Your input is required, please, in the answering the question. This is a difficult article to write on for several reasons. I don’t want to appear to be singling out any particular rescue and would appreciate some reader feedback on what criteria you use before donating money. What factors determine a cat rescue deserves your support? I’m going to give a few examples I’ve come across over the past few weeks. I may be overly suspicious, or my instincts may be kicking in on who to trust and who not to trust. Especially since rescues are making the news for abusing animals in their care.
A few weeks ago I received a personal message from a very trusted source in the cat community that was sent to me reporting an individual saying she’s a fraud. I didn’t think much of it, except less than half an hour later the person trying to raise money tagged me in a post on my Facebook wall. She works on her own I believe, rather than having a 501c3 non-profit. Since my friends turn to me as to whether to trust someone or not, I made a comment on the post that I had received a fraud alert about her and they should investigate before donating.
I quickly received a comment from this rescuer informing me I’d better be careful how I used the word “scam.” I never used that term, and I never accused her of any wrongdoing. The person posting used the term, not myself. Havoc exploded on her page, with people asking for a vet phone number so they could call the vet to be sure the funds were being used as they should. Now she’s gone from Facebook. Poof! She simply disappeared.
As an investigative writer (which I like less and less because of the fallout), I’m informed to keep an eye on certain people in the rescue world. I tend to get very suspicious of people who experience disasters on a daily basis. We all have our problems when we rescue cats. But how many of us are facing a $1,000+ vet bill or home or car disaster and asking for money on a daily basis. There are several people on Facebook right now who are coming up with daily sob stories people are donating to scammers
I came across a fantastic eye-opening article about things to look for in a good cat rescue or a bad cat rescue. The article, written by Alison Hector for Pets Advocates Network, can be found here. Please take the time to read it, as it offers tactics used by scammers, as well as how to recognize a legitimate and trustworthy cat rescue.
For those of you who follow the Julianne Westberry case, Saving Southern Kitties (SSK), founded by Susan Schreck, is one rescue who does everything right. The story of Whiskers and Kathy, two JW survivors, earned them a story in the December issue of Catster Magazine. More on SSK can be found here on their Facebook page. Saving Southern Kitties shows what a good rescue should show on their community page, including
- Photos of cats needing homes
- Information on upcoming adoption events
- Adoption success stories
- The community page is about the cats-NOT the rescuer. If a page is all about the rescuer, you should check them out further before handing over your money.
Personally, it terrifies me when a rescue saves the cat, and the cat is never mentioned again on their community page or rescue website. Where are the cats going? I probably don’t want an answer to that question.
Many bad rescues have a 501c3 non-profit status and are still in operation. On the flip side, there are many good individual and small rescues who don’t have a 501c3 status who are making a difference and saving lives.
Some of the tactics bad rescues use are
- Refuse to answer questions about their rescue and where the money is going
- Refuse visits to their rescue or to the foster homes that help care for the cats
- A real rescue does not have time to for cutesy or heart-wrenching blogs with many details that are irrelevant to specific pets they are trying to get adopted out
- Avoid the rescue if they do fundraisers in memory of pets that are actually still alive or conversely fund raise for pets that are non-existent or already dead
Many more examples are in the Pet Advocates Network article linked above.
The big question is how do you decide who to trust and who not to trust before making a pledge or donation? There are many of you out there who have much more experience in dealing with legitimate and illegitimate rescues than I have. Your expertise is needed on this one, as pledges are down a lot since the Julianne Westberry tragedy. People are afraid to hand over their money to rescue shelter cats, and cats are dying because of this. Please leave a comment below.
Please comment on Facebook to spread the word. Please click “Also post on Facebook”. Thanks:
http://www.fieldandstream.com/answers/other/what-law-does-your-state-have-place-dogs-chasing-deer-here-minnesota-anybody-can-shoot
Link Alert. I despise trolls who mouth half truths. Yes there are laws about loose dogs chasing wildlife.
In most states it is perfectly legal to shoot a dog that is attacking livestock, your pet or is a menace to you or your family. Shooting cats or dogs simply for being on your property isn’t.
Hunters that use loose hounds will always take the risk of their dogs running onto private land much of which is posted as no hunting. That is a risk the hunters take.
Contrary to the hype most of us gun owners do not walk around with a gun chambered and spare bullets in our teeth. Seldom carry a gun at all.
Nothing to do with legit rescues I just don’t like distorted facts. We had a woman on a horse board years ago who bragged she sat on the porch and shot every dog that crossed her land. It didn’t work out so well for her in the end.
It really helps the rescue to show the cat was seen the day of rescue. Back when we did rescue I’d stop at the vet on my way home. Most of the cats from the Greenville shelter came out sick and a vet exam showed they didn’t get that way under my watch. I’m sure Michael remembers Pinky. Michael put a pic of Pinky here if you can. The one with the worse pink eye you’ve ever seen.
I write an occasional article for individuals needing help but only if they’re willing to list a vet reference.
