Of Crutches And The Culture Of Dependency

Recently, our Prime Minister said, “Crutch, not for use forever.” This statement was very timely for us.

As already announced, we have had a very challenging year where there has been a shortage of funds and many new applicants, so in the past two months, we looked at everyone’s claim patterns and realised that we could no longer keep helping some of them.

We do not want to create a culture of dependency anymore. It’s time for a new Malaysia and one of the things that have to go is this very culture which is unhealthy and will not do anyone any good in the long run.

As it stands today, 27 applicants have been “graduated”. More will be “graduated” soon.

In the first place, AnimalCare was supposed to be a “starter fund” to help small-time feeders stabilise their colonies by getting the animals neutered. Once that is done, the feeder ought to concentrate on looking after the neutered animals in his/her colony. Yes, there may be newcomers, but the feeder ought to be able to finance the neutering of the occasional newcomer as and when he/she enters the colony.

As we have always emphasised, “Please…always do within your means.” If you already know your resources are limited, then why must you keep expanding to other areas and end up in a stressful, frustrating and helpless situation where you blame everyone else for your inability to carry out whatever it is that you wish to do?

No charity organisation owes anyone anything. We are here to offer some help, but our resources are limited too. And we won’t be here forever.

CNRM is supposed to be a rewarding experience. If C=Care is practised and prioritised as the most important component of the whole process, then a CNRM-er must surely realise that he/she can only do so much. After the colony has been all neutered, comes the task of looking after every single animal – this includes feeding and medical treatment – for the rest of their lives and this could easily span more than a decade. It is a very challenging task but if one were to manage a small colony (within one’s financial means), then all in all, it should be a rewarding, meaningful and happy experience.

But granted, there are those who do not agree with the above and they want to do more – they want to do large-scale TNR. If that is the case, we respect your decision but we are unable to keep helping you on the long term. Our suggestion to these big-time TNR-ers would be to register a society with like-minded rescuers and start your own fundraising. Only then can any bigtime work be sustainable.

It is unwise to keep relying on charity to help you, or worse, moving from one charitable organisation to another, relying on handouts (forever). Everyone has to learn to be independent.

“Crutch, not for use forever”, says Tun Mahathir.

Another Malaysian economist recently said, “We need an exit plan for all poverty eradication programmes” and that is so true. Otherwise, the culture of dependency will remain and we will never progress.

So come 2019, there will be no more culture of dependency in AnimalCare. We will offer you suggestions on how you can become independent and be more self-reliant. But you must do the work yourself.

Malaysia Baru cannot materialise if we don’t make changes, and change must happen at all levels.

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2018/12/30/of-crutches-and-the-cult..

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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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