When donating....

suziwalsh

Just been thinking the last few days and I would ask everyone that when you decide or are donating to an animal rescue please

1) Be sure you know where your money is going and how it is being used.

2) Make sure the rescue is a registered charity. This ensures that they have to provide accounts and show where money is being used/spent.

3) Make sure the rescue is doing entirely what they say they are doing and have a standard of welfare - most important for me is that they are neutering, assessing dogs correctly, home checking and following up, getting dogs for homing from correct circumstances (ie. not buying them as this just encourages bad breeders), that dogs are being vaccinated/wormed and getting the correct treatment.

4)That dogs are being housed to an appropriate standard - I know its difficult out there considering the numbers of dogs and pups looking for homes however it is important for a rescue to know their limits when taking in dogs and to only take on what is managable at the time.

If you are unsure with who you are donating time/money/supplies to have a look at other rescues out there. Or indeed with financial dontations offer to buy food/pay vets bills etc, this is something you can do directly and see exactly where money is being used rather than giving "cash" directly.

This might seem like an odd thread to some but unfortunately it is something important to think about. So many animal rescues are in desperate need for help and assistance but some are far more deserving than others. Please do remember that you can always donate bedding, food, toys, leads, bowls etc if you cannot afford a financial donation. Obviously to anyone who knows my previous posts that I am definately pro rescue and that I would encourage anyone to get involved in some way whether it is giving up your time, your home, money etc and that helping animal welfare is rewarding and somewhere that you can make a real difference.

MsFifers

But how can you do all of that? Most of the time you're not in a position to go visiting the rescue, asking questions, checking with Revenue Commissioners to ensure their charity registration no. is valid.

Genuine question - what is the best way to get that info?

Tranceypoo

I think it's easy enough to check their charity is valid/above board, if in doubt you could always check on here or another animal welfare site!! As for visiting the rescue well you would nearly always do that to visit the dog wouldn't yoU? Unless you're adopting from another part of the country and have only seen them online, if that's the case the rescue centre should have had a good chat with you over the phone and would send someone to do a homecheck on you, you would surely ask, as a matter of course, whether the dog had been vaccinated, chipped, wormed & neutered and they would have proof of all of those things and you could even ask which vet had done this and call the vet to check. To be honest it shouldn't take too long to confirm or otherwise if the shelter isn't what it's proporting to be.

ppink

people are not always adopting when supporting a rescue. some just want to donate and it is important to find out what your money will be doing. too many people fire money off, especially in the better times, without any concern for where that money is actually being spent.

having been stung badly by "rescues" I now never give money to a rescue that I do not know personally. this of course goes for other charity organisations not just animal rescue.

a family member fo mine volunteered in the accounts dept of a large charity and was appauled by the lack of organisation and how and where the money donated was being spent (it was not an animal rescue).

Also even though they have to put through accounts means little as much of the donations would be cash anyway and not declared.

hpsheba

I think most recues that have a charity number show them very clearly on their websites/facebook pages. Having a charity number is good in the respect that anyone donating money can be sure that there is at the very least , proper accounts being generated and looked after as the revenue can ask to see them at any time.

Thats not to say, that having a reg charity number makes one rescue better than another, there are a lot of rescues operating without a charity number and they are good honest people who are genuinely looking after their animals welfare. There will always be some bad apples I supposed.

Most genuine rescues are happy with anything you can donate, as Suzi said food, bedding etc. are usually very much appreciated