannot find a new home, then try to find a local rescue so the dog won’t be euthanized. If you cannot find a rescue, then it is better to leave the dog at a shelter than roaming the street, where they could be hit by a car.

Dogs are a huge responsibility so if you find room in your home for one, remember that it is a ten plus year commitment.

We came across this post the other day http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/stop-condemning-those-who-bring-pets-to-shelters/ from one of my favorite pet rescue bloggers. She makes a great case for the issues with speaking out against people who take animals to shelters.

I think the salient points are:  1) dropping animals off at shelters is better than tying them to a fence or doing something worse, 2) a shelter can be a great source for information for people who no longer wish to keep thier pet, and 3) to the extent shelter animals are stigmatized the animals have much more difficulty being adopted.

People give up their animals for many reasons and though we are not endorsing dropping pets off at the shelter an individual’s exact life circumstances are difficult to judge. Perhaps someone has a terminal illness and could no longer take care of a pet. Perhaps their dog was aggressive toward a child and needs to be placed in a different home without children. Perhaps they can’t afford dog food or a necessary surgery. Of course, there are tons of people who just don’t want the responsibility or do not want adjust their living situation for their pets, but this is not the case for everyone. The moral of the story is dogs and cats are better off being dropped at a shelter than let loose on the street or abused.

The solution is informing people, not shaming them. We need to inform would be pet owners why they should adopt. We need to inform people who are in financial distress that there are resources out there who can help them pay for their pet related expenses. We need to inform people that when they take in a dog, it is a serious, 10+ year commitment. If we can help educate people, we can limit the number of unnecessary surrenders, shut down puppy mills, increase spaying and neutering, and end euthanasia at animal shelters.