I am sure this will resonate with many of you who have a charity, refuge, or Association that rescues
If someone wanted to board their dog or cat in a commercial Boarding Kennels or Cattery, and were told by the owner of the business, that they were full, they would accept this situation gracefully. Why then, when Animal Rescue Shelters face the same situation, are their volunteers verbally insulted or abused, or subjected to emotional blackmail?
Animal Charities are organisations which have limited space and limited funds. Their buildings are not constructed with expanding sides, and the money they have to spend on the animals in their care is not free flowing.
Why must people argue aggressively when someone apologises that the responsibility for their family pet cannot simply be transferred from them onto someone else’s shoulders? Run by volunteers, who often work full-time and give up their right to a social or private life, Shelters are in danger of going under through the sheer weight of abandoned and neglected animals.
Yet these animals just keep on coming, and the flood of abandoned family pets keeps gathering momentum. How many times is the phrase ‘surely you have room for just one more?’ heard in a day? Too many times, and each time a refusal is regrettably given, should that person have to be on the receiving end of verbal abuse? Can people not understand that a yes given every time to that ‘just one more’ would double the number of dogs and cats already in care in a very short space of time?
No-one takes pleasure in refusing refuge for a dog or cat with nowhere to go, but all too often an attempt is made to transfer the blame for that abandonment away from the pet’s owner and onto the shoulders of the Charity Worker. Emotional blackmail is often used, with threats such as ‘If you don’t take my dog, I’ll tie a rock around its neck, and throw it into the sea’ or ‘If you don’t take my dogs today, they will be put to sleep tomorrow’. The responsibility for the death of an animal MUST never be laid on the shoulders of an Animal Shelter worker, who is doing their best under almost impossible conditions.
Many times the same phrases are repeated over and over again. ‘You HAVE to take him/her, you are a Charity.’ ‘You have to come and collect it, you are a Charity.’ ‘If it dies, it will be on your head’. ‘I don’t want it, you have to have it, You are the Charity’ and on and on………..
All the Animal Rescue Shelters in Spain are run on a volunteer basis, with no financial assistance from the Government. All too often they are likened to the Spanish equivalent of the R.S.P.C.A., but this is not true. There is no R.S.P.C.A. or anything like it in Spain. All there is here are small independent Animal Charities, run by dedicated volunteers with little resources on shoe-string budgets.
If a small donation is asked for to help in the care of the animal, the request is met with incredulity. The question is often asked ‘why would I want to give you any money, all I want you to do is get rid of this cat/dog for me!’ How do some people think that Animal Shelters carry on doing the work that they do? There is no ‘Money Tree’ and if anyone ever found one, they would be very careful to keep the location of it to themselves.
The refusal to help with the care of a family pet, is not something that is given out lightly, but FULL is FULL, and whilst the pet owner may well be under severe pressure and desperate to find a solution, spare a moment to consider the pressure that you are putting the person on the other end of the phone under. That person is already responsible for dozens of dogs or cats, who may never be lucky to find another home, and may well spend the rest of their life in a kennel or cattery environment.
Money must be found to care for the dogs and cats already under the care of the Animal Shelter, and in a lot of cases, that will be food and medical care for the rest of that animal’s life. Most Shelters do not have a date of execution for their animals, in the way that Municipal Dog Pounds do, but that creates its own form of pressure, because a rescued puppy or kitten who spends its entire life in a Shelter will have money spent on it for ten years or more.
Only by finding loving homes for animals already in the system, can Animal Shelters take in more. It is impossible to keep ‘stuffing’ animals in, in the way that the public demands. There just isn’t any room for ‘one more inside’.
Shelters who accept cats may well home one, only to be put under pressure to take a litter of five or six. It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to work out that over-crowding is only a matter of time. A cattery designed for 50, cannot be expected to keep saying yes, until that figure has grown to 70 or 90 or 100! Where is the line drawn? The priority for any Animal Shelter has to be the health and well-being of the dogs and cats already in their care.
So please, be responsible for YOUR family pet, and don’t pile blame and responsibility onto the shoulders of the person you call, who sadly cannot help you, there REALLY isn’t any room for ‘one more inside’.
written by ‘A Charity in Murcia’
The beautiful cat in this post is called Fred. He is a victim of this overly full refuge. Fred was thrown over their fence in a frozen chicken bag when he was a kitten. He has never been accepted by the rest of the cat community here, especially the black cats for some reason. He is shy and frightened and needs a home.
If you know someone that might home Fred, please contact ACTIN.
Vivienne Wharton
0034 968163529
Email admin@actin-spain.com
Above: Fred is being bullied by other cats in this refuge that is struggling to find homes. He hides!
Below: Fred, with the black cats stalking down below
Source: ACTIN-SPAIN
