So if you are a donor who has given your hard-earned money to a rescuer, a group or an organisation, with hopes that they will use the money for savings lives (and not killing), or you have engaged the services of a rescuer, a group or an organisation to help animals (this includes rescue, boarding, etc.), please do the necessary follow-up checks on how your money has been used.
Even if it does not matter to you how the money has been used, by doing follow-up checks, you are helping the whole community in ensuring there is integrity, honesty and accountability in animal welfare work.
It is very important that this integrity is preserved. Otherwise, the reputation of animal welfare work will diminish (it is already happening now with incidence of cheating and dishonesty) and it would be very hard for accountable individuals, groups or organisations to receive support to carry on with their work.
Always insist on follow-up reports on how your money has been used.
If you have sent your rescued animal for long-term boarding, always ask for periodical reports which includes photos and videos, with time stamps on them. But in this day and age of technological advancement, even time stamps can be altered or fabricated, so the best is to do a personal and physical visit to see your animals for yourself.
It is your right to ask how your donation will be used, how your animal will be cared for, etc. It would be good if all this is written down so that you have something to refer to later on.
However, having said all of the above, let me share with you some real-life cases of how nothing is fail-proof.
A. It was many, many years ago that there was a massive flood in one of the states in our country and we wanted to do our bit to help. After finding out which individuals and organisations were involved in providing aid, we decided to give a large donation to help out. So I contacted the person in charge in that organisation and I specifically said we would need a receipt and also an update on how the money is being used, all in writing. The person in charge agreed. So the donation was sent. Unfortunately, the receipt did not arrive. I had to write in many times before the receipt was finally sent. As for the update on how the money had been used, it never came at all. I wrote in repeatedly, but there was no response anymore.
So, what could we do? Well, there were options, one of which was to sue the organisation since everything was in writing. But here’s the thing about suing. Anyone can sue for anything if you have the time, energy and money for the lengthy lawsuit. Once a case is filed, the court decides if there is locus standi, ie. whether the case has merits and if it can proceed. If it can, thus begin the long, long, tedious and arduous journey of going through court hearings after hearings and at the end of the day, your lawyers and their lawyers are the only gainers. And you will end up mentally, emotionally and physically drained. You might even need psychological help after all that mental trauma.
I have, in my own personal past, encountered a few occasions where I was faced with injustice (from the workplace, from companies which had shortchanged me for their agreed services), but after considering how much money, time and energy would be wasted, I decided not to seek legal recourse. So I have never done it before and hope I will never have to do it!
It’s the same with AnimalCare. We are not going to use our hard-earned donations to enrich lawyers.
Lesson learnt from this bad experience: NEVER EVER trust that organisation again.
B. There was a case where a friend had boarded her rescued dog at a certain place that provides boarding. She dutifully paid the monthly boarding fee, on time and without fail. After some time, I asked her if she had ever been updated with photos or videos. She said not recently, so I told her it might be good to ask for such to see how her dog was doing. So she asked, and she was sent “photos” (we later found out these were very old photos). After that, my friend decided she wanted to visit the dog, which was the best thing to do. I accompanied her on the visit and guess what? The dog had actually died months ago. The “photos” were indeed old photos.
Lesson learnt – Do not depend on photos and videos. Visit your animals yourself.
This is why we insist that all applicants send us updates on the previously-claimed animals whenever they apply for a new case. This policy has not been well-received by some quarters because they find it very “strict” and “troublesome”. Efforts in accountability may require some work but it is definitely worth our time because accountability and transparency go a long way, not just in ensuring the reputation of animal work is unblemished but more so so that we can all sleep well at night. At the end of the day, we answer to our own conscience.
We fervently hope and wish that everyone who engages in animal welfare work will uphold honesty and accountability. If they don’t, not only will the responsible individuals, groups and organisations suffer, ultimately it is the animals who will suffer and have to pay the price.
A final note: Please always get your facts right before saying or writing anything. If you wish to lodge a complaint, kindly ensure you have evidence. Please do not make assumptions or worse, speculate, based on hearsay. There seems to be a lot of this going on nowadays.
Ms Ong also informed us that she will take care of WinWin’s bills from now on. Fate has been given a clean bill of health as well, and she will also take care of her bills herself. More about this in tomorrow’s post on the food aid.
Since WinWin and Fate will not be our Sponsored Animals anymore now, we will not be publishing anymore updates about them.
We wish WinWin and Fate all the very best of health and strength!
By chankahyein, on Thursday, June 1st, 2023 12:05 pm
Thank you very much, Joy, JoTong and Maslinda, for your willingness to form this TagTeam with me!
And as the four of us age, we hope to rope in younger people to join our TagTeam too.
As of now, we have our flagship Neutering Aid, Vaccination Aid, Medical Aid and Food Aid. We have always emphasized on the importance of education too. That is what we have been doing and will continue to do.
Thank you so much to all our volunteers and supporters through the years!
The day AnimalCare started – 31st May 2009.
Our many volunteers and supporters:
Dr Veeranoot organised many events for fundraising at the university too.
