Who won the rescue war??

"Who won the rescue war?" That's what my daughter asked while we were driving to school the other day . The night before she was reading over my shoulder about yet another rescue dispute made public . Without even really thinking I responded " no horses that's for sure. " I thought about her question over and over on the drive to work. While disputes are bound to happen between any business it sure seems like a lot of these disputes break out between animal rescues and in particular horse rescues or between their supporters. People from both sides spend hours even days and weeks trying to beat the other down or talk their side up. All the time and energy spent makes no sense to most sideline observers when they see two or more groups on the same side with the same goals embattled in an online war. Why is so much time and energy wasted on these arguments ? I think it has to do with competition for donors to support a particular group , as they are businesses , naturally there will always be a bit of competition. I hope most of it has to do with passion as well. Passion to help animals is a great quality but what you do with that passion is the tricky bit. You can stay up late fighting online , let your chores go while you make your point to the other rescue's side, or you could harness that passion and do something positive that actually helps horses. The horses would greatly appreciate the last option. A non-profit organization is not owned by anyone. There is no owner who can do whatever they want , it is not a private business The very reason chairties are exempt from tax is because they are doing a public service. That is not to say a non-profit cannot make a profit. They can . They have to in order to keep going unless the founders and board members cover it themselves they rely on donations. There is no federal funding or goverment money pouring in as some people think . You as a donor are in charge Nobody not even the founder has a guaranteed position with a charity. If you feel a rescue or any charity for that matter is not living up to their mission statement , acting as for profit business instead of a public service not removing bad board members or misappropriating donations you should express those concerns to the Board of Directors. In order to keep you, the donor or adopter happy the Board of Directors would be wise to listen to your complaints. They are your employees in a sense. If they don't want to change or remove Board members that are causing problems , don't allow the public to have any say on policies than they aren't really a public service and its time to move on. Find a group that listens or is more aligned with your goals or heres another option..... If you still have all that passion , time and energy and want a place to harnass it and do something good with it. Hey, give us a call. We welcome passionate horse lovers. We want you on our steering committee , on our projects committees and on our Board of Directors.We want to hear your ideas for programs and ways to help Love to help horses but can't stand something we do? Tell us about it or better yet change it with us. Don't just offer advice like ;you should do more gelding clinics. Get out there and talk to your vet about it and help us get one in your area help us find facilities. Want to start a youth group for horses and kids? Us too, but we need people to help. Want to start your own rescue, cool It's highly suggested you have experience before jumping into any business What better way to learn the ropes than to be on a committe or board member of a rescue first? Not in the area? There are horses everywhere that need a foster home and tons of opportunities to help online. We know a lot of people have time to go online we've seen the various discussions about rescue, slaughter, wild horses, etc that go on for months and do not help a single horse. There is plenty of room for anyone on our team , no matter if you have never owned a horse or have 50 . We don't care if you ride English or Western or only like horses as lawn art as long as you like helping animals you're welcome. There are so many ways to help horses that don't involve direct rescue and rehome, although we welcome people that want to help with that aspect as well. There are thousands of horses in need and they need thousands of passionate people to help. We need you , they need you. It takes a tiny bit of your time, probably less than you spend a week reading Facebook and certainly more rewarding for you and the animals. :) Email Help@backinthesaddleproject.com and join the BITS team let's help the horses the right way instead of talking about it !