Don't Tell me you Rescued your Dog

You will never hear me say that I rescued any of my dogs. If you ask me how I got them I may tell you that I got them through a series of events, or tell you their story, but I will never tell you that I rescued them, for the very simple reason that I did not.

When I managed a veterinary hospital in a PetSmart, part of our mandate was to make nice to all of the rescue organizations that lurked the store’s hallways and bring in new adoptees for exams. I learned several things while I was doing this work: some rescue people are nuts, some rescue people are wonderful, some dogs are beyond rescue, and some dogs just need a helping hand. I also found out that the worst thing a client could say – especially when presented with a costly treatment plan was – “he’s a rescue.”

Amazingly, many people who told me this did it to excuse the next thing that they would do which was to deny their rescued pet necessary medical care. The way, I suspect that they saw things was that they had rescued the pet, and therefore the good was already done. No need, at this point, to pony up yet more money.

Now, of course this is anecdotal, and I, of all people, reject anecdotal evidence especially if it helps defend a preferred position. I have known thousands of clients through the years, and their thousands of rescued pets, and most of the pets were treated as well-loved family members. It was only if the words, “I rescued him” were spoken out loud would things go badly.

Those words were also used to justify unjustifiable aggression or fear from the dog. They were usually followed by “he was abused”, which is an excuse for the pet to be handicapped with a disabling emotional problem for the remainder of his life. I can assure you of two things: 1. Most abused dogs do not fear people and 2. Most fearful/aggressive dogs got that way not through abuse but from lack of proper socialization as puppies, and ongoing isolation by protective adopters who do not wish their scarred dogs to face the real world. It’s tragic and unfair.

But none of these are the reason I will never say that I rescued any of my dogs. Rescuing implies two things: risk to the rescuer and that the act is altruistic. Neither of these is true of the dogs I have. I have never jumped into a burning house and rescued a dog.  Every dog I have, I have wanted. Did I buy any from breeders? No, but that doesn't make me a rescuer, it just means I'm cheap. My dogs came through various sources and homes where they did not fit in for whatever reason.

I got one dog through rescue. In fact I fostered her for the rescue and simply fell for her, but I didn’t rescue her. I wanted her and she was available. There was no risk to me and my actions were not selfless.

Does this mean that I believe you have to jump into a frozen lake and save a drowning dog to rescue it? Of course not, and rescue organizations do step up and help out pets and gain nothing for themselves; they network and put in the miles and money, and they provide a wonderful service and they do rescue pets for people like me to adopt. But that is what I did, I adopted.

I adopted from a rescue, and from the Humane Society, and from people who got in over their heads with the wrong breed, or who were trying to do right but another dog in the house wasn’t having it, or from kindly people who found dogs in the desert and knew I was looking for a certain type of dog and gave me a call. But I did not rescue any of these dogs. Even the dog I got from a shelter I didn’t rescue. I adopted her as well. Had I not adopted her she likely would have found another home, had she not, she would have probably been put down. I adopted her and a different dog was put down in her place. I chose her.

Only with pets do we routinely, “rescue”, no one tells people that their adopted kid was rescued.  I understand that the word, “rescue” brings with it an emotional reward. People who are rescuers are good people, altruistic. The problem is that wanting a dog, searching out a dog and then purchasing a dog from a rescue – regardless of the dog’s back story – is not an act of charity. I’m sorry, but you are not a hero for adopting a dog from a rescue. You are a pet lover sure, and no doubt, a wonderful person, but you are not a hero.

Why, you ask, do I even give a shit what people say about how they got their dogs or cats, why should it matter? I did have to ask myself that, because I am passionate about the use of the word ‘rescue’ and I had to examine where that comes from.

I believe that there are several layers to my antipathy towards the word. First, rescuers are people in society whom we should hold up as examples to us all. These people are firefighters, police officers, strangers who do dash into burning buildings. The word has meaning and it should remain untainted by watering down to the point where buying a dog from the pound qualifies.

Second, it seems too often to be prefaced with, ‘but’ and used to justify failings in the dog’s personality. Often these failings are extremely detrimental to the dog’s ability to function in the real world. “But, he was rescued” creates a crutch that excuses the owner from ever asking the dog to live in the real world, both victimizing the dog for life and excusing their own failures as pet owners.

There are wonderful people who work in rescue, and they do rescue dogs, and for them the word has meaning, as they end up with little to show for it but depleted check books, chewed up furniture and the joy that comes from placing a dog in it’s forever home. It is a disservice to their efforts to equate writing a check or picking a dog up off the highway to the work that they do.

Did I get some of my dogs through rescue? Sure, but I didn’t rescue them, someone else did. I just wrote the check and made them a home; and that’s enough.