Needs To Be Said

Honesty post. Because we need to say it.

We are an active, busy rescue. Trying to be unbiased, independent, self-funded, and exclusively focused on the wellbeing of the dogs. We get no grants, no govt. funds, no support for solving a community problem, no wages and no affiliations. We just do it because we cannot close our eyes and NOT do it.

We have no time for drama – but, ironically, once we took the side of abused dogs, a lot of abusers are being triggered and we deal on a daily basis with absolutely vile individuals, both online and offline.

The rescue community can be wonderful, or it can be very toxic. If anyone has any idealistic expectations of playing with many pampered dogs and floating on cloud nine, and that’s rescue, and the rest is “prevention” and “education”, you are invited to try it yourself. You deal with the worst people can do to speechless, easy, gentle targets, and you have to keep it together… because otherwise you can’t help.

You deal with authorities that work with archaic laws and baffling red tape – in a country that is classified as one of the lowest scored ranks in Companion Animals laws. No one really cares. You bear the brunt for all media scaremongering. You take pound dogs, therefore share the stigma of having “previously impounded dogs” on site – even for owner surrenders, because owners decided they got bored of their k9 friend. Those dogs did nothing wrong!

You take them through illness and health and get told off for “not euthanizing” the dogs you saved, by an institution who failed their charitable purpose long, long ago. One that continues to bully and vilify and destroy whoever exposes them to maintain their hefty donations coming.

You deal with human fatigue. And human betrayal. And you have to see through all of this that your heart is with the dogs and if you fail, you fail THEM – and they’ve been failed every time before. You’re being told in a condescending tone, “You’re not God”… as recognition for doing your best to make all the difference you can make.

You get absolutely inundated with requests for “small to tiny dog, if possible free, if possible pure breed”. That’s not our segment. We don’t fish for “the best deal”. We help any dog needing help. We have pound and emergency dogs: 99% are NOT pure breeds, and most of them are medium or large size. We have no history on them, so any breed in the mix is an estimate.

You get appointments after appointments when the owners don’t show up. You get people at the gate who “just want a dog” – God knows for what. You get abused online by people who get fixated on a particular dog that doesn’t suit their household. You get people who lie in their applications. You get the random call in the middle of the night “I have a litter in the car to dump, should i bring them to your gate mate?” What do you respond to that?

And that’s not once in a while. That’s happening all the time. It’s relentless. You have no time to celebrate a successful story – because you have three others incoming. And what keeps you awake at night is not the dogs you saved. It’s the ones you couldn’t save. You do remember each one of them. Time after time.

You get volunteers. You’re beyond grateful. Most of them are wonderful, selfless people. Some of them never show up, and some have hidden agendas. You have to navigate the traps while cleaning dog waste.

And yes you are covered in dog faeces half of the day. You are standing 12 hours per day – and nights if you have sick or injured or small puppies. You comfort, you grieve with them the people they miss, you train, you clean, you feed, you live with them every moment of the day and that’s all your life is. That’s rescue. Forget time for yourself. Forget any other priorities – especially when you deal with life and death. All funds – whether personal or not – are getting depleted by an emergency vet visit, surgery or large litter to vaccinate, do investigative checks and microchip. We’re mostly self funded from adoption fees. You have the choice to do an adoption you are not happy with – and you don’t do it – or not feed the dogs. And you feed them. That’s the juggle on a daily basis. When you say you need all the help you can get you mean it – but then SPCA with the 86 mil income form donations and 16 mil yearly profit is saying the same – that “they desperately need help”. So it becomes a social greeting that no one hears anymore.

We totally understand the “irresponsible owners having litters” stories – how could we not, when we care for those litters. But bashing them when they try to find a solution is not the answer. Focus your anger on the ones who dump. The ones who drown dogs. The ones who shoot them on farms or surrender them as bait. Don’t hate the people who try to rehome. They are responsible enough to want a good outcome – and the dogs deserve that. Those are the people that go through the motions and put on the effort to rehome, and they are the easiest to convince to desex, because they deal with the problem themselves.

It’s hard to give advice, knowing the depth of hell you honestly face on this journey: but if more people would embark on rescuing, if we can have a cultural change in the way we perceive dogs, in particular rescue dogs, then the load will be less heavy. You don’t need to push yourself to the point of insanity – albeit we do. Someone saving ONE lost soul is enough, it would be one drop less in an ocean of despair.

Rant over. But it is not a rant, really. It’s a honest depiction of the rescue reality. It’s a call to please work together, please let’s DO something, anything to help the countless dogs that are left falling through the cracks of our “well organized” society, our “civilized” government and of the very best intentions everyone displays, without walking the walk. It’s a call to please cut through the hypocrisy and lip service and find a viable way to address the issue and to minimize suffering – because none of us can do it alone, but we can do it together, no matter how small the contributions are: sometimes a word is enough. Sometimes advocating with your heart in the right place is enough. Sometimes feeding a hungry dog is all you can do – then please do it. That’s all we want. To make it visible, to make it known, to gain help – and not necessarily for our rescues – for all the other unwanted and unseen dogs out there.