Are there official organizations that investigate the on goings at rescues, especially those supposedly with 501c3? I’ve seen so called rescues at sales outbidding normal people (horses would have had great homes) and then putting pictures up on their pages claiming they saved them or they need to raise funds to save them……I seen the same rescue buy cheap older horses that need soft places to land but instead they post them on their pages to raise money and euthanize the horse the same day - these are higher profile rescues with big followings
How’s this rescue??
3 Likes
RIB
1 Like
As has been stated, the simple answer is “No.” If they are a large rescue (sometimes the small ones can be found as well but too many fly under the radar) then you may be able to assess them through websites/organizations like Charity Navigator that tells you based on their tax filings how much of every dollar actually goes towards the cause. If there’s a suspicion of neglect or abuse you must report to or go through the jurisdiction that oversees animal control or agriculture department dependent by state/location. If it’s a matter of fraud such as tax fraud or running a ‘scheme - pick one’ then good luck. Some law enforcement and IRS officials are more responsive than others when it comes to animal issues. Unfortunately revealing fraudulent types usually takes a long time or a link to money laundering, drugs, weapons or some other ‘greater’ target to shut them down. Creditors, passing bad checks and debt collectors are probably the most common avenue that gets fraudulent rescues shut down but I have found over the years that those behind such schemes usually just set up shop somewhere else.
I will share that some of your examples may be ‘legitimate’ depending on the details. When I worked in ‘that’ world there would be the occasional ‘must save’ animal that would come on our radar creating a world wind of effort and collection of donations only to find out that the depth and severity of problems possessed by the animal far exceeded the resources amassed to justify following through with ‘the rescue’. This would only be discovered after acquiring the animal. In those few cases I was involved with I would have to account for the reasoning behind the decision to euthanize and get very practical with those wondering (donors, volunteers, patrons), as to how it was ‘better’ to use those funds to save a far greater number of animals that really did have a chance at a good quality of life once placed than the poster child (animal) that everyone had just rallied around. I cannot in good conscious spend thousands of dollars and effort ‘salvaging’ an animal with limited quality of life or limited life span despite good quality medicine/management/training forsaking the never ending numbers of those who have a much better chance. Call it playing God or whatever you want but many times there are more layers to the onion than what meets the eye.
15 Likes
Not around here. But there should be.
2 Likes
Call it playing God or whatever
triage is what this called at least that was what we did in combat
1 Like
On the other hand, some rescues will raise and spend tens of thousands of dollars for surgery on an older or deformed horse, at least in part because it may make good online content to be trying to fix a dwarf mini foal because “so cute.”
10 Likes
My former son-in-law was an investigator for philanthropic organizations who made large donations to charities --think Oprah and her African schools like her Leadership Academy. He would be contacted and asked to go to the site of the charitable organization and see if what had been donated was being used for its intended purpose.
His visits were unannounced. For the most part, the charities he investigated were doing as the philanthropist thought they should --most he said, could improve their bookkeeping --and he actually taught college classes on managing tax-exempt and volunteer managed charities.
He occasionally found fraud —the most egregious that he told us about was a “handicapped riding program” in Germany where the family run organization said they provided therapeutic riding opportunities for children and adults in need. What SIL found was a small farm, with one horse for the family’s child who had Down’s syndrome, and a facility built for her use. She was the only “student.” The rest of the donated money was used to fund the parents’ show horses and their travel.
My “issue” is with EVERYONE who buys a horse these days is referring to the horse as “rescued.” Because we all think we take excellent care of our horses --the absolute best we know how and can afford --people who buy a horse state that it was RESCUED from its previous situation --every single horse owner I know personally states their horse was RESCUED --does anyone just BUY a horse anymore?
