I was at the vet’s yesterday with Kelly and I saw a lady bring in eight dogs for neutering.
There were also two other ladies who were ahead of us and they had brought in a tortoise.
I learnt a lot about compassion yesterday, from these three ladies. And I am truly thankful for the chance encounter.
So this dog rescuer was outside the clinic with eight dogs in 3-4 cages. She was busy arranging with the clinic staff to get the dogs neutered. As they were talking, the two ladies with the tortoise decided to help this dog rescuer so one of them went out and offered to cover the charges for her. That was so very kind of her indeed.
The dog rescuer then said that she only needed financial help with the pregnant dog and one very sick dog, suspected of having a lung infection. The rest of the neutering was already sponsored.
The story then got more interesting.
This dog rescuer is almost in her seventies and has been getting street cats and dogs for the last two decades. She had already done the cats and dogs in her own housing area, and she doesn’t just stop there. Nowadays, she goes to the outskirts and helps the feeders in those areas. She says that all of these feeders only feed and do not neuter at all. In one area that she is helping now, you can see more than a hundred dogs on one road.
More than one hundred…sigh. I can totally believe that she isn’t exaggerating because an unspayed female local dog can give birth to 8-12 puppies in a single litter. If they all survive, which they might since there are feeders, the numbers will increase very exponentially.
It’s very simple math, isn’t it?
So, truly, feeding without neutering is doing harm. It is facilitating more breeding and once the numbers increase exponentially, how is the feeder going to sustain the increased feeding? This is why we do not provide food aid unless there is proof of ongoing and active neutering.
If a feeder does not plan to neuter, then please do not feed. At least without food, the animal will go away to another location and let’s hope there will be someone there who knows the importance of neutering and do the needful – neuter and continue feeding.
And yet despite our ongoing efforts to educate the masses on the importance of neutering, there are still readers who will only feed. It’s a very simple principle: If you do not plan to (or cannot) neuter, please do not feed.
So, anyway, let’s get back to my conversations with these three ladies.
The two ladies with the rescued tortoise are epitomes of kindness. They just wanted to help as much as they could and they quickly pledged to help the pregnant dog and the sickly one. So theirs are covered.
Then I got talking with the dog rescuer and she continued telling me her story. Every weekend she goes down to these outskirt areas and catches dogs for neutering. She showed me photos of the the fences she uses too.
She does remarkable work and the neutering is sponsored by a certain organisation. However, this organisation does not sponsor the spaying of pregnant dogs or the medical treatment of sick dogs.
I explained to her what AnimalCare can offer, in case she needed our help with the medical treatment of sick dogs. I also explained that we too cannot help in the spaying of pregnant animals. The reason for this is our no-kill policy which I believe, is also practised by some other organisations such as the one that is helping her.
When we first started, I leant of rescuers who would purposely catch heavily-pregnant street animals to be spayed. When the animal is noticeably pregnant, and almost close to delivery, to get her spayed is very, very sad. Yet, we do not judge the decision of the rescuers. We understand their predicament of having to rehome and look after yet another new litter of maybe 8-12 puppies. We do not judge; but we cannot use our donors’ money for this as many of our donors appreciate our no-kill policy. So, this has been our policy right from the start – we do not aid in the spaying of pregnant animals.
The other matter is those found to be in very early pregnancy which could not be detected by the vet yet, so it becomes an accidental abortion. We needed a blanket no-kill policy because where do we draw the line on this? How early is early? Does every clinic state so on the invoice? No, they don’t. So we had already decided right from the start that we will not aid in the spaying of any pregnant animal. It had to be a blanket rule and this rule still applies.
As for the medical treatment of sick animals, we offer our medical aid as long as eventually the animal is neutered after recovery from the illness. Our medical aid is an “aid”, which might not cover the full cost, so the dog rescuer said that’s not suitable for her too, as she is so overwhelmed by these weekly rescues that she needs full sponsorship for all her medical cases. Fortunately, she has friends who will chip in to cover the entire cost most of the the time. So, that’s taken care of too.
It is good to know that there are so many good samaritans around.
The dog rescuer says our aid is very good for the small-time feeders and she is right about that. All our aid is targeted for the small-time rescuer who looks after a colony of manageable size so that all the animals are well cared for. The dog rescuer then took my phone number to share with many small-time rescuers whom she knows of in the areas that she goes to.
In the past, during our initial years, we never asked for updates on previously-claimed animals. As long as an animal is neutered, we would pay. But what we discovered was that many of these neutered animals weren’t cared for anymore. And when we did ask for updates, the reply from these big-time feeders was “don’t know”. While neutering a street animal is stopping the breeding, which is an important step in helping to control the population, not continuing to look after them makes the project unsustainable. Without proper daily feeding, these neutered animals would migrate elsewhere and their wellbeing becomes uncertain. They may rummage rubbish bins for food, which then causes intolerant humans to alert the authorities who will then capture them. Isn’t that a total waste of our funds? Not only that, it’s very sad, because these animals are already neutered and should be allowed to live out their natural lives peacefully. They would, if they were cared for. This is why we need the updates and photos of previously-claimed animals. This is so that we know at least efforts are made to care for them on the long term.
I got home and we held a discussion to see if there can be any room in our policies to help someone like this dog rescuer. After careful deliberation, we decided our policies needed to be kept. Our funds are targeted to help the small-time feeder who will continue looking after the animals in a colony of a manageable size.
Keep it small and manageable – we are here to help. And we believe in sharing out the costs so that the feeders also pay a bit of the bill. In our previous experience, when full sponsorships are given, it also leads to other human problems. But that would be another topic for another time, or not at all, as talking about the frailties of the human psyche is not exactly a topic I like to delve into. It’s unpleasant.
Having said that, not everyone has those frailties. Some are truly genuine in their endeavours, as in the dog rescuer I had the privilege of meeting yesterday. And those who are genuine in their intentions will find a way to get the job done. Just as she remarked yesterday that it was truly her lucky day to have met two ladies who stepped up to offer financial help at the vet’s. And even though she could not make use of our aid, she says she would share it with the small-time feeders who can benefit from it.
Luck works in mysterious ways.
Just keep it real and sincere.
Leave a Reply