I fully agree with everyone here and what theyhave said. 15 is too young to run a rescue. The biggest reason isfunds. You're too young to get a job, or be responsible to take a sickanimal to the vet. Meaning, no money and no transportation, then what?
I'm 22, and I ran a rodent and rabbit rescue for 3 years. I firstworked at a pet store as the animal department manager for 2 years. Istarted taking in the sick, injured, and unwanted rabbits from them.Afterwards, I started up a rescue and dealt mostly with abused,neglected and dumped hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, rabbits, gerbils, anda few reptiles.
At one point, I was going through 50 pounds of hamster seed and 50pounds of rabbit feed a week. I was going through a 50 pound sack ofguinea pig food TWICE a week. This was just food.It also costme a fortune because so many came in needing vet care, antibiotics,other medications, supplements like laxatone and nutrical and lots ofit, extra water bottles because I had animals that would chew throughthere's every other night, and LOADS AND LOADS of bedding. And I hadanimals that were allergic to aspen, some were allergic to carefresh,so I was always having to buy different beddings to suit their needs.
Running a rescue is very costly and extremely time consuming. And youmust be prepared with adequate space, lots of time, and a heck of a lotof money. Just because you get the animals in, doesn't mean they'll beadopted out right away.
At one point, I had several rabbits waiting for adoption and close to40 hamsters, mice, rats, and gerbils. Some sat here months waiting forpotential homes.
Being in highschool, it's not do-able for you to run a rescue. You needa network of volunteers to help you. I had several people who helped meget food, bedding, screen potential homes, and do transporting ofadopted animals. With a rescue, you need a vehicle and quite a fewvolunteers who also have vehicles, money, and free time.
Eventually, I got out of therescuing business last year afterthe time and money got too overwhelming. I now volunteer for the localrabbit rescue that my friend runs. Currently we have 42 rabbits at herrescue and she goes through 100 pounds of feed a week. This doesn'tinclude vegetables, hay, and lots of vet care costs. We also have many,many, MANY volunteers working with us in transporting and adoptinganimals.
All these things are things to consider before ever jumping intorescuing animals. There's much more to it than just taking in a bunchof rabbits and being very unprepared.
I'm just thinking of the well-being of the animals.