The Line Between A Responsible Caregiver And A Hoarder
AnimalCare 
Aug 28, 2013 
AnimalCare, NGOs 
0 comments
| Tweet |  |
Ever since Royal Canin donated the 500kg of catfood to us for distribution to recipients of our Food Fund, we’ve had a number of new applicants. As you know, we have a Food Fund which provides dogfood and catfood to needy and responsible individual caregivers of street animals.
The keywords here are NEEDY and RESPONSIBLE.
In fact, even our Medical Fund is for needy and responsible caregivers. Whenever anyone applies for our funds, we send each applicant our policies and we work on trust and goodwill. If the applicant proceeds with the application, we trust the applicant is applying out of need and not greed. Sometimes, applicants do re-donate to our fund when times are better for them and we appreciate this very much. As the old saying goes, “One good turn deserves another”, or a more modern version, “Pay it forward”.
But for our Food Fund, we have more stringent criteria. There is a questionnaire to be filled up and the applicant has to reveal his/her monthly salary. Other criteria includes the number of animals looked after, whether animals are neutered, whether attempts had been made to get the animals rehomed, etc. We will also ask for photographs, receipts and other relevant information. We will cross-check the applicant’s background with other sources too. Approval is on a case-by-case basis and dependent on the availability of funds.
It also does not mean that once a caregiver receives petfood from us, we are obliged to keep supplying to them for the long-term. Our funds are limited. We can only give when we can.
We will also review these applications from time to time by asking the applicant for updated information about his/her caregiving work. We are currently in the midst of this exercise.
In the course of doing this review now, one of our readers shared with us her views on what constitutes responsible caregiving and how sometimes, a caregiver who starts off responsibly can cross the line and end up being a “hoarder”.
Below are her views and we are thankful for her sharing:
Personally we have been sponsoring and giving out aids on a personal capacity to various animal rescuers who treat strays to pay for medical bills and some incidental expenses which is incur during the course of rescuing strays and street animals.
We had done it for a very long time; our decision to sponsor and aid stem out of our own experiences when we first started helping out strays and street animals on how restrictive and heart breaking it is to do what we do when we do not have sufficient funds to see the rescue through.
So we emphasize with those who faced with the same problems as we do when we first started. As the years goes by we found ways to increase our incomes and revenues by actually practising financial management. We have evolved over the years through our mistakes of money management by learning from these mistakes and managed to put aside some funds to aid those who needs it because as age is catching up we slowed down a lot and for the love of the animals this is the best we can do by aiding financially not physically as we are not as fast and as agile as we used to be.
However, like many things ‘it is easier said than done’ and ‘ the path to hell is paved with good intentions’. The most challenging task is when to decide who to give and who not to give.
The most difficult and the saddest part for us is when we are faced with (according to our observations not withstanding the academic researches and what not) ‘animal hoarders’.
What do we do?- look the other way? If we do and not give aid the animals suffers further and when we do give aid we know that indirectly we are encouraging and supporting the hoarder to feed on his/hers sickness.
This alleged hoarder always started out with the intentions of saving a poor animals and as times goes by when the resources and supports depleted the hoarder still ‘rescue’ animals but the animals are cramped in filthy environment where nutritious food source are scarce or none at all, diseases and illness, not neutered or spayed and neglect completely takes over.
We know that the jury is still out there on what defines a hoarder or what define an animal saviour. In our opinion it is simple if a rescuer takes on more than what he/she can handle and it has bankrupted he/she money wise, physically and mentally and the rescues are in constant state of neglect it is hoarding to us.
There is a fine line between doing the noble deed or rescuing the one that needed to be rescued and being a narcissist (based a Greek mythology ademi-god Narcissus who fell in love with his own image when he saw his reflection on the water) a person who is selfish and arrogant.
I think we all should do a check list on ourselves when we think we are doing a noble deed and simply we are being a narcissistic or displaying some symptoms of having a narcissistic disorder (source: Wikipedia)
o Believing we are better rescuer than others?
o Expecting constant praise and admiration for our rescue work?
o Believing that we are special rescuer and we act as if we are special rescuer?
o Failing to recognize others emotions and feelings when we inconvenient others with our rescue work?
o Expecting others to go along with our ideas and plans ?
o Taking advantage of others i.e. aids, sponsorships, time, efforts, etc?
o Expressing disdain to those we feel inferior to?
o Believing that other people are jealous of us for the rescue work that we do?
o We have trouble in keeping healthy relationship?
o Setting unrealistic goals for ourselves?
o Being easily hurt and rejected ?
o We have a fragile self esteem?
o We appear tough-minded and unemotional but we are actually very ‘emo’?
Whatever we humans think of ourselves but in the end the collateral damage and the one that suffers the most is the animals that we rescued. It is sad but we face these predicaments of to give or not to give the aid/sponsorship to whom we have assessed as animal hoarders as the animals is the ones who suffers.
Even after suffering from being abandoned, unwanted, hunger, fear, death, diseases and pain they still face imminent danger when they are rescued by a hoarder. Try talking sense to an animal hoarder I think the wall will listen to you better and have more sense. It is their arrogance that prevent them to see the reality of their situation.
I was taught by my parents – what is better and more noble than charity? It is the ability keep goodwill and peace (not making enemies) among all species of mankind.
Just a sharing with you Dr. Chan as I observe through our communications I know that you will appreciate my predicaments.
Kind regards
How true….we try our best not to “make enemies” with anyone. But sometimes, no matter how hard we try, it is not easy to please everyone. Some people are not happy with our policies. Some get offended when we ask for more details, no matter how politely we do so. We have also noticed that some rescuers have adopted a “you SHOULD help me” attitude or “I am a seasoned rescuer, how DARE you question me further” attitude.
As an organisation that helps hundreds of applicants, we know we cannot please everyone all the time. We are accountable to the funds that come from our well-wishers and supporters and we have to ensure that these funds are disbursed fairly and justifiably.
We hope you understand.
Source: http://myanimalcare.org/2013/08/28/the-line-between-a-responsible-caregiver-and-a-hoarder/
| Tweet |
|
Facebook Comments