ANIMAL WELFARE : WHO CARES? I DO

Animal Welfare : Who cares? I do... Do you?

Don't you think that it's interesting that most people shy away from charity work, or from passing on information that actually has a cause?

Many people just can't seem to comprehend why I care for animals so much. I can't really explain it myself - I just do. And unfortunately alot of people I know also seem to believe that I should expect returns for some of the things I do. And they are also surprised when I tell them that I don't really care for financial/material gain from being kind to animals.

For example, when I rescued Babe, I looked after her as if she were my own dog. She was washed and cleaned, and taken to the vet etc. She slept in the house. And when she was re-united with her owner, one of the first questions that I go from a lot of people, so how much was the reward? This was because Su (Babe's owner) had put out an ad in the papers with a reward offer for Babe's return. And when I tell them that I don't know cause I didn't take the money but asked for it to be given to the SPCA, they were shocked and some even thought I was stupid. Was I? I don't think so... I think I was rewarded enough when I saw Babe so happy to be reunited with Su.

I guess I have always known that Malaysians are not the best when it comes to charity. I understand that not everyone can afford to be charitable. Frankly, even I am not half as charitable as I would like to be, simply because I cannot afford it just yet. However, I do believe that if you can't help financially there are many other ways in which a person can contribute towards a good cause.

There are simpler ways for contributing towards animal welfare - such as forwarding an email that has an important message. This however seems to be very difficult for many to do, although it hardly cost a penny. My most recent encounter with this was when I forwarded my last email regarding the petition for Mr Eng's 13 dogs that were murdered. Not many people passed the message along.

Some people have had the nerve to tell me that they deleted the message because they didn't think anyone they knew would be interested. I constantly have to bite my tongue to stop myself from lashing out at them, cause these are the very same people that clutter my inbox with useless junk and chain emails that have ZERO value. Plus they usually come with some stupid threat of misfortune if I in return didn't pass it on to a gazillion people. Strange don't you think?

Well I think most people only care about themselves. Why do they pass on stupid emails like that? It's because there is a threat that something bad would happen to them. And while it may be superstitious to think so, why take the risk?

My emails on the other hand (usually for lost and missing dogs) don't have such threats... so I guess the logic is that there's no need to do anything about them cause there won't be any remote possibility of something bad happening if they don't pass it along.

So, I wonder... should I start incorporating threats in my emails? Hmmm... maybe I should. Then perhaps word about helping animals would get around faster and to more people.

Email and electronic communication is a powerful tool. So don't abuse it, and instead use it for good causes. What I'm trying to say is that it only takes a minute of your time to make a difference. You can help save lives... So have a heart...

Animal Welfare : Who cares? I do... Do you?