LIKE!
LIKE!
LIKE! I remember it being said in the begining that this breeder was going to be nameless until the rescue was over. Well, they are safe and now Lori can give up the name of this horrid person so we can ensure that if we buy again or hear of her breeding, we can become proactive as a group. <blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by LuckyGlider</i>
<br /><blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by JeremyLexie</i>
<br />with pics like that who would buy from her? EWWWWW
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OK guys, some of you may think I am being a buzzkill in the middle of this group hug, but I'd just like to check in on this and give another perspective. And at the bottom I am soliciting opinions and ideas on a network. My thoughts are not meant to denigrate or marginalize thehomermomma either. They are just my perspective and should not detract from any good coming out of this work.
Look, everyone involved in this initiative on the receiving end, essentially "bought" from that breeder indirectly. So don't fool yourselves.
This is one of the things that makes rescue so very difficult from an ethical standpoint when opportunities to "work with breeders" come up.
On one hand you have a breeder who wants to dump a bunch of gliders and GET PAID for it, and on the other side of the equation you have well-intentioned people who want to "save" those gliders.
In the end, these animals were purchased from a breeder by proxy. As to whether or not you characterize that as a great rescue, that is up to all of you individually to ponder.
Also, I am not shocked at all by the color of these gliders. Believe me when you run a rescue and sanctuary, you see it all.
Despite your collective shock, these gliders look to me to be in pretty good shape despite the color of their fur. They are plump, bright-eyed, and more or less in need of a decent diet, which I trust all of you taking them will provide.
Sure, it's bad they were fed cat food, but I am not seeing anything here that comes even close to the horror of what naive or abusive pet owners do to their animals before they end up *here*. I mean all kinds of malnutrition, maiming, and stuff you don't want to think about. Some stay in sanctuary, but most are rehabilitated and entirely adoptable.
To me, this great rescue initiative, while it benefits the gliders that get into decent homes, is less a great rescue and more of a retail dumping or fire sale. Here, the breeder still benefits from playing on the hearts and minds of all involved.
And while the breeder ostensibly has agreed to never, never, breed again, etc. the collective message we are sending to wanna-be breeders is: <i><b>"hey you can do a wholesale dump of gliders and the community will rise up to buy them." </b></i> So what's the risk in getting in to breeding? If you screw up, or get tired of it, someone will sound a rally cry and everyone will chip in and buy.
I kind of wish we could have talked here into just surrendering these poor animals. But since the breeder was not named, the community at large could not act as a community and put pressure on this person. Instead it became a brokered deal that let her/him "get away with it."
Like I said, not optimal.
Sadly, we are reinforcing bad behavior and the poor animals are stuck in the middle.
The transfer of animals from a Breeder under the auspices of rescue is therefore a dicey ethical problem. I am *not* saying this whole thing is "bad" nor am I saying the people involved are bad. It's just that it is one of those situations that is not optimal - because the originator of the animals still clutches a commercial gain. And *that* is bad.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have 60+ gliders here up for adoption that were just plain surrendered. And they still need homes. Now, a call to action based on a failed breeding operation - in which the breeder still wants to be paid - trumps these animals that are languishing in rescue - who are neutered, health-checked, and available for a nominal adoption fee of $50. It's a weird twist then, that an initiative such as this great rescue seemingly preempts our "normal, everyday rescue."
For example, we just took in "Charlie" a few days ago, and now, another failed hobby breeder is bringing a pair over tomorrow because the mom keeps eating the babies and "it's just too much trouble to neuter the male." In a few weeks, another pair, one an over-gromer, is coming in from Tennessee. So there you have it. The normal, constant drum beat of everyday rescue, cages filling up and them coming in faster than they go out - versus a "great rescue" in which a breeder gets paid and slinks away.
Our normal, everyday rescue is witness to many initiatives that are seen as communal rallies. While we are touched that so many people throw-in and support a rally, we are hopeful that we can all establish a steady network of rescuers so we can normalize these transactions and make all of the ad-hoc transactions more procedural and predictable - and cheaper.
Just imagine, if all of us who *want* to do rescue kind of held it all together and established rules so breeders who want to dump and run are instead faced with (transparent) unity and the pressure to surrender ill-cared-for animals.
Some of the ideas we've been kicking around include:
1. Full disclosure and transparency
2. Licensing
3. Common guidelines the "network" follows
4. Normalization of the cost of acquisition in adoption fees
I know there are other "networks" but for the most part they are failures and have devolved into ego-fueled politics and therefore no animals benefit with the exception of a few that get transferred back and forth between breeders. I have friends who have been burnt by some of these people who got stuck with all the "special needs" gliders, while a few breeders culled out the colored ones for their own gain. That to me is not a rescue network but a cynical grab for profit by people who are not really rescuers.
If any of you have ideas on what the ground rules of a truly successful, full-time working rescue network would be, I'd like to hear from you. This initiative seems to have tapped a nerve and therefore since everyone is on the subject, I'd like to glean some ideas on how to extend and normalize these activities.
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