Sub Question #1 – What is a rescue dog and how are they different from puppy store dogs?

First you might be wanting to know before I get started, what is a rescue dog? According to Wikipedia, the definition of a rescue dog is, “a dog that has been placed in a new home after being abused, neglected, or abandoned by it’s previous owner.”

I want to tell you a little more about the comparison between a rescue dog and puppy store dogs, so here it is. Some differences between a rescue dog and a puppy store dog is that puppy store dogs cost much more than rescue dogs. Rescue dogs can cost two hundred dollars up to five hundred dollars, while most of this money is for the actual rescue organization so they can keep on rescuing more dogs and provide them with necessary, medical care. While that’s the cost of rescue dogs, a puppy store dog can cost over a thousand dollars! Another difference is that rescue dogs usually come from shelters or they are stray dogs and puppy store dogs usually come from puppy mills or as others may know it, puppy farms. Let me tell you a little bit more about animal shelters. There are two different types of animal shelters.

First is a high kill animal shelter. High kill animal shelters are absolutely dreadful because most of the animals they get, they kill in a certain amount of time.

Isn’t this just shocking? Way over half of these animals are being killed!!!!

Next comes the other type of animal shelter, the wonderful one. The other type of animal shelters are organization that rescue any type of animal and then wait until they find that animal’s forever home. This is the shelter that you want to get your dog from. These shelters are much better than the other ones. You also might be wanting to know what a puppy mill is. A puppy mill is a place that takes dogs and makes them get pregnant, and then they sell those babies to the pet stores. And one of the bad things about puppy mills is that they take horrible care of the dogs. They get horrible shelter, not a lot of water and food, and no love. Unbelievable right? I know.

Let me quickly show you a video of what a puppy mill looks like.

Sub Question #2 – What are the pros and cons of rescuing a dog?

Next I’m going to tell you a little bit about the pros and cons of rescuing a dog so you will be aware if you want to rescue one. One pro of rescuing a dog is that when you are buying one, you are donating money to these organazations so they can continue rescuing animals. Another pro is that you are saving an animals life. If you think about it, you are rescuing an animal who has been locked up in a shelter for a long time and now, your giving that animal a happy, free, new life. In addition, a pro is that once you rescue a rescue dog, you can learn more about them by taking care of them. There are so many other pros of rescuing a dog like spaying and neutering might be included in the adoption and your dog might already be trained well because of the organization you adopted it from, but let’s move on to some of the cons of rescuing a dog.

One con of rescuing a dog is that you won’t know the dogs past experience so you won’t know it’s personality and if it has been abused or neglected before. I can relate. I have two rescue dogs and one of them is as happy as can be, while the other one is still adjusting to our family because it had been treated horribly when it was younger. Another con of rescuing a dog is that if you are allergic to some breeds of dogs then it might be more difficult to find a dog that is good for you because with rescue dogs, you usually don’t know the breed of your dog.

Sub Question #3 – What is the process of adopting a dog?

You might be asking yourself, “If I want to adopt a dog, I need to know the process of it. So let me tell you it. First comes part one. Step one in part one is to find a dog that you want to adopt. Make sure you read all of the statistics about it like it’s age, gender, breed, and more. Step two is to go to the shelter or store that you are buying it from so you can go and meet the dog.

Next comes part two, preparing for a new dog. So the first step in part two is to buy all of the items that you might need to take care of the new dog. For example you might need dog food, a food bowl, dog toys and bones, a harness or a collar, a leash, a crate, and lastly a dog bed if you want your dog to sleep on one. The next step is to find a vet for the dog that you are going to adopt, so you can bring the dog to it when needed. This will be helpful later. Lastly, you have to make sure your house if ready and set up for a new dog, this is also known as dog – proofing your house.

After that comes part three, adopting the dog. So first you have to fill out the paperwork assigned to you in order to adopt the dog. After that you have to pay the place that you adopted your dog from for however much adopting that dog costs. Next up you have to set up a home visit with your shelter that you used depending on if your shelter tells you to do so. If they don’t tell you to do that then you don’t need to worry about this step. The final step for part three is you have to set up a time with the shelter to go get your dog that you want to adopt. Then you have to go get it.

