NBS Animal Rescue

Rescue

N.B.S. Animal Rescue is a 100% foster based canine rescue that is dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and adoption of healthy, well-balanced, dogs and puppies into loving families. Our primary goals include the rescue and rehabilitation of homeless animals in need, educating our community regarding proper pet care, and to participate in community youth outreach programs.

N.B.S. Animal Rescue has a strong working relationship with several in state animal shelters and animal rescue groups that work together to network homeless dogs facing euthanasia with rescue groups, such as N.B.S. Animal Rescue, that have open foster homes. In addition, we also take in owner surrender dogs and puppies from situations that are beyond the owners control and in the instances in which the current owner is acting in the best interest of the animal. We are a non-breed specific canine animal rescue, however, we do tend to specialize in small breed dogs and puppy placements due to our current limited foster home space.

Our rescue operation is 100% volunteer based with 100% of our available funds going to support our primary goals as listed above.

Rehabilitation/Training

N.B.S. Animal Rescue is dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and adoption of healthy, well-balanced, dogs and puppies into loving families. In order to reach this goal, N.B.S. Animal Rescue seeks the advice and expertise of qualified positive reinforcement trainers and animal behaviorists on a regular basis. Our organization believes that through positive reinforcement, consistency, patience, and the assistance of experts most canine behavioral issues can be corrected and/or successfully managed. N.B.S. Animal Rescue believes in the careful coordination of an animals routine health care, nutrition, exercise, training, and affection as a well rounded approach to animal care. All of our adoptable animals are placed in family foster homes where they are taught the basic obedience commands of sit, down, stay, come, walk nicely on a leash, and to greet strangers properly. When needed, our foster families have certified animal trainers and behaviorists to assist them in teaching and reinforcing these basic commands in their foster dogs.

Our certified trainers and animal behaviorists are on call to evaluate an animals behavior, to offer training advice and suggestions, and to perform behavior assessments to determine if an animals behavior is a danger to itself or those around it. Our goal is to rescue, rehabilitate, and adopt out dogs who will be happy, healthy, and successful members in a family living situation. This requires that our rescue be responsible and heed the advice of qualified veterinarians, certified animal trainers, animal behaviorists, and rescue/rehabilitation experts and in some cases humanely euthanize the animal in question should their behavior become dangerous to themselves, other animals, or to the humans in which they come into contact with.

Medical Care

N.B.S. Animal Rescue has a structured and comprehensive medical care procedure that all of our rescued animals go through to ensure that they are healthy and up to date on all age appropriate veterinary care. It is our organizations belief that no animal in our rescue be placed in an adoptive home until it has undergone, and passed, a thorough and comprehensive wellness exam by a licensed veterinarian and received all age appropriate vaccines and health care screenings. N.B.S. Animal Rescue has a strong working relationship with the Animal Clinic of Sterling Heights, All About Animals Rescue, and Wilson Veterinary Hospital. Detailed veterinary records, receipts, and copies of all veterinary testing reports are kept both digitally and in hard copy and a copy of such records are given to each adoptive family. All animals adopted through N.B.S. Animal Rescue have received all of the following veterinary care procedures:

• Spay or Neuter Surgery
• Microchip Insertion
• Bath, nail trim, and ear cleaning
• De-worming for internal parasites
• DHPP Vaccine
• Bordetella Intranasal Vaccine
• Rabies Vaccine (age appropriate)
• Heartworm Test (age appropriate)
• Heartworm preventative
• Flea/Tick preventative

After completing extensive research, met with several licensed veterinarians, and collaborated with local well established animal rescue groups, N.B.S. Animal Rescue adopted a mandatory spay/neuter policy in which all of our dogs and puppies are spayed or neutered prior to adoption. We feel that this is the most responsible stance our rescue can take in the fight against over population of dogs and cats in our nation. In addition, after researching the statistics on lost pets and the number of pets who are reunited with their families, N.B.S. Animal Rescue also adopted the policy that all adopted pets will be microchipped prior to adoption. We feel that together, these two policies not only greatly help to control the number of animals who end up in animal shelters across our nation, but that they also offer our adoptive families the peace of mind of a healthy and safe pet.

