Almost every week,
somewhere in America, an animal collector/hoarder situation is raided, often requiring the
rescue of hundreds of animals at a time. Often the media, the authorities, and the rescue
community condemns and accuses. We are so accustomed to being betrayed by our society and
government that we have little tolerance for being betrayed by one of our "own."
We tend to pity those who 'love' and/or rescue animals. “They must not have any
friends” or “they can’t deal with life like normal people”. Well, no
they can’t! They refuse to sit by and watch the rest of us abuse and neglect and give
LIP SERVICE to how much we actually care for the animals. They are the
ones doing the dirty work to clean up the mess that most of us caused out of our total
lack of involvement, compassion or proper information.
Why is it that our society thinks less of them if they are truly saving the animals we
claim to love? If we honestly loved them so much, there wouldn’t be the need
for all these rescuers. They should be revered.
The biggest reason for being turned into the pound in America is because people
didn’t do what was necessary to get the dog to be appropriately behaved. The second
reason is that the humans were moving or found it inconvenient to live with the dog in
their lives. This ultimately guarantees these dogs will die. With the number
of unwanted animals our nation’s facilities are forced to accept, there is no
alternative, but to kill up to 80% of all incoming animals. Many within hours of
their arrival. Yet we continue to have litters and be unrealistic in our desires of
how we expect our animals to behave with no professional training or even the appropriate
care. Is that a society who honestly loves dogs?
In Europe, with it's no-kill shelters, euthanasia is only administered by veterinarians
and only by lethal injection. Their strict licensing, animal control and welfare laws, and
national databases of convicted animal abusers and neglecters put American's laws
and actions (or lack there of) to shame. There is no lip service there, but a
genuine love and responsibility taught and expected from every citizen.
They don’t have collectors or hoarders. There is no need for an overload of
rescue organizations. They truly understand their place and the animals’ place.
We cannot say that about North Americans. We’ve created a prevailing system of apathy
and ignorance, where shelters and volunteer rescue efforts cannot possibly stem the tide,
where government has mostly turned its back on animal welfare and control efforts, where
anything "animal" is usually paid ‘lip’ service (always said softly,
bottom lip protruding in that tone of voice that denotes sympathy or pity) and then, given
the lowest priority, where animals often die horrible deaths, where local animal rescue
organizations can barely fund the resources they provide to "crisis" situations,
and where a lot of people, as well as the major humane organizations are making MILLIONS
AND MILLIONS from animals.
Americans believe they can buy their way out of any situation. “I’ll do
what ever I please, then when it catches up to me, I’ll just buy my way
out”. That is exactly why the national organizations are rolling in the
dough. We send funds out of guilt and out of pity. Then refuse to do the
right thing the rest of the year by speaking out, altering pets and helping the local
situations that we can more closely monitor.
I get a lot of mail each week and often from rescuers who are out of hope and out of
funds. They sometimes describe personal situations to me that worry me, and they ask me if
I have any suggestions of help for them. Then everything I suggest is something they
just couldn’t imagine trying. I've even angered some Rescue efforts with
criticisms (largely borne of frustration), because their efforts and websites and
fundraisers and other events include NO advocacy and education components.
That means we will always be forced to deal with the status quo, rescuing animal by
animal, with no end in sight (and where I'm often "wrong" is that's still better
than nothing!). The next generation will be doomed to spending time and money
rescuing to a similar degree. We will NEVER save all the animals who need
help. There will be that given percentage which cannot be reached in time. If
each rescuer were to take 20% of their time and resources and went to the local schools,
we could ALL see a reduction of the need to follow in their footsteps in our
lifetimes! So, for every rescuer who is spending all their time and resources on
rescuing animals and not addressing the cause of these problems to their local
‘masses’, I ask you to view this more from the standpoint of a business.
For every "accomplishment" we cheer about, some other situation or
decision by government seems to take us two steps backwards. One more reason I added
'PROJECT VOTE SMART" to this site. You need to know where your representatives stand
on the local and area animal issues, let them know you are voting accordingly and let your
voice be heard.
For evil to prevail, good people need to do nothing.
Of course nobody wants to see the animals suffer. No one adopts a pet for the fun of
taking it to the pound to watch it die. Yet, we watch and still do nothing and
we take nearly a thousand pets to the pound every day in this country - few for any
justifiable reason. (“moving”, ‘don’t have time”, not right
for the kids”) etc.
With that said, education does make the most sense. It changes people's perceptions
of what is happening, what they can and can't do in order to prevent further pain and
anguish and death among our animal friends. I've seen it change teen lives right in front
of me.
If we could get America and Canada to "no kill" as soon as possible, if we could
outlaw every method of "euthanasia" except by lethal injection
(http://www.crean.com/kindness), if we could get every animal lover in the country to
write a letter to an editor on an animal issue, and demand that our media report on those
issues, and hold government at all levels accountable for, at the least, animal control
and welfare issues - we could see such improvements, stop creating
"collectors" and maybe we could negate the need to rescue hundreds/thousands of
poorly cared for animals at a time, who further deplete rescue resources.
Below are some additional resources on the issues. Please join the advocacy and
educational effort as soon as you can.
"Killing With Kindness" - An Act of Compassion
One campaign. One goal: A U.S. FEDERAL law for the HUMANE euthanasia of surplus, homeless
companion animals. One result: Putting an end to the cruel killing! For more information
and a sample letter, please see:
http://www.crean.com/kindness
"Loving Animals to Death," a psychological profile on Animal Collectors from the
Animal Protection Institute:
http://www.api4animals.org/areas.asp?c=4&ID=59
National Cruelty Investigation Schools:
http://www.missouri.edu/~letiwww/animal3.htm |
