As Teddy and Katie snuggle against their caretaker Cece Allen, the difference between the two golden retrievers is stark.
Before coming to Emerald Coast Golden Retriever Rescue, a thin, flea-ridden Katie chewed her itchy tail bare and her teeth down to points on a metal object.
“It’s heartbreaking to see what people will do to them,” Allen said.
Groups such as Golden Retriever Rescue take in pets from owners and shelters. Many rely on a network of pet fosters and volunteers to care for their new charges and address any health or behavioral issues in hopes of finding them a “forever home.”
About 20 pet rescues and shelters serve Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties. Some specialize in a particular breed or animal, while others take in pets slated to be euthanized.
See a photo gallery of some foster pets. >>
With no organizations to oversee them, the rescues depend on their members and the public to report any problems with a pet or caretaker.
“The good thing is that if we try hard enough we can locate a rescue that can take a pet that we might not otherwise be able to offer for adoption,” said Dee Thompson, director of the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society.
Problems can snowball
The unregulated status of rescues was illustrated earlier this month after225 cats were seized from the Kirkham Kattery Rescue in Milton. Two days later, almost half of the cats had been euthanized after veterinarians determined their health was too grave.
Complaints about the rescue had been made to Santa Rosa County Animal Services, but the agency’s lack of legal authority prevented quicker action.
PAWS sent dozens of cats to Kirkham Kattery Rescue for about a year to before stopping in February. PAWS employees never saw anything questionable in that time.
“Things can change so rapidly in a small rescue’s world,” Thompson said.
In a rescue or shelter with a lot of pets, things can snowball, Thompson said. An illness or personal issue can cause a lack in oversight of the animals, which in turn can lead to a rash of problems.
“The general consensus is that we want to get the number of animals euthanized down,” Thompson said. “The only way to continue is for people to keep spaying and neutering pets. We continue to use the rescues to give us a bigger group of people to send pets to.”
PAWS uses many animal rescues to give pets a better chance at finding homes, Thompson said.
PAWS sends animals only to rescues with a 501(c)(3) status, she said. Depending on the rescue’s location, PAWS checks with the local animal control, sends someone to look at the facility or speaks with someone who has been there.
PAWS tries to send rescues adoptable pets that don’t meet its criteria for adoption.
Breed-specific rescues have more experience with their animals’ behavioral or health issues, Thompson said. They also reach a wider network of people.
“The rescues are just very, very important,” she said. “It’s just also important that if something changes, rescues talk to the public and the shelter and reach out for help.
“As much as the public is appalled when something goes wrong, they would help if someone asks for help before anything goes wrong.”
The challenge of fostering
Teresa Willis cried almost every day for the first six months she fostered pets, sad for the day her new charges would leave.
“But then I realized that ‘hey, you’re providing a temporary stayover like for a friend,’ ” said Willis, one of the directors of Compassionate Animal Rescue Team that serves Northwest Florida. “They are going on to a happy second chance in life.”
Compassionate Animal Rescue fosters pets from high-kill shelters and finds them a home or a place at a no-kill shelter, Willis said.
Its 13 foster homes are visited periodically, and it also checks on the pets at adoption events. Even if the foster parents can’t make it to an event, someone will pick up the pets to taken them there, Willis said.
The number of pets Compassionate Animal Rescue Team sends to foster homes depends on the caretaker’swishes and the size of the home, she said.
With their foster network, the organization has saved 367 pets since it began in May 2012, placing 281 in approved “no-kill” rescues and 44 in “forever homes.” About 42 are in foster care now.
Rescued Rescuers primarily takes in dachshunds, although it’s accepted other small dogs as well, said founder Dawn Michael.
Finding a pet foster is always a challenge, Michael said. The rescue has between 10 and 20 fosters at a time.
People are afraid they’ll become too attached, she said.
What they don’t realize is that many of those dogs will die in shelters, Michael added. Most of the rescue’s fosters are out of time in full shelters.
“We can only help as many dogs as we have the space for,” Michael said.
It takes a special person to become a foster, she noted. It is work, but the rewards of saving a dog make up for it.
“We put our heart and soul in (these dogs),” Michael said.
Focusing on the good
Walking through an animal shelter always hurts Terri Bondi. Seeing the 50 or 60 pets vying for a home and knowing she can only take a few is heartbreaking, said Bondi, founder of UnderDogs, a rescue in Mary Esther.
The rescue has about five reliable fosters, Bondi said. UnderDogs tries to keep only 20 or 30 pets in its network, but an influx of puppies has ballooned that number to 50.
UnderDogs has taken everything from birds to dogs. Bondi herself has about 16 foster animals at her home.
She has been fostering pets for nine years. UnderDogs, has taken in mainly shelter animals that are out of time or deemed unadoptable with their behavioral issues or injuries.
She’s seen almost everything — pets that have been shot, starved or tormented, or are disease-ridden from neglect.
“I think you have to be like somebody who runs an ambulance or emergency response,” Bondi said. “You have to develop a callous to the sadness of it so you can deal.”
A few years ago, the feeling nearly overwhelmed her. The rescue began taking in too many pets, and she spent much of her own money trying to nurse them back to health.
It’s easy to get frustrated and want to try to save more pets than you can handle, Bondi said.
The rescue has since scaled back.
Bondi is always in debt, but she has worked out a payment plan with her veterinarian.
She’s always reminding herself to see the successes in her work.
“You have to focus on the ones you are taking and just hope that eventually, down the road, people will sterilize and there will be less animals in need,” Bondi said.
TO LEARN MORE: Visit the Emerald Coast Golden Retriever Rescue website at www.ecgrr.com; PAWS’ website at www.paws-shelter.com; Rescued Rescuers at www.werescuedogs.org; and Compassionate Animal Rescue Team and Save UnderDogs on Facebook. All of the rescues are looking for pet foster homes.