# Reputable GSD rescues who pull from shelters in the South?



## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

I keep hearing rumors that there are well-funded GSD rescues in the Northeast that pull purebred dogs from kill shelters in the Southeast and do regular transports north. I think they're a myth, but I'd _love _to be proven wrong.

If they exist, can anyone help identify the particular breed rescues who actually do this?


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## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

Did a quick search here. TRANSPORT - The American German Shepherd Rescue Association, Inc.
Found this...
Don't know anything about this group but they're pulling from the south and transporting to the north. Not all GSD's though.
Rescue Road Trips


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## GSDBESTK9 (Mar 26, 2002)

It is not a myth, or at least it wasn't. I used to volunteer for VGSR for many years, with their help I pulled and arranged transport of many GSDs in need from horrible shelters like the one in GA and Memphis, TN that still gas dogs. I've even pulled Labs for the Lab rescue. One time I went down to GA myself and brought back 5 dogs.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

Carolina is right. I volunteered with VGSR and they sure did.


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## Mary Jane (Mar 3, 2006)

*Big Dogs Big Hearts Rescue Buffalo NY Rochester NY*

*from the home page:*
*BDBH *concentrates on rescuing German shepherds, other large breed dogs. Most of the dogs come from local area shelters and shelters in the Southern United States. 


They are based in upstate NY and adopt out to NY, PA, OH, and CT.


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## gagsd (Apr 24, 2003)

I have pulled for Echo.


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## RebelGSD (Mar 20, 2008)

White Paws does it as well.

With the economy as bad as it is, everything is harder.


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## gagsd (Apr 24, 2003)

Yep.... I have sent one or two to White Paws.


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## mebully21 (Nov 18, 2011)

most of the all breed rescues up here pull from down south as well , they dont pull from the local shelters anymore, they head straight down south and bring southern dogs back up here.


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## mebully21 (Nov 18, 2011)

this rescue pulls from south too

For the Love of Dog - Rottweiler Rescue Resources for New England and the North East US. Rotts On Parade Newsletter
For the Love of Dog - Rottweiler Rescue Resources for New England and the North East US. Rotts On Parade Newsletter

some of their dogs come from down south, and some from the northeast


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

WOW! This is all terrifically helpful!  

If anyone thinks of any other rescues, please come back and post them. I'm trying to compile a list. 

Thanks esp. for the Rescue Road Trips suggestion. They go right through Baton Rouge, so they are a potential pipeline to get our oversupply highly adoptable purebred dogs out of here, to safety.


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN (May 11, 2005)

I can say though that you need to screen all rescues VERY carefully. 

Some rescues don't pull locally because they can't - they are DNRs, or their reputation and practices are known and not appreciated by shelters that they have worked with. Another odd one is a rescue in a state/area that has a ton of PB dogs in need that are sitting in kill shelters while they pull from out of state. 

There are "rescues" that pull dogs and flip them just like any person on Craiglist would. They rescue a large number of dogs a year compared to number of volunteers, they get them off a transport with only a health certificate and hand them over to unscreened adopters for a fee. Or they post their shelter picture on facebook, followers see it, and they do the adoption that way - without the screening time in a foster home, without vetting, without screening. If you read the behavior posts that say "Rescue dog...doing whatever" you will see some of the groups that do this. The concept of match is negated as well by these methods. 

So these dogs may be getting out, but not necessarily to safety. Frying pan into the fire, so to speak. Maybe a corollary thread on how shelters should screen a rescue group might be good. There is already a sticky called "Do You Know Where That Dog is Going" that has some old (I stopped updating after a while - depressing) stories about shelters and other sending dogs to places unscreened. 

While groups would love to get dogs out of shelters from a distance, I think like Rebel said, with the economy, there are so many local dogs that rescues are trying to address so that there needs to be a balance now that was not necessary years ago.


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## RebelGSD (Mar 20, 2008)

I suggest trying some all breed rescues too. Some rescues establish a good relationship with the shelter and just try to help Southern shelters to give the dogs a chance. Often these dogs have really nice temperaments, whereas local shelters are crowded with pit bull type mixes. Also, some shelters in the northeast are not good to work with. 
I think it is important to try to establish a good long term working relationship with a rescue. Also, AKC at some pointbhad an active rescue section that helped fund heart worm treatments. It is a good idea to establish a good Facebook community that can raise funds to cover the extra cost for heartwood treatment and transport. I know several shelters in SC that are very successful in sending their dogs to NE rescues. They have local volunteers that temporarily foster dog's during HW treatment for example, which is much more costly or impossible in the North. In my area every rescue seems to be packed and having a hard time even with local dogs.


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

They aren't a myth. I get transports in my inbox several times a week from a couple coordinators who do it right with reputable rescues. We've done a lot for White Paws in particular, which doesn't just do white shepherds. I would assume that's their focus, but we've done quite a few transports for them for non white GSD's.

