Ref: http://www.myanimalcare.org/2011/10/follow-up-on-yesterdays-wormy-case.html
This lady's two kittens' case is our very last panel vet case based on our old policies. I have settled the bill today, amounting to RM127. I have also written to her to inform her of this and hope she will give back something to our fund to help the next animal. As per our old policies, medical subsidy is not 100%.
As of 7th October 2011, we have no more panel vets. Rescuers and caregivers who require our financial assistance for the medical treatment of their rescues have the freedom of using their own vets. They will settle the bill themselves and we will then give them a subsidy based on our revised policies.
Revised policies: http://www.myanimalcare.org/p/policies.html
Since PetFinder.my started with their Medical Fund, we have been working together closely on many cases. I am in total agreement with Andy Koh of PetFinder.my that we have the responsibility of nurturing a community of responsible rescuers and caregivers.
Rescue work is not just about picking up an animal from the street and sending it to the vet's. It is also about raising funds to pay for the medical treatment, and later, looking for a fosterer if one cannot foster the animal herself, and finally, rehoming the animal or ensuring the animal gets to a safe place to spent the rest of its life.
In the past two years of providing financial assistance to rescuers at our panel vet's, we've always settled the full bill because when the case is recommended by us, I do not want to owe the vet. Our vets are commercial vets and they have a business to run, overheads to pay, etc. It is not right to owe them money, so we've been settling the bill promptly for all of our cases.
After having settled the bill, we always ask the rescuer to give something back to our fund to help the next animal as a gesture of goodwill ("One good turn deserves another") but there had been too many cases where rescuers promise to give back something to our fund, but do not honour their word. One can look back at all my posts - if the rescuer gives anything back, it is always mentioned in the post. I will only send one reminder, and if the rescuer still does not give, I think it speaks volumes about her.
We work very hard to raise money for our medical fund and more importantly, donors and supporters trust us that the money will be put to good use for the animals. "Putting the money to good use" includes nurturing a community of responsible rescuers who will not rely totally on others to raise funds for their cases, but would also endeavour to raise some money by herself from her own circle of friends.
It had also never occurred to me that some vets may think we are "undercutting" their business by offering sponsorship at our panel vets until this wormy case happened last week where this caregiver took a dying kitten away from her vet while it was already being treated and brought it to our panel vet, telling her vet that we provide 50% sponsorship. This resulted in her vet thinking that we were trying to undercut his business in a most unethical way, and he called our vet to seek an explanation. I do not blame her vet for thinking so as the circumstances would certainly lead anyone to come to that conclusion.
The situation became extremely unpleasant and I had to meet the first vet to explain and clarify that we had no ill intention at all. All I did was to source our panel vet to treat a dying kitten because her caregiver said there was no vet to attend to the kitten. I never knew the caregiver would still remove the kitten from her vet after the vet had begun treating her. The action of this caregiver lead to such unpleasant and uncalled-for consequences which would have in turn, led to misunderstandings between the two clinics and put our credibility at stake had I not sorted out the matter that day. Until today, I still do not know if her vet fully understands the situation. He was really upset when I met him.
Because of this episode, I realised that having panel vets can do more harm than good due to the actions of caregivers who may not share our priorities in animal caregiving work. The last thing I would want is to have misunderstandings and ill feelings amongst the vets. We need the vets to help us help the animals.
As I now reflect on this, I am thankful for this "blessing in disguise" even though it was a most unpleasant experience. It is because of this incident that we now have a better and more proper way of managing our medical fund.
Behind every cloud, there is a silver lining. Always.
So, in short:
1. We still provide fully-sponsored spay-neuter at our two panel vets in Subang Jaya.
2. We provide a subsidy for spay-neuter at other vets.
3. We have no more panel vets for medical treatment.
4. We provide a subsidy for medical treatment at all vets.
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