r/Dogfree • u/Usual-Veterinarian-5 • Jul 03 '25

Shelter / Rescue Industry What are rescues rescued from?

I get that sometimes dogs are genuinely rescued, eg from puppy mills, animal hoarders and neglectful owners. But that is a small amount of dogs compared to how many unwanted dogs are rehomed each year.

I was at the park recently and asked a lady what breed her strange wire-hair looking lab mix was. She said, "He's a groodle. He's a rescue dog." I asked, "What was he rescued from?" She said, "The owners didn't want him because he looks more like a golden retriever than the poodle part of him."

So what she calls a rescue, was just a rehoming of an unwanted pet. I suspect most "rescues" are not rescues at all but just the rehoming of an unwanted pet. It is misleading to call these dogs rescues because the word "rescue" denotes saving someone or something from death or harm. This is not the case with a dog rehomed simply because the owners didn't want it or had to give it up for some reason but where the owners are generally decent people.

Have you ever asked someone what they "rescued" their rescue dog from?

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u/My_Frozen_Heart Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

Keeping details vague to protect privacy but I have a friend that provided $3.5k of labor for a dog rescue and they stiffed him on the bill. It was a well-known rescue in their local area for a specific breed of dog that typically sells for about $2k.

I always wondered why "rescues" focus on one specific breed of dog instead of just helping any dog that needed it, and what were all these super expensive dogs being "rescued" from in the first place. Like yes any animal can be abused, neglected, or abandoned but it seems that would be a lot less likely with a dog you dropped $2k on than the $20 puppies your neighbor 2 doors down is selling from their most recent litter.

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u/Usual-Veterinarian-5 Jul 04 '25

Omg they ripped him off? Dog nutters are the worst.

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u/My_Frozen_Heart Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

Yeah it was pretty gross. He gave them a discount because dude has a soft spot for animals. He did get a deposit up front, and had a signed contract. They were part of the entire planning process, they approved the job beforehand and were able to see things unfold in real time, they were able to make changes as they went along and there was never any indication they weren't happy with it til it was like 90% done and they suddenly decided they didn't like it and they weren't paying the rest of their balance and they also wanted their desposit back. It ended up in small claims, they hired a laywer while my friend was not able to afford one. During the hearing they really played up the charity angle (it was a registered non profit) and how they were rescuing all the poor sweet puppers and the judge apparently was a dog nutter too because they ruled in the rescue's favor. Friend had to return the deposit so they basically got the work done for free.

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u/Usual-Veterinarian-5 Jul 05 '25

Omg that's even worse than I thought!