It's an enormously busy time of year for rescue, with most volunteers working throughout the December/January holiday period with very little respite. Not to mention the extra pressure on the finances of rescue groups as more pets need care, and donations dry up in the new year. But do you know what else is working hard through the holidays?
PetRescue's professionally built fundraising systems, and their automated and aggressive solicitations for donations.
While you are busy saving lives, PetRescue's automated systems use your work to quietly redirect the donations you need to keep rescuing, to themselves.
Each pet you list on PetRescue, receives from between a couple - to several hundred applications. Each one of these individual applicants is captured by the PetRescue system for their use in fundraising.
Even one pet can generate dozens - to hundreds - of fundraising leads for PetRescue. Their donor lists number in the hundreds of thousands. As nothing more than a website, they generate millions of dollars annually.
PetRescue pay their directors $150k a year packages. They've hired the Director's brother, and the Director's wife into senior roles. Nearly the entirety of their funds are invested into paying staff into communications roles, to further generate relationship building strategies and communications.
Using your pets (the ones you are paying to care for) PetRescue are fundraising to pay for more fundraisers for themselves! At the same time, PetRescue contribute nothing financially to groups such as your own.
The Animal Welfare League Queensland no longer use PetRescue's services.
SAFE Perth (the largest foster-based rescue group in WA) no longer use their services.
The Animal Protection Society of WA no longer use their services.
The Dogs Refuge Home of WA and the World League for Protection of Animals have deleted their PetRescue accounts, along with dozens of smaller rescues who have all left the site in the last few months.
This Christmas, PetRescue is telling the public that by donating to them, pet lovers are somehow helping a "pound pet" escape "an uncertain future in the pound" when of course this is completely untrue. PetRescue will save no pets from the pound and a donation to them does not go to saving pets at the pound.
When all your paid staff are fundraisers, professional communicators and marketing staff, and you have none - not a one - rescue pets to personally take care of... it's very easy to have lots of resources to spend on making ever more captivating fundraising solicitations (as seen below). PetRescue is taking the frontline rescue work you are doing over the holiday season, and turning it into fundraisers to pay themselves. Rescue groups are completely outgunned by PetRescue's intensive, aggressive and increasingly targeted fundraising campaigns. In short, the fundraising machine that PetRescue has become, is now detrimental to the financial health of community rescue groups.
The solicitations below went out to your supporters through the holiday period, and continue to be sent automatically even as PetRescue staff enjoy a break. Thanks to your work, PetRescue are having a very merry - and profitable - Christmas holiday.
What can my group do?
How you can stop PetRescue taking donations intended for your pets.
PetRescue relies on individual pets being listed on their site, to generate the leads with pet-lovers they need for their donation solicitations. The best way to avoid supporting this process is to simply stop listing pets on their website.
- Talk to other rescuers and rescue groups
Start a discussion about PetRescue's practices with your rescue peers and see if you can work together, implementing local strategies, that would eliminate your need to use the website.
- Send a strong message
By deleting your account in its entirety, telling PetRescue why you've taken this action and your feelings their operations.
- Send the strongest message of all
Report your feelings on PetRescue's operations to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (www.acnc.gov.au) letting them know how you have been impacted by PetRescue's recent donation solicitation strategies. It can be done in a few clicks on their web forms.
PetRescue have publicly stated that they intend to grow their operations year on year, and to date have successfully done so. It's time for rescue groups to take back control of their financial security, and remove themselves from the website.