NorCal Golden Retriever Rescue

«NorCal Golden Retriever Rescue» (NGRR) is registered with the IRS as a 501©(3) charity, however, it does bring in almost 50% of it’s dogs from China and sells them to California residents. They are linked with «Rescued Love From Taiwan» on Facebook.
Before I knew much about NGRR I filled out an application to adopt and a volunteer was assigned to me. She came to my house for an inspection visit. She told me that I had been approved and that any dog would be lucky to have me. She also told me about the Rescued Love From Taiwan FB page and told me if I hadn’t found a dog on the NorCal Golden website that would be a good fit (they only had ONE dog available for adoption listed on their site), to check out Facebook and that a new batch of dogs would be coming in from China in late March. I checked, found the upcoming dog’s photos, but no Bios on them so I knew nothing about any of them. After several conversations with NGRR I decided on a specific dog who it seemed no one wanted (that was a huge criteria of mine, that no one else wanted the dog), my name was supposedly put next to the dog’s on their list, and I was given directions to the San Francisco Airport where new adopters were to pick up their dogs straight off the plane from China this coming Saturday, March 21, 2015. See, NorCal Golden Retriever Rescue doesn’t have a shelter where they house dogs, pay rent and utilities, and care for the dogs, they’re just a «middleman» group, so to speak, charging fees and passing dogs on to new owners or to foster volunteers. The address they list on their site is a UPS mail box store.
After I thought everything was all set, I emailed the volunteer who had visited my home and told her I talked with the other woman who put my name on a dog and gave me directions to SFO, but the subject of the adoption fee never came up so I wanted to let her know I thought $ 200 for a 10-​year-​old Golden Retriever was a fair price but I wanted to know her opinion. Well, I can’t say I was all that surprised by the reply since I had gotten several vague emails during the process, my questions about the organization seemed to be intrusive to some, and I wasn’t being given a lot of details about the adoptions. So the reply was that if I didn’t want to pay the entire $ 400 that they ask for their Golden Retriever «rescues,» then I should probably shop at a shelter instead. It was rude and a complete brush off. Not exactly the kind of reply someone from a true dog rescue would send especially since a rescue is not supposed to charge a «fee» for a dog, that means the dog would be SOLD, they are supposed to ask for a «donation» for their dogs, and that «donation» should be negotiable. Besides, there were still several dogs that were not spoken for on the FB page, and one of them was the one I had chosen. So it was a homeless dog and I was told to forget it if I didn’t want to fork over $ 400. The excuse was that it cost a lot of money to bring the dogs over here from China. Keep that in mind as you read on here.
So, at that point I decided to ask on the Rescued Love From Taiwan Facebook page who gets what part of the $ 400 adoption fee that NGRR demands, is it NGRR or the Taiwanese people who care for the dogs since NGRR are just the brokers and they don’t even have a shelter where they pay rent or utilities, it’s the Taiwanese people who shelter and feed the dogs and pay for their Vet care. Guess what happened? Rescued Love From Taiwan Blocked me from using their FB page!
I discovered NorCal Golden Retriever «Rescue» is actually a dog-​brokering business masquerading as a rescue in order to avoid paying taxes, and nearly HALF of the dogs they sell come from China. There have been news stories about them over the years as well and many people disagree with how they run their business, especially because they don’t pay any taxes. They do not appreciate questions being asked about their business or how it’s operated, and are you ready for this? I also discovered their net worth is $ 1.5 MILLION DOLLARS! Think about that the next time you want to make a donation to NorCal Golden Retriever, or if you decide to adopt from them and offer them less than their mandatory $ 400 fee. When I questioned one of their previous Presidents and a member of their Board of Directors about that recently, she said they have been looking for ways to spend the money.
I am extremely disappointed in the behavior of everyone I dealt with at NGRR and I just thought you might want to know that I was willing to take one of their Senior dogs into our home and take care of him while offering a $ 200 donation, but NGRR tore up my application and decided to ban me from commenting on the Taiwanese Facebook page because I asked too many questions about their business and procedures, and I only offered them $ 200 for a dog.