I'm probably treading on thin ice but maybe I can make it across the creek...

There have been, for some time now, ads that describe the treatment of animals, and urge people to step up and adopt or donate to various animal care organizations. The ads depict the awful circumstances of poor little creatureens.

I see one of the ads start and I can't change channels quick enough. Perhaps it is my hard heart, or my lack of empathy, or my general mean spiritedness.

I know we need attention drawn to the needs of organizations who intercede in the life of these creatures, and I know the organizations need financial and volunteer support, and still I change the channel.

Over the years we've had foster dogs in our home, usually GSDs, as part of re-homing efforts through a a local rescue. I've come to see people through what I imagine might be the eyes of the dogs. The ads stir better forgotten memories, in me, at least.

I'm looking at Kai. She's a little, compared to the other three, thing, weighing maybe 58 lbs. When she came here as a foster, it took two weeks of looking into her eyes to decide to adopt her, though I think I made the decision on sight. A good thing it is to have an understanding bride.

Kai's bones were showing through, her hips were pronounced and pointed, her eyes bugged out of her head. The other dogs, Max, Brio and Freya seemed to take her in as if they saw her need.

Then there is Brio, my original adopted GSD, and from Germany. Adopted her when Wolfgang and Freya were the two in the house. She was tough but has emerged as a collaborative leader. And there is the newest adoptee, Titan, renamed from Tyson.

Out of the current four GSDs, Freya is the only one I obtained from a breeder, and a poor breeder at that. We took Freya because the conditions she lived in were sub-standard by any kennel standard. Maybe she was our first adoption.

Anyway, I look at my four current GSDs, Freya, Brio, Kai and Titan and see three adopted dogs. And every time I see them, I'm reminded of the needs portrayed in the ads.

The ads trouble me because I know you can't save every creature, though there are so many caring people. Yet there are so many blind to the needs people who watch the ads but do not see. I imagine those folks who sit and watch the ads and are unmoved.

The ads trouble me to the point I rush to change the channel.

But the message plays in my mind.

Just a ramble.

Generally, the woeful cages of kittens and injured, neglected dogs, just makes me angry. I imagine so many people digging out their checkbooks, when not one thin dime of what they donate will actually be used for what they think it will be.


Hopefully, that fact is spreading.

PETA is the one that gets me. They campaign against exploiting animals, including but not limited to shaming advertisers that use images of animals. Yet, they have no compunctions about using images of misused animals to solicit funding for their own agendas.

It also bothers me to no end that they will abuse the rights of humans to further their purposes. When I hear about them harassing hunters and fisherman, I can't help but wish that they would be brazen enough to protest at a cockfight or dogfight. Now that's a video that I would like to see. I guess they feel more secure when they outnumber law-abiding targets.

I do some eval/rehab work at a local SPCA (100% privately funded). Checks written by individuals pay for the rent, the lights, the food, the vet care, and every other penny needed to house and care for and rehab and adopt out the animals there, many of whom are rescued from hoarders and abusers, from being abandoned on the street or dumped as new litters on the doorstep, and even shipped from woefully overcrowded shelters in other parts of the state.

LIke Mike, I turn away from the ads he's talking about. I admit that I have to, to stay functioning.

But please don't lump all animal welfare groups together, is my heartfelt advice. We can go look, find out for ourselves. Or go to a watchdog site (where PETA is uniformly extremely low-rated .... but that doesn't mean that all animal welfare orgs are). We can find the ones that represent our POV.

You can find a humane society either nearby or national with open books and high ratings. Judging them all based on the misuse of funds and power of a few (I don't mean you, Becky) is starting to become painfully frustrating to the ones who are scrambling and scraping by, paying for postage and office supplies personally, operating almost entirely with volunteers (ever try to manage a group of volunteers?) .....

"I know we need attention drawn to the needs of organizations who intercede in the life of these creatures." Mike is right.

And what Becky says is true of many of the ones with the the big fund-raising bucks.

But wouldn't it be great if attention-grabbing media stunts or big ads reminded us that the need is real, and that we can choose who really meets the need? If we used the ads of the ones whose POV we despise to remind us to support the ones we believe in .... wouldn't that be great?

Anger (and of course it's completely understandable!) at the few who are misusing the funds they are given so open-heartedly doesn't help a single animal unless it sends us to an org that does meet those needs.

We don't even need to send checks if we can't. We can do what Mike does (and many others here do), and if we can't do that, we can volunteer to walk dogs at a shelter. Or drop off a bag of food.

We have a local rescue that generally have a list of stuff they need. Going from food, beds to cleaning products.

I just urge people to get involved locally - volunteer if possible, or at least write your check to someone that will spend it on what you intend. Animal care, whether it be food or medical attention.

 Quote: Becky Shilling

I just urge people to get involved locally - volunteer if possible, or at least write your check to someone that will spend it on what you intend. Animal care, whether it be food or medical attention.

Very good suggestions.