Skip to main content

I Don't Give to Animal Causes



"I don’t give to animal causes."
 
This is one of those statements that I completely understand and respect.  People have every right to give as they see fit and I am just thankful that people give at all in this economy.  But, and you knew there had to be a but, I don’t see us as just animals.   We do far more than just help animals and I would say 90% of the time there is a person involved that we are helping as well.  

Let me give you a great example.  An older woman called us because she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and it was time for her to figure out a place to bring her 4 dogs.  Soon she is heading to an assisted living situation and could not take them.  She loved them like they were her children because to her they were.  They were her whole life, a reason to get up in the morning.  Today, she brought them in to the shelter.  We started the intake of the dogs at 11:00 am and at 1:00 pm she was still at the shelter giving them attention, afraid to leave.   She brought us their medications, told us all about their habits and made sure we knew how special each one was.  She was scared, sad, nervous and now alone, but at least she knows that we will provide great care for her dogs and help them find new homes.  She has entrusted us with her kids.   We helped her by giving her the peace of mind that they will be safe.  Behind every animal is a person, we don't just take care of the emotions of the animal but the person's emotions as well.  

The other ends of these stories are the happy ones.  Families adopting, creating new bonds and teaching their children about lifetime love and companionship.   To see a child light up when they know they are getting a new pet is amazing.  We help people who don’t want cats on their property by providing spay/neuter services and a way to stop them from reproducing.  We reunite lost pets with their owners. We offer behavior assistance to people who are having problems with their pet.  We provide people with low cost spay/neuter services so they can afford to fix their pets.  We provide people……   We help people…. We care about people…..

Yes, we are an animal cause and our funds go to provide daily and medical care to these pets that find themselves in our facility by no fault of their own.  Pets are completely dependent on people, without support from the community we couldn’t look owners in the eyes like the woman today and tell her, “Your dogs will be fine, they will find great homes, we got this.”     



Please give locally when giving to animal causes.  The  national groups are not connected to local organizations and donations do not filter down to your local humane society or SPCA. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IS LHS UNDER ATTACK?

In 2013 the Lynchburg Humane Society (LHS) ended the year with a 92% save rate for the animals in our care, the highest year end figure since we began down the path to No Kill.   We were able to reduce the number of cats we took in by 294, compared to 2012, due primarily, we believe, to our spay/neuter efforts.   YOU made this possible.    We believe the Lynchburg Humane Society is about to be embroiled in a controversial attack by another humane organization because of all the great work we are doing.   We want our community and our supporters to know why and to be informed about this controversy because without you we could not do what we are doing.   You all are partners in our efforts.     This is long so please hang in there and read it in its entirety because there is important information throughout that you probably don’t know.    In April PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) sent us a letter askin...
49 comments
Read more

They know what they know so don’t give them the facts.

I had the pleasure of having an interesting conversation with a member of another humane organization this past weekend. They are an SPCA that takes in animals for a number of localities and operates as the pound for their area. She asked how we were doing in Lynchburg and I, of course, was excited to tell her about our recent success about our save rate being 84% and having no healthy animal lose their life in our shelter in 2010 and how much the community has embraced the changes as we move toward becoming No Kill. She immediately went to defense mode and asked me loaded questions to prove I was wrong and of course explain to me how our programs wouldn’t work for them. The appointment system, wouldn’t work – pet owners aren’t responsible enough to do the right thing. People must be just “dumping” their animals in other localities.” Fact : The counties that reported their stats for 2010 in the Lynchburg area saw a reduction in the number of animals they took in and more...
15 comments
Read more

Pittsylvania Pet Center- It's a Marathon not a Sprint

We have been operating the Pittsylvania Pet Center for a short 8 months. We have been very transparent from the beginning that we will operate as a no kill facility, which means we do not euthanize healthy or treatable animals and do not euthanize for space, reserving euthanasia for terminally ill animals or those considered a danger  to public safety. We will not apologize for that or change our views on that. We do not let animals suffer. We have also found ourselves in a situation where some of the community is already angry about the new facility being built. However, the building is there and we are now here to help the community with their pets,whether they need to surrender their pet or they find a lost dog wandering the streets in need of help. We have taken in several owned pets that needed veterinary  care that the person could not afford. The point being, we are here for the community. And with the large increase of intake we see that the community does...
1 comment
Read more