14/09/2024
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The “real” cost of rescue
So you want to start a rescue huh?
Let’s break down the costs.
- First you’re going to need to decide if you’re going to be a foster based rescue or a shelter type rescue.
- If you’re foster based you’re going to have to find Foster’s. Let’s just assume you live in a rural community with no support so that options out the window. Plan B
- If you’re rescue animals are going to be located all under one roof in an animal shelter or home environment then you’re going to need
a.) a home
b.) kennels
c.) land
d.) a structure to house supplies
- to realistically buy land and a home and you’re looking at at least 500k depending on where your operation is located. You need enough separation from the neighbors that the dog barking doesn’t get you into trouble so let’s say roughly 5 acres.
- Kennels are roughly $400 each for the decent quality ones and that does not include a base or a roof. I have 21 outdoor kennels here so let’s just work off that figure.
- 21 x $400 = $8400 + base + Fight panels + Roof So essentially you’re looking at about 20k + for outdoor kennels. Bottom of the barrel, basic outdoor kennels. Go ahead and add another 10k++ if you want a working drain system.
- Don’t forget about heat lamps for the winter and misting systems and fans for summer. Water buckets that are chewed up daily and food bowls.
- Now let’s talk about play yards. Ideally you would have multiple so you can rotate and have more than one group of dogs out at one time while you’re cleaning kennels. Also keep in mind that dogs jump out of fencing and dig under fencing so your fences need to be strong and high and most likely lined with Hotwire if you want them to actually hold in animals. I have 2 play yards here so I’ll work off of that. One is a privacy fence that was roughly 10k++ and the other is a livestock/wood fence lined with a Hotwire system. The quotes we received for that yard were about 5-8k before we decided to just do everything ourself.
- Now you’ve got your yards so let talk about how to keep them clean and parasite free. You’re going to need to IMMEDIATELY REMOVE ALL F***S! Who’s going to do that? You’re looking at her! Or you can hire an employee but that costs more money.
- So you’re removing all of the f***s, but where does it go and how do you get it there? We use p**per scoopers and wheelbarrows and take it to a pile on the property. What about if you didn’t install the drainage system behind the kennels? How do you clean that everyday for 60+ dogs? We use a tractor. We take the f***s away from the kennels and scoop it all up with a tractor. How much does a tractor cost? About 40k if you want one like ours so add that to the list.
- Back to the yard cleanliness, you’ve removed the f***s but you have to treat your yards because that one group of dogs brought in hookworms. Now what!? Go ahead and start buying a S**T TON of dewormer (at $170 a bottle) and plan on deworming your whole crew for 5 days straight. Then do it all over again and again and again until you think the worms are gone. Oh and stock up on diatomaceous earth at $80 a bucket and some borax and hope pray the dogs don’t keep reinfecting themselves everytime they go outside to play because fecals are expensive when you’re treating 60 and driving p**p bags to the next county over to your closest vet because your county doesn’t have one.
- While we’re talking cleaning supplies, let’s go ahead and add in the cost of the Wysiwash System and tablets to keep the kennels clean, the effersan tablets to sanitize the bowls, toys, buckets and indoor crates, the bleach and dishsoap for the really awful kennels which you have daily because the dogs at your rescue don’t eat the same food everyday so they always have diarrhea, the odoban, the Rescue, the Pinesol, the 80 milllion rolls of paper towels and laundry detergent you’ll go through washing the donated blankets and towels… etc etc. Also- you will need brooms, mops, vacuums, rubber gloves, trash bags…
- Back to worms- did you know that there are an insane amount of parasites a dog can have and 99% of the dogs I personally bring in to my rescue have every single one of them!?!? Go ahead and grab the Panacur, Safeguard, Albon, Toltrazuril, Ponzuril and Pyrantel to start treating the dogs arriving with worms coming out both ends. Also you can’t forget about the monthly prevention each and every single dog will need to remain parasite free (x 60 dogs and 20 cats). But wait- you can’t buy it without a prescription from the vet so go ahead and try to find one that will put their license number on the line so you can get these meds at their cost every month. Go ahead… I’ll wait.
- Speaking of meds Let’s not forget the insane amounts of vaccines, pain meds, antibiotics, eye ointments, skin ointments, medicated shampoos and dips you’ll need for the really nasty mange cases you’ll be bringing in. You can’t administer meds without syringes and needles so add those in too! Everyone needs a HW test and all the cats need a combo test so don’t forget that! If you’re lucky enough to have a small animal vet in your county (I am not) then you’re going to have vet bills and a lot of them. Get used to being in constant debt or learn how to treat the animals yourself.
