Shelters and rescue groups share many goals. Why do they clash over details?

Michelle Riley/The HSUS

When Ronnie Zappala, president of Pug Rescue of Central New York in Syracuse, was first getting started in the rescuing “business,” she reached out to local shelters by sending them flyers introducing herself and directing them to her website.

The first call she got from the Front Street Dog Shelter in Binghamton, N.Y., was about a pug beagle mix. “[The shelter contact] sent me a picture and said, ‘I have a pug for you.’ I wrote back and said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you, it’s not all pug—it’s a pug-beagle.’ And she said, ‘Oh, so you won’t take it.’ And I said, ‘Oh yeah, I will.’”

The woman at the shelter seemed surprised by her answer—some rescues only take purebreds. But Zappala takes mixes too. Flexibility and responsiveness are two secrets to her success, and have helped her relationships with shelters flourish over the last several years.

 Read the full article.