Going Back To Basics
AnimalCare 
Sep 8, 2013 
AnimalCare, NGOs 
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AnimalCare started as a Neutering Fund way back in May 2009. From there, we expanded it to include medical treatment, hence it became a Medical Fund. Soon after that, needy applicants requested petfood so we started a Food Fund as well.
However, in the last few months, the number of applicants for neutering and medical subsidies had surged very significantly resulting in the amount of medical subsidies paid out being double of what it used to be. This surge also coincided with the Berjaya Funds coming in and we were hence able to sustain the increased number of applications.
But the Berjaya Funds will run out soon, yet the number of applicants is likely to stay or increase further.
As such,we have made an executive decision to close our Food Fund as of 31st Dec 2013. With limited funds and limited resources of generating funds (please note that the Berjaya Funds is only for neutering and medical subsidies and not for food subsidy), we decided it would be best to concentrate on helping caregivers in the area of neutering and medical treatment as what AnimalCare had originally intended to do. We need to prioritise as neutering and medical treatment is in line with our mission of promoting CNRM. The Food Fund had always been a bonus.
Our Mission:
1. To promote caregiving to street animals.
2. To help in the neutering and medical needs of street animals.
3. To cultivate compassion to animals through education.
We are happy that the number of applicants to the Medical Fund has increased as it only means that the awareness for the need to neuter and medically care for street animals has increased and is increasing. This is totally in line with our mission (as above).
Earlier this year we also increased our dog neutering subsidy from RM100 to RM150 as we felt this increase is justified (dog neutering is generally more expensive than cat neutering).
We will be increasing our vaccination subsidy from RM20 to a maximum of RM25 with immediate effect as we know some vets charge RM50 for vaccination and our RM20 does not even cover 50% of that figure. We are encouraging caregivers of street animals to do the basic two-vaccinations to protect their charges from various diseases, especially when disease outbreaks are not uncommon and can be deadly.
Hence, between the two funds (Medical and Food), it is obvious that the Medical Fund benefits more animals and their caregivers.
Coincidentally, the Food Fund also faced complications as it was not easy to identify who the “very needy caregivers” would be. As hard as we tried to lay down criteria for the applications, we realised that there are too many variables which are hard to quantify. For example, what benchmark should we place on one’s income to qualify him/her to receive the food subsidy? How many animals must an applicant look after before he/she qualifies for the same? And what if the animals looked after are so feral that they cannot be rehomed? We realised that (a) income, (b) the number of animals, and (c) attempts made at rehoming, are too subjective to be used as our criteria. Perhaps the only justifiable criteria is the number of animals neutered. Even then, an applicant can argue to say the animals are too feral and cannot even be approached to be caught for neutering.
We cannot find clear guidelines to decide who qualifies for the food subsidy and who does not. It is also difficult for us to evaluate an applicant’s work and it is not viable for us to continue monitoring his/her work as our applicants come from all over Malaysia. Every applicant to the Food Fund thinks he/she is needy and deserving and we do not doubt that. So, how many can we help?
In short, it is very difficult to decide who qualifies to receive food subsidies and who does not. The variables are too many and too subjective.
We have already informed our current Food Fund recipients of this executive decision and we shall continue helping them with food subsidies until the end of this year (the cut-off date for applications to reach us is 20th December so that we can prepare our accounts for the year end audit). We hope this is ample time for them to make other arrangements to provide food for the animals under their care.
We will not be accepting any new applicants for food sponsorship with immediate effect.
Some of our readers may have a personal interest to sponsor petfood for certain caregivers. If you do, please click on this:http://myanimalcare.org/category/food-fund/and write to us. We will link you up directly with the caregiver and you may liaise directly with him/her.Any future dealings will strictly be between you (the sponsor) and the caregiver. Please note that we cannot act as a middle-person in this area.
In doing charity, exercising philanthropic prudence is always wise.
Our Medical Fund will continue as usual and is open to all applicants as per our policy.
It’s better to keep things simple and concentrate on doing what we can!
Thank you very much for your support and kind understanding.
And for your Sunday entertainment, these would be apt:
http://www.lifeprinciples.net/SuccessatLife.html
And this is why we don’t “expand”. If we are able maintain what we are doing right now, I’m happy.
Source: http://myanimalcare.org/2013/09/08/going-back-to-basics/
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