I'm not sure what you mean by "well funded" but the ones we have done are volunteer. There is occasionally donated money to help with gas costs if people can do the drive but not afford the gas. But generally it's on each drivers own dime. The ones coming from the south (seem to be a lot coming out of GA in particular for White paws) do a one day coming north, then overnight, then continue on the next day with more volunteers. Sometimes, if it's not a closed transport (such as puppies, or dogs coming straight from a shelter, unknown medical history, etc), a dog is picked up along the way and may or may not depart at the same rescue as the first one.


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## RebelGSD (Mar 20, 2008)

The SC shelters I work with usually use paid transports. The Facebook group helps with raising funds for transport costs. There are weekly paid transports available, which is great. Volunteer transports were hard to fill.


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## RebelGSD (Mar 20, 2008)

Pilots an paws is also great with transports. It is important to have local volunteer support available. It is impossible to work with shelters that expect the distant rescue to beam out dogs from the shelter.


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## mebully21 (Nov 18, 2011)

there is a large rescue here in northern nj who pulls from down south every other week, they adopt out willy nilly and have a 50% return rate.. they have a huge following, and do big marketing and fundraisers to get adopters which works. if their screening process for dogs temperments and prospective owners got a **** of a lot better they wouldnt have such a high return rate.

and yes,some rescues up here are DNR up here due to unscrupulous rescue procedures .... be VERY careful who you deal with.

while most folks are fine with rescues coming from down south, some of us are not happy about it as it takes away homes for the dogs here in our own shelters that just sit here because the rescues play on the heartstick and gas chamber euthanizing... most of those adopters feel sorry for the dogs down south and will adopt them first and ignore the dogs in their own city shelters because the story isnt teary enough


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## RebelGSD (Mar 20, 2008)

There may be iffy situations, but there are many great rescues that pull from the South or from distant shelters for various reasons. Unfortunately good things are rarely advertised, bad news spread quickly. To the OP - it is worth a shot trying to find someone.


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## RunShepherdRun (Oct 5, 2009)

Thank you, Magwart, for all you are doing. I hope you have or will find a group of equally caring volunteers to support each other locally, too.

Re the Northeast, some things that have worked for others:

Building a relationship with one or a few rescue organizations in the Northeast seems to work best. As Jean said, you need to know that the rescue organization is one with good practices, no compromise. And the rescue organization needs to know that they are being sent dogs who are safe and who fit the profile of adoptable dogs in their areas.
Here is an example of a NE group that works successfully with one shelter in TN: http://www.pawsnewengland.com/about/

Behavioral evaluations and health checks need to be mutually agreed upon, e.g. SAFER or MatchUp II evaluators might want to be certified, or you know each other well and know how you evaluate, so that you are on the same page. More about these two behavioral evaluation protocols:
http://www.centerforshelterdogs.org/Home/DogBehavior/MatchUpII.aspx
http://www.aspcapro.org/aspca-safer.php
Another common test protocol is http://www.suesternberg.com/00assess.html but I don't think Sternberg certifies testers.

More to come


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## RunShepherdRun (Oct 5, 2009)

Re transports and health requirements for transport:

I personally prefer the paid transports b/c they seem less stressful to the dogs, they are less risky (dogs have been lost in volunteer transports). In the volunteer transports, the dogs have to switch drivers and vehicles every hour, with the drivers being handlers of varying skills. In terms of cost, the paid transports seem more efficient. If every volunteer driver would donate their gas money to the rescue, the rescue could pay the paid transport and then some. But people disagree on that, and some rescue organizations do well by bringing the dogs up with volunteer drivers.

The good paid transporters require that the dogs have been out of the shelters for at least 2 weeks prior to transport to reduce the risk of disease. They also need a health certificate, need to be s/n, fully vaccinated, and parasite free. 

This means, the shelter in the South needs foster homes where the dogs can stay for at least two weeks. Or have enough funds to board at a vet's or a boarding kennel with good sanitary practices.

* As others mentioned, Rescue Road Trips drives from LA via VA to the Northeast: http://www.rescueroadtrips.com/Schedule_%26_Rates.html
I am not aware of a paid transport going from LA to MI or WI, but that is not my area, so I don't know.

The volunteer pilots of PilotNPaws fly with small airplanes that typically have a reach of about 300 miles, so longer trips have to be done in legs. I flew on one such leg as a handler and the aircraft was too small for a 36x24 crate to fit in, we had to put the dog on the rear bench. Other planes are larger and can fit two large crates. Last I checked, PNP did not have health requirements, it's up to the individual pilots whom they want to fly, just like volunteer ground transport.



More to come


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## RunShepherdRun (Oct 5, 2009)

Question: Is there perhaps already a local rescue organization that partners with the shelter that you work for? Here is an example of such a partnership in LA, with great community outreach and relationships with rescues in the Northeast by the rescue organization that pulls from the shelter:

Parish pound: Ouachita Parish Animal Control and Ouachita Parish Animal Shelter
Rescue organization: PAWS of Northeast Louisiana and http://www.facebook.com/pawsnela

PAWS NELA has saved hundreds of lives. Still, the statistics are sad, but they would be even more sad without them: Ouachita Parish Animal Shelter Statistics
Their work has made a big difference for the dogs they were able to save, and they are working towards opening a high volume, low cost s/n clinic to reduce the number of incoming animals.

