Mission
NBS Animal Rescue was founded on October 12, 2011 by Aaron Fortin, Rebecca Akins, and Jaime Wolfe. Our administrative office is located at 35 West Square Lake Road, Troy, MI 48098. No dogs are housed at this location as it is administrative only.
NBS 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. Some key components to our rescue mission are as follows:
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We spay/neuter every rescue dog in order to help end the cycle of unwanted litters.
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We treat each and every dog as if it we our own in order to give it back the respect, love and dignity it deserves.
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We maintain the highest standards of care for every dog we come in contact with, including the highest quality veterinary care, housing, love, training and compassion.
What does NBS stand for?
NBS has a two-folds meaning for us. The first is No BS. Animal rescue is an emotionally charged venture. Between dealing with lives at stake on a daily basis to most of the people in this industry are volunteers, unpaid and do this out of the goodness of their hearts; it can be emotionally taxing. We recognize that this fiercely passionate drive can add fuel to an already emotional fire. Unfortunately, the end result can be drama, name-calling and back-stabbing in and amongst groups and volunteers in animal rescue. We choose not to partake in these practices. We focus our time and our energy on the dogs that we are rescuing and keep any of the other BS off our plates to stay emotionally and mentally balanced for the dogs in our care and the ones about to come into our care. We also encourage our fosters, volunteers and board members to work with and network with other rescues to build positive, healthy relationships.
The second meaning of NBS is Non-Breed Specific. We believe that every dog should be judged on its individual merits. We do not judge a dog based on the breed characteristics, the media portrayal or how it is perceived to be by the public but rather on how the dog actually behaves. We do focus our rescue on small breed dogs. When the three founders originally started the rescue, there were only two homes that were fostering. We determined that we were able to foster 2-3 small dogs or one large dog at a time. Therefore we focused on increasing the number of lives saved by rescuing small breed dogs. Some interesting things happened during our infancy: 1) we became very proficient at diseases that appeared to plague small dogs more commonly than large such as luxating patellas, dental disease, etc. 2) we became known to the public as a small dog rescue and 3) we became fiercely aware that there are many small dogs that are turned over to shelters and their lives are in danger every day.
We can accommodate different sized dogs based on our foster home desires, resources and space.
Are you No-Kill?
At NBS Animal Rescue we do everything to rehabilitate a rescued dog both medically and behaviorally just as a regular dog owner would. We are a foster-based organization that does not have a open-admission facility. The term “no-kill” only applies to organizations that have a physical facility and are 100% open admission meaning they never turn away a dog even if they are full. That being said, we do not euthanize an animal for space. Our euthanasia decisions are the same as a dog owners: quality of life due to medical or behavioral/mental state of mind only.
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Foster-based rescues are rescue organizations and cannot be called “No-Kill” because 1) they don’t operate a shelter and 2) they turn away dogs/cats if they are full. We believe in and support the No Kill Movement, which categorizes animal rescues and facilities as follows:
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Pound – A holding facility for stray/lost dogs and cats operating consistent with the legal requirements for holding stray/lost animals which either euthanizes or transfer the animal upon satisfaction of legal hold requirements.
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Traditional Shelter – A facility which provides shelter to dogs and/or cats on a temporary basis and operates a program to re-home the animal (adoption program).
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Adoption Guarantee Shelter/Facility – A limited admission [1] facility/organization which provides shelter to dogs and/or cats with a save rate [2] of 100% for all healthy and treatable [3] animals and a 90% save rate of total intake.
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No Kill Shelter – An open admission facility which provides shelter to dogs and/or cats with a save rate of 100% for all healthy and treatable animals and 90% save rate of total intake.
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Sanctuary – A facility that provides shelter to dogs and/or cats (and often other animals), not considered adoptable or able to be rehomed, for the remainder of their natural life.
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Rescue Organization – An organization which uses foster homes or a shelter facility without public hours, to shelter homeless cats and dogs until they can be rehomed.
Rescue, Rehabilitation and Medical Protocol
NBS 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 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 dog rescue; however, we do tend to specialize in small breed dogs. We network with other groups for help when we are approached about cats and other species of animals.
Our rescue operation is 100% volunteer based with 100% of our available funds going to support our primary goals as listed above.
NBS 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, NBS 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. NBS Animal Rescue believes in the careful coordination of an animal’s 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 immediately begin teaching 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 animal’s behavior, to offer training advice and suggestions, and to perform behavior assessments to determine if an animal’s 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.
NBS 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. NBS Animal Rescue has a strong working relationship with the Animal Clinic of Sterling Heights, Rescue Veterinary Hospital, 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 compiled history of veterinary routines are given to each adoptive family.
All animals adopted through NBS Animal Rescue have received all of the following veterinary care procedures:
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Spay or Neuter Surgery
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Microchip Insertion
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Bath, nail trim, and ear cleaning
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De-worming for internal parasites
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DHPP Vaccine
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Rabies Vaccine (age appropriate)
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Heartworm Test (age appropriate)
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Heartworm preventative
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Flea/Tick preventative
After completing extensive research, met with several licensed veterinarians, and collaborated with local well established animal rescue groups, NBS 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, NBS 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. NBS Animal Rescue believes that each individual animal’s 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 bladder stone surgery, double luxating patella surgery and extensive dental work on a number of other dogs. We believe that an animal’s 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.