Frequently Asked Questions
Is this dog good with kids?
Very few dogs dislike kids. What dogs dislike is being sat on, hit, poked, carried around like a stuffed toy, having their ears and tails pulled, or being otherwise abused. Would you like these things? Probably not. Be aware: Abuse is still abuse, whether the perpetrator means it that way or not. A puppy who is tossed into the air and injured has been abused, whether the tosser is an adult or an unsupervised two year-old. So rather than ask a rescuer, "Is this dog good with kids?", ask yourself the following:
- Have I taught my child that animals are sentient beings with feelings?
- Have I taught my child to treat animals with respect?
- Is my child old enough to understand that he is capable of hurting an animal? And that an animal who is being hurt is not at fault for defending itself?
- Have I arranged to give my pet a safe place in our home where my child may not approach him?
- Is my child old enough to recognize a pet as a responsibility, not a toy?
- Am I committed to constantly supervising all interaction between my very young child and our pet?
If you answered "Yes" to every question, you're ready to introduce a pet to your family. If the answer to even one question is "No", you need to consider waiting until your child is a more appropriate age.
-Taken from IL-MO Pug Rescue (http://www.ilmorescue.org/index.htm)
Why do you gas dogs?
We do not gas the dogs. The dogs are being gassed in high kill shelters. We are simply a rescue that is trying to save dogs from being gassed.
These shelters are gassing dogs due to lack of space. There is a huge overpopulation problem, and people do not fix their dogs. Due to this, there are too many dogs and not enough adopters, and the dogs are gassed.
Shelters use gas instead of something like a lethal injection because it is cheaper. It's that simple.
What does gassing mean?
This description may be graphic, so please use discretion when reading.
Gassing is barbaric. There is a large box, where dogs, cats, kittens, and puppies are placed into. Carbon Monoxide is then pumped into the box, killing all the animals. It might not sound so bad, but this is a polite explanation. In reality, the dogs and cats are in there for a few minutes before the gas is pumped in. The gas can also take up to half an hour to kill all the dogs. Since dogs and cats, regardless of age, size, or breed are placed in the box, fighting always breaks out. The animals are left in the box for half an hour or more, fighting with each other, terrified and covered in feces and urine, until they die. It is not a peaceful death, the carbon dioxide does not put them gently to sleep. It is violent, upsetting, and completely unnecessary.
Please see our Videos page for videos of gassing, puppy mills, etc.
How do I adopt?
First off, you would want to check out our different pages... the Urgents page, the Adults page, or the Puppies page, and decide which dog you want to adopt. You will need to donate the $10 deposit prior to filling out an application, the button is on the Adopt~Sponsor~Foster page. You would then need to fill out the adoption application. Your application will be looked over, and all references checked. We will also conduct a phone interview and possible home check. You will get an answer within 24-48 hours (depending on how quickly your vet and references call us back) to let you know if you were approved or not. If you are approved, your $50 deposit will go towards the adoption fee of the dog. If you are denied, the $50 will be returned within 48 hours. Then a contract will be sent back, which will need to be filled out by you and sent to us. Once the contract is received, you will need to go to the Pay Fees page, and follow the instructions there. Once the fee is received, the dog is yours. You will get an email regarding transportation, and you will need to pick up your dog at the transport location.
How do I foster/sponsor?
The foster application is located on the Adopt~Sponsor~Foster page. Fill it out there and hit submit. Once we get the application, we must check all the references, and will call you for a phone interview and possible home check. You will get a response within 24-48 hours (depending on how quickly your vet and references call us back). Once you are all set up, transport will be set up to get your new foster dog to you.
The sponsor form is also located on the Adopt~Sponsor~Foster page. You can use any of the donate buttons located on our site, then just fill out the Sponsor form so we know who to apply the money to! If you want it to go to the general fund, to be used for any dog, please just write "ANY" in the dog name space.
Where is the adoption/foster/sponsor application?
All these forms are located on our Adopt~Sponsor~Foster page.
What does fostering mean?
When fostering a dog for us, you basically give the dog a place to live until it is adopted. It does not cost anything to foster a dog. You do not have to pay sponsoring fees to foster a dog. Dogs end up in foster care when they are sponsored, but not adopted.
The only time a foster would be asked to sponsor a dog is if they want to foster a specific dog that has not yet been sponsored. Sometimes people want to foster a specific dog on the site which has not been sponsored. In a case like this, the foster home either has the option of waiting to see if the dog is sponsored before it's PTS (put to sleep) date, or sponsoring the dog themselves. We would NEVER "force" a foster home to sponsor a dog. It is your choice. We always have dogs that have already been sponsored and need a foster home (please see our section of the Urgent and Available Dog Page entitled "dogs that need foster homes"). The choice to sponsor and foster is one that you and only you can make. Again, if you choose one of the dogs that is already in need of a foster home, then it will not cost you anything to foster. The adoption and transport fees have already been sponsored by a wonderful person!