When I bought Bob --it was the exact opposite of a rescue --Bob’s owner before me had a jaw dropping horse property with a beautifully designed stable --each stall 15x20 --overhead ceiling fans, heated wash rack indoors --shiny brass everywhere --she did tell me that the marble floor in the center aisle was a mistake --it was too slick to be safe and she’d had to lay mats on it to make it ok for the horses to walk on. So poor Bob goes from uptown to downtown quickly --at my place he’s got his 5 acre pasture and a run-in shed. What’s the opposite of a rescue?
Anyway --the local woman who was doing as @Jumptoit1 illustrated, seems to have quit the business after maybe 10 years as more and more people became wise to her scheme --I don’t think she was a bad person --but she as @Jumptoit1 pointed out --bought marginal horses then sold them --calling it a rescue --I knew a few 4-H kids who worked at her rescue --to the best of my knowledge, she never sold anyone a sound horse–she bought and tried to fix many horses without success. But as I said, I think word has gotten out and she’s not in the business anymore (I hope).
4 Likes
Not quite. The IRS is only going to determine if the entity is considered tax-exempt under the internal revenue code and if it maintains this status. This has two common effects 1) any net income is not taxed and 2) charitable contributions TO the non profit are deductible for individuals who itemize their deductions.
They do not regulate how a non-profit conducts its business, which seems to be the OP’s complaint. It does require annual tax returns (Form 990). These forms are publicly available and show what the non-profits mission is, what programs support that mission and how funds are received and spent to support the mission and programs. These tax returns are complex and have many reporting schedules and requirements.
Common ways that entities lose their 501©(3)/non-profit status is:
- Failure to file a 990 tax return
- Improper expenses and revenue that do not support the mission. This is generally by a complaint from a member of the public or IRS audit due to random selection OR a line item that raises a reg flag.
- Note: improper revenue and expenses can go on for YEARS and never get caught. It may be just a few meals on the non-profit’s dime…or it can be running thousands of dollars of personal expenses through it. Depending on how it is all reported can determine whether or not a ‘red flag’ is raised.
I’ll also add that the common remedy for entity’s that lose their non-profit status is that the entity is then taxed as a corporation. The IRS isn’t going to shut a farm down and seize assets (horses) except in egregious cases (see Rita Crundwell). They REALLY don’t want horses…as they cost more to maintain until auction than what they can get for them.
3 Likes
Yeah. I know. Thanks
Sorry, just trying to provide some additional insight to what they can do. Didn’t mean to step on toes
2 Likes
In the end there’s really truly not much one can do. If people are going to hand over money to grifting horse users who manipulate empathy and downtrodden horses… it’s really, really hard and frustrating to argue.
It’s a problem older than this board.
People fall for it, argue and fight for these ventures, get a tiny hint of a clue eventually seeing the light, fight against them, realize it’s useless, and walk away… And the cycle repeats.
6 Likes
bringing this to a point that I can see every day is the local city animal shelter. Very nice building, modern updated every few years, well staffed, well funded by the city to house 18 dogs and cats at a cost of over three quarters a million dollars every year.
Makes the citizens feel good, I guess.
1 Like
What is their average LOS? How many pets go through their doors? This, on the surface, would be embarrassing to me if I were still in the business but before I join the masses of condescension and judgment there are many parameters that would need to be asked before taking the helm of that movement. The following makes it a bit too simplistic but for argument sake if their average LOS is 3 days then that would tell me that they likely care for and place close to 2190 animals per year. At that rate, the cost of care for those animals is approximately $343 each from intake to placement. When you figure in the cost to sterilize, vaccinate and the staff to assess behavior, that doesn’t really seem like a lot per animal and should be commended. Now if the average length of stay for their charges is more like 30 days, the number of animals going through their doors would be around 219 animals a year at a cost of $3424 per beast which would be totally unacceptable for many, many reasons. Like I said, many layers to that onion and I suspect the ‘real’ answer is somewhere in the middle though I’ve gone in to consult in as bad or worse situations regarding those like the latter.
