More rescue that isn't

My county's animal control center has been experimenting with a program that opens animal rescue to private parties, rather than limiting it to established rescue organizations. If an animal is unadoptable due to illness or injury, an individual may pay a reduced fee and sign a contract stating that the animal will receive the veterinary treatment it requires, and be brought back to the shelter's spay/neuter clinic to be altered within 30 days, or as soon as it is healthy enough. Sometimes everything goes well and the rescuer abides by the contract, but all too often, these individual rescuers don't follow through on their commitments. At least a dozen of these private parties have brought their rescued animal to a local vet, only to abandon it there when it became apparent that the illness would cost money to treat. Some have abandoned the animal rather than pay $35 for antibiotics.

It's apparent that some of these so-called rescuers never intended to honor the contract they signed. A young woman was at the county shelter, looking for a small dog for her sister. She left with a shepherd mix puppy with an injured leg. She took them because no rescue group had spoken for them, and they were about to be euthanized. She signed the contract that stated she would provide for the treatment of their medical issues and bring them back to be altered in 30 days, but two hours later she was at PetCo trying to give the dogs away to anyone who would take them. When confronted by a county shelter volunteer who happened to be present doing adoptions, she took them home and offered them free to a good home on the internet, and sent e-mails to rescue groups begging them to take the dogs. Someone informed her that many of the vets in town will give a rescued animals a free vet visit, so the next day she took the dogs to a vet, where she was told that the puppy's injured leg was badly infected, and would probably have to be amputated. They prescribed an antibiotic and a pain killer, which cost about $100, but the young woman couldn't afford them, so she took the puppy home and left the medications behind.

Thankfully, a concerned volunteer from one of the rescue groups she had contacted (the one I volunteer with) was able to contact her and offered to come pick up the puppy that night. He was brought directly to an emergency veterinary hospital, where the diagnosis was confirmed by x-ray. The vet felt that the infection was so severe, the puppy would die of blood poisoning within a day or two if the leg was not removed immediately. He went into emergency surgery that night. It took over a week for the pus to stop oozing was from his incision, but he finally beat the infection and was able to go to a foster home, where he learned to walk and then run on three legs. About a month after his surgery, he was adopted.