While all animals in our rescue are provided with the above mentioned veterinary care, some of our rescued animals require special veterinary care, surgical procedures, or additional care by a veterinary specialist. N.B.S. Animal Rescue believes that each individual animals pre-existing or developing health concerns be evaluated by veterinary professionals and a prognosis for a healthy, pain free, and happy future in an adoptive home be the primary concern. Our rescue has fundraised money to support the bladder stone surgery of one of our rescued animals and a double luxating patella surgery for another rescued animal. We believe that the animals quality of life and prognosis for a pain free future should be the guiding factor in decisions that involve surgical procedures, extensive specialist care, or the necessity of humane euthanasia.

PAWS program

N.B.S. Animal Rescue is a key supporter of the P.A.W.S. – Promoting Academics With Service Program taking place at Fitzgerald High School in Warren, Michigan. P.A.W.S. is a district wide, cross curricular approach to Service Learning related to educating the Fitzgerald Public Schools community about proper animal care, the importance of spay/neuter programs to control the pet population, and local ordinances regarding animals.

Together with community business partners, such as N.B.S. Animal Rescue, Fitzgerald Public School Students will research, plan, and implement an event to provide valuable low cost animal services such as vaccine clinics, training seminars, health expos, dog washes, dog house building events, etc. to raise animal welfare awareness and financial donations for local animal shelters. Students will use the P.A.W.S. Service Learning project as a vehicle to demonstrate to the community their knowledge in core curriculum classes such as mathematics, English language arts, science, social studies, and government, while utilizing the skills learned in elective classes such as art, music, drama, computer design, web page design, and construction courses.

Together with other local animal rescue groups, veterinary offices, and animal businesses, N.B.S. Animal Rescue provides key support in the aspects of educational information, demonstrations, lectures, real world videos and experiences, and mentoring to over two hundred students in the Fitzgerald Public School area. Our goal is to help share our knowledge of animal rescue, proper animal care, responsible ownership, and the horrors of animal abuse and neglect with the youth of our community to that they can be the voiceless animals advocates of the future.

Education

N.B.S. Animal Rescue prides itself on sharing our collective experience, knowledge, and passion for animals with each and every one of our supporters, adopters, and foster families. As a responsible rescue organization we ensure that all of our dogs are seen by a licensed veterinarian for a general health wellness exam, are current on all age appropriate vaccines, heartworm preventative, flea/tick preventative, are Heartworm negative (if old enough to test), have been properly de-wormed, spayed/neutered, and microchipped prior to being placed up for adoption. Not only do we feel that it is imperative for us to make certain that all of these health protocols are done with each and every animal that comes into our rescue, but we also ensure that this information, as well as future veterinary care expectations, are clear to all of our adopters.

N.B.S. Animal Rescue provides each adoptive family with a comprehensive veterinary record of the dogs previous veterinary history as well as a schedule of upcoming veterinary care needs for the remainder of the calendar year. In addition, we strive to educate all of our adopters of the necessity of annually vaccinating your pet, providing monthly, year round, heartworm and internal/external parasite preventatives, and ensuring that your pet receives yearly veterinary exams. Dental care, knee and patella concerns, eyesight, hearing, and mobility issues are also discussed in detail with adopters who are adopting a senior pet, with special information given regarding these issues in the form of literature and online resources. Proper socialization, positive reinforcement training methods, potty training, introducing a puppy to new members of the family, and puppy health concerns are discussed in detail with adopters who are adopting a pet under the age of 12 weeks.

