One of my legitimate rescue friends just posted on how she is often suffering backlash because she (their words) “too often” publicly asks for donations…
My message to those critical people: Anyone saying that is a hypocrite. Those critics are getting paid as we speak for doing something, whatever it is that they do, and that pay comes consistently. No one is putting the spotlight on them. People need to realize that a person advocating on behalf of these dogs and running an amazingly good rescue while she does it, well, that’s HER job! She needs to continue to be able to provide for the dogs, while also continuing to educate the public. That is a job, too. No less important than any of their own jobs. It’s funny that people want to consistently praise others for the work that they do for free, but as soon as that person asks for help with sustaining what they do half of that praise dries up. Then if you draw a comparison, like I’m doing, it causes an issue as well. Why and why? The criticizers EXPECT to be paid for the “services” that they provide in their own lives, and would start a riot if they weren’t. This rescuer is simply asking for people to respect what she does enough to consider donating. That’s her job, that’s part of what’s keeping her able to do what she’s doing.
No one is saying that you need to donate blindly, or without thought. Plenty of people likely misrepresent what they are about in order to siphon funds from unwitting people, but that doesn’t mean punish everyone! That’s simply BSL in yet another form! If you respect an individual or an organization, and know them to be credible, then support them with not only your enthusiasm and your assets, but with your dollars as well. If not, then don’t. But have the foresight enough as to not be so much of an asshat and claim that they can’t ask for donations while you cash weekly checks for doing God knows what. Again, anyone being that nasty is a huge hypocrite.
*One of my readers added this point, and I want to expand on it. She stated that rescuers aren’t asking for donations to “get paid” in order to buy a new purse, and that the donations in actuality go to the funding of the rescue. This then makes those that criticize them look all the more like jerks. I totally agree. But expanding on that point…
No one is itemizing how anyone else spends their money from their own 9-5’s. If the integrity of the rescuer is high then the majority, if not all of the money would likely go right to the dogs in some form or fashion anyways. But the whole notion that non-profits and people who devote a mass amount of their time to a specific cause shouldn’t be paid, simply to be paid, is also bunk and false in my opinion. They are people that need to survive as well. No one wants to donate to someone’s lame new purse; but what about to the food that nourishes them, or a new book that serves to inspire thought, or some new adventure that they may take on a weekend to recharge? I’d gladly donate to the people that I respect and admire (if I had the funds to), in order to support them as human beings. Where do you think the good work that they do ultimately comes from? It comes from them. Helping with their own situations and their own lives, their own well-beings, only serves to trickle down onto the dogs in some way. And that’s the way it should be, right? I don’t see anyone else passing up their own paychecks from bussing tables at the diner, or from the local Kinko’s, or from their management positions, or from their law firms. So people can, if they want to, get into this whole pissing match of “what” job helps “who” and at what rate of frequency, but I’d rather have people see that this comparison is 100% legitimate. Furthermore, I’d hope that more people would realize it instead of being so nasty to each other.