General Question

dalepetrie's avatar

Would you like to help MY animal rescue organization this time?

Asked by dalepetrie (18029points) December 9th, 2008

Girlofscience had such a tremendous response to her request for fellow Flutherites to vote for the animal rescue organization for which she volunteers, that I have asked if she would mind if I ask you all to do the same for an aminal rescue organization I would like to support.

It is called St. Francis of Asisi Animal Rescue and they are located in Forest Lake, MN, a northern suburb of the Twin Cities area. I just adopted a new kitten from there less than two weeks ago, and was mightily impressed by their organization. The forms we had to fill out were very thorough, they left no stone unturned in making sure we were a good match for this kitten. We had to agree to many things such as promising not to give the kitten to anyone else, to have him seen at a vet within 2 weeks, not to have him declawed, etc., and we are held to this standard…they do occassionally check up on their adopted pets (they have already called us to follow up), and they will take the animals back if you are ever convicted of animal abuse or don’t adhere to their regulations. They took excellent care of this kitten while he was in their custody and made sure he’d had all his vaccinations, heartworm, was tested for feline leukemia, was neutered, etc. before they allowed us to adopt him. My point is, they clearly a) knew what they were doing and b) had the best interest of the animal at heart. I was very happy to adopt from them, and I found their adoption fee to be very modest (less than I would have had to have paid to have all those tests and procedures performed on a stray).

Care2, the same organization which ran this contest before, is sponsoring a new contest, where they will be giving away a total of $25,000 to shelters. The top prize is $10,000, but they have a 2nd and 3rd place prize of $1,000, and will give away $500 to the shelters which place 4th through 20th. Also, every week of the contest, they will be giving away $500 to one random shelter (they will be drawing names out of all the shelters that get 5 or more votes in that week). They are also giving away $50 pet supply gift cards to the 20 top recruiters.

Anyway, here’s the link:

http://www.care2.com/animalsheltercontest/75590/?refer=24529.08.1228848277.7357

Just go there and sign up, you can only sign up one time and there are security measures to keep you honest this time around. And again, lurve to everyone who posts saying they signed up!

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39 Answers

jsc3791's avatar

It is blocked at the office, but I’ll definitely send a vote your way this evening!

tonedef's avatar

I sent a baby vote in.

eambos's avatar

Good Luck!

augustlan's avatar

Done…hope we have an impact!

Tantigirl's avatar

I voted, and I sent the link off to some other animal lovers I know will vote too.

bythebay's avatar

All done and I passed it along.

flameboi's avatar

remember to keep the count :)

dalepetrie's avatar

Oh yes, I’ll post daily count updates. Right now its me, everyone who said they’d voted here and the 11 people who had voted before I posted. But we’re on our way! And yes, anyone who wants to pass the world like Tantigirl, you are encouraged to do so! I’ll be thrilled if we can even get 20th place or one of the weekly drawings, they deserve it!

jessturtle23's avatar

There you go.

cak's avatar

done! :)

dalepetrie's avatar

A huge thanks to everyone who’s responded so quickly. This morning there were 11 votes, I voted and now there are 23, all 11 of the others through my link. It feels good to have helped them double their number in a matter of minutes. Again, I’ll keep everyone posted. In the meantime, for those of you who haven’t seen it already, here’s the page they setup for the little guy I adopted a couple weeks ago. We changed his name from Lawrence to Oliver, but other than that, this is pretty accurate (though the pic is slightly blurry)...

http://sfaar.rescuegroups.org/animals/detail.php?AnimalID=911778

girlofscience's avatar

Added my vote! I wish you as much luck as we had last month!

jessturtle23's avatar

Aw, he is cute. Congrats on the new addition to your family. It’s really cool that they make people sign a waiver that they won’t declaw their pets. It should really be illegal in all states.

dalepetrie's avatar

I agree, Jess, a lot of people don’t realize that if it were a human that would be like taking your fingers off at the first knuckle. I sure didn’t know that until I met my wife who used to work at a vet clinic. Now we figure that furniture can be replaced, their bones can’t.

miasmom's avatar

I voted and I think it is great they are doing such a good job! Animals need advocates too!

loser's avatar

Done! Hope it helps!!!