The next part which is part four is mostly about what you need to do when owning a dog. So the first step in part four is to train the dog that you have just adopted if necessary. For step two you have to make your dog socialize with other pets. This is important because you want your dog to have other pet friends. Step three is that you have to bring your dog to the vet that you called up earlier. I told you that it would be helpful for later. And last but not least, just be patient with your dog. It can’t learn so many things at once just like us. Raise your hand if you have trouble learning many things at once. Well if you raised your hand then you can relate to these dogs.

Sub Question #4 – What are some organizations working to help rescue dogs?

You might be wanting to know some organizations as a guide on how to rescue dogs and take care of them, so let me tell you a little more about some rescue organizations.

One organization is Rescue Dogs Rock NYC. They are a non for profit dog rescue organization. Their mission is to save abused dogs, save dogs that are at risk for being killed in a shelter, and to provide loving homes to dogs. According to their website, the way they get their information out to the world is that they post stuff online and tell people in person in community events, school assemblies and more.

Another organization is the Second Chance Rescue also known as the SCR. The Second Chance Rescue is also another non for profit organization. Their mission is to reduce animal overpopulation in shelters, to rescue injured animals and make them become healthy again and more. Did you know that they rescue and give homes to about a thousand animals a year! Crazy, I know right! This is just one organization that’s rescuing a thousand dogs and by more organizations doing this, we can have so many dogs rescued. And not just dogs rescued, all animals.

A final rescue organization that we can look at is the ASPCA, which stands for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Want to know a fun fact about the ASPCA? Did you know that there the first humane society to be established in North America, and today is one of the largest in the world. Well I don’t think so. They are a giant rescue organization that is helping to rescue many animals.

Sub Question #5 – What are some bad things happening to dogs lately?

Now let me teach you about some horrible things happening to dogs lately. In the past few years, many things have been happening to all dogs that we should be stopping right this second.

One of these problems is dog fighting. Dog fighting is a sport when dogs are forced to fight each other to entertain people and the thing about dog fighting is that it is illegal but people still do it! Your probably thinking what a horrible thing, and if you are, your thinking is right. Dog fighting can cause numerous bad things like blood loss, lacerations, puncture wounds, and broken bones and in dog fights, mostly every dog gets hurt. Dog fighting happens in a fourteen to twenty square-foot pit. In rural areas, dog fights usually happen in barns or outdoor pits. But on the other end, in urban areas they can happen in garages, basements, warehouses, abandoned buildings, back alleys, neighborhood playgrounds, or even on the street!

Another one of these problems is animal hoarding. Animal hoarding happens when a owner of pets owns more pets than he or she can take care of. There are some horrible things that can happen during animal hoarding. Some of these things are animal starvation, illness, not a lot of nutrition, sanitation, shelter.

You might be asking yourself, in order to stop animal hoarding, we have to know how to look out for it. So let me tell you some signs of animal hoarding. One sign of animal hoarding is if someone owns many pets and they don’t even know how many pets they own. Another sign is if the owner’s home is deteriorated. This means that the persons house has been becoming worse. Also a sign of animal hoarding is if there is a intense smell of ammonia in the house. There are many more signs of animal hoarding but let’s get to my main inquiry question.

Main Inquiry Question

Now I’m going to talk to you guys about my main inquiry question which is, “What are the advantages and disadvantages of rescuing a dog and what can we do to make sure all dogs are being treated well?”

So for the first part of my question I talked about that earlier in the script. Just to sum it up, some pros might be that spaying and neutering might be included or your dog might already be trained well and more. And some cons might be that you don’t know if the dog is a breed that your allergic to or you might not know your dogs past experience with other owners.

To make sure all dogs are being treated well, first we can stop all of these problems that I was talking about earlier. As a reminder some of these problems is dog fighting, animal hoarding and more. Finally we can rescue dogs. By rescuing a dog, we can save a life and convince others to do so too!