Broken Trust

The large animal organizations and the public money.

It is said that in America, anything the imagination can conjure up
can be attained with persistence. In a society where we boast of
freedom and clearly recognize the importance of our leadership in the
world, one must be increasingly disillusioned by the simple things in
life that prevent us from moving ahead even further. We can
successfully put roving monitors on mars,, cure diseases in short
order, win wars in 100 days or less and have the marketing prowess to
alter human life around the globe.

The suffering of animals is a deep and quiet thing; and yet, millions
of people hear, and care and hope to answer this call. More than
3,000 non profits dedicated to the same have logged an estimated 40
Billion man hours in the past 20 years all while Americans are
donating billions of their dollars to animal welfare organizations
who promise that they are relieving animal suffering.

But are they? Or, is the trust being placed in them by their donors,
being betrayed?

The overpopulation of dogs and cats is the major source of the
suffering and death of 8 million animals a year in America. This is a
problem for which the cause is well known, the consequences of not
solving it are well known, and the tools for solving it are within
reach. And yet, little headway is being made. It is one of the
simplest problems to correct.

We hear a lot about increasing adoptions, and this is important; but
where is the effort to prevent the overpopulation in the first place?
The ASPCA, for example, doesn’t even take in strays, so their
adoption program, while valuable, is not addressing the problem in a
significant way. They inaugurated their “no-kill” policy in order to
appeal to more donors. That doesn’t mean that animals are not being
killed—they are just being killed someplace else. And until the
overpopulation problem is solved, this dirty work must be done.

Why is it that almost everyone knows about the ASPCA and HSUS, for
example, but, by and large, the public still doesn’t know that it is
not OK to breed their pets or to allow an accidental breeding? Why
don’t people know about puppy mills or where pet shop puppies come
from? The big organizations have utterly failed to get this message
across. Why?

They have the funds. In New York City, billboards, subway and bus ads
abound. “Think out of the box” is the title under a picture of a
puppy or kitten peeking out of an ASPCA carrier. Not one ad, or sign,
or billboard informs the public about the overpopulation epidemic and
its tragic consequences. Why? Again, the large organizations have
failed to convey this important message to the public, in schools and
to our elected officials.

Our society is continuing to devote a sizable portion of our
existence to finding out the problems that face us and realize that
we must re focus our efforts on the TRUE meanings of responsibility,
compassion and to understand that even though only one voice, each
human is part of a societal choir of sorts that has far reaching
consequences for everyone in that given society. I was once told that
we can never expect to win the game until all teammates play by the
same rules. It certainly holds true in this argument.

Nobody within the ranks of these seemingly noble efforts will
disagree with the facts that nobody wants to work together. They
defend their ideas as if it were a pharmaceutical corporation with a
cure for cancer. The compassion issue is everywhere in the animal
protection movement. ‘Compassion This – Compassion That.” But all the
large animal protection groups continue to bicker, argue, point
fingers and sling mud between themselves. The anger and jealousy and
vindictiveness among the smaller rescue organization efforts is
mammoth in scope. Unimaginably detrimental to all these efforts is
clearly the complete lack of true compassion – at least a real focus
on their actual goals. Of course, politics, egos and agendas play a
large part in covering up any real compassion that may be earned or
even really exists.

We are not advocating the end of the big organizations or even the
reduction of the six-figure salaries being awarded their chief
executives.Why shouldn’t someone who saves an animal get paid as well
as someone who is willing to send them to slaughter or pave over
habitat? But, in any business and most other endeavors, a chief
executive who does not do the job is either demoted or fired. The big
animal organizations have not done the job. Should they continue to
get paid?

Too much of their funding is channeled back into their own
development, feeding their own labyrinthine gullets. These
organizations have become creatures with bigger and bigger bellies
and weaker arms and legs and smaller hearts to get things done. If we
were truly compassion driven, we would not be so uninformed as to
assume the large national groups were truly out to help the animals
with their millions and millions of dollars laying around in bank
accounts while much needed and well deserved programs go unfunded and
lives continue to be lost. If we were truly compassion driven, we
would educate ourselves on the facts of these issues so as to clearly
understand our individual roles in prevention.

Sharing the blame and the shame is the American Kennel Club, which
issues registration papers indiscriminately to decent breeders and to
puppy mills alike. They sponsor the suffering of thousands upon
thousands of animals. No big organization wants to take them on. Why?
We must admit the problems are ours and ours to solve. Like our
fanatical minority and religious leaders, our large animal welfare
organizations need their victims. Absent crime and imaginary
situations against their people and teachings, these organizations
disappear — this means jobs. Jobs = egos. As long as they can
convince those who don’t know any better, they will survive.

The picture as of today, is one of an overworked underfunded and
failing animal control effort, schools failing to institute any form
of humane education programs into a curriculum at any level, the
media won’t cover the real stories of HOW to prevent this and see a
productive future, their readers don’t want the stories of puppies
and kittens dying as it’s too upsetting to read. Finally, all those
who are sitting at their desk right now in any animal protection
organizations while reading this are going to be outwardly angered
that One would accost them in such a manner, but are not willing to
correct the situation as it stands, to ensure they receive a pay
check next week.

The major animal welfare organizations are not useless. The world is
a better place with them than without them, but they fall short. Too
short. To whom much is given, much is expected.

Randy Warner has been featured in People Magazine, LA Times, NY Post, David Letterman Show, CBS Evening News and more. Warner has a series of handbooks to help you become the best humane educator possible. Great for schools, libraries, animal protection agencies and family discussions. See http://www.21stcenturycares.org/products.htm