Starting and Maintaining A Animal Rescue

So lately I've been reading about the horrible news updates and accusations surrounding Olympic Animal Sanctuary, a animal rescue based in Forks, WA  supposedly helping dogs with severe behavior problems. However from all the updates I have seen so far this place is sadly failing as a rescue and its reputation tainted by improper care of and basically "hoarding" of their dogs. Here are some links if you would like to read more and get updates on the subject of Olympic Animal Sanctuary or help the protest efforts:

https://www.facebook.com/dogsdeservebetter

http://www.dogsdeservebetter.org/sonny.html

https://www.facebook.com/pages/OAS-life-inside-the-sanctuary/396180077155674

http://freesonny.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/the-ploy-to-silence-protestors-has-backfired/

http://www.seattledogspot.com/blog/dog-blog/post/olympic-animal-sanctuary-just-a-jail-for-dogs

http://www.examiner.com/article/arrest-made-at-olympic-animal-sanctuary

http://www.seattledogspot.com/blog/dog-blog/post/former-donor-who-gave-50000-to-olympic-animal-sanctuary-says-money-wasnt-used-as-intended

http://www.examiner.com/article/owner-of-olympic-animal-sanctuary-agrees-to-release-dogs?CID=examiner_alerts_article

This sort of news really made me think. Do people really know how much work, resources and money it takes to run a animal rescue? It's not as simple as being a avid animal lover and starting a animal rescue and expecting people to support your efforts with private donations. Each individual animal needs individual care for its basic needs. Every animal is different but every animal needs proper shelter/containment, proper nutrition/nourishment, appropriate amount of exercise/training daily and enough daily attentiveness to be happy and healthy.

It dumbfounds me when people think they can just keep animals in crates, throw them some food and water down, clean their living quarters every so often and maybe let them out for a romp around the yard and that is what operating a animal rescue consists of. Wrong!

And what about those special needs pets like those with medical conditions, special diets or behavioral problems? Expenses from veterinarian visits or certified dog trainers can make those numbers add up even more by the thousands. You can't expect to run a animal rescue and not incur these expenses. Not every person can be their own veterinarian or their own dog trainer. It is not possible and highly NOT recommended. Animals need PROPER care and training!

If you want to start a animal rescue please do your research and please have a support network. You cannot run a animal rescue by yourself. You need a very supportive family, group of friends or even a group of reliable volunteers to help you be it a small-scale or large-scale animal rescue . You need to network with fellow animal rescues so you never get overwhelmed and possibly have a place to transfer a animal your rescue maybe not be able to support for whatever reason. 

Think before taking action. No matter how much you love animals, you cannot keep or save every animal that comes through your rescue. You need to find homes for the animals or unfortunately euthanize animals whom are in severe, constant pain with no relief in site, have extreme aggression issues that cannot be resolved with proper training (attacking humans on more then one occasion or killing animals ruthlessly) or dying. 

If you want to start a rescue be my guest but please know what your getting yourself into. You cannot be a one man/woman army taking on the world to save animals. If starting a animal rescue sounds to much to handle there are plenty of others out there that would be more then happy to take you in as a volunteer =)