LIST RULES 

THESE RESCUE LISTS ARE TO PROMOTE RESCUE and no other posts whatsoever will be permitted intentionally, i.e., no politics, no propaganda, no "bleeding heart" stories, no rallies to call/write/fax anyone about anything, NO ANYTHING ELSE! 

The lists are designed for and these subjects ONLY are considered ON-TOPIC:

1. ANYONE who rescues animals to post information about animals that need homes. 

2. ANYONE who needs to find a home for an animal (there are restrictions; this is NOT a "for sale" list). Owners may post animals they can no longer keep for whatever reason. 

3. ANYONE interested in ADOPTING a rescue or obtaining in an animal directly from an owner who can no longer keep it may post that they are looking to adopt.

4. ANYONE who has lost an animal or who has had an animal stolen may post information about that animal.

5. ANYONE who needs transport for a rescue may post info about the proposed trip to find volunteers in each state for various legs of the trip, and anyone willing to transport an animal may post their willingness to do so. 

6. ANYONE who is looking for a particular rescue, i.e., breed rescue, specie rescue, etc., may post asking someone with that rescue to contact them.

7. THIS LIST IS AN ALL SPECIES RESCUE LIST. Any species of animal, including all breeds, mixes, etc., are accepted on the list.

8. Introductions are acceptable, as are vacation notices, etc.

9. All posts should relate to the state in which they are posted. If you are at the border where states meet (for instance Memphis is in the corner of Tennessee where Mississippi and Arkansas come together), you may post in all three states in most cases.

10. You may NOT send the same post to more than five (5) lists, UNLESS TRANSPORT RELATED, without prior approval to do so. NO multiple lists posts will be permitted if the post is off-topic. If you want to send a post to multiple lists, you must get prior permission to do so by emailing: raotinc@aol.com.

11. We reserve the right to send posts out occasionally that are outside the above topic parameters, if we feel that the posts may be of benefit to list members. 

THE ABOVE IS THE COMPLETE LIST OF ACCEPTABLE TOPICS. Some leeway may be allowed (i.e., if you have a question about a particular animal in regard to a previous posting), but not much. 

Other important info:

All posts are moderated. This will keep posts on topic. Since the lists have open posting, this will also keep you from receiving pornographic offers and other spam type mailings.

Because of hacking problems and problems with individuals joining for the sole purpose of “spamming” members, the member list for  each state is now private.

No attachments are allowed. This is so you won’t get a virus from the list that someone inadvertently uploaded. But this means you MUST cut and paste any information you want to forward to the list into a new email for it to make it to the list.  If you don't, we get a message that says, “nontext portions of the message have been deleted” and nothing else. Such messages will be deleted to keep useless posts off the list. If the moderator has TIME, he MAY write and ask you to repost.  It is not the moderator’s responsibility to do so, it is your responsibility to remember not to forward or attach messages.

Email addresses included in posts are automatically truncated by Yahoo. (We don’t like it anymore than you do but that is the way it is.) If you have to type an email address in a post, type it with a space before AND after the “@” sign and then put a note beside the address for people to delete the blank spaces in the email before replying. For example: Contact: ME @ aol.com (PLEASE DELETE BLANK SPACES IN EMAIL ADDRESS BEFORE REPLYING.) This confuses Yahoo computers into thinking it is not an email address and allows you to include an email address in a post without alerting their automatic truncate feature. IT IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO THIS IS YOU ARE NOT SUBSCRIBED THE THE LISTS; OTHERWISE, YOU MAY GET A RESPONSE AND NEVER KNOW IT.

If you have no problem with your post being forwarded, please start it with the following:
PERMISSION GRANTED TO FORWARD TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES.  Otherwise, valuable time may be lost while someone WAITS until they write you back and you tell them it is okay to forward the post before they send it on.  This can mean the difference between life and death for animal!

While anyone may post to the list, only subscribers receive mail from the list. And, since anyone can post to the list, please understand that non-members (which are critical to the success of these lists) may fail to cooperate with these following guidelines, which we ask that you, if you are a list member, to follow:

Please use one of the following headings in the subject line:

WANT: If you are looking for an animal for yourself or someone else.
LOST: If you are posting about a lost animal.
FOUND: If you are posting about a found animal.
AVAIL: If you are posting about an animal that is available.
TRANS: If you are posting to arrange for transportation from point A to point B for an animal.
SHELTER: If you know of a dog(s) in a particular shelter that need rescue. 

FOR EXAMPLE, a subject line might look like this:

"WANT: TN, Memphis - Persian Cat"

"WANT" to indicate an animal is wanted by you, then the two letter state abbreviation, then the city (so if the message gets forwarded people will know where you are), then a short description of the animal you want.

IMPORTANT: IF POSTING INFO ABOUT AN ANIMAL IN A SHELTER, PLEASE INCLUDE THE FULL NAME OF THE SHELTER, THE PHONE NUMBER, AND THE STREET ADDRESS. If possible, include the days and hours the shelter is open to the public, the animal's identification number and/or cage number, and finally any special information that may be of use to potential rescuers, such as, "This is a kill shelter." or "This cat will be euthanized on Friday if not adopted." or ANY OTHER SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS OR INFORMATION ABOUT THE ANIMAL OR THE SHELTER THAT A POTENTIAL RESCUER MAY NEED TO KNOW.

GENERAL EMAIL ADDRESSES, in addition to the drop down menus above, where (StateName) should be your state’s name):
Post message: (StateName)AnimalRescue@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: (StateName)AnimalRescue-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: (StateName)AnimalRescue-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner: (StateName)AnimalRescue-owner@yahoogroups.com

If you have a suggestion to improve the list, please submit it to the list owner for consideration. 

Finally, although it does not sound like it, we will try to be flexible as much as possible; however, all moderator and/or list owner decisions are final. These “rules” are subject to change at our discretion.

LIST OWNER