I almost did not do a blog this week as I
felt that with the current turmoil in our country, it would not be apt to do
something just on animals.
Then I remembered this quote from the late
Mahatma Ghandi:
“The greatness of a nation and
its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
I am really worried about the moral
progress of our nation, as we all know, the moment money becomes tight, the
first place they cut is support for animals. As it is, government support for
animal organisations is virtually non-existent.
The privately run animal rescue centres are
funded entirely by money collected from individuals, with here and there
business support – no government money.
Even the possibility of support from the LOTTO has now disappeared as is
clear from this quote from the NSPCA Web site (http://bit.ly/2povwZO):
“Certain programmes that reside in the
Charities Sector, including Animal Welfare Organisations, have been excluded
from the current Open Call for Applications.”
This was the message received by the National Council of SPCAs in a
communication from Ms Chickey Mofet-Mubu , Senior Manager, Grants Operation
Support of the National Lotteries Commission, dated 07 March 2017.
Addressed to Marcelle Meredith, the NSPCA’s Executive Director, the
letter stated that “The 2016 Charities Open Call for Applications will focus on
strategic focus areas that are aligned with the National Development Plan (NDP)
as well as government priorities.”
“The exclusion of animal welfare organisations is short-sighted and
inexcusable,” explained Marcelle Meredith. “The manner of communicating this
was blunt and unforeseen. Organisations, including ourselves, spent a great
deal of time and effort in submitting detailed applications for essential
projects with budgets, business plans and worthy goals that would benefit
communities.”
If you think that the country’s financial
junk status is not going to affect you much, think again.
Just take the government sponsored Rabies
programme – very soon you are going to either fork out a lot to keep your pets
safe, or we are going to have a rabies epidemic.
As a nation we should stand together for
the sake of our animals! Do not let our
moral progress receive junk status too!
#dogandcatpad
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