THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEEK OF MAY 4, 2008
Tough Times Reach World of Animal Welfare
By DEBBY RUBENSTEIN
Wagner Farm Rescue Fund (WFRF) and Have A Heart Farm (HAHF) President Debby Rubenstein notes:
The particularly difficult economic conditions that our country is currently facing are taking increasingly extreme tolls on animal welfare as well. Within the span of just one week, WFRF has received notice of both a farm and a shelter that are closing and the animal residents that are in danger. The farm situation consists of an owner who has lost the property and must move. At this farm are not only farm animals, but domestic and exotic animals as well. The shelter situation involves a Midwest shelter that has run out of funds to operate and is scheduled to close. Any animals not adopted before the closing are scheduled to be euthanized. Fortunately, this shelter is not in Illinois, which still legally implements barbaric animal deaths through the use of gas chambers. Such violent deaths cannot be construed in any way as euthanasia, which by dictionary definition is a painless death.
For the welfare of the animals, many emails have been circulated to animal welfare advocates who are working together to address these and the many other similar situations which are multiplying in horrifying number mostly due to economic conditions. Animal welfare advocates know that we do not have the luxury of walking away from situations that will ultimately result in the death of innocent animals just because we may have differing opinions with others. Unlike many others in public arenas, we also learn that differing opinions is not necessarily a form of treason.
This is a practice that obviously has not been learned by many in public arenas. Ongoing bickering ultimately assuages only the instigator. Those who feel empowered through controversy are often only catering to their own egos and often actively promote controversies for the sake of attention while making their public entrances and exits accordingly.
They also view as irrelevant the collateral damage and wreckage that they leave behind for others to ultimately clean up, as the instigators are usually the first to have already made their most recent exit by then as well.
And, as we have seen in many public arenas, any differences of opinions are often construed as personal slights and are blown way out of proportion once egos come into play. As the public witnesses the ongoing political party and personal image destruction that plays out daily through the media, animal welfare advocates can't help but think that if these people walked for just a day in our shoes they might have an enlightened perspective as to what working definitions of "important" are. Life takes on an entirely new meaning when one lives with the constant and extremely humbling knowledge that they have taken on personal responsibility for the welfare of others who will never have any say over their own fate, and who others have deemed not important enough to bother with.
Additionally, while the media casually notes the amounts of money being raised in the presidential campaigns, it doesn't seem that issue is being taken on the exorbitant amounts of money being spent so that candidates can bash their opponents on an ongoing basis while getting the same worn messages out repeatedly over a far too lengthy period of time. The amount of money that is wasted on these campaigns would be far better utilized to make serious monetary dents in many of the issues that the candidates are harping about. While candidates talk about reform, they would do well to put talk into action through their own monetary usage reform. In their case, talk definitely hasn't been cheap.
Animal welfare advocates on a daily basis often have nothing but heart and resourcefulness to solve problems. Let's see political representatives use some heart and resourcefulness as well to solve at least some of the problems that they themselves have contributed to, and do so even if the media isn't present, just because it's the right thing to do.
WFRF can be found online at http://www.wagnerfarmrescuefund.org/
Wagner Farm Rescue Fund and Have A Heart Farm welcome support from individuals, corporations, and foundations to maintain their ongoing efforts to promote humane treatment, good living conditions and lifetime care for Wagner Farm animals and other animals in need. If you would like to donate to the Rescue Fund or Have A Heart Farm, please do so by making checks payable to either organization and mail to:
P.O. Box 2815
Glenview, IL 60025
or online donations may be made at http://www.justgive.org/giving/donate.jsp?charityId=30109