Do you give to animal charities?

[kickstart 1]

ibm ..the way you put it was like me putting ;
ok here's the senario . One one hand you have a dog , thats had its ears cut off, been used for dog fighting and was left to die a painfull and horrible death
or you could give your money to some beggar on the streets of london , who you know full well is going to go buy drink or drugs with it .
Surely there is no need to choose between people and animals. If everyone gave to people charities ..WHO would look after the abused and mis-treated animals ?
You choose to give to people , i choose animals , so we are both doing our bit for others!

[listy]

it begins at home tbh

[0iD]

I have rescue dogs, but on the whole I generally only give to children's charities, probably as they move me more. But we have a number of 'adopted' animals in various shelters, that's mainly the kids & the mrs tho.

[Brucelles]

both of those types of charities exist, and every penny that could go to look after a cat, could be better spent looking after children. What does it cost to look after a cat in the UK? I bet you could look after a kid for the same price in Darfur.

And so what?

I have a standing order to pay EUR10 to an animal charity. I also give money ad hoc to human charities, but if I didn't, so what? It's well-accepted that that's what people do, they care about the things that they can best relate to. This is why an idiot like GWB steps in to try to stop a warm cadaver being switched off, but doesn't blink at the thought of slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Iraqi kids.

Hell, there are plenty of Brits who think that a few necessary casualties are a valid price to pay for the privilege of accompanying America on it's excellent murder adventure. If Iraqi kids are irrelevant in the war against some people who had never been involved in any World Trade Centres, why should they matter more than my dog, or a crippled donkey? Out of sight, out of mind.

I's not nice, but it is reality. I spent over a thousand Euros trying to save my cat's life after he was hit by a car recently. That could have bought a lot of rice in Darfur, but I wanted it more than I wanted to feed people I don't know with it. Then when my cat was hurt I wanted him fixed more than I wanted the cash. Would you suggest that my correct response would be to see my crippled cat and say "My God! Cameron's badly hurt, may even die. I had better send money to Darfur and let him suffer"?

You would have to be pretty weird to do that.

[IBM]

Well, not exclusively... Animals are humans to me... My Pets come as a first priority when it comes to feeding and vets bills as they can't do that for themselves. I would hate to ever have to choose between an animal and a human.

So in answer to the thread title, YES, I donate to Animal charities, by buying an extra can of food when I'm in the petstore, or making a donation when I rehome an animal. I will NEVER EVER "buy" an animal (i.e a pedigree)... thats a different view though that I'm going to keep to myself in this instance.

I also donate to Oxfam by using their shops and Cancer charities as they have helped a few members of my family. As i can't afford to really donate money, I'll seek out other ways of doing it.

The british heart foundation gets all of my old clothes to sell (as well as GOSH) - SCOPE got 4 bags worth when I moved from Manchester. and I have been donating and buying furniture from Age Concern for about 6 years now. It's my first port of call for furniture in MK.

Have I redeemed myself?

(seriously though, I'm a lovely person, i'm surprised you took my hastily posted reply as seriously as that!)

Tigs...sorry, I get a little upset over stuff like that. I guess it's just an extension of my rants everytime a children's charity advert is followed by an animal charity advert and I mentally scream at all the people who would chose the animal over the kid. And don't worry, I think most people know you're a lovely person , you'd have to be to survive on the greater geekbloke (it's actually a new species) kingdom that is Hexus.

However, you say that animals are human to you, and that you'd hate to have to chose between the two. But they're not human. And everytime you give money to an animal charity, that could cost a childs life. I'm one of those people in whose opinion an human life is worth a million animal's. I'm not saying that people aren't worthless, and generally a waste of space, but I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe there's another Ghandi, Einstein, Plato, Shakespeare out there, dying in a ditch because there's not enough funding to go around. Or even at a lesser level, maybe a kid who will grow up to be a doctor, a teacher, a champion for good.

A cat is always going to be a cat.

[Stewart]

I think the point of the thread is - you should give to kiddies with cancer before you give to a dog with cancer, as a human life is more important than an animal life.

People will always give to charities that are meaningful to them though, so someone who has grown up with pets and hasn't had anyone in their family affected by cancer, will tend to give to the RSPCA over Cancer Research. Its human nature.

Kickstart - any argument sounds good if you go to both extremes to make your choice sound the more logical (Poor ikkle dog with ears cut off vs drunk spending money on drugs...)

[Dareos]

A cat is never going to be a rapist, a child abuser, a hitler or a rangers fan tho (sorry guys, couldnt resist)

[Stewart]

Well, better a Rangers fan than a Celtic fan - don't you have to be an IRA supporter to be a Celtic fan?

Lets not get into it.

