My Nonprofit Reviews

This "rescue" is anything but and should be avoided at all costs. Go to the ASPCA or any of the plethora of other reputable rescues if you want to adopt a dog. Jennifer the owner is incredibly rude, and does not provide the dogs with desperately needs medical care.

We fostered a pregnant dog who then gave birth to her puppies in our care. The mom dog had extremely foul smelling pure liquid diarrhea from the moment we got her through the entire time we had her, over 1.5 months. She lost a considerable amount of weight because of the constant diarrhea, along with becoming more and more dehydrated. No matter how much premium food or bland rice we fed her she kept losing weight (rapidly becoming emaciated), and towards the end her stool was consistently coming out as liquid and completely undigested food pieces. Sorry to be graphic but the extent of the issue was terrible. Because of her health issues she was also defecating in our house several times daily, even when taken out every couple of hours, because she could only hold it when she needed to go. Our vet thought from a conversation that she had giardia and possibly coccidiosis, both of which are highly contagious and can be deadly to puppies. We informed both the foster coordinator and the rescue owner Jennifer many times of the health issues the dog was having, and nothing was done. The foster coordinator said she would mail us wormer in case it was worms, but that never arrived. They refused to have the dog seen by a vet, have a stool sample tested, or do anything at all.

Finally when two of the puppies became lethargic at 4 weeks old I insisted they all be taken to a vet. Jennifer called me and said I needed to bring the dogs to the foster coordinator's house the next morning and that they would be taken to a vet and then I could pick them back up. I dropped them off at about 8:00am and waited for the call to come pick them up. At 5:00pm I was just wondering when they would be ready so I called the foster coordinator. No answer, no response. At about 8:00pm I called again. No answer. Almost immediately I received a text from the coordinator saying that the puppies would not be returning and that they needed ongoing medical care that another foster would give them. I called for more information, no answer.

Remember, these were 4 week old small breed puppies. After being told the puppies were not coming back to us I looked at IOHR Facebook page and at 9:00am that day (one hour after I dropped them off and before the time of the supposed vet visit) they had posted that they needed immediate fosters for "6 week old puppies" with pictures of the puppies I was fostering. They claimed the puppies were eating solid food and healthy, neither which was true. They never went to the vet and they split them up and sent them to several foster homes without their mom, thus weaning them suddenly at 4 weeks old (small breed puppies should nurse until at least 8 - 10 weeks). I saw pictures the various fosters posted only days later of the puppies as too. The puppies were NOT old enough to be weaned and had only had mushy solid food ONE TIME.

While I had them the puppies were never wormed (they should have been wormed at 2 and 4 weeks old, that is standard when raising puppies and wormer is not expensive), or seen by a vet.

Also, the mom dog was not socialized at all like they said. They said she was friendly, good with other dogs, and housebroken. It turns out they didn't know anything about her personality or housebreaking status, and they had just said that to get her into a foster home. The coordinator was distracted and frazzled when we were picking her up and threw her at us without any information, and wouldn't give us any documentation of vaccines, not even Rabies (we live in a Rabies prone area). She was cowering under a kitchen table when we picked her up at the foster coordinator's house and we were told she'd been under there since she had arrived the day before. She immediately had water diarrhea and cowered under a blanket on our lap on the way home. At home it became clear IOHR had lied. She did not tolerate being touched and would try to run away and if she couldn't she would cower and shake if you stood up near her. She was also not at all housebroken, was terrified of dogs, and bit my husband (breaking skin) when he was not interacting with her. I'm experienced with rescue dogs so was able to handle it, and eventually got her housebroken (until the severe diarrhea caused her to lose all bowel control), more socialized, and less fearful. We were experienced enough to handle her, but if we weren't it would have been dangerous for the dog and us.

This "rescue" is a puppy selling business. They focus on puppies and small “pocket” dogs from the south because they get more money for them than they would for the thousands of adult large breed dogs in NYC kill shelters.