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is used for 5 questions.

Four of these questions it seems to describe that the pet in question is a rescue.

One question seem to be more generally about groups that rehome unwanted or feral animals.

These are two different cases and we should clarify the tag's usage.

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4 Answers 4

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I think the first use should be discouraged and the wiki edited to be clear that it's intended to be used for the second type of case.

I'm not sure that the history of the animal is necessarily useful, since behavioral/health problems can happen to any animal.

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  • I tend to think that there are likely behavioural or health problems that are more likely because an animal is feral but yeah, I don't know that a tag is necessary to convey that.
    – Joanne C Mod
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 14:15
  • I'm also not sure we really need a rescues tag at all to be honest.
    – Joanne C Mod
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 14:15
  • @JohnCavan rescued animals may not have been previously feral, it can also mean animals that have been rehomed, but have always lived with people. Feral specific issues should probably use a feral tag, because that is unique.
    – Zaralynda Mod
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 14:18
  • @JohnCavan the shelter question needs some type of tag, and rescues is the only thing on it right now.
    – Zaralynda Mod
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 14:20
  • However, a feral animal that is now a pet is a rescue... the presumption being that if it isn't a pet, then the question is off topic. That was my original thinking when I was thinking about the idea of synonyms in that all feral animals would be rescues, but not all rescues would be feral.
    – Joanne C Mod
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 14:20
  • @JohnCavan perhaps feral issues should be a different discussion, because w/cats there's not a strict "this is a feral and this is a pet", it's a continuum of socialization, indoor/outdoor status, etc.
    – Zaralynda Mod
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 14:23
  • Fair enough, not so true for dogs I think and for some (e.g fish) it's irrelevant. :)
    – Joanne C Mod
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 14:24
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    On the shelter front, why not a shelter tag? I would think that questions about shelters would seem likely over the long haul. That question was not about animals directly, so the tag doesn't seem appropriate.
    – Joanne C Mod
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 14:25
  • It makes more sense, I think, to have the shelter tag over the rescues one.
    – user53
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 15:03
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    Not all rescues are shelters, but all shelters are rescues. Rabbit Wranglers are a rescue but they don't have a building, they like many rescues are a network of volunteers.
    – James Jenkins Mod
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 18:23
  • @Zaralynda 3 of the 4 on top, already have the feral tag, we could remove rescue from them with out loss of intent. On reading the top one without feral, it seems like behavior would be a good exchange for rescue.
    – James Jenkins Mod
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 19:25
  • "rescues" should be a tag that refers to the agencies involved, not the animal's history, unless relevant. 9 times out of 10, the animal being a "rescue" is not relevant to the question. I agree with using "rescues" over "shelters" since I know of and am involved with multiple non-shelter-based animal "rescue" groups.
    – JoshDM
    Commented May 29, 2014 at 18:23
  • 4 out of the 5 questions listed up there treated rescues as meaning the animal. That implies that most are not getting the idea that the tag is aimed at the agency and not the animal. That suggests to me that the tag is very ambiguous regardless of the definition you want to apply that, to be honest, is unlikely to be read when tagging a question. Leads to a maintenance pain I think.
    – Joanne C Mod
    Commented May 30, 2014 at 3:47
  • 2
    @JohnCavan We could change the tag to rescue-organization to more clearly indicate the organization, and blacklist [rescues]
    – Zaralynda Mod
    Commented May 30, 2014 at 12:42
  • That would work... It's ambiguous as it is.
    – Joanne C Mod
    Commented May 30, 2014 at 12:55
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The reason the tag was removed was because it was trying to be too descriptive. If the is being used to describe that the animal in the question is a rescue then it should be dropped as well. If it's important, it should be stated inside the question body that the animal is a rescue/was feral.

We have a tag for , so if there are questions about the process of rescuing an animal, I think that should be used instead.

If it's a question about the shelters themselves, than I agree that a tag for or something would work.

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  • From my perspective, "adoption" refers to the act of doing so by a potential pet owner. "rescues" would refer to the agency where the pet is being adopted from and may include, but not be limited to, such topics as supporting agencies, how to be involved in a rescue agency, what these sorts of agencies do, how they treat and acquire and distribute pets.
    – JoshDM
    Commented May 29, 2014 at 18:27
  • @JoshDM - Not sure if it's regional or not, but I read rescues as being the animal rather than the agency. Something to consider given that 4 out of the 5 listed questions also read it the same way...
    – Joanne C Mod
    Commented May 30, 2014 at 3:45
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should be used to tag questions regarding an agency (shelter, organization, volunteer network, rehabilitation "zoo"s).

Questions would include, but not be limited to:

  • "How do I get involved with..."
  • "How do I locate..."
  • "Should I adopt from..."
  • "How do I give up my pet to..."
  • "How are pets treated by..."
  • "What are the requirements for being a volunteer / foster for..."
  • "What types of involvement programs should I expect from..."
  • "What should I expect to happen with my pet once I give it to..."

is a specific sub-set of , and does not need to exist unless shelter-specific questions are created; example:

  • "How do shelters handle older pets?" (which is, honestly, 100% applicable to )

is not applicable to all questions for , and would be relegated to questions regarding the pet acquisition process. Not all rescues adopt, and not all adoptions are from rescues.

is rarely relevant as a tag applicable to a question about a pet, unless the question also involved an agency; questions currently tagged as such would likely be better as or , depending on the intent of the question. Where the dog was sourced is not usually relevant to a question and would only serve to pollute .

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Questions in the second case (describing groups or places that rehome animals) should be tagged with .

should be removed

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  • Added for voting. I'm not sure I agree, since shelter doesn't cover all groups that do rehoming.
    – Zaralynda Mod
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 15:15
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    rescues implies the animals though, whereas the housing and handling is rescuing as it were... Ah, I dunno, maybe I'm splitting hairs (not hares).
    – Joanne C Mod
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 15:29
  • Does the suggestion of rescue-organization obviate this answer?
    – ClickRick
    Commented Jun 1, 2014 at 21:59

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