You must provide the dog with love, exercise, food, etc. The foster parent is responsible for food, treats, over the counter meds, etc. We are responsible for all medical care. Any and all vet appointments for fosters must be approved by us first!! Any potential adopters must go through our process, and fill out our adoption application and contract. Meet and greets and/or home visits MUST be approved by us first. The foster homes do not have permission to set these things up before getting the ok from us first. This is VERY IMPORTANT. The fostering time period depends on the dog, some dogs require a foster for a few days, and other require a few months. Please be prepared for either, if you wish to foster. You will be responsible for getting the dog to and from transport.
How much is it to sponsor a dog?
Any amount helps when sponsoring a dog; however, in order for a dog to be pulled from the shelter, we would need to have the entire fee... $275 plus transport. We do not have the money to pull every dog, as much as we wish we could, so we need their entire fee to get them saved. When sponsoring, we just ask $100 transport, so the total cost to sponsor a dog, get them to safety and into a foster home is $375. This covers everything... pull fee from the shelter, all vetting (shots, fecal test, deworming, spay/neuter if applicable, heartworm test if applicable, microchipping, health certificate) and transport.
What does "MUST BE SPONSORED TO BE FOSTERED" mean?
If a dog's bio includes the phrase "MUST BE SPONSORED TO BE FOSTERED" it means that the dog is still in a shelter, and cannot be sent to a foster home until someone sponsors the pup. As explained above, we would love to be able to pull every dog that we post on our site, but this is not possible. We run solely on donations, and just do not have the money to pull every dog we post. If a dog still has this phrase in it's bio, it means that you cannot ask to foster the dog. The dog is still in a shelter and cannot be sent to a foster home. When a dog is sponsored, it will be moved to the Dogs Needing Foster Homes section of the site, and will read "SAFE, NEEDS FOSTER OR FOREVER HOME" in it's bio. These dogs have been sponsored and pulled from the shelter, and are just waiting until a foster home is available to take them.
What happens to a sponsored dog?
If a dog is marked as urgent, and someone sponsors the dog, they are pulled from the shelter, given the vet care they need, and sent to a boarding facility until a foster home becomes available. When the dog is later adopted, the fee that is collected goes back into the Urgent Dog Fund, since the dog has already been paid for. Some people believe that this is "double collecting" a fee. However, a dog cannot be pulled unless they are paid for (sponsored or adopted). Once a dog is sponsored and safe in a foster home, we cannot give a dog away. Terrible things happen to free dogs. Our solution to this problem was to collect the fee again, and send it directly into the urgent dog fund. This way, the funds help with vet bills, pulling urgent dogs that do not get sponsored (usually moms and pups), etc. In essence, we are collecting a fee twice, but it goes DIRECTLY back into the dogs. There is no money made on our dogs. We are all, to be honest and frank, poor people. All of our time and efforts, as well as money, goes into this rescue. I wanted to be blunt with this question so everyone understand why we do it, and how it works.
Where are you located?
We do not have a physical shelter. Any dog marked as "URGENT" is still in a shelter down South, in either North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, or Kentucky. Any dog marked as "In a Foster Home" is in a foster home, obviously. Our foster homes are mainly in New England, but are located from North Carolina to Maine.
Can I come see the dogs?
Again, we do not have a physical shelter, so there is not a central place to meet the dogs.
Any dog that is in a shelter cannot be seen prior to adoption. Most of the shelters we pull from do not allow individuals to adopt, you must be a partnered rescue to take their dogs. Due to this reason, only a rescue can see and pull dogs from them. Any dogs that are in a shelter can be transported to their forever homes.
If a dog is listed in a foster home, and you are willing to drive to the foster home, then of course you can meet the dog prior to adoption. A meeting will need to be set up between the adopter and the foster home, and an application will need to be in and approved before a meeting will be possible.
How does transport work?
HSO hires an outside company to transport our dogs. They make the trip, picking up all dogs that are being transported that week, and bring them to their designated transport locations. Transport fees are in place because our transport is NOT volunteer. We hire a professional transport company that must be paid; this is their job. With the volume of dogs that we transport weekly, and the many different places they go, it is not feasible to put together a volunteer transport.
Where do you transport to?
We transport from the shelters all the way up to New England, and can pretty much stop anywhere along the way. We can transport to states like DE, PA, VA, NY, NJ, and New England. If you live in New England you can adopt from any state, but we have transport locations in CT and NH. You can adopt from any state in New England, but you will (for the most part) have to pick up in those two states. We might be able to make an exception if we have more than one dog going to a state, or someone who does not drive, but this is the norm.
Why do you charge a fee?
