Gambit at 15 — photo by author

Is There a Problem With the Animal Rescue Industry?

Some organizations could be harming animal rights more than helping

This is our Jack Russell rescue dog Gambit on his 15th birthday. We don’t really know if that’s his birthday: he was adopted on St. Patrick’s Day 2011 and the rescue said he was about four years old at the time. He is 15 and still going strong, healthy and happy.

When we adopted Gambit, it was a different experience from getting Badger from the regular down-home community-based animal rescue back in 2002. I tell people that Gambit came from the “dirt farm,” a rundown rural house surrounded by an acre of dusty dirt, divided between the “big dog” side and “little dog” side. The dogs had an exterior metal shade structure, but their communal food and water had more in common with a substandard cattle feedlot than with a shelter caring for dogs. I estimate there were about 200 dogs on the property.

I think the “dirt farm” was an animal rescue hoarder.

As a rescue dog of uncertain provenance, Gambit had behavior problems just like Badger did. Whereas Badger sort of ran through his behavior problems one right after the other (jumping, biting, barking, running away), Gambit had a constellation of issues, mostly fear-based, that have taken years to heal.