Arlington-based animal-welfare advocate Debbie Marson pointed out to us that AWLA recently took a step in the right direction by simplifying the application that 501(c)(3) rescue organizations must complete in order to have a relationship with AWLA. Once this relationship exists, AWLA can theoretically transfer animals to the group (though this rarely happens.)
The original application had 50 questions, many of which were either unnecessarily tedious to answer…
– List the number of foster homes your organization had in 2007. How many in Arlington? Alexandria? Fairfax? Falls Church? Prince William? Loudoun? Other Virginia? DC? Maryland?
…or painfully open-ended:
– describe all physical, medical, behavioral, or other characteristics for which your organization would disqualify an animal from adoption
– describe how you recruit, select, and train fosterers
– describe how and by whom an animal’s care is managed, supervised, and evaluated while in foster care
– describe home visit procedure and who does home visits
Etc.
The new, simplified application has 30 questions, most of which can be answered with one or two sentences. I guess that represents progress.
But if AWLA really wants to expand the number of dedicated and capable rescue organizations it works with, it should discard the application entirely. For an established organization staffed largely by volunteers, completing the application is a frustrating and mindless waste of scarce unpaid time, while for a scam artist, it’s trivial to falsify the answers.
So what does the application really accomplish, except to demoralize and dissuade the groups that genuinely want to help?
Here’s all AWLA should need from any rescue organization that wants an affiliation:
– a link to its Form 990 filings to prove it’s a valid 501(c)(3) organization
– the URL for its website
– its policy handbook or equivalent documents
– five references from the local rescue community
Any legitimate and committed rescue organization could provide this information in minutes. No scam organization would be able to do the same. Everybody wins, especially the animals that AWLA could transfer instead of killing.
How about it, AWLA?
Baby steps, I suppose. But your ideas sure do seem like a win/win in my eyes. I hope someone over there is listening.
You know, I was thinking about this, and it seems the shelter would rather kill an animal than send it to a rescue group. I just don’t understand that thought process. Why make it so hard for the groups that WANT to take these animals. If they are worried about lawsuits or dangerous animals, a simple disclaimer should work for that. Do they think these organizations are going to harm these animals? Ridiculous.