Well, it’s been a while, but just one more email about Best Friends can set me off. I get their updates, how great their doing and how great the sanctuary is, blah, blah blah… all followed up with the request for more donations… Just something to add to the $50 MILLION they take in.
Now I don’t care how much money people or companies make, I do care about how they deceive people. So if you lie to me and tell me you’re going to buy food with the money I give you and you go buy drugs, I can be pissed.
I wonder how many people think that their donations to orgs like Best Friends actually help the shelter dogs their profess to save.
Take for example the old poodle “Grandpa” that was brought to the Best Friends LA Shelter on August 11th. He was brought in as a stray and looked to be a mess, photo below. Since Best Friends’ contract with the city of LA conveniently doesn’t allow them to take in animals from the public (very convenient), they have to take the animal to a LA City shelter. OK, I get that part – however what comes next distinguishes between compassion and greed. The dog, once dumped, was scheduled to be killed. Best Friends could easily have put a note on the dog and offered to take him back once his “stray hold” was up. ***A stray hold is placed on a dog by a municipal shelter to see if the owner comes forth. If they don’t the shelter can put the animal up for adoption or kill it.**
Did Best Friends put a hold on the dog? NO
Did Best Friends use their media and financial power to fend the dog a home? NO
They left the dog there. Well, did another MULTI MILLION DOLLAR organization step up and take the dog? Did HSUS? PETA? ASPCA?? NOPE. You know who did, a small local rescue called Leave No Paws Behind. Toby came to find out that Grandpa is deaf and has some dental issues. These issues might be too much for a multi million dollar org to absorb, but not for Toby.
So next time you write your check to the big orgs, remember their deeds, not their fancy TV commercials or billboards. Remember that they don’t take the dogs from the shelters that are about to be killed. They take the dogs that are at the greatest risk of adoption… they take them and adopt them out. They rest their laurels on the work done by other orgs who “partner” with them in their super adoptions…
I used to believe in these big orbs, like Best Friends… I may have even written them a check once. However once you spend some time and learn who does the most, it’s not Best Friends, or PETA or HSUS, it’s the small rescues that pour into the shelters and save the dogs these big orgs don’t. Its people like Maripat Davis, Lori Weiss, Jody Sue PeiPeople, Kyle Schwab, Melanie Sanders, Kim Sill, and a million others who don’t have billboards and TV commercials. They don’t operate on million dollar budgets, but instead on a shoestring.
People don’t donate to them because they don’t know who they are…. and do you know why people don’t know who they are? because their busy doing the work – not publicizing it. If you’re busy doing the work, you don’t have the time to talk about it.
Think about your next donation… avoid organizations like Best Friends and HSUS and PETA – give locally -give to those who don’t have a fancy flier, billboard… give to someone who isn’t as polished in their presentation and you just may save a life.
I already posted this on my facebook page, but sharing it here for those of you who may not visit FB.
Robert Cabral
