Dear Animal Rescue Organizations:
I hope you've been wise enough to capitalize on the Ellen DeGeneris/Mutts and Moms/Iggy situation. Your group provides the local angle news organizations coast-to-coast have been looking for.
Have they called you? And have you answered their questions thoughtfully, responsibly, and with an eye toward your own public image? You might want to take a moment to explain that adoption rules serve a necessary and important purpose. And you might also want to comment that while you appreciate the position of the founder of Mutts and Moms -- she is, after all, just trying to keep her animals safe -- there might have been a better way to handle the situation. What do you think might have worked? How else might you have handled this unusual situation?
If you opt to steadfastly stand by the founder, Marina Batkis, in Animal Rescue Solidarity, you might risk alienating supporters. Whether she's right or wrong doesn't matter. People have trouble understanding her heavy-handed, inflexible tactics. And people in your community will have trouble understanding you if your comments are supportive of the California woman. It's all about perception.
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4 comments:
I highly disapprove of Mutts and Moms, Marina Batkis and Vanessa Chekroun's actions. They acted on impulse with vengeance on the goodhearted-ness and best interest between a celebrity and deserving children; not with empathy or forethought. In researching the web, PETA, Humane Society, BBB, and SPCA historical information, these owners have not proven themselves respectful or caring. In fact they show spite, more than anything. Reviewing everything to date re. Marina. She still doesn't show any emotion for the human bond between animal and a well deserving family. A reasonable human would not act on impulse driven by a bogus contract but allowed time for review and reasses the situation. A responsible business owner would have responded by now to the media, attorneys, and press with a RESOLUTION and not hiding and REACTING with negativity. When one appears as a villain one would naturally want to disarm the situation; not in this case. Nothing on the news has touched me in such a way that i would be actually reaching out and being an activist.
This is Marina's quote: “Celebrities you know, they, they get preferential treatment. They have lots of money. They go into a restaurant they get a table.”
Look close at her glasses "Channel". I try not to be judgemental but something doesn't seem right.
Best to avoid animal rescue groups altogether.
From what I have read, the problem with animal rescue groups is that they are run by people who have more enthusiasm than common sense. I would never take the legal and emotional risks of dealing with them.
At the moment, a SPCA shelter might be a good alternative, but if they start to enforce the same kind of crazy stipulations, then the only solution is commercial breeders.
Remember, SUVs came about when the government imposed too many fuel economy restrictions on cars so people went to big trucks instead. Sometimes too much regulation has an unintended effect and makes matters worse.
Personally, I think the best thing would be if Mutts and Moms closes, and that Paws Boutique of Pasadena be bankrupted. That would set an example and hopefully make the next animal rescue group more humble and compassionate, instead of rigid, arrogant, and doctrinaire.
Ellen is a media seeking loser who was desperate for her last 15 minutes. Her career is in the toilet and she needed to get some media attention.
Ellen has also "adopted" and given away several other dogs. Ask her about "Lucy"
Mutts and Mom's made the right call in Taking the dog back. The new family could not even be bothered to drive to Pasadena to meet with the rescue.
I would have taken the dog back as well. Ellen not only sucks but she made a complete and total fool of herself.
Shawn
The rescue had good reason for doing what it did, but handled another way, it could have been a far different outcome.
Hundreds of thousands of cats and dogs from shelters are saved from death in the shelter by rescues. Often these are individuals, paying out of their own pocket to save these animals who were often treated as throw-away garbage, or worse, by a previous owner. Based on experience, responsible rescues create rules based on their experience, to try and make sure the animal goes to a safe home, their last one.
Small dogs are often more vulnerable, and hurt, moreso by children. To really understand this, you need to spend time being the person who takes the neglected, abused, screaming, and bloody animals in for awhile. Be the person who has to slip a needle into the leg of a perfectly healthy, adoptable dog, calming him as he struggles against the fact that you, who fed him for a week, are the person who is ending his life because there is no space for the 10 more who are arriving today. And then you get to kill the one you adopted to that nice family, whose kid yanked the dog's tail. The dog, who never did anything but want to play with a ball and have a friend, reacted like we would if someone kicked us in the crotch. He was sorry and wanted to make up afterward, but now is in your arms because the family says he is the dangerous one. And now they are looking at a small dog in the other side of the shelter.
It's for the dog, not for the self-absorbed, selfish kids and adults that the rescuer makes those policies.
But if the rescuer had thought about it, maybe she could have come on the show, explained that the contract was there for a reason, asked Ellen to explain why she signed a contract for the dog's safety and then broke it. She could have explained to the family that we hear all the time about how they are not going to be the ones that act like all those other "bad" families, and the dog will be taken care of.
Maybe she could have brought a new dog onto the show every week.
And after all this what happens when the little girls drop the puppy off the bed and break it's leg, or back - despite their assurances (check your local shelter - there is another one with the same story there right now). Is Ellen going to invite everyone to the vet's office and let us know what a bad choice she made, and how compassionate the rescuer was, and how sorry she is, and how she wishes she had listened to someone who knows about dogs, rather than what camera is on at the moment? Doubt it.
There should have been ways to handle this so much better, for Ellen and Marina. But, as usual, the dogs and cats pay the price.
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