Darwin's avatar

I actually was going to vote for a local shelter that I have really appreciated but they aren’t listed (PeeWee’s in Corpus Christi, Texas). So I voted for St. Francis.

girlofscience's avatar

@dalepetrie: There is actually now a re-clawing procedure during which prosthetic bones and claws are implanted on cats. After the operation, cats see a drastically improved mood and energy. :)

It’s $2500, but if I were rich, I would get it done for every shelter cat that had been declawed.

dlm812's avatar

My vote is in!

greylady's avatar

I also voted. I think I was number 27, but it is hard to tell for sure.

dalepetrie's avatar

Wow, I did not know about the reclawing procedure. What would be the purpose of doing it though (the improved mood and energy I presume)? My objection to declawing isn’t that they don’t have claws when it’s over (I’ve personally never noticed any long term impact on their quality of life if they are indoor cats…and I really don’t think people should let their cats outside). My main objection is that the procedure is inhumane, and the recovery is painful. I’ve had cats that were declawed (I didn’t have them declawed, they came that way), and they still claw at things, it’s as if they don’t even know. If they don’t actually need to hunt or climb, if they’ve already gone through that horrific procedure, I personally would be adverse to putting them through ANOTHER procedure to put the claws back on. But perhaps you know something I don’t? I’d really have to know a LOT more about it before I’d consider putting any of my cats through a surgery…yeah if there was a real benefit to their quality fo life and I could afford it, I’d do it, but this seems like it could be iffy. Do you have any links to info about the procedure, I’d be fascinated to read about it. Thanks.

jsc3791's avatar

Ok, I have placed my vote! Best of luck!

dalepetrie's avatar

Started yesterday with 11 votes, and now at 32. Thanks again to all who voted!

girlofscience's avatar

@dalepetrie: One person recruiting votes (you) can only do so much.

In order to win last month, we had at least 100 of our volunteers recruiting votes by sending out emails to family members and friends. I would suggest you contact the animal rescue organization and let them know about this contest. Tell them that you had a friend who won it last month and how beneficial the $10,000 has been for us, and that you really appreciated their adoption process and think they deserve a similar winning. Let them know that we were able to win (despite being incredibly behind at first) by having all of our volunteers recruit votes.

dalepetrie's avatar

I kind of figured you had a lot of people recruiting. I’ve got my wife recruiting her people (many of whom are animal lovers and who she is encouraging to spread the word) via her facebook as well. We did note that the lady we dealt with at the shelter has voted, so we know at some level they are aware of it, but that is a good idea, to let them know that they have a shot at it if they get all their volunteers to recruit. I have other ways I’m intending to recruit as well, as does my wife, I’m trying to get it to snowball however I can, but I do think the shelter itself should be aware that this is something worth doing. I will contact them today, thanks for the tip.

dalepetrie's avatar

I have emailed the shelter with all the details. It doesn’t seem too unreasonable to think they could get one of the top 20 spots, when you look right now, the top vote getter has 1,105, and the #20 has 305…my spreading the word alone got them from 11 to 33 votes in 24 hours. Hopefully they’ll take full advantage of this opportunity.

mac316's avatar

Done, my cat insisted that I hurry!

damien's avatar

What’s a valid zip code like? It doesn’t like my UK postcode :(

Good luck.

dalepetrie's avatar

Zip codes are 5 digits in the US, whenever I need a generic zip code I just use 90210. Almost any 5 digit number will work.

damien's avatar

:) Cheers. I realised as I posted that where I can get a real zip code. I now live here. It’s a nice house. Gets a bit busy at times, though.

dalepetrie's avatar

Great house. Just make sure you don’t throw stones….

fireside's avatar

Good luck!

dalepetrie's avatar

We’re up to 50 votes, not a bad start. I have tapped into the Askville community as well, and have communicated to all the people I know via email. I’m personally tapped out. But I did email the shelter to let them know I was doing this and to encourage them to have each and every volunteer tap into their social networks. I told them I knew the winners of the last contest and that this is what worked for them. We’ll see, if they take my advice and run with it, they will probably get something out of it, if they don’t, then it’s really their missed opportunity.

Trustinglife's avatar

Done!
And Dale, your cat looks adorable.

dalepetrie's avatar

Thanks Trustinglife. Yes, Ollie is a very cute, sweet and adventurous little guy. I was filling the bathtub yesterday and he decided to go for a swim. He fits well into our crazy house!

Up to 52, slowing a bit, but hopefully the shelter will get my email and start getting their people to recruit!

dalepetrie's avatar

An update, up to 62, and most of the 10 new votes (if not all) seem to be coming from people recruited by one of the volunteers, so perhaps it will kick in yet.

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