A legitimate rescue should never refuse to say who their vet is. Donors should have the right, to know that the animials they donated on, have been been seen by a vet. If a rescue refuses to show proof of vetting, that’s a red flag. Small rescues, that pull large numbers of animials weekly. Are a red flag. Legitimate rescues are not afraid to answer any questions, asked about animials that have been rescued. It’s getting hard to know who is legitimate or not. For me if a rescue does not carry a pulled animial straight to a vet, after leaving ac, that’s not a legitimate rescue. Rescues that try to diagnose and treat themselves, are the ones, I will never support.
Thanks Joann for sharing your experience.
I forgot to say I think this is a really good article. Great subject.
TooFunny takes up too much space with his comments. They’re longer than the actual article 😉
The length of his comments tells us a bit about how his mind works; tortured comes to mind. He is chewing over the same stuff over and over like a cow chewing cud. He can’t stop. It’s a disability really 🙂
What do i do if they’re so conniving that they DO post “bills” and “proof” and have underlined what they have so painstakingly and selflessly done? I’m in the middle of something like this, and dudes, I don’t know what more to do or where to go from here. According to the sheriff’s wife, all he can do is visit the house and ask if things are ok etc.
As far as I can see she has done nothing illegal so I can’t nail her that way. Posted a sign of a missing kitty which is illegal but I did it too. My kitty has been gone for over 4 weeks yet has seen in the neighborhood by strangers. She looks healthy and well cared for. My 5 year old wants to make posters for all of the other kitty owners so that she could help them too. Even though her own cat is gone. I helped this woman with the missing cat and made a better poster to draw more attention. Let me reiterate that my innocent caring 5 year old was helping this woman. My cat is still gone but one came back. My signs were mysteriously ripped down. I got such a nasty text message that i deleted it. I trust people. Now I don’t know what to do. I have her address and one of the phone numbers she has used.
hlp/
The sign for the missing kitty that my daughter adorned with stickers to get more attention is not missing. He is with this person
I’ll try and contribute by trying to answer the question in the article. I am not an expert like Elisa in cat rescue operations in the USA.
However, perhaps a simple but possibly impractical way of determining if a person is scamming or not is to visit their home or their facilities. Just ask “can I come and visit to see your operation before I donate or work with you?” If they say No then you forget about them.
One of the big problems is that a lot of the business of cat rescue is conducted on the internet without any tangible knowledge of what people are doing except through what they say they do.
This leads to potential scams. Networks really should be in one location, say within 50 miles of each other, so people can physically meet.
The problem with people insisting they want to visit a rescue are:
1. some rescues are actually sanctuaries and hospices and they take in the animals with no where else to go that may have chronic and/or terminal issues.
Just as with people, animals may not look so good, but they’re still eating, drinking, and moseying around, and they don’t want to be euthanized and are simply living that phase of their lives just hanging out with other animals that also have physical issues whereby they may not look so swell, but they don’t wish to be dead just yet either.
With “seizure scams” happening in epidemic proportions around the world perpetrated by what are called “retail rescues”, many sanctuaries/hospices that are not adoption-based and are not open to the public do not have visitors to their premises because they are afraid they may be set-up for attack by a retail rescue. If that happens, peoples lives are destroyed, and often, the animals are literally USED for their “donation-value” and after their donation-value is exhausted, the “rescue” that was supposed to be rescuing them KILLS and “disappears” them instead. That’s why its called “the rescue racket”…..it IS a RACKET that more and more scam-artists are getting into doing.
2. Some sanctuaries/hospices also take in the animals with serious behavioral issues, so carrying liability insurance to protect the sanctuary and pay claims if someone in the public visiting the facility, or even well-meaning volunteers, gets bitten by dogs, cats, or horses, kicked by horses, etc, can get pretty costly.
Using the short form information page and questionnaire I already posted would have rescues/sanctuaries/hospices that are primarily, or entirely donation-funded willing to show on a monthly basis their financials, vet reports, euthanasia reports, and also current photos and videos of all animals they are asking for designated donations for.
If they will not provide this information publicly, than steer clear of them.
Not donating to private rescues (and these would be rescues that are NOT adoption-based and animals that they rescue are usually not suitable for adoption because they have “issues”), sanctuaries, and hospices unless people can visit there basically leaves people that run them having to usually struggle along on their own, working in jobs outside of rescue in order to take care of their animals, and they many times don’t have the fanciest of places because they pay for everything themselves.
They can use the support, but if the trade-off is opening themselves up to possible attack by a retail rescue, or lawsuits if someone gets injured on their property, they’ll usually just continue to go it alone, doing the daily, somewhat boring (not “crisis rescuing” with the hoopla and hype many of the retail rescues do that the public just eats up and throws money at them) daily care of animals that had no where else to go, but found some peace with people and other animals that don’t judge them on their issues and find them unworthy of living.
Thanks Eli for your valuable input. I found in interesting and enlightening. I see the problem of visiting. That said visiting is a good way of checking and the fact that people can’t visit and that rescues operate on Facebook et cetera (in the ether as I call it) opens the door wide for scamming behavior. I am going to guess and say low level fraud is probably quite common.