# The Link Between Rescue Transport and Saving Animals



## RileyDog0816 (Jan 9, 2022)

Hi Everyone, some of you may be wondering "where did this guy some from?" The truth is I have been around for a long time but due to some issues I am having with my GSD a friend recommended this web site and she was exactly right in her support. I have gotten a lot of good advice and tips here which have helped me and my Dog a lot.

I made a comment on a post that was made in this sub-forum a few months ago and I want to expand on it. The post was about Rescue Transport, moving Dogs from areas of low demand to areas of higher demand to give them better chances of finding loving, furever homes. Rescue Transport is a vital component of saving animals. The US and the world is in the midst of the largest pet overpopulation crisis it has ever seen and it is showing no signs of slowing down. Spay/Neuter is part of the solution as is education but the truth is that Animal Shelters are overflowing and as a wise Man once said: "We can't Shelter or Adopt our way out of this crisis".

It is estimated that 800,000 healthy and adoptable Dogs and Cats die in Animal Shelters every year and Yes you read that number right. Of that number half of the animals that die in Shelters every year die in five States. These States are: Texas (125,000); California (110,000); Florida (66,000); North Carolina (62,000); and Georgia (43,000). This is a horrific tragedy and it is unacceptable. The rampant slaughter has to be stemmed and animals have to be gotten out of these States. Many of the animals that die in Shelters can be adopted just not in the location where they are which is why Transport is so important.

I have had animals in my life all of my life and I have been working with Shelters and Rescues for the last 20 years. I and others are working to build a nationwide network of Shelters, Rescues, and Transporters to get Dogs from where they are not wanted to areas where they are wanted. This is a huge project with a lot of moving parts but it is both necessary and worthwhile and it will happen for two reasons. Number 1, I don't like to lose and Number 2, I get what I want.

I urge everyone to help if you can. Volunteer at a Shelter or a Rescue. Donate to Shelters and Rescues and your donations do not have to be just money. Shelters always need pet food, litter, cleaning supplies, leashes and collars for the animals they adopt, etc. If you can foster an animal, Dog or Cat please contact your local Shelters and Rescues and sign up. If you are a Trainer go to your local Shelters and Rescues and offer to help train their Shelter Dogs in at least the basics at no cost. This one step will give the animals a much better chance of being adopted and not being returned.

If you run a Rescue or know someone who does and want to be part of relocating Dogs to help give them a better chance of finding good homes please contact me and I will add the name of the Rescue to the Relocation Network that is being put together. More importantly if you run Animal Transports, have ever thought about getting involved in Animal Transport, or know someone who is in Animal Transport please let me know so I can contact them and start the conversation to save animals.

If anyone has any questions about Sheltering, Rescue, or ways that animals can be saved please feel free to ask me either here in the Forums or DM me and I will be happy to answer. Thanks everyone.


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## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

All three of our curret dogs are from Abilene Texas via the same Milwaukee rescue group that brings about 30 dogs each month to Wisconsin, provides medical care as needed, then fosters them out and adopts them to lucky families. 

I'm a fan.


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## DaySleepers (Apr 9, 2011)

National animal transport rescues are awesome! I've known a few people who have gotten dogs through them, including RonE. Definitely a great service to the communities on both ends. As with any rescue, they should be vetted first because there's bad eggs out there, but I very much approve of the mission of transporting adoptable dogs into areas where they're much more likely to find the right home.

I have mixed feelings about international transport rescues. Some of them really are wonderful, and trying to do the best by the animals in their care by following every restriction and regulation required to legally import. But then there are those that see it as an opportunity for financial gain, or who think that their circumstances mean they don't have to follow import regulations, and they ruin it for everyone. So many countries have had to enact really strict laws and even bans around importing rescues because of serious disease outbreaks that were traced back to rescue dogs who had falsified medical records (or otherwise managed to weasle around existing regulations) - I'm talking scary stuff, like rabies and brucellosis. I can't say I disagree, either, but it's definitely a case of a few bad apples spoiling not just the barrel, but the possibility for any future barrels. It's pretty much impossible to rescue internationally from Norway these days, Canada is in the process of banning international rescues from countries considered high risk, and I know there's many other examples out there.


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## storyist (Sep 19, 2019)

Here in Colorado there are two groups I know of that bring in dogs from less populous surrounding states and bring them to rescue groups that agree in advance to take them. That was the last involvement I had with the rescue that picked up from me when I burned out. So a large group of us from varied groups, some breed rescues, some all breed, would stand around and chat a bit and wait until two vans drove up. The drivers and volunteers would unload and set up temporary fencing around the vans and then start unloading, calling out various groups and then handing over dogs and paperwork. It always made me puddle up just watching the process.

The transports get the dogs from various shelters in the other states, some have even been in foster homes, and so they choose the ones considered the most adoptable. Of course that's like it always is dealing with good-hearted volunteers. The last dog I picked up was Victor. He was supposedly a Rottweiler and probably half. Supposedly less than a year old and heartworm positive. The current leader of our rescue group agreed to take him in spite of the HW because at that age he could just be put on an ivermectin preventative, which would clear the HW.

As it turned out (paperwork from Arkansas shelter and vet) Victor was either 2 or 3. His HW was bad enough his heart was enlarged and it wasn't just a matter of microfilia in his blood. So while that all sounds like our group was hard-hearted, the fact is like all small rescue groups, financing large vet bills is always a problem and so is finding foster homes. Full on HW treatment is expensive and so is finding someone to foster a dog on long term crate confinement for it.

Anyway, once I picked him up and realized he was a sweet little dog (never got over 70 pounds), I volunteered to foster him through the treatment. Of course once I did months of that, he stayed with me. Depending on whether you accepted the 2-year age from the shelter or the 3-year age from the Arkansas vet, he was 10 or 11 when I lost him just before the Covid lockdowns started. He was one of those dogs that made you wonder how he ever ended up needing a new home.

I'm very much in favor of these kinds of in-country transports that get dogs from a place they have almost no chance of adoption to a place they have a good chance. International? I'm not so sure, and it sounds as if unethical people doing unethical things are going to get that practice outlawed soon anyway.


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