I adopted my dog from the International Street Dog Foundation back in 2015. I have volunteered with them in a small capacity over the years and I have been a flight volunteer twice to try and help dogs from Tunisia and India come here for the opportunity to have better lives and they have both turned disastrous. I fostered one of the Tunisian dogs and I found out that both he AND his sibling were euthanized by this rescue. I reached out to the Tunisian rescuer and she was never informed that two of her dogs were euthanized.
The, the dog that I rescued was a deaf special needs dog who was adopted through ISDF to a very young lady in college still living at home. The dog was hit by a car. I trusted the rescue to screen her, they gave a very needy dog to a very young person the dog is dead.
Of course the euthanasia of the Tunisian dog I fostered was never mentioned to me when I was asked to be a flight volunteer again to fly to India, so I agreed. Within three days of landing, one of those dogs flown here escaped from the rescue and was not reported by the rescue for TEN DAYS. That's right. This dog was loose in a new country for TEN DAYS before told the rescuer, posted anything online to anyone, or reached out to the usual searcher for help. The Indian rescuer took it upon herself to fly here from India to search for her dog herself, because no intense search effort was underway. THANK GOD the dog was eventually trapped by a professional search and rescuer.
I have since found out that four additional dogs had escaped in the following few months. One dog escaped from O'hare and was running loose on the highway. That's on top of the dog that was currently on the run when I picked up my dog when I adopted here in 2015.
When I, or anyone, has brought up the lost dog concerns on their Facebook group or page, the post is deleted. I was then banned from the group. There was a massive cleansing of their Facebook page when folks found out about the Indian rescuer was flying here herself to look for her dog. People were banned left and right.
I have seen ISDF Facebook posts describing the rescue taking twenty dogs home from the airport at once, then shortly after thirteen dogs have arrived at once. It's no wonder that escapes are happening with those kind of numbers and no real facility to handle this. This rescue is basically one person's house. There is no physical shelter.
It also appears that these special needs street dogs are being adopted out to anyone who wants them as long as they are willing to pay a high adoption fee. There is really no screening of the dogs, and dogs are posted on the website for adoption before she even meets them or has any chance to assess their temperament.
Supposedly the adoption fee is for travel expenses. However, I have learned that the oversees rescuers foot flight bills.
These international dogs have extremely specialized needs and behave very differently in US homes. These kinds of adoptions need to be done on a very small scale only, with many protocols along the entire process, starting with crate introduction/training oversees. Instead ISDF has become a massive dog flipping business with disastrous consequences that everyone there is trying desperately to sweep under the rug.
I had been looking at international dog rescue services, and fortunately I found ISDF Great people, very dedicated to helping dogs that do not have a voice nor governmental facility to provide them with food nor medical care. These are very impoverished third world countries that are actually eating animals due to scarce food resources. I was looking for empathy and results from an organization and I found that with ISDF.