- Next item- a working vehicle. Not the cool clean sleek Range Rover you’ve always dreamed of, no, you need the biggest vehicle you can find that you can stuff the most amount of crates into because all you’ll ever be doing for the rest of your entire life is transporting animals. God help you if you get an older used one that will require maintenance because there won’t be any money for that and you definitely DO NOT want to break down with a load of 18 worm sh****ng and puking mange puppies coming back from a shelter pull so you have to get a new vehicle and make a ridiculous payment (plus insurance) so you’re not stuck stranded on the side of the road in some backwoods town trying to save somebody else’s throw away puppies. Let’s go ahead and put a price tag of 60k on that and then add in another 5k a year for commercial insurance.
- Let’s see what’s next….. oh yeah your time. Since you can’t afford employees you have to do everything yourself: congratulations you are now the Kennel Manager, Yard Cleaner, Adoption Coordinator, Marketing Director, Foster Coordinator, Groomer, Vet tech, Am and Pm feeder, Transport Coordinator, Photographer, Website builder, bookkeeper, Event planner and Fundraising Coordinator etc etc… oh and guess what- you get NO DAYS OFF! No vacation days, no sick days, you now work 7 days a week 365 days a year. You’re welcome. Whine when you’re dead because nobody cares either. You chose this life. Oh and guess what else- you don’t get paid because there’s not enough money for that.
I think the biggest cost you will experience besides all of that 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻 is the cost of human friendships.
The resentment you feel while watching your own community live “their best lives” while animals suffer is a feeling you will only understand when you decide to open a rescue. You no longer have time to do anything with anyone and even if you did it would be so limited and you’re so exhausted that it’s easier to just nap quickly until the next group Of dogs needs to be let out. NOBODY will care about these animals as much as you do and NOBODY will understand the level of devotion you dedicate to their well being until they are here working with you side by side day after day after day. You will no longer have the patience to listen to the whining about where they should take their next vacation because you won’t get one… at least for the foreseeable future or maybe not ever again. There’s nobody you can trust to come clean up the s**t of 60 dogs or get the feeding done correctly, or the cleaning done correctly so you just don’t leave. Listening to your “friends” bitch and moan about the cost of the monthly prevention or grooming needs for their 2 doodles makes your ears bleed because you have 60 depending on you to keep them fed, healthy and clean while searching for someone to open their home to them because 1.) their breeders didn’t care enough to take them back and 2.) their owners tossed them out for growling at the new screaming baby.
You literally want to pull your own hair out and cry everytime you get on your Facebook and see another person breeding and selling dogs with zero intentions of keeping up with where they end up or taking them back if it doesn’t work out. You watch the reputable breeders go out of business while the backyard breeders pop up every hour of every day oh and guess what if you’re really lucky maybe even some of your own friends will decide to have a litter of pups this year for an extra 10k spending money while you justify why your rescues are “worth” their $300 adoption fee that includes Spay/Neuter, vaccinations, HW Treatment, microchip and treatment of whatever other random injury the poor animal had when it arrived.
You no longer have anything in common with any of the people you used to like and you now see them all as selfish shallow clueless individuals you’d rather hide from then spend your time with. The other people you deal with in rescue are all just as burnt out, frustrated, frazzled and overwhelmed as you are so you’re constantly trying to not offend anyone because you need these people but also you hate the way they treat you some days. Tension is high, emotions are out of control and finding people to realistically look at the current big picture regarding the overpopulation of dogs and cats is almost impossible. Do we euthanize? Do we transport them all? Do we adopt out to anyone and everyone and just hope for the best for the animal? Do we keep going day after day or do we just stop and go back to our pre-rescue lives and pretend we don’t know what’s happening?
You see rescue doesn’t just become your job but it becomes your lifestyle. You can’t stop once you start and you can’t have a life outside of it because dogs and cats kept in pens and crates are always going to NEED YOU! There’s never enough money and even if there was temporarily, until human beings wake the f**k up and stop bringing animals into this world they have no long term plan for the money will always run out. Until more people start to care about these unwanted animals and actually do something about preventing them nothing will change! Every decision you make involves a rescue aspect from the car you buy to the neighborhood you live in. You no longer think for just yourself, you are now thinking for every animal you’ve brought into your care.
So what’s the “real” cost of rescue? I don’t know…. I guess each person involved would have to answer that themselves. I know what it’s cost me even if nobody else does and even though I will gladly carry this burden until I mentally and financially can no longer do it, I do realize it’s a burden I will most likely carry ALONE.
Ps. It’s $5 Friday again and I’m supposed to beg for money today so here I am again, asking for people to care.
Screven County Spay & Neuter Corp.
https://www.screvenspayandneuter.com/adoptabledogs
Venmo:
PayPal: SCSNSylvaniaGa
https://www.screvenspayandneuter.com/donate
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