20/01/2025
🙏🏻PLEASE READ IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE DOGS
This is a long read, but it is very important with all of the comments flying around on our posts. Please speak up to anyone who continues to spread inaccurate information about our rescue or the county shelter. Direct them to this post. We need to provide clarification for a few things that have come up with Rico’s case. We are seeing a pattern of misunderstandings that can cause damage to people and places, unnecessarily.
-County animal shelters like the shelter Rico came from are sad. They are full of government workers who are underpaid for the amount of responsibility that is expected of them. They have to follow protocols beyond their control. People are constantly dumping their animals there or in the streets where they eventually end up there as strays. There’s not enough homes for animals (especially not enough responsible homes). With the amount of dogs who aren’t spayed because of irresponsible dog owners, people who can’t afford these expensive surgeries, or because of people who think their dog should experience “motherhood”, dog overpopulation is a true crisis. County shelters only have so much space in each facility. There’s only so much money given from the state. They have to make hard decisions with the unbearable constraints they have. The people who work there also cry when hard decisions are forced to be made. Being the person to make these decisions is even harder. They get bashed continually for something that isn’t their fault. The decisions they make are upsetting, but these people aren’t to blame as a whole. Yes, there are people in every job who are incompetent and need to be called out. This was not the case with Rico. We were provided a thorough summary of each day they had Rico in their care. They did everything they could to treat him, after getting an upper respiratory infection from a very difficult virus or bacterial issue that is commonly found and almost impossible to eliminate, when a bunch of dogs are together in one space. Even with an immediate Bordatella injection, it’s tough to prevent. The county shelter’s clinic used two different antibiotics on Rico, and an injection for comfort. They begged rescues to take him via urgent emails. No rescue took on his case until he was listed to be euthanized, because he wasn’t recovering and no rescue offered to take him prior. Rescue are receiving hundreds of emails daily of urgent cases all over the place. We take on as many as we can. By the time we rescued Rico and brought him into our care, though we didn’t know this until today, we learned that he had something much more severe going on: Heart Failure. This is a genetic condition that is not curable. Especially when a dog comes in as an advanced case. The county shelter only had him in their care for a very short period of time. Once we picked him up from the county shelter, we immediately brought him to the ER clinic. We treated him for what they initially discovered: Pneumonia. Once his chest cleared up and X-rays were redone, the ER discovered that his heart was giving out, because of a genetic defect. Nothing could have saved him from the time he came to the shelter in January to today. No one knew until today how far gone this was.
-For the people getting upset that we don’t sit on our social media platforms, providing customer service and updates all day, every day:
Imagine your life right now. Most of you work full time jobs to support yourself and your family. Most of you have families & pets to care for. Especially all the time spent on children. Most of you have hobbies and the need to relax and decompress from all of your responsibilities. Imagine adding in to that the incredible responsibility of saving animal lives as a rescue organization. An operation requiring daily care of unadoptable animals in a six acre sanctuary, because you don’t believe in giving up on them, like many do. Management of the hospice dogs in your home that are owned by the rescue (plus your own pets). Management of over 100 dogs not cared for by you physically, but by fosters who you have to manage, keep 24hr communication with incase something is needed or an emergency occurs, provide ongoing supplies, scramble when fosters want to quit. Management of ALL the operational work that is needed to run a rescue: pay bills, go to vet appointments, visit homes, answer hundreds of messages per week (coming in from emails, FB messenger, text message, voicemail), manage social media, do photo shoots for dogs to help market them for adoption, fundraising and adoption events, rescue paperwork, interviewing and screening fosters and adopters, accounting, patrolling our social media for scammers, the list is endless. We do all you do plus running a VOLUNTEER rescue. None of us get paid. All the money goes to the dogs. There’s only a few of us running this whole operation. We pride ourselves in the fact that we do a really good job, considering the constraints. Our dogs are well cared for and are loved by very responsible people. Yes we chose this lifestyle. That doesn’t mean it is easy or that we can do everything perfectly all the time. We spend every bit of our free time and many times sleep time to meet the needs of this rescue. A rescue that we didn’t have to create. Think of all the lives that wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for volunteer rescues. Before you complain about our lack of immediate feedback on social media, think about all of the above. We deserve some grace. We are doing good so the lives you feel passionately for have a fighting chance. Remember that. Today we received an email with the new estimate. The second we received this we posted, because so many people had not honored their pledge. Sometimes it’s like pulling teeth to get certain people to follow through with their promise to pledge. It takes a considerable amount of time to try to collect pledges. It’s a tedious process, but very much needed. Please realize that a pledge is not funding in our pocket immediately. We couldn’t start asking for those pledges to be honored until we had Rico in our custody. It would be unethical. Our director had to use her own personal credit card to fund the deposit, until money started rolling in, after the update was announced. Many of the people who pledged then turned their pledge into a physical donation, because we proved we had Rico via pictures. Today was a very unfortunate day. While our director was working, she received a voicemail from the vet clinic, which she immediately called back. Though she cannot do rescue work while working, it was possible that she could be on call for the vet clinic. They shared the unfortunate news that he went into cardiac arrest and was dying. They made the medical decision to euthanize him, so he wouldn’t suffer through his death. After the devastating call, she had no way to stop the responsibilities of her career, to call the helpers like us who operate the page, until the second she was finished. We did not know that Rico had passed away, and were just doing our job of posting updates, which was the update of a new estimate we noticed eventually, several hours before he went into heart failure. Yes, we posted after he was euthanized, but we had no idea, because our director was working and had no possible chance to contact us. Once she finished, we then updated everyone. Someone called the clinic to make a donation. This is how they found out the information of Rico’s passing before our director was able to contact us. The vet clinic handed out this information and someone ran with it, didn’t follow through with the donation, and blasted us on our page. This then led to a viral string of comments, making people question us, and sharing misconstrued information. We then had the added task of doing damage control (which just takes us further away from our main responsibilities). People assumed we were being sinister or lazy, which is not the case. We know how much these cases mean to everyone. We all grieve as a community when a dog passes.
-Just because a dog passes, doesn’t mean the clinic throws out the bill. They are a business. They provided two days of care for Rico, which we are responsible for paying, regardless of the outcome. Though the prices of emergency clinics are unbelievable and very questionable, we have no choice but to pay. There are limited options for dogs who need around the clock intensive care. Many people have either verbalized that they’re not honoring their pledge, because he died, or may quietly not honor. This is a devastation to our organization. It’s only hurting us because we have a big bill to pay. Any funding we don’t receive will come out of funds from another important area of our rescue. It’s just hurting our dogs. When you make a promise to an organization, that organization is relying on you to come through, regardless of the outcome. Your character should be in question if you feel otherwise. Your actions take a toll and put you in the same category as all the irresponsibility in humans that we see in the rescue world. All irresponsibility that affects animals in some shape or form, and the people who fight for them on a daily basis.
The next time there is something in question, please come to us first before you blast our page. You are only hurting the dogs at the end of the day by tarnishing important organizations and the work they do. So many fantastic rescue organizations shut down because of the constant exhaustion from keyboard warriors and the behind the scenes emotional hardships of never having enough financial support and watching animals suffer for it. Before you act, remember that it’s rare to find dedicated volunteers who want to continue month after month, year after year. Reason being, people realize how much sacrifice is involved, and not everyone is able to handle that. We understand. It’s a lifestyle and exhausting. Volunteers who stay in the game, through all the good and the bad, through all the devastation and emotional tolls, these people are gems in our community. They deserve more than assumptions. Please question us if you ever have a concern. It’s usually an innocent explanation. We need everyone to keep supporting us to keep saving lives. Without our community, we are nothing.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you to all the people who have helped us fight to save lives. Rico’s situation was very unfortunate. Please remember all the success we have had together as a community and rescue throughout the years. We have saved so many lives together. Ones who are living happily ever afters. We love you all. ❤️
Sincerely,
The Pittie Party of Central Florida
