Are You Sure?

I’m not. I’m increasingly suspicious of almost every animal rescue video I see and story I read.

There’s a dog in what looks like the middle of the sea and he’s standing on a lump of ice that looks all of a yard wide and a yard long. And a miracle happens a biggish fishing boat just happens to pass by and the hero gets out and rescues the dog. The size of the boat is an indication of the depth of the sea. How did the dog get there?

In China a puppy is stuck down a drain a group of men gather and one rescues the pup. Wonderful. They eat dogs in China.

Cats, dogs, farm and wild animals are rescued from all sorts of unlikely and dangerous places. I’m not for a moment suggesting all rescues are fake I know some are genuine but the thought has crossed my mind that not all are genuine and maybe not all are for the benefit of the animals. We do love our camera phones don’t we and a video that goes ‘viral’ is fame of a sort.

It worries me, a lot.

There’s a page on Facebook I check most days not at all because I like the people but because I don’t trust them. I know fake tears when I don’t see them and I worry about helpless, literally helpless animals in the wrong hands. I wonder how an animal that could hardly walk managed to get upstairs and how the hell he was allowed to even try to get down by himself.

Recently the owner was caught in a lie my first instinct is always to offer support but the more I thought about it the less I was sure what happened was an accident. I’m still not sure of that what I am sure of is that since day two of this latest crisis there have been requests for money and surely that is odd, very odd.

People who dedicate their lives to helping and saving helpless animals need and deserve as much support as possible, people who starve a dog to the point of death and then claim to rescue it deserve prison and people who put animals in danger to get a taste of celebrity deserve the same.

I rather think this whole ‘rescue business’ should be very closely monitored. The one or two really good ones are well known and deserve all the praise and help they get but on the back of the sincere efforts of these wonderful people are the frauds and the abusers looking for easy cash and to grab their fifteen minutes of fame.

I’d love to be wrong but I’m very much afraid I’m right.