Frenzy: The Destructive Trend in Animal Welfare

Bloggers note: I have been in the middle of, beside, passed by, underneath, in front of , the victim of and engulfed by frenzy  a number of times this year. It is a sad trend that is diverting those in the Animal Welfare movement from the real problems and focus. I have been focused mostly on Wild Horse Issues for the majority of 2010 through 2012. The following is why I am reconsidering my support of some of the organizations involved currently in the issue.

Frenzy in the animal welfare, rescue and humane movement in this country.

Yes, I do indeed look at frenzy as being a part and parcel of  sharks smelling blood in the water and just start eating anything they can get their teeth into.

The horse that inspired the Mid-Atlantic Wild Horse Project.
Read more about his story and how he ended up at
Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary here:
Spirit's Story

Those that survive it get a great adrenaline rush and go on to fight another day. The side effect is that they get a euphoric feeling  while they are dismally unaware of what really happened. Their hunger is satisfied and they feel all warm and fuzzy so they dont care about who or what was hurt.  Feelings can in fact be deceptive. Ask anyone who has a bad reaction to a steroid or an anti inflammatory that affects one physiologically. Or for those who survived the 60s and 70s, a bad trip on drugs.

Frenzy is a tool used to manipulate people.
Frenzy is a tool used to manipulate people and get them into an agitated state, usually against a person or group of people, then mob violence ensues. Since most of us are pretty detached from the real situation because we are on-line,  we give in to it by saying defaming and threatening things that can actually add to the frenzy and harm people or their lively hood.

Activism built on hatred or the vilifying of any individual or group does not solve the problem. This sort of activism simply harms more people and the innocent, causes destruction of property and kills any hope the opposing groups have of working on the issue together.  The justification is that you must  accept this destruction of property and people  as  a sort of collateral damage. 

Kind of like  when a mid-eastern country, that shall remain nameless, gave a parcel of land to some radicals in exchange for peace. That parcel of land was rich with infrastructure like schools and hospitals, colleges, government buildings,  thriving shopping centers,  free flowing sources of water and rich developed farm land.  Instead of taking what they had been given and building on it, ,the radicals pretty much  destroyed  most of it.  With that destruction they destroyed their opportunity to be successful and thrive on their own.  Thriving on their own is something free people value and protect. 

These radicals pretty much killed their own children and destroyed their future,.  Then they blamed it on their benefactor, while all the time continuing to break the very peace treaty that they agreed to when they were given that amazing  blessing of land and homes and a future.  Since these specific radicals are pretty good at punching themselves in the face then making it look like the people they hate did it, everyone in the world is pretty much feeling sorry for them and wanting to help them.  While the benefactor country is made to look like a villain.

Here is the sad thing, if the radicals would build their country and their peace  they would probably get everything they are demanding and a future for themselves and their families. Actually these particular radicals don’t want help they just want to destroy their enemies and blow up stuff and break things. Why? because it makes them feel powerful. 

Do you know what happens when Sharks go into frenzy?  Some of them are wounded, then their fellow sharks eat them.
The Animal Welfare and Rescue  movement in this country  has done exactly the same thing. Do you know what happens when Sharks go into frenzy?  Some of them are wounded, then their fellow sharks eat them too. Body parts of Sharks all over the place  and the frenzy doesn’t stop until all of them are very full and sleepy. ( see warm and fuzzy above)

Frenzy does nothing to further the purpose of animal welfare and rescue. It actually destroys the support base and alienates potential supporters.
Nothing gets better , nothing changes as far as animal welfare is  concerned after  these frenzies take place. So here is what happened. Leadership and some factions in the movement, in seeing that the  instances of animal abuse and neglect  were increasing instead of going down,  someone got the bright idea that people  obviously needed to be educated by shocking photos of torture and maiming of animals. Brilliant move, NOT!  This shock therapy did exactly the opposite of what they thought it would. Why? Because, those people who have spent lifetimes trying to make things better were the first casualties.  You see people get into animal rescue because they want to do good, not harm. They want a better life for people and animals. They want to protect the weak from harm. To show them photos and films like that is not only traumatic it also repels them and puts them into a state of feeling hopeless as if nothing they have done to help has done any good. So the support that would be ground breaking is now demolished.

