Daisy is a young dog. She's of a "purebred" type. And by all accounts she's friendly and good with pets and kids. She's the kind of dog that tends to lasts mere hours in rescue... so why then is PetRescue stepping in to 'save' her?
"There are many pets that do desperately need the support of rescue groups. Those who have nowhere else to go, those with behaviour or medical needs and those saved from the pound. But I believe piloting a new approach to enable happy, healthy, loved pets to move directly to a new home without adding to the burden for our rescue organisation members is incredibly valuable, and I hope it will be a step toward our vision of a future where every pet is safe, respected and loved."
~ Vickie CEO PetRescue on the 'Home2Home' program
PetRescue has begun cherry picking surrenders and side-stepping rescue groups; taking healthy, easily-placed pets and listing them on their website themselves, rather than referring surrendering owners to rescue groups. As a result, dogs like Daisy are now PetRescue charges.... in a virtual sense.
PetRescue hasn't even met Daisy.
PetRescue's problem
PetRescue has always had a problem. In order to collect donations from the public, they must have pets to use for their fundraising.
Unfortunately for them, after a group has saved, transported, vet treated, fostered, rehabilitated, assessed, advertised, matched and adopted out a pet - and in the process committed to care for that pet for his entire life - having PetRescue come along and use that pet for a fundraising campaign for themselves, causes rescue groups to get more than a little ticked off.
Twice a year, at tax time and Christmas, PetRescue finds itself on the end of an angry rescue groups wrath, as groups complain quite reasonably about having their pets appear - without consultation - in a PetRescue fundraiser. For a web-based organsation without any pets, who wants to use pets to generate income, this is a massive problem.
In addition, each time this happens, a now furious rescue group go to PetRescue's ACNC report to find out more about them. And they find this.
The primary object of the Company is to rehabilitate orphaned, sick or injured domestic animals that have been lost, mistreated or are without owners and to reduce the number of orphaned, sick or injured domestic animal that have been lost, mistreated or are without owners that are euthanized, by rehoming those animals.
(Highlighting mine)
PetRescue has been telling the ATO and ACNC that it is an animal rehabilitation and rehoming service. Which is of course, is not - it is a website. As evidenced by its staff on its "Our People" page which is made up of;
- Three executives
- a Project Manager
- two software engineers
- a General Manager
- a Digital Marketing Manager
- a Program Coordinator
- a Digital Content Producer
- a Policy Research Assistant,
- an Online Customer Service Support
- two Customer Service Representatives and
- a Partnership Development Manager
Not a single animal rehabilitation or rehoming person to be seen. And why is this a problem? The same reason this wording is so specific;
The primary object of the Company is to rehabilitate orphaned, sick or injured domestic animals that have been lost, mistreated or are without owners and to reduce the number of orphaned, sick or injured domestic animal that have been lost, mistreated or are without owners that are euthanized, by rehoming those animals.
The ATO is very specific about which animal agencies are entitled to the tax benefits of Deductible gift recipients (DGR) status - the ability to offer a tax refund to donors who give more than $2 a year, and certain tax breaks to the organsation and its employees.
The Home2Home Program, fixes two problems in one solution... giving PetRescue access to pets that rescue groups have no claim over, for the purposes of their twice-yearly fundraising drives and it gives them a plausible example of PetRescue adopting out pets itself.
What it really doesn't do? Address a real need in rescue.
What is rescue?
The point of difference between the 'rescue' and 'sale' of pets, is purported to be that a rescue group is invested in finding each pet the right home, and is willing to act as a safety net for that pet for its entire life.
PetRescue is doing neither of these things; it's outsourced both to third-parties. They're getting the surrendering owners to do the adoption screening and choosing the new owner. They're engaging real rescue groups as 'backup' to do the follow up management, or to step in should the adoption go tits up.
At what point is this no longer 'rescue' - but a new kind of pet brokering. To take the money for a pet sale and use the pet for fundraising... but have never even met the pet? How could any reputable group think that qualifies as 'rescue'?
The unburdening of rescue of their most adoptable candidates is just yet another cynical grab for fundraising resources by PetRescue. They no longer represent the needs of rescue or pets, but only exist to benefit themselves.