This is the question we get asked most often. We charge a fee, simply put, because we have to. The dogs that we save come from high kill shelters, and normally have no vet work done whatsoever. We must pull these dogs from the shelter with no vet work and no anything, vet them, board them for quarantine, and transport them. Here is a breakdown of our fees:
Adoption fee: Varies by dog, but transport is now included!
$15 - $30 Pull Fee per Dog
$50 Health Certificate (Legal requirement for inter-state travel, require a complete exam and state documentation. This is not passed on to the adopter, we keep it for our records)
$30-$50+ Shots
$10-$20 Microchip (depends on what shelter dog comes from, may not be microchipped)
$10-$15 Fecal Testing
$15-$30 Dewormer (we use the BEST dewormers and proactively prevent giardia)
$30+ Heartworm Testing
$90-$150 Spay/Neuter (or certificate) - DOES NOT INCLUDE PUPPIES UNDER 6 MONTHS OF AGE (spay/neuter contract will apply)
$15-$30 External Parasite Control
$5-$20+ a day for Quarantine Boarding
$400 - $1000 to treat Heartworm if the dog is positive, sometimes more
As can be seen, the fee that we ask (which is normally $275), is well below what the dogs actually cost us. We try to keep our fees as low as we possibly can, given the work that the dogs need to have done. Also, any dog that is pulled from a shelter MUST have all of these things done before they can legally leave the state.
The above prices are a GENERAL list. Some shelters cost more for pull fees, some vets cost more than others, some puppies are extra for transport... it all varies depending on the shelter and the dog. Again, the above prices/list is a generalization. Not all dogs come with everything listed. It all depends on the shelter.
Any dogs that are listed with a fee greater than our normal $275 are probably puppy mill rescues. These puppies come from a lot farther away, and need a special transporter to bring them to their forever homes. This is more expensive than normal transport. Also, the puppies usually cost more to pull, and more to vet. We have to raise the fee, or we cannot pull them. We absolutely do NOT "jack up" our fees because they are "designer dogs." It just happens that most of the puppy mill rescues ARE "designer" dogs, due to the nature of the thing. Puppy mills would not have mutts, or else they wouldn't be a puppy mill! Our adult puppy mill rescues also usually need more vet work than most. The raised fee for the puppy mill puppies helps us to save the older dogs, as well.
We often get questions asking us why we don't just pull them and let the adopters take care of things like shots, external parasite control, spaying/neutering, etc. Legally, dogs can not travel to a different state without having these things done.
Will you lower the fee?
We get this question a lot, too. People email us, and say that finding a great home is more important then getting the money, so we should lower the fee depending on the situation. Simply put, again, we cannot do this. We are not funded by anyone, and rely solely on donations. Without the fee for the dog, the money is not there to pull, vet, and transport. We wish we could give everyone who wants a dog a new friend, but this is just impossible.
Why do I have to pay the fee before adoption?
As stated above, we cannot pull, vet, and transport a dog without the funds to do so. If an adopter does not pay before adopting, we cannot save the dog. The money must be received before the adoption, so we have the money in hand to pay the shelter, vet, transporter, etc to save the dog.
How much is the transport fee?
Our transport fee is now included in a dog's adoption fee.
Do you work with any shelters out of the South?
We definitely do. We will help any shelter that needs our help. We have pulled dogs from the Hartford City shelter before, as well as a few shelters in New York. We like to help wherever and whoever we can, so the more exposure these dogs get, the more a chance of them being adopted.
Does my new dog have to be spayed/neutered? Why?
YES. If you adopt a dog from us, they will already be fixed. The only exception to this rule is if you are adopting a puppy under 6 months of age, or if the dog could not get a slot to be fixed before transport. For the latter situation, a spay/neuter certificate will be ordered, and your dog will have to be fixed when it arrives. For the puppies, you will need to sign a contract stating that the dog will be fixed by 6 months of age. Yes, we do check up on these. All dogs that come through us MUST BE FIXED!!
We are pulling dogs from high kill shelters, due to an overpopulation problem. We are huge advocates of spaying and neutering, and do not support breeding or puppy mills. Millions of animals are dying daily due to overpopulation, why would you want to bring more animals into this world when that problem is present?
Our dogs must be fixed because it seems rather backwards to save a dog from being gassed, due to overpopulation, only to let them make more puppies!
Do you take in heartworm positive dogs?
Yes! We believe that any dog should have a fighting chance at life, regardless of if they are heartworm positive or not. If we take in a heartworm positive dog, it WILL be treated, either prior to adoption, or if the adopter prefers, the dog can be treated after adoption. Either way, we pay for the treatment.
Do you take in special needs dogs?
Yes! Again, we believe that any dog deserves a fighting chance. We have taken in 3 legged dogs, blind dogs, deaf dogs... and found them all great homes. Just because a dog has a disability does not mean it should be put down, when there are people out there to love them!