NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC:
As of late, CARA has been receiving more and more calls asking for assistance in rescuing cats and dogs in need. While many of those callers are well meaning, we’ve been distressed by the increasing numbers of irate, rude and demanding individuals who berate our staff when advised that we’re at full capacity. Because of this, we feel it’s necessary to release a statement regarding CARA’s abilities when it comes to rescuing needy cats and dogs.
When CARA was founded in 2000, our primary mission was to provide low-cost and free spay/neuter surgery services to alleviate the growing population of strays in the Metro Manila area. As our organization grew, understandably, we also began to include other activities such as animal welfare education, and rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming. However these have always been secondary to our main mission, which still remains as animal population control. CARA has never touted itself as a shelter, in fact we have no shelter to speak of, only our modestly sized clinic, which at most times is beyond full capacity. We also have our pit bull sanctuary, but because of how it’s set-up, we can only allow our remaining 100 pit bulls to reside there. The rescues we do take are on a case-per-case basis; deciding factors are whether we have available slots at our clinic, sufficient funds to treat the animal and if said cat or dog will be easily adoptable. These decisions are never taken lightly. We do our best to help when we are able to do so.
So we ask our friends, donors and supporters for patience, kindness and understanding when we turn down rescue requests. It breaks our hearts to do so, but sometimes we have no choice. Instead, what we can offer is outpatient care assistance, low cost or free spay/neuter surgery and help in catching and transporting the sick or injured cat or dog. Even when we cannot take on the rescue, we will still help in whatever way we can.
This said we are not turning our backs on rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming. We just have to know our limitations, and continue accepting cases on a case-per-case basis. Nothing warms our hearts more than seeing the transformations, the amazing “before” and “afters,” and the resulting second chances once our rescues are adopted. But we have to do it right. Rescuing is a responsibility not to be taken lightly, and there is nothing worse than taking on more than you can handle, and having the animals suffer as a result—living in small cages with barely any human interaction, the chances of adoption slim to none.
As our name states: Compassion and Responsibility for Animals, CARA as an organization must be both COMPASSIONATE and RESPONSIBLE.
We are not writing this as a sermon or to chastise those that have lost their tempers with us. We are writing this merely to explain our situation, and to remind the public that every animal welfare organization out there has its limits—limits in space, limits in funding, limits in staff, limits in time.
CARA invites you to visit our clinic in Mandaluyong to see for yourselves, perhaps it will be an eye-opening experience, perhaps it will even inspire you to volunteer and do your part as well. Call us at 532-3340 if you’d like to drop in and meet our staff, and our 100+ cats and 25 dogs. We are sure they would love some extra special attention, (and perhaps even some treats as well!)
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and feel free to share it on your own pages.