The most effective strategy to reduce the loss of life in pounds and shelters has shown to be a combination of effective adoption practices, effective (meaning free or very low cost) spay/neuter outreach, legislation against puppy sales along public roads and in public places (LA has that now, it has to be enforced), shelters that are inviting and have opening hours that make it feasible for working people to visit and adopt, and dog friendly communities. We cannot solve the overpopulation problem by adoption alone. 

To achieve 'no kill', HSUS and ASPCA have terrific tools online for shelters and rescue organizations.

I am sending you lots of encouragment to keep going and to keep networking.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Baton Rouge actually turned our shelter over to a rescue organization in 2011, a non-profit with a no-kill goal, under contract from the city/parish to run the shelter (instead of Animal Control). The rescue organization thus _is _the shelter, sort of. The nonprofit is learning as it goes, making a lot of mistakes along the way and trying to do better -- the no-kill goal is still years away, though. We started from an 80% kill rate, in 2010; some months of 2012 our kill rate fell as low as 25%; most months it's closer to 40%, overall.

We've done several successful mixed breed mass-puppy transports, to Virginia and New York -- probably 150 puppies in 2012. All were one-off transports, a few were partially funded by ASPCA grants, partially by our charity that raises money for the shelter. They are controversial, because of cost--about $80 per puppy. Since we don't adopt them out on the other end, there's no adoption fee to offset it, so it's pure cost. The shelter-charity can't sustain that, and they've apparently heard from donors to stop it--and donations are down anyway. That money is also desperately needed to pay for the most basic of care for animals here. A number of local prospective adopters raised a public stink about the puppy-transports because they saw the puppies who had already been spayed, vetted, and health certified _the day before transport _and wanted to adopt one of _those _puppies, and were told they couldn't (many of them had actually already been adopted on the other end, and in any case, you can't just sub in a different puppy on the truck at that point). They were outraged and made a public fuss about local people being denied puppies because the shelter wanted to send the cutest ones out of state, or something absurd like that. It got ugly, and I think it's caused the shelter's leadership to cool to the idea of mass-transports. 

After that experience, I don't think our shelter (or the charity attached to it) will be paying for transports of _any _of "my" GSDs. Unless there are adopters or rescues in other places who will pay the transport fees, I don't think it will happen. Heartworm treatment prior to transport _is _solveable here (the charity _does _get donations for that, and we have low-cost vet partners who help a lot)--but it takes a 30-day-foster home being available to recover from treatment, and that's often harder to come by, at least for big dogs. There are only two foster homes who regularly take GSD (including mine).

We do have local rescue partners who pull as many dogs as they can--but they're all quite small, and at capacity. They also strongly prefer small dogs. We have a _great _group of volunteers doing weekly offsite adoption events at malls and farmer's markets. We got to over 250 local adoptions in December at the shelter and our off-sites--a record for us. 

My DH and I do one thing at the shelter: German Shepherds (and occasional high-mixes). We both have busy full-time jobs and lots on our plate, but we've decided this is important. We ended 2012 with a 90% save rate for GSDs at the end of 2012, networking one dog at a time, with no out-of-state partners, and as far as I know, only one dog being pulled by a GS rescue. If we miss a week at the shelter, there's likely no one to list these dogs on Petfinder, get photos of them, or exercise them. That's a little scary. This save rate is the work literally of just three volunteers--no non-profit, no budget, just working within the shelter. We had at least *50 GSDs* come through in 2012. Three were euthed (one for illness, one for growling at people, and one for dog aggression).

If I worry about other breeds, I'll lose my sanity. Right now, it's the _only _breed in the shelter that's reached the magical 90% "no kill" number--but the supply of dogs never lets up. At one point last summer, I think we had 12 purebred dogs either in foster or at the shelter. If we were a GS rescue, we'd likely be the biggest one in the state, based on number of dogs served....with three people, no money, no organization, hardly any foster homes...and it's somehow kind of-sort of working, most of the time.

The rest of it, I can't do anything to fix. Spay and neuter laws in the South are a project that will take many, many years to solve. There's a massive cultural bias against it. Coming from California, I've been flabbergasted by the ignorance and lack of resources. The shelter is a dilapidated third-world facility that was never meant to be an adoption facility--it's not attractive, inviting, or even air conditioned. It's like a concentration camp for dogs. To put it into perspective: we get at little over $1 per capita for animal care in this parish (county); other parts of the state get over $7. The city is never going to pay more. That we're doing as well as we are with so little sometimes amazes me. 

We aren't as bad off as some places in the South. We do need more avenues to get dogs out though. 

I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to think about I can do better in 2013.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Thanks a bunch for the suggestions, warnings, and advice. It gives me a lot to think about. I suspect the financial aspect is going to be a big barrier to partnering, but I might be wrong.


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## Del's Mom (Feb 26, 2011)

Save Our Shepherds is based out of Memphis. they currently have several GSD rescues.


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## katieliz (Mar 29, 2007)

ohmygosh magwart, that is a wonderful thing you're (and your dh) are doing. wonderful. on behalf of the dogs you've helped, thank you SO much.


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