Rescue Question

[whimzikal]

Ok I need to understand this so anyone who can give me a solid, yet polite, answer please do so.
My brother & his g/f fostered a dog. It didn't work out and they returned him to rescue. They said they just were not ready to foster. The rescue continued to call and basically harass them. I don't know why a rescue would try to make people foster who were not able or willing.
Anyway, they called and asked them to foster a very nice little guy.
After the 4th call in 1 day (yes FORTH call in ONE day) they said they'd meet the dog. They met him and he was great BUT he was found as a stray. When they asked about efforts to contact his owners the rescue rep replied "Well, they are not good owners if we found him roaming. We wouldn't allow them to have him back because they showed irresponsibility." They left, advised them to never call again and said they would not advise anyone to do business with them. (There was alot more said of course)
So my question is this: Do rescue organizations even attempt to reunite the dogs with their owners?
If no, WHY NOT?

This is my biggest peeve about rescues.

[agilitydog]

IMO it sounds like a terrible rescue group. They should not be harrassing about fostering. I dealt with a poor rescue where I got Toby from. Not all are poor.

Generally a shelter will check for tags and scan for microchip. if there is no owner name on these they don't really do an all out search but they are required to hold a dog for I beleive 7 days in order for the owner to claim. After 7 days, they have the right to adopt it out.

[Vinni]

I do not know about rescues in general, but from what I was told when I adopted Archie was that he was in the shelter for a month and not claimed before he was given to rescue.

Now I am thinking that the shelter did little to find who ever may have owned him, but their logic is (and I see this point) that if someone did own him and want to claim him (although since he was found roaming the freeway in W Virginia it is doubtful) they could have easily called the shelter and located him. Or they could have taken out an Ad in the paper (I was told the shelters often scan the lost pet sections).

I know if my Pup went missing I would call every shelter in the arera and then beyond. I also would take out Newspaper ads (actually did this once when I was a kid and someone stold our pup) just in case someone thought he was abandoned and took them in out of the kindness of their hearts.

[whimzikal]

I agree the shelters do hold the dogs, any pet owner with a brain would call all shelters AND check thier pet lists if their pet were missing.

I am talking about rexcues who obtain dogs directly. Say you find a dog limping or parasite ridden and rather than take the dog to the pound you call a rescue group. My experience has been the rescue scoops up the dog and plays"hero" as if the previous owner were bad. They seem to assume and assert ALL dogs came from terrible circumstances when in fact they may not have.
Example: when I had to rehome my collie & sheltie mix I screened 71 people, NONE came close to being good enough. I turned to a rescue.
I paid them $400 PER DOG. My dogs were both nuetered, fully trained, UTD on all shots, heartworm free, professionally groomed regularly andd before they went to rescue.... I provided them with 2 50# bags of food, dishes, crate, toys, treats, blankets, leashes, harnesses, collars, sweaters & raincoats. I even gave pictures of them as puppies so the new owners would have it. Much to my DISGUST they advertised my boys nicely but added "Thier previous owner claimed there was a child in the home with allergies." I had a friend call to inquire and she was told I had simply grew tired of them and gave up on them. I was so MAD I called and had it out with them. They took my babies with us crying and I had fully explained the situation. They talked to me for weeks before I could bring myself to let them go. They acted like they cared. So, rescue groups have never been high on my list. Now, I am wanting to get involved but not if they continue to lie and not attempt to reunite pets and owners.
(My boys were adopted out together to a lovely family but I don't like that they lied to TRY to get people to adopt out of sympathy)

[agilitydog]

There is a shelter by me that tells everyone that their dog ended up in the shelter because an older couple owned it and could no longer carefor it

[Heart_Song]

I think rescue groups get overwhelmed and frustrated, not that it is any excuse. But they get so many dogs and try to find homes for them all that they can lose sight of details of individual cases. When the majority of cases are because of irresponsible owners, all cases start to become so. When they look for owners time after time without any success they tend to give up with new dogs and just assume the worse.

A personal example, though not exactly rescue oriented, I'm used to towns where people let their dogs run around. So every dog I see running around is just wandering but is owned and not lost. But here people don't do that, so I've had to change my mindset to not automatically assume they not lost.

If you do get involved in rescue, just try to remind the other workers that just because the last 300 dogs were all the same doesn't mean this one is. It's more work, but maybe you can help them see the importance of individualizing not only the dogs but also their history and their owners.

[FairyDogMother]

To my knowledge, we haven't taken any "strays". Ours are handed over by owners for a variety of reasons. Divorce, military moves, don't have time for them, dog & family member not getting along etc, etc, etc...
We don't often get litters of pups and we did in Dec. They were brought to the county Humane Society but an outbreak of parvo shut down the puppy room so they called the local rescues to take them. We did.
I realize that rescues are always looking for new fosters and at times get to feeling a little desperate. We turn away every day so many dogs! We had one adoption last month & hundreds of requests to take in dogs.
I know for a fact that not all shelters scan for microchip though. The humane society shelter here keeps strays for 3 days before putting them up for adoption or the alternative.
I checked with a few organizations before I decided to work fostering with the one I choose.
My best advise is to interview all of them and then let them interview you.