Animal NGOs need support

THE EDITOR: Why is there such a lack of corporate support for NGOs that rescue and rehabilitate companion animals when it’s easy to see and hear the wanton abandonment of dogs and cats everywhere? They eek out a living in fear or distrust when they are pushed to the sidelines and treated like vermin.

Laws that govern stray dogs only cater for them to be picked up and put down. Yet we the collective human race have domesticated them and made them depend on us, giving us the responsibility to look after them and not exile them or favour pedigrees over pothounds, and treat strays with callous disrespect.

True enough they can’t vote or qualify as customers, but the state of their suffering lives reflects our lack of compassion.

Corporate bodies must do more to work with animal welfare NGOs. We cannot survive on fund-raisers and small donations in a space where problems are bigger than solutions. Corporate funding is needed for large projects like a national spay/neuter drive to reduce the unwanted stray population, sponsoring education programmes that change behaviours and promote awareness.

The benefit is they get to show their compassionate side and demonstrate caring for more than just profits. There’s nothing disreputable in that; in fact, it’s quite the opposite.

KATHRYN CLEGHORN

president

Animals Alive