John Tham raised funds for us by running and cycling!
Hillary, Mabel, Marco and Brian scaled Gunung Kinabalu to raise funds for us!
My mum and I sewed blankets, bags and other items for months for our e-auctions which raised a lot of funds while it lasted.
By chankahyein, on Wednesday, May 31st, 2023 4:01 pm
We heard this very upsetting news quite a while ago and we feel we must write about it and appeal to the good sense and kindness of these rescuers.
We were told that there are these rescuers who pick up animals from the street, especially young ones, some of whom are friendly and completely healthy. They foster for a short while and put the animals up in adoption drives. Sadly, not all will get adopted especially because times are bad now. Then, they take the completely healthy unadopted animals to the vet to be euthanised.
Now there is a different version, which is even sadder. They pick up young animals from the street and say that since adopters MIGHT also dump them back on the street, why even bother with adoption drives? Might as well just get them euthanised. This means that these rescuers are picking up young animals to be euthanised.
Our appeal to these rescuers: Please get these innocent animals neutered and just return them to the street so that they have a chance to live out their natural lives. Please do not get them euthanised. They are alive. They are young, they are well and healthy. They have a right to live.
But apparently, their argument is this: If we leave them out on the street, they (1) MIGHT be caught by the council, (2) MIGHT be abused by humans, (3) MIGHT get run over by vehicles, (4) MIGHT meet an untimely death.
Yes, all true, but notice that it’s all “MIGHT”? The negatives might happen; yet, they might not.
At least please give them a chance to live out their natural lives, whatever that may be. As long as you get them neutered, returned to the colony and you continue to feed them, that is the best you can do for them. Whatever accidents that may happen, you are not at fault. Living on the street comes with risks, we know this.
By the same token, aren’t we ourselves also living our lives with risks? I mean, I MIGHT get mugged, robbed, run down by a bus when I go out, Does this mean it’s better I get myself euthanised so that all these possibilities won’t happen to me? Is euthanizing me now to spare me all the possible suffering, an act of kindness?
Also, if you catch them and get them euthanised, then how different are you from the local council? The difference, perhaps, is that the local council usually only acts upon complaints. But these rescuers go out actively to catch…and then, euthanise?
Isn’t this catching-and-killing? Isn’t this exactly what rescuers are protesting against and asking the councils to stop doing?
Here is another option for you to consider: If you are going to catch and you know you are going to get the innocent animals euthanised, then could you please NOT catch them? Please leave them alone. Let them fend for themselves or let other rescuers take them. They are not your responsibility. Please do not make them your responsibility.
But if you are a rescuer, then we would really like to appeal to your kind heart to catch and neuter, return them to the street and continue feeding them. If you need financial aid for the neutering and vaccination, please feel free to apply to us. But please, please, please, do not catch-and-kill.
So, we are appealing to you: Please…if you cannot help them, at least please don’t hurt them. Getting them euthanised is killing them. It is hurting them. They have a life to live on earth. Please let them live it out.
Nobody wants to be killed. In whatever ways. Especially animals. Their instinct is to survive. They WANT to live.
We cannot appoint ourselves as architects of the lives of other living beings.
Please also be aware that there is a possibility you have done too much for too long. You may be suffering from compassion fatigue. Please take care of your own mental health too. Take a rest. Leave the animals alone.
A street animal is nobody’s responsibility. Please do not catch them only to have them euthanised later on because you think being euthanised is better than possible suffering on the street. We have no right to end another completely healthy life.
We also wish to appeal to veterinarians not to euthanise these young healthy animals just because that is what the clients ask for.
Please.
So if you are such a rescuer, here’s our appeal to you:
Please reconsider what you are doing. Kindly do not catch-and-kill. Get the animals neutered and if they cannot be adopted, return them to the street and continue caring for them there. But if you must still catch-and-kill, then, please stop doing it. Just stop. Killing is not a solution to the stray problem. It never was and deep down in your heart, you know this.
Please take a good long look at all you have done in the past (before you started catching-and-killing), please ask yourself if you have done too much until you are now suffering from compassion fatigue and you just do not have any energy left in you to even care anymore. If you feel this way, it’s time to take a rest. Please stop doing this work. Take a rest.
Dogs and cats read our body language and definitely read our minds. They can sense positive and negative feelings. But apart from these, there’s another confirmed method of communicating with your cat – by “smiling” in a feline way, ie. narrowing the eyes and BLINKING slowly. Yes, blinking.
I’ve done this many, many times with all our cats and they blink back.
If they blink at you first, wow…it means they really like you.
In case you haven’t tried it before, please do try.
Besides this, the cat also speaks through her tail:
Many, many years ago, a friend told me she prefers dogs to cats. In fact, she did not like cats because “cats do not smile”. Sigh…here’s anthropomorphism at work again. Just because we humans smile, it doesn’t mean cats must also “smile” in the same way. But humans will be humans.
So the next time someone says that to you, do tell them about the “slow blink” of the cat – that’s how they smile to us!
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