In addition to educating our adoptive families, we have also made it a priority to educate our supporters and those who send in e-mail inquiries regarding our dogs about proper care for their pets. Many times when processing an application or an inquiry we will be told that the applicants current pets are not up to date on veterinary care because they “live in the country,” “never take their pets out of their home,” or for various other reasons. Our volunteers make a conscious effort to share information, educational resources, and veterinary links on the Internet to help educate our supporters regarding the dangers of not providing your pets with proper routine veterinary care. Our supporters are grateful for the information, personal experiences with dogs who were not properly cared for, and the resources and contacts we are able to provide them with in order to get their pet proper veterinary care.

While educating our supporters and adopters regarding proper veterinary care is an important goal of ours, N.B.S. Animal Rescue also prides itself on sharing information about proper canine nutrition programs, dog food analysis and grading websites, exercise, and training information as well. Our goal is to help our adoptive families offer a well rounded care and wellness routine for their adoptive canine and ensure that we are able to educate our supporters on the importance of proper nutrition and exercise as well. A comprehensive list of local veterinarians, positive reinforcement trainers, dog food analysis information, and proper nutrition pamplets and Internet resources are shared with each of our adoptive families.

Fundraising Events

To date, N.B.S. Animal Rescue has participated in three online fundraising efforts via Facebook and Chip-In to collect donations from our supporters. All three of these online fundraising events were held in order to raise monies needed for extensive veterinary care expenses for some of our rescued dogs. Lil Debbie required surgery to care for extensive bladder stones and Mason required surgery to fix two luxating patellas. In addition, our generous supporters have donated material goods such as blankets, towels, paper towel, bleach, and collars and leashes to our organization. A detailed accounting of the funds donated from our supporters via PayPal can be found in the accounting section of our application.

In the next five years, N.B.S. Animal Rescue plans to participate in several fundraisers that will increase our ability to rescue and rehabilitate homeless animals in need, educate our community regarding proper pet care, and to participate in community youth outreach programs such as the P.A.W.S program. Our projected fundraisers for the next five years include the following: a bowling fundraiser, an indoor target shooting fundraiser, a dog wash fundraiser, a returnable pop can fundraiser, an Apple IPad 3 raffle, a wine tasting fundraiser, a picnic Bark-B-Que fundraiser, several holiday pet photography fundraisers, and a CaPOOCHino day fundraiser.

Adoption Events

Our primary means of advertising our adoptable animals continues to be via online pet adoption sites such as Petfinder.com and Adoptapet.com as well as social media sites such as Facebook. Our adoptable dogs are also visible on our website for potential adoptive families to see and learn about each individual animals personality and needs.

N.B.S. Animal Rescue has a great partnership Pet Co and has adoption events at their facilities. In addition, we will apply to participate in several local pet adoption events such as Meet Your Best Friend At the Zoo held at the Detroit Zoo, Petapalooza, held anually at the Palace of Auburn Hills, and Fido Does Ferndale held annually in Ferndale, Michigan. Our participation in these well advertised, established pet adoption events will help us to reach our goals of placing our rescued animals in approved adoptive homes and educating the community regarding proper pet care.

Collaboration with other rescues and rescue efforts

One of our founding principles at N.B.S. Animal Rescue is to collaborate with local animal rescues, shelters, and animal businesses in order to form a cohesive network of resources that provide animal aid to homeless animals in need. N.B.S. Animal Rescue prides itself on having an open line of communication, a strong sense of teamwork, and a honest and respectful relationship with many of our local area’s animal rescue organizations and supporting businesses. We are always willing to work together with other like minded organizations who put the best interest of the individual animal at the forefront of their organization, operate with integrity and honesty, and share a deep rooted love and passion for rescuing and rehabilitating homeless animals.

To date, we have formed an extensive network of like minded organizations including other animal rescue groups, veterinary offices, county animal shelters, groomers, and animal trainers. Together we have shared experience, contacts, informational resources, and have supported one another during our individual efforts to make a difference in the lives of homeless animals in our nation. N.B.S. Animal Rescue is committed to fostering a strong relationship between our current rescue colleagues and building additional relationships in the future to help rescue, rehabilitate, and adopt homeless animals.