I've been thinking about this for a while. I try and help with paying pull fees or chip ins when I can, although I find it heart breaking to have to pick and choose among the dogs listed. And I am in awe of those of you who are here every day trying to help.
Here's my question...is it better for me to give money getting a dog out of a pound or kill shelter (paying fees or for shots, etc.) OR should I just give regularly to specific shelters and let them use the money as they see fit?

I want to help and I can only do it on a limited basis, which is best?

You have more control if you give directly to those who pull dogs from shelters or those who have dogs that have medical issues.

I'd say make a donation directly to the rescue and allow them to use the money as they feel is appropriate. For our rescue, we incur a HUGE amount of medical costs with some of our dogs (paying for surgeries - TPLO, prolapsed uterus, etc.) and having additional donations available makes a huge difference.

In the case of our rescue, we don't actually pay the adoption fee to spring pups from the shelter. When dogs come into the shelter and pass their evaluations, they're considered available for public adoption. We won't pull a dog who is available to the public - we want to give the general public every opportunity to adopt these great dogs. Unfortunately, due to space, many otherwise healthy and adoptable dogs end up on the euthanasia list. Dogs also end up on the euthanasia list for fear and aggression as well. Our rescue only pulls dogs from the euthanasia list, meaning that they either are out of time or don't meet the shelter's evaluation criteria for adoption. The program is called "New Hope," and the shelter does not charge rescues an adoption fee to "new hope" a dog on the euthanasia list.

We do, of course, pay for all medical costs for every dog that comes into rescue. That entails a spay/neuter, vaccinations, and microchipping at the very least. Many of our dogs also come to us with infections and need antibiotics, which we also pay for. Again, we also pay for major medical procedures and surgeries if the dog needs them, and those can get quite costly. We also pay to board our dogs at a local kennel - unfortunately, we never have enough fosters for all of our pups. We do get a discount because of our long-standing relationship with the kennel, but boarding isn't cheap either.

I'm not sure that other rescues operate exactly the same way we do, but based on my experience, I feel it would be better to make a donation directly to the rescue than to donate for a specific dog/purpose.

I say go with your heart! Sometimes paying a pull fee for a certain dog saves his life. It can make all the difference in the world!

I do both actually. I tend to donate cash though, to have the dog pulled instead of sending cash to a rescue.

However, I do have a habit of buying things, when they are a real steal, in bulk. I recently bought 50 large plastic dog food bowls for under $20.00, 6 boxes of Alpo biscuits for $10.00, 5 bottles of bleach for 4.00, pack of 40 large rags for $1.00, 35 Milk bone raw chews for under $10.00, 2 - 20lb bags of Purina cat chow for $12.00, 5 new medium size dog beds for about $15.00 and 24 cans of kibbles n bits for $2.40. (At different times and different stores).

I donated most of that to the last no kill shelter/rescue I sent people to for their lab. They took it all with them with a letter thanking them for their help. The adopters said when the no kill shelter/rescue staff realized there was a truck full of stuff, they nearly knocked them over to go get it.

I look at it this way. Rescue labs are safe while labs still in pounds are in danger of dying and money paid toward adoption fees and sponsoring, although not a guarantee, is much more useful to a dog in immediate need.

While money is always needed at rescues as well, and i do occasionally donate to rescues or individual rescued Labs, I always say: "Cash can safe a life, gifts can make it easier for a life saved to live better"!

I say go with your heart! Sometimes paying a pull fee for a certain dog saves his life. It can make all the difference in the world!


Agreed:)
That is a tough question. Yes, shelter fees can help save a life. But rescue groups also need help. When rescue groups are FULL and their funds are low, they CAN NOT pull more death row dogs.
So I say go with what makes YOU feel good. And thank you for wanting to help:)

From a rescuer's perspective the more money we have in the accounts the more special needs dogs we can pull. These are the dogs the shelters will most likely put down, so many times a general shelter donation will still not go to a sick or injured dog or one who is heartworm positive because their policy is to either send those dogs to rescue where the rescue funds the treatment, or they put them down because donations to the general operating fund.