Love to Live & GARD

Rhetoric was one of the required courses for the English side of my degree. I didn’t care for it—struck me as the liberal arts equivalent of statistics—but it defined many of the ways people misuse language for all sorts of reasons.

GARD and Love to Live are all over Facebook claiming Love to Live Animal Rescue (L2L) out of Ringoes, NJ is GARD’s “sister” rescue and vice versa. That’s so misleading I can’t help but think it intentional.

A “sister” organization is a separate entity which works in close cooperation with another entity. Or in the words of Dictionary.com it’s “having a close relationship with another because of shared interests, problems, or the like: We correspond with school children in our sister city.”

Love to Live doesn’t have an Employer Identification Number. It isn’t listed as a 501(c) with either the IRS or the NJ Consumer Affairs Department.

On its website, L2L clearly states at the very bottom of each web page: “Love To Live Animal Rescue is a wholly owned subsidiary of Georgia Animal Rescue & Defence, Inc. (GARD)” It’s in relatively small grey print on a black background at the lowest possible position on the page, but it’s there.

Other posts are asking if L2L is a “legitimate” rescue. I suppose that depends on how one defines “legitimate.” L2L must be operating under GARD’s EIN so in terms of 501(c) status yes, it appears “legitimate.”

I haven’t been able to locate any New Jersey state documents regarding L2L. Perhaps it’s because they don’t have a physical address in New Jersey? According to their website their address is P.O. Box 63, Ringoes, NJ 08551.