COLLABORATE
“Prevent A Rescue”
RESOURCES & PROJECTS
Humane Education Center | Solution-Based Rescue | Thoroughbred 'Before Care'
Solution-Based Rescue is a comprehensive approach to animal welfare that emphasizes prevention and is our featured collaboration (see below). The Humane Education Center, "Bridging Gaps By Building Skills", focuses on reducing 'at risk' populations of animals and humans. The program features Ambassador Thoroughbreds that use their spirit and sensitivities to help teach life skills. The Thoroughbred 'Before Care' initiative looks to provide a better foundation for the breed before, during, and after racing. Better 'Before Care' greatly reduces the need for Aftercare. Please go to our Contact Us page if you would like to collaborate on a resource or project.
FEATURED COLLABORATION
Solution-Based Rescue
“My Vision is to replace a Rescue Culture with a Prevention Culture."
-Bob Ferber, Board Member, Father of Solution-Based Rescue
Who is the “Father” of Solution-Based Rescue?
The father of Solution-Based Rescue is Bob Ferber. His vision is to replace a Rescue Culture with a Prevention Culture. Bob is a retired Los Angeles City Attorney who started the first animal welfare prosecution unit in the United States. He has been involved with rescuing and rescue organizations for over 50 years. His rescue animals have been part of a Humane Education program (Baron’s Buddies) focusing on promoting compassion to humans and animals as well as preventing discrimination. Bob’s solution-based approach to dealing with problems in law enforcement is a model for a solution-based non-profit. Bob teamed up with two veterinarians, husband and wife Dr. Ken Lian and Dr. Sheryl Fulop, in 2010, and started a Solution-Based Rescue organization dealing with the “Unwanted Thoroughbred” problem named Thoroughbred Education Foundation (ThoroughbredEd). Bob realized that the “Unwanted Thoroughbred” problem is a complex animal welfare issue that requires a solution-based approach.
Bob Ferber with a rescue kitten Monty who was born with a leg deformity. Through rehabilitation that Bob provided, Monty now can play and run around like a normal cat.
"By combining our visions for the future of
animal welfare, imagine the possibilities."
Below is an excerpt from our our handbook. If you would like to learn more about Solution-Based Rescue or view our Humane Education content, please click on the resources link here or on our Humane Education page.
SOLUTION-BASED RESCUE HANDBOOK
Click here to view the complete version of the Solution-Based Handbook
This is Fiesta. Fiesta rescued a human named Barbara. Discover how Solution-Based Rescue can resolve welfare problems for animals and humans.
What is Solution-Based Rescue?
Solution-Based Rescue is a comprehensive approach to animal welfare problems that emphasizes prevention. Because many of our animal welfare issues are complex in nature, this comprehensive approach requires an architecture that is efficient and versatile.
Humane Education is the cornerstone of Solution-Based Rescue. This approach teaches compassion and life skills, establishing a platform from which one can learn about a Prevention Culture. It is important to recognize that rescue animals help in teaching life skills and are the emotional basis for volunteers to understand the importance of preventing the suffering a rescue endured.
Why Solution-Based Rescue?
There are three options one can take when approaching an animal welfare problem. We will use the example of the “Unwanted Thoroughbred” to review and evaluate these options:
1) The “symptom-based” approach: Most organizations dealing with the "Unwanted Thoroughbred" problem focus on rescuing, which helps the individual horse but does not resolve the problems facing the breed. This “passion and emotion” approach to animal welfare issues is not without its consequences. Rescuing creates a daunting volume challenge when generations of horses are pooled together, leading to an emotionally draining vortex that discards the well-intentioned and enables the hoarders. This hoarder culture is satisfied through the number of animals it saves but not necessarily the number of animals it re-homes. Rescuing in this manner becomes enabling because it provides dumping grounds for those responsible for the disposable culture.
2) The “alienation” approach: This model focuses on scrutinizing the sport, forcing it to either shrink its ranks or shut down. The consequence of this method is the continued alienation of the sport in our culture, pushing it further into the deep recesses of society. Unfortunately, this enables people who work best in the dark as they “profit” from the lack of visibility created by the alienation. This approach is disheartening to those who want to do right by the breed since it lumps everyone involved in the sport into the inhumane category. One should understand that creating awareness without having a realistic solution can result in alienation.
3) The “solution-based” approach: This is the ThoroughbredEd method. Through this model, a direct approach is taken. One walks in the sport’s front door, shakes their hand and say "we have a program that will help the breed and society and in turn, this program will help the sport.” This “passion and logic” method empowers the good people in the sport, those who love the breed and not just the gamble. Also, this method makes it harder for those who thrive in the dark aspects of the sport by making all of the track transparent to society. It is from this perspective that scrutiny of the sport provides the best outcome for the breed.
Ideally, these approaches should be cooperative, not mutually exclusive. If you replace alienation with scrutiny in a transparent environment, one better understands the problems that need to be addressed. Furthermore, a solution-based approach enhances the rescue efforts of the well-intentioned. This method greatly reduces the number of animals needing to be rescued and makes their transition into society easier and faster. By working together, we establish a powerful team effort capable of serving the immediate and long-term animal welfare needs of the Thoroughbred. To this point, it is important to understand that the road map for effective solutions requires collaboration.
As an organization focused on making a difference for the benefit of the breed, ThoroughbredEd also seeks to promote the welfare of all animals. By combining our visions for the future of animal welfare, imagine the possibilities.
Click here to view the complete version of the Solution-Based Handbook