And why is this approach not helping the cause?

Because the Animal Welfare and Rescue movement is not keeping up with their first and foundational purpose: To educate, To intervene and To rescue.

Frenzy Does not  help focus the animal welfare and rescue moment on its first and foundational purpose: to educate, to intervene, to rescue.

If you only rescue animals and pay no regard to the rescue of the people involved, then we all loose.  The reason is because it becomes Seizure and not Rescue. Its traumatic, dramatic and looks really good on TV, but often the animals and people involved are casualties. The reason it trended this way is because a dramatic seizure will get free TV coverage and bring in donations.  Its not working as well these days though.

I could site at least 20 cases over the last year alone where people involved in the Animal Welfare and Rescue movement have rescued the animals, but failed to intervene and educate.  
With all these animals in shelters and  dwindling numbers of people to help them, foster them, and donate.. and even the shelters themselves getting in trouble, this movement needs to adapt to the real circumstances and adjust to the real economy, not the one they think exists.

Defamation of character, threats and worst of all becoming the "Judge and Jury" over what you think is abuse and neglect, is  Not doing this movement any good at all.  I realize that old habits are hard break. And its far more easy to attack someone in trouble than to take the time to know the whole story and really help out. But right now we don’t have the luxury of offending anyone that can be helped or be helpful. We don’t have the luxury of devouring anyone who is for us. We don’t have these luxuries because the ability of people to be in a position to help as volunteers, fosters and with donations is dwindling with the economy. Even the little old lady pensioners on Social Security, where a lot of the donations came from in the past, can not afford to buy their own food, much less donate or support causes.

I’ve been working strictly wild horse issues for the last 3 years. Some of the worst offenders for undermining the support base has come from within that movement. It started with the vilification of people who were successful, wealthy or in government and Judged to be enemies of the cause, then came the vilification of potential supporters JUDGED to be traitors because of guilt by association. No one asked those people if they were for or against their cause.  They just decided that if certain people were on your  Facebook friends list or among your friends locally that you were the enemy. Way to shoot the movement in the foot, folks.  How else are you going to have change, if you don’t talk with people who disagree with your views?

Most recently, a person very active in wild horse protection and education, publicly accused me of  undermining the activities of their work. Guess what I actually did. I posted a news story that supported their position and showed everyone that there was documentation that they were right.  My goodness you would have thought I  had torn their organization down brick by brick. Guess what, that sort of behavior lost them my support.

You don’t  devalue your  volunteers,  you don’t devalue those who aren’t in your group that are not against you but are doing the same thing, and you surely don’t publicly call anyone out, until you have spoken to them in private to get the real story and give them a chance to see the accusations and confirm if they are true or misplaced.

So now this particular organization will not have my support, and I will not publically or privately promote their work or agenda. I also will not name names   because, well ,that just isn’t  classy. And why should I offend possible support and donations in the future for my own projects by stooping to their level.

They have made it very clear that they don’t want my support, nor do they need it.  I gladly move on to others who do need it and want it. I can think of some really hard working women and men right now who could use and would appreciate a hand.  But just be warned, if you have people in your organization who are  doing this sort of thing and your donations are dropping off, its  probably something closer to home, not what you think others outside your organization have done. If look through your organizations practices and its members activities and you aren't offending people, then probably there is another reason for donations being low,  like the economy or that you have maxed your funding base.   That means you have to get creative and adjust to the circumstances. Blaming the people you think are the enemy is not going to help your organization or your cause. Instead you hurt your organization by drawing focus away from your goals publicly and stirring up people in a negative way that doesn't help anyone, especially not the animals.

Remember, you can have all the causes you want,  but if you don't have the support and good will of people, you really are a voice in an empty room.
So are you going to be a shark and devour your base of support ? Or are you  going to get out there and adjust to the circumstances and explore creative ways to sustain your cause during this financially turbulent time.

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