Broken Trust The large animal organizations and
public money. By Randy N. Warner It is said that in America, anything imagination can conjure up can be attained with persistence. In a society where we boast of freedom and clearly recognize importance of our leadership in world, one must be increasingly disillusioned by 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 marketing prowess to alter human life around 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 same have logged an estimated 40 Billion man hours in 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 trust being placed in them by their donors, being betrayed?
The overpopulation of dogs and cats is major source of suffering and death of 8 million animals a year in America. This is a problem for which cause is well known, consequences of not solving it are well known, and tools for solving it are within reach. And yet, little headway is being made. It is one of simplest problems to correct.
We hear a lot about increasing adoptions, and this is important; but where is effort to prevent overpopulation in first place? The ASPCA, for example, doesn't even take in strays, so their adoption program, while valuable, is not addressing 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 overpopulation problem is solved, this dirty work must be done.
Why is it that almost everyone knows about ASPCA and HSUS, for example, but, by and large, 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 funds. In New York City, billboards, subway and bus ads abound. "Think out of box" is title under a picture of a puppy or kitten peeking out of an ASPCA carrier. Not one ad, or sign, or billboard informs public about overpopulation epidemic and its tragic consequences. Why? Again, large organizations have failed to convey this important message to public, in schools and to our elected officials.
Our society is continuing to devote a sizable portion of our existence to finding out problems that face us and realize that we must re focus our efforts on 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 game until all teammates play by same rules. It certainly holds true in this argument.
