While this is wonderful progress, there is still a long way to go. There are several changes that we and other rescues feel would make a tremendous difference for the dogs and shelter staff as well as rescues pulling dogs from there.
Here are some ideas:
1. Adoption Availability
The hardest part for all of us is finding out what dogs are available. Examples of how other shelters (Bladen, Columbus and some in Georgia) work include:
(a) dogs are all kept until 1 day of the week and everyone knows that as D-Day. It gives us time to organize, get volunteers to the shelter to pull a large quantity of dogs, and we can identify which dogs are there. It also helps with you and others taking pictures!
(b) Bladen actually keeps all dogs alive until every single kennel is full. From what Jeff and Leroy have told us and many others, they don’t ever get to capacity. They actually define capacity as 50% or 50 kennels full.
(c) Some shelter volunteer coordinators take the dogs into their own homes/facilities and “foster” them while they are also posted online. This helps us know the dogs are safe and healthy. The current 2006 RCAC Procedures actually allow for this. Although they are revising the procedures this week so who knows. It is a great help for us if we can’t meet up with the local volunteer until the weekend, which happens with many rescues as they are volunteer forces and work during the week.
(d) Local vets and shelter volunteers will work together to take in dogs, provide boarding at cost, provide shots needed for transport, and allow the rescue transports to pick up the dogs from the vet (after we know the dogs are safe and sound).
2. Petfinder Info Availability
The petfinder page should include (a) information on how and where to submit 501c3 paperwork and (b) provide a fax number. This would allow more rescues to become registered, reduce phone calls to the shelter, and provide a mechanism for dogs who would be killed in the am from dying.
For example, in Rome, Georgia’s shelter there is a fax number that is widely distributed to rescues and you can fax in the dog’s id number and your 501c3 to show the shelter that you are claiming the dog and a legitimate rescue. It works great and many weeks the shelter (it is very rural) is cleared out and no one dies.
3. Donations
Many shelters take in several donations from the public. It helps to keep costs in check and eliminates the lack of resources as a reason to put down animals. This weekend I delivered 40 pounds of dog food for Bladen. Many of our contacts have tried to deliver to Robeson and have been denied.
4. Cross-posting
There are several people in the animal community who you and Jean could work with to get the information and pictures about available dogs disseminated. They have large email list serves and send out urgent please to hundreds of rescues/individuals each night. They include:
-- Rondawoman22@aol.com
-- NC-RescueTransport@yahoogroups.com
-- Tami Pal
Facebook pages have also been started and they are a great resource for posting new pictures to get the information out.
5. Rescue Book for Shelter
As Beata has mentioned, our 501c3 paperwork has disappeared on multiple occasions. I had an entire email exchange with Jeff regarding this. I ended up forwarding him an email he had already received that contained all of our paperwork. Bladen actually has a record that is kept with the shelter and the shelter volunteer has relations with many of the rescues that pull from there. It makes the process very easy and ensures our paperwork remains in place.
6. Make Publicly Available all Current RCAC Procedures
I am currently trying to pin down the current RCAC Procedures with Bill Smith. I have the 2006 version and am told that they are being updated this week. The 2006 procedures, which appear to be the current procedures in place, do not match up with the policies being expounded by shelter staff. Examples include (a) 48 adoption period for the animals, (b) when euthanasia may take place, (c) how the non-owner release (120 hour) time period should be calculated, (d) when live traps can be used, (e) fostering for animals that may be injured or sick, (f) vet care, (g) capacity requirements, etc.
There are several procedures that differ from the procedures shelter staff quote to us when we visit. This makes both parties have an incredibly difficult time understanding what is the actual “rules of the road” for adopting/rescuing animals. In light of all the attention on Robeson, making these publicly available would reduce tensions and allow both parties to have an outline of what the rules of the road should be.
If you would like to help us but don't have any money to donate to the cause, a simple email or phone call could make a tremendous difference. We just have one request: BE NICE!!! The more phone calls/emails that the shelter receives that include threats or demands or other not so nice attitudes only makes the problem worse. They can take it out on the animals by either hurting them or not allowing us to rescue them. Sending emails which ask them to please accept donations or offer of assistance would go a long way.
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