Anna Kroylova.
Our local Friends of the Shelter not only manage to find homes for the dogs and cats coming through our local shelter, they provide medical care for needy animals in Northern New Mexico. They also actively support spay/neutering of pets because in general there are more needy dogs and cats than homes for them. It’s one of the most effective ways of reducing animal suffering.
As part of this outreach they from time to time give out vouchers so people can spay/neuter their animals for free. In a recent campaign they’ve added more incentive: the promise of a $20 gift card for people who actually use the vouchers.
They passed out the above handouts in front of the Espanola Walmart a few weeks ago. The yellow dog in the first picture was part of the publicity.
Walmart had given permission for them to use its parking lot, but to make sure its customers weren’t disturbed it posted a couple of security guards. Apparently the guards thought the event needed a bit more livening up, because one of them phoned Animal Control, saying a big yellow dog was loose. The Animal Control officer was not upset by the joke:
Anna Kroylova.
Anna Kroylova.
Have you ever had fun while doing good?
PUKE! They’re letting you use Veterinarians for FREE while giving you $20!
I think there should be a FINE for every little dog/cat that the shelter must deal with, by finding a home or euthanizing.
I’m sorry. Let’s get back to the theme of this post:
Have you ever had fun while doing good?
bikehikebabe,
I enjoyed hearing your reaction. The trouble is most people just dump the dogs or cats somewhere instead of killing them. There would be no way of knowing who did what. At the local shelter they would actually rather people bring in pets they can no longer handle, because they could give the animal’s medical history. That would help a lot. Most people don’t because they want to be anonymous. Occasionally someone will tie a dog outside the shelter, knowing because of the volunteers it won’t be killed but will find a new home. And it seems that some pets are dropped off in the county from other areas because of the reputation of Friends of the Shelter. Irresponsible? Yes and no. It’s more work for the volunteers, but the owners are trying to give animals a chance.
My dear Jean, if what I am going to say sounds acid it’s because it is: There is no FUN in doing good.
First of all I hate the expression “doing good”. Do good if you must. And I do. But, as and when I do, ALL I am reminded of is what is WRONG in the world. How utter crap we [humans] are at managing the world. If BHB, you and I ran our respective private households how humankind runs “the world” all three of us would be living in a dump.
As to cats and dogs: If so called “animal lovers” really need a financial incentive to look after their pets so be it. Whatever it takes to soften suffering.
U
Ursula,
I disagree, of course. There are plenty of things we can do to make a contribution, so it makes sense to choose the things that use our talents and give us some pleasure. The volunteers handing out the flyers were potentially preventing some suffering and they did get some fun out of it. I certainly smile every time I look at those pictures. I also smile when I think of some of the dogs at the shelter I spent a lot of time with. I enjoyed it as much as they did.
Jean, I do a lot of good by just being funny. Does that answer/ satisfy your curiosity?
Rummuser,
Would you say Ursula does a lot of good by being funny and also stirring things up? Is that why you two are planning your nuptials?
See how much fun we are having without being married to each other. Imagine what will happen if we do! Neither of us will be capable of doing much good if the fun stopped Jean.
The fun will have just started. Remember Ursula says she won’t sleep with a man unless she’s married to him.
Rummuser and bikehikebabe,
Judging from Ursula’s last post, life would not be dull. Maybe Rummuser should wait until (if?) things settle down a bit?
there is good and doing good
depends on which situation you are in…
if you are saving the pet population explosion then that is a charitable sort of good
if on the other hand you are raising funds for your favourite group/club that you actually belong to then that is even more fun – IMHO
I manage quite a large fundraising [ad]venture which requires me to think outside the box a lot…I have heaps of fun doing that. Every Summer, I think of a new ‘product’ for the fundraising – by revamping or rejigging something we already have that is sitting around ‘lonely’ on the shelves…
Most of the time, I ask for no advice from members but today I sent out email to least 15 of them “wanting advice on buying a bulk lot of stock” – I don’t really want to because i don’t think it is the most trendy stock to have – but I might be able to cut a deal…time will tell 🙂
Cathy,
For me the important thing is you’re doing good things and having a great time. The world needs more of that. 🙂