Community Chat

[hckynut]

I personally I never watch them as I scan right past them. My wife and I see enough sad stories in our real life and try to help as many animals as possible everyday.

[Moonchilde]

On 3/1/2015 ROMARY 1 said:

As far as our local animal charities, they always show the good results. Booklets, TV ads, newsletters. We see and know of many of the good results. We see the volunteers and their work, the rescued animals looking healthy, often being with their new owners, etc. It warms our hearts seeing those images and knowing that our donations are making a difference. It's all a matter of feeling good about donating. It's psychological, and it works. It's all a matter of taking a few basic advertising classes. Or maybe those classes and info have changed all of these years later. Well, time to go back to the basics, IMO.

Yes, this. Our local charities are full of the "good news" of what happens when you donate. I highly resent the shame-or-guilt-into-donating ads. I'm not stupid. It's clear what the ads are intended to