Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Helping to Save Animals Through Pledges

I've already written a few times about how Stewie to the Rescue helps low income individuals pay for their animals' medical care. You can read it again (or for the first time for our newer fans) here.

But there's another way that we are making a difference, and that is by pledging for animals that are at the NYC Animal Care and Control (NYC ACC).

The way it works is, every day, the NYC ACC puts out a list of animals that are going to be euthanized the next day, along with their pictures and behavior and medical evaluations. Though it is meant to be an internal list, intended only for a few eyes, employees sneak it to “Kay Smith” (in parenthesis as that is not her real name), whose team posts it on Facebook under her “Urgent Part 2 - Urgent Death Row Dogs” and “Pets on Death Row” pages that, as of April 2012, had over 58,000 fans.

(btw - Why the list is supposed to be internal only, I have no idea...god forbid the NYC ACC tell people what we already know, that they are a kill shelter. Anyway...)

The fans post comments about them under Urgent's postings for each animal. These comments fall into one of four categories.

1 - They simply write "s" or "shared" meaning they have posted the animal's info on their Facebook page.


2 - They curse whomever put them in the shelter. Here are a few recent examples...

"Just disgusting....I want to scream!!!!!! Some humans SUCK BIGTIME :'("


"HOW THE HELL DOES SOMONE DO THIS???11, had her all her life and then u dump her her? POS, POS!"


THESE OWNERS SHOULD BE IN HANDCUFFS AND ON A DAMN EUTH LIST...BETTER YET...GIVE ME 5 MINUTES WITH THEM...5 MINUTES OF PURE HELL!!!!

3 - They plead for SOMEONE to do SOMETHING!!!!! Here are a few recent examples...

"she looks so scared please save Star!"

"PLEASE SAVE THIS PUPPY"

"OMG!!!! first she is abused and neglected now they want to kill her please step up and show her what it
feels like to be wanted and loved...."

"o cute my goodness♥ she's got her whole life ahead of her, someone please rescue this sweet puppy♥"



4 - They pledge money to any rescue that pulls the animal.

That's where Stewie to the Rescue (and others) helps. People pledge $10, $20 and more, offered to any rescue that "pulls" (gets) the animal from the shelter. When word gets out that a particular rescue pulled the animal, someone from the rescue usually reminds people of their promise to donate. 

Stewie usually pledges between $100 and $250, though we recently pledged $700 for one dog (story behind it will be another blog post).

Due to the economy and how cash strapped the rescues are (especially those that rescue pit bulls and adult cats) are, these pledges have become an important inducement for rescues to save certain animals. 

Stewie to the Rescue is happy to help!

Tomorrow, I will blog about the problems with The Pledge System...

Harris Bloom
Founder/President
www.stewietotherescue.org

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a fellow pledger, I agree that this really really helps.

Jacquie Byron said...

Pledges are an incentive. However, a rescue can't pull just because they have funds to vet the animal. They need a place for the dog or cat to go. If there is no foster or adopter available no amount of money will save them. Most rescues are full and if you can't give the animal the proper care and attention it needs they can't pull. Many dogs and cats are pulled because there are pledges and then they can have the pet cared for. Sometimes a foster or adopter is available but unable to afford vet care so pledges do save lives. Keep up the good work!

Harris Bloom said...

Jacquie - Yer right about rescues not pulling without fosters - sorta...

I will get into that later today or tomorrow when I write Part 2 (Problems with The Pledge System)