If a new animal organisation were to start, specifically to help individuals such as yourselves who want to help strays but are concerned about the possible burdens, what kind of org would it be, and how would it operate?
When we started Animals Taiwan back in 2004, one of the main goals was to be exactly this: an org to support people who wanted to help strays but who didn’t know how or who couldn’t themselves. I’m still very interested in starting something that can help individuals, so perhaps it should be exclusively for that purpose?
[quote=“Ex Animo”]If a new animal organisation were to start, specifically to help individuals such as yourselves who want to help strays but are concerned about the possible burdens, what kind of org would it be, and how would it operate?
When we started Animals Taiwan back in 2004, one of the main goals was to be exactly this: an org to support people who wanted to help strays but who didn’t know how or who couldn’t themselves. I’m still very interested in starting something that can help individuals, so perhaps it should be exclusively for that purpose?[/quote]
How about being willing to take in stray dogs that are not injured but you charge a reasonabe boarding fee and look after them until an owner is found?
I’d rather pay you the costs and a bit extra to look after the dog rather than have it sitting in a cage in the vets office. I would be willing to pay a standard one time fee or a monthly to have the dog looked after until an owner is found. I’d even pay for transportation.
That would be a very valuable service, and would probably be sustainable as long as the monthly fees could somehow be enforced. But how big would such a shelter need to be? What would happen when it filled up and simply couldn’t take in another animal because of lack of space?
Glad it found a home. Of course the organisations want to see the dog neutered…those beasts are worth about 30 000NT. Which breeder wouldn’t want it for free…PLUS make money off it. Especially one with an eye like that:)
Well a one time fee would be better then. I would suggest the fees only apply to pure bred animals and that organization focus on them as I have been told it is far easier to adopt out pure breeds than mixed. This would take some pressure off those organizations that cater for all breeds. Additionally pure breeds in general have much less survival chance than mixed or tu gou dogs if left in the wild. So I would suggest a shelter for dumped pedigree dogs. A one time fee is charged that would be slightly more than what it actually costs to house and look after them. Any profit would be put back into the organization or given to any sister organizations that cater for all dogs. Some dogs would be harder to re-home than others but those that were re-homed quickly would help subsidize those that took longer to re-home.
After a while the average time it takes to re-home dogs or even certain types of dogs would be known and a fee could be worked out. As for being full well that would probably happen from time to time but less likely if catering for pedigree dogs rather than all dogs.
JMHO
Well, yes, you have a good point about so-called ‘purebreds’. They do get adopted quicker, but not always. It’s quite possible that a shelter catering to just ‘purebreds’ could work quite well.
What about the people who can’t afford a one-off fee? I don’t know what most people consider a lot of money, but in general it costs about NT$3,000 or so per month to house, feed, and care for a shelter dog. That doesn’t include the costs involved with rehoming, which is quite labor intensive as well as needing a car, gas, equipment, etc.
Usually when I get a donation from someone for taking in an animal they found, the amount is less than NT$3,000. How could I persuade them that they should pay enough for, say, six months, to ensure the sustainability of the shelter?
Given that ‘purebred’ dogs die in their thousands every week at government shelters, what kind of capacity do you think a ‘purebred’ shelter should be capable of?