Economies of Scale

[Torchster]

I live in the greater Washington DC metro area. I know of at least 3 bunny rescues this area, and those are ones that I have directly dealt with. My guess is that there are at least 3 more that I haven't dealt with. From my research, I am pretty sure that all, or at least most, of the rescues in the DC area either know each other directly, or at least know of each other. It seems that there appears to be at least some personal conflict between some of these rescues. I suppose if you put enough people in a room, someone is bound not to get along with someone else.

But it makes me kind of sad that the rescues can't get along. It seems that in my area we have enough support and dedicated people to create several different rabbit rescues, that do help out rabbits; but due to personal conflicts, or difference of opinions...heck I don't know-

You go to these websites and see how long its been since some of them updated. They each try to hold events, like educational events, or adoption events that they have posted on their websites, that are YEARS old. It seems like some rescue gets all fired up and does some stuff for 6 months or so, then loses steam. A year later some other rescue gets all fired up and does some stuff for 6 months or so, then loses steam. Rinse and repeat.

Each rescue adopts out bun a few buns a month, at best. Each rescue has its own clique of people, either people inside the rescue, or the people who adopt from that rescue. But it is such a small group of people that there is no critical mass to it.

Why try and hold events if only a couple of people show up? It takes time and money to hold these events. So each rescue trys its own thing for awhile...people work really hard and it dies out.

I wonder what would happen if these people worked together-heck even tried? I think that all these people have one thing in common, they all love rabbits. So rescue X is adopting out 2 rabbits this month, is that enough to hold some kind of new rabbit owner show (or get together or what ever you call it to educate the new rabbit slaves)...No probably not. Then you have rescue Y accross town that maybe gets 3...and rescue Z maybe has 1. Before you know it, you have maybe 5 or 6 new rabbit owners all trying to figure this thing out on their own because the rescues don't play well together.

If these people could just work together, you would have 2 things. You would have a greater pool of people to put on events and you would have a greater pool of people interested in those events, giving them a great chance of success.

Then there are the rescources. Just think about it...if you have 5 different business' in the same area doing the same thing, each just barely getting along, sooner or later a couple of those will get together and through economies of scale probably do better than just a single one.

Maybe Economies of Scale don't apply to rescues. I just don't get it.

 

[slavetoabunny]

Fortunately, we are the only rabbit rescue in Central Florida. We actually cover an area from Valdosta, GA to Cocoa Beach, FL. We do have one fosterer in Miami, but I know they do have other rescue down there. We don't organize our own events, but are very active in attending other rescue events. We are always the only rabbit rescue there.

 

[Happi Bun]

I know how you feel. The rabbit rescues in this area seem to have the same problem of not getting along.
Although some do work together, which is always nice to see.

 

[Torchster]

Perhaps I am coming at this in totally the wrong way...but it seems to me that 10 different groups of 1 or 2 people doing something isn't nearly as effective as 1 group of 10 or 20 different people doing the something. It isn't like I want rabbit rescues to work with snake rescues or anything like that. I am simply talking about rabbit rescues working together for a cause they ALREADY believe in.

Are presonal differences that important? Do you really need to have your own rescue? Maybe because its DC we need to have a Republican rescue, a Democratic rescue, and a Libertarian rescue...I dunno.

 

[Mika77]

I know what you are talking about, and this is true not just of rabbit rescue. Ever since I was a kid I participated in pet rescues and clubs and over the years I found that no matter if the organization dealt with dogs, birds, rabbits or whatever people just do not get along. Everything starts okay but then people have disagreements and things start to fall apart and then before you know it the organization no longer exists or there are now two instead of one and neither is doing all that well. I know there are some exceptions and there are rescues/clubs that have been around for a long time and do very well but unfortunately in my area nothing like that exists.

 

[BethM]

In the rescue I volunteer with, a couple people splintered off a couple years ago. They had an extreme difference of personality from the chapter leader of the main rescue. I mean severe. There had been a lot of conflict for years, to where they'd take turns going to the regular meetings because they couldn't be in the same room for 2 hours together. It finally just blew up, and it was time. Personally, I like and get along with all the people involved.

Those two people started their own smaller rescue. They actually only take in a couple bunnies at a time, but I think they do more bunny-sitting than the main group.

While it would be nice to have one larger, more cohesive group, I don't think this situation hurts us too much. Sadly, neither group does a lot of activities/events, because all core members are involved in tons of stuff (work, church, other activities, family; and we're spread out in the city) and we're spread very thin.


I wonder, in larger cities, if there is a situation of individuals starting small rescues on their own, unaware of the others? And then after awhile, they both feel like they have their own identity and don't want to merge? I don't know, just throwing things out there. I am a person of strong opinions, and I have known people who I simply don't get along with, no matter what. In those situations, no common goal can make me spend time with those people. (Conversely, there are people I have major disagreements with, but love dearly.)

 

[RandomWiktor]

While it is true that in an ideal world people would get together for the same goals, there are often some pretty severely entrenched differences that resulted in these "splinter groups" to begin with. I have a feeling that if such polarized forces tried to come together, they'd be less effective than they are as individual organizations because the decision making process would be so hindered by personal disagreement. Orchestrating fundraisers, seeking volunteers, screening adopters, etc. are generally a group effort at more rescues, and if the group has fundamental disagreements about how things are run, it will definitely trip things up in a major way.

I do agree that it would be best if these rescues networked more, however. Often, if one rescue can't help an animal, they're so against the other rescue org that they'd turn it away to an unknown fate before directing it to a rival. That is counterproductive, IMO. I wish more rescues were like the wildlife rehab community; we survive only BY networking! For example, I'm one of few people near me who deals with reptiles & amphibians or orphaned mice, but I sure as heck couldn't handle a deer, bobcat, or raptor. I've had to deal with all three and was only able to get them to qualified hands by networking - yes, even with rehabbers or facilities I don't personally like very much!

 

[BethM]

RandomWiktor wrote:

While it is true that in an ideal world people would get together for the same goals, there are often some pretty severely entrenched differences that resulted in these "splinter groups" to begin with. I have a feeling that if such polarized forces tried to come together, they'd be less effective than they are as individual organizations because the decision making process would be so hindered by personal disagreement. Orchestrating fundraisers, seeking volunteers, screening adopters, etc. are generally a group effort at more rescues, and if the group has fundamental disagreements about how things are run, it will definitely trip things up in a major way.

I do agree that it would be best if these rescues networked more, however. Often, if one rescue can't help an animal, they're so against the other rescue org that they'd turn it away to an unknown fate before directing it to a rival. That is counterproductive, IMO. I wish more rescues were like the wildlife rehab community; we survive only BY networking! For example, I'm one of few people near me who deals with reptiles & amphibians or orphaned mice, but I sure as heck couldn't handle a deer, bobcat, or raptor. I've had to deal with all three and was only able to get them to qualified hands by networking - yes, even with rehabbers or facilities I don't personally like very much!

You've made some excellent points!
With the two rabbit rescues I mentioned in my post, there are still some pretty severe rifts between the managers of both rescues. However, there are people who are involved with *both* groups, and because of that, there is usually some sort of communication/networking between them. It's not always direct, but it's there.