5 Likes
That is very true. I’ve seen silly Reddit posts about rescued horses where the before picture was taken in the winter and after was with the sleek summer coat. Not rescued, lol.
Imagine how it feels to be the seller. They sold a horse in good weight with decent training and now the buyer is proclaiming the horse as a rescue on social media. Talk about burning bridges.
3 Likes
No.
But you can turn them into law enforcement , animal control for the animals, child protective services if it’s therapeutic riding , and also to the IRS for mismanagement of donations.
If the IRS has an opening for someone to examine 990s, I do it recreationally and would enjoy outing some of the, um, quirks in these documents.
If anyone has worries about specific rescues, give me names and, assuming they file their paperwork, I’ll find their tax records.
Given the recent hurricanes and calls for donations and collections by private entities via social media sites, I went down a Fleet of Angels 990 rabbit hole this weekend. While the absence of evidence is not evidence, something looks not quite right to me. Besides their totally volunteer evacuation horse trailer team and fully volunteer year-round staff, it seems FoA exists, in part, to rescue struggling horse rescues via grants. Their budget looks tiny given the number of disasters since they gained not-for-profit status in 2018.
Accountants of CoTH, what do you think? Please forgive the threadjack, what happens to the donations provided by businesses when there are no “gift/donations in kind” listed on their documents? Do those businesses take income reducing tax deductions anyway? Do they eat the loss? Most private people donating to FoA don’t claim deductions because they don’t itemize, right?
fleetofangels9902023.pdf (1.9 MB)
2 Likes
Our county animal shelter isn’t that bougie, but I’ve had some very sketchy dealings with them.
They are constantly crying they are over capacity, please donate or adopt. They have too many animals, etc.
But I tried to adopt multiple dogs from them and received nothing but crickets. Not even a call back. One time I showed up unannounced to see the dog and they told me I couldn’t see the dog because she was pending adoption. That was almost a year ago and the dog is still being advertised as available. 
Now, I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but like all of us active on this board, I give my animals a good home. But even if there is some reason they are flagging me as an unsuitable adopter, why wouldn’t they communicate that with me?
Additionally, I see many of their dogs and cats cross posted with local animal “rescues” with no mention of being in the shelter and sky high private rescue adoption fees (as opposed to the very affordable fees through the county shelter). It’s all very bizarre.
I used to volunteer and donate to them, but not anymore.
5 Likes
I know of at least one ‘horse rescue’ that is actually just the persons horses in my area. I think for the most part that one is pretty harmless; they might get a feed rebate discount but as far as I can tell they don’t post all over social media asking for donations. But I’m sure there are ones that do.
The thing that concerns me more are fake therapeutic riding nonprofits.
2 Likes
We have a couple of horse rescues locally that are structured as non-profit societies. They seem reasonably well run. But you can’t get a tax credit for donating to a non-profit society here. Only a charity. A non-profit society can establish a related charity whose main goal is funding the non-profit but charities are regulated more tightly and “charity status” can be revoked by Revenue Canada (income tax department) while non-profit society status is under provincial jurisdiction and is rarely revoked unless the organization falls apart, doesn’t file annual reports, etc. Technically a non-profit society requires a board of directors and to abide by whatever by-laws they are incorporated under.
Charities have lost charity status by being too obviously political (not horse charities but other charity arms of activist non-profit societies or NGOs).
Don’t know how this compares to US regulations.
Of much bigger concern are the single person hoarder “rescues” that constantly beg for money or hay, constantly buy up horses that need lifelong sanctuary, refuse to rehome into riding homes, and are under constant scrutiny from the SPCA. There was a place upcountry with 65 plus horses constantly begging on FB. Haven’t heard from them in a while, did I block them or did they dissolve? No idea.
6 Likes
Around here rescue and dealer broker seem to be one in the same 
There seems to be a lot of gaslighting and playing the victim about EVERYTHING on the one rescue founder’s page and people play right into it and send her money
4 Likes
