Oh Dear, Please Do Not Do This�

I received a query from a potential applicant to our fund recently. She had contacted me much earlier to ask about our neutering aid and I had already explained our procedures, sent her the policies in writing and the forms, etc.

She contacted me again, after having read our policies, to say that she found another organisation which also helps with subsidies for neutering. Her query was whether she can apply to both organisations for the same animal. I said no, this is not possible. Not only that she would “profit” financially by claiming from both organisations (the two aids add up to more than what she would pay for and she clearly realised this, from our conversation), but to claim from both sides would cause a lot of misunderstandings once we publish her case. News travel fast and wide over the internet. Furthermore, it says clearly in our policies:

Our aid is offered to responsible INDIVIDUAL caregivers of street animals who need the aid and who are not receiving financial assistance from other sources.

Our aid is NOT open to:
1. animal welfare organisations, groups, shelters and their members and/or any parties which may have a conflict of interest involved.
2. animal caregivers who have their own funds, the means to raise/source their own funds or who are supported by other sources.

And it also says:

We ask that you abide by all our policy requirements and liaise with us in the spirit of full disclosure so that we may establish a relationship of trust, honesty and goodwill which goes a long way. This also protects the credibility of animal charity.  

AnimalCare reserves the right not to provide assistance without need to provide reasons for such decision. 

After having explained this to her, she said she would think about it. I suppose a small consolation is that she actually bothered to ask if she could do this, which indicates that she may not be aware that it is wrong to profit from such things? 

In any case, I certainly hope she would “think about it” carefully and rationally and not take advantage of the goodwill and hard work of both organisations. Please do take a look and see how hard we have to work to raise funds to help the animals and their caregivers (the applicants).

And thanks to all the hard work and donations received over the years, we can now dig into our reserves to tide over this difficult financial period. Otherwise, AnimalCare would have to close its neutering fund already!

This is why we publish the details of each claim in the blog. It is for accountability and transparency. And this is also why, again and again, we urge all other organisations which provide aid to please take the receipt and not return it to the applicant once aid has been provided.

Please do not return the receipt. Otherwise, as in one really bad case last time, this lady claimed from a few private donors and two other organisations before finally applying to us. She even told the two organisations that she needed back the receipt because AnimalCare insists on the receipt and will not be returning it. So yes, she ended up making money for herself, and this was really bad, but we found out and she has been blacklisted. And how we found out was because we published her case and another organisation which had funded her, contacted us after reading the post. From that, everything else came out into the open. She collected funds from private donors and THREE organisations for every case.

So, “you can run but you cannot hide” holds true. Sooner or later, it will all come out. In any case, can such a person sleep well at night?

To all applicants: Let’s work together on the path of honesty and goodwill and more so, to protect the credibility of animal charity.

We assure our donors and supporters that we will make all efforts to ensure that their donations are put to use properly and in accordance with our policies.

Recently, a few applicants have lamented that some clinics are raising the cost of neutering and medical treatment. We totally empathise with this, but with the downturn of the RM and the upswing of the USD, this increase in the rate of inflation is inevitable. We would just have to brace ourselves for this and work harder. But we are not able to increase our maximum aid of RM100 for cats and RM150 for dogs at this point in time when we were already digging into our reserves since the middle of last year. In fact, it is a huge relief that at least we don’t have to lower our aid or worse, close the fund! Except for this month (due to it being Chinese New Year, hence, fewer claims and more angpows from the supporters – thank you so much!), we have had to rely on our reserves to sustain the fund and payouts.

Another point I wish to raise here is that in our opinion, rescuers must not rely totally on organisations to fund their rescue work. It is also not the expected duty of organisations to fund their work. Aid is a support, even a bonus, at times.  When I started off as a rescuer, I used my own money to fund my rescue work and even after I started AnimalCare, I still used my own money to fund my personal rescue work. AnimalCare funds was for helping others, not myself.  I am hence rather puzzled when some applicants asked if we would be increasing our aid because clinics are increasing the cost of neutering. When I said no, they asked, “Then WHO is going to pay for the extra cost now?”. These are cases whereby our maximum aid (of RM150 per dog and RM100 per cat) was enough to cover the vet fee previously so these applicants were getting a full 100% sponsorship all these years. Now, they have to foot another RM10 or RM20 on their own and they are not happy. They expect organisations like us to increase our aid.

Unfortunately, we are not an ATM machine and our coffer is also running thin. We have requested applicants to help us forward posters regarding our Gifts by Donation (merchandise to raise funds). We can only hope those who have received from us will now help by doing this bit. Besides donations, our merchandise and homesewn items are the only other ways of fundraising.

So, the cooperation and support from all quarters are most appreciated. We thank our supporters, donors and well-wishers and we urge all applicants to tread on the path of honesty, goodwill and reciprocation.

Last but not least, and we reiterate here that rescuers must also be willing to use their own money for their rescue work, partially, at least.

Thank you.

Even a cat knows this and lives by it!

There shouldn’t be levels of honesty. Just honesty. 

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2016/02/28/oh-dear-please-do-not-do..

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AnimalCare is a registered society that promotes caregiving to street animals and helps in their neutering and medical needs. AnimalCare has a Medical Fund, Food Fund and Education Fund.

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