[IBM]

ibm ..the way you put it was like me putting ;
ok here's the senario . One one hand you have a dog , thats had its ears cut off, been used for dog fighting and was left to die a painfull and horrible death
or you could give your money to some beggar on the streets of london , who you know full well is going to go buy drink or drugs with it .
Surely there is no need to choose between people and animals. If everyone gave to people charities ..WHO would look after the abused and mis-treated animals ?
You choose to give to people , i choose animals , so we are both doing our bit for others!

No it's not.

I'm saying that people give to the fluffy kitten charity when there are extreme charities like warchild www.warchild.org.uk needing cash to save children's whose lives have been destroyed by war. Because people do give to the fluffy kitten charity, and don't give to warchild.

The comparrison you've suggested is daft....people do do what you've suggested, but that's not what I'm talking about. You've got millions of dying kids worldwide, and you're more concerned about a dog? I can more easily relate to Brucelles, to whom the animal actually belonged, but to chose animals over people is just sick.

If the world was a perfect place, and the only serious issue left was abandoned animals, then give them all your money. But it's not, it's horrific. you think a dog is more capabable of suffering than a child? You imagine what it was like, if it was your child with their limbs blown off, and you're thinking that your kid isn't getting the medical treatment they need because someone gave the money to stop a cat from being put down....

[IBM]

A cat is never going to be a rapist, a child abuser, a hitler or a rangers fan tho (sorry guys, couldnt resist)

You'll never find out. Cats are very tightlipped about things like that.

[tiggerai]

IBM, at the end of the day, my £1 to warchild isn't really going to make a blind bit of difference if everyone else was donating elsewhere.

Without the RSPCA, who get no government funding, the streets would be littered with stray animals, which the Animal wardens would have to clear up... Ergo your council tax would go up to cover the cost, THEN you'd be complaining.

THAT I feel is a worthy cause as the RSPCA are a service in some respects yet without people like me giving their animals a home, they cannot carry on doing this work.

If your council tax goes up... would you then be able to donate your money to warchild?

I may not have thought this argument through fully, but I think it's a good one. (hasty posting from work) so please don't shout at me.

At the end of the day... Life isn't fair. it never will be. War happens. Famine happens. Kittens Happen (ask Nick and Dave) and they all need our help. Choosing who to donate to is a difficult one, and we shouldn't be made to feel guilty for our choices.

[Splash]

here's the scenario. On the one hand you have a charity which looks after abandoned cats, on the other you have a charity which looks after abused and mutilated children from war torn countries who without medical treatment will die a painful and horrible death, crying out for their parents who they witnessed getting shot in the head, or carved up with a machette the last time the militia visited their neck of the woods.

And people would choose the cats?

Another way to look at it - does it mean that just because someone doesn't donate to an animal charity they'll donate to a people charity?

People choose their charities usually for personal reasons - something that has either affected them or someone close to them, or something that they feel very strongly about. You can't (well I can't, perhaps I shouldn't speak for others) donate effectively to every charity out there.

For what it's worth I donate a regular monthly amount to Shelter. It's not much to me, but it no doubt helps feed and clothe some of those less well off. I've been lucky in that I've never been homeless, but it's always been something I've felt strongly about. I also donate an amount every 3 months to the Cats Protection League (where a few of my kitties have come from). I buy the Big Issue. I donate to the Terence Higgins Trust and Macmillan.

I don't donate to Oxfam, the RSPCA or Christian Aid for the previously mentioned "lack of clarity" reasons, however I'd have no problems throwing cash the way of the Red Cross or MSF if I were feeling flush and/or there was a major humanitarian crisis.

I don't make oddles (hell, not even the national average salary) but I do have an amount of disposable income each month, as I suspect most people on here do (because when it really comes down to it do we really *need* an 8800GTX?). I like to think that in spending my disposable the way I do I can make a small difference. And that's all that matters to me.

[Brucelles]

If you want to see what life is like without the RSPCA or similar, try India or Eqypt. It's pretty awful.

[Splash]

a hitler

Hmm - Kaos_Engine has a cat that looks the spit of Hitler living down his street. Dodgy 'tache, awesome combover (well, it looks like anyways) and has a funny goose-step. Ok, I made the last bit up.

[IBM]

I find guilt is a very effective emmotion.

As for they 'why should I do it if no-one else does' argument. Well, actually, I don't have a lot to say about that one. If you can't see why it's pure folly, then I'm not going to even try to make you.

And as for the animal wandering the streets, council tax goes up bit, again that's a pretty weak concept. If it came to the point that we were all knee deep in strays, there would be much stricter regulation on animal ownership, and a brief period where lots of homeless animals get put down. Then it wouldn't be so much of a problem anymore.

So you'd probably be upset if I said that I'd happily wipe out whole species of monkeys if it meant finding a cure for cancer?

[kickstart 1]

ibm .. i just love your comparison ..'fluffy kitten' and child with limbs blown off. If you think thats all there is to animal charities , then go ahead. I have had and always will have several rescued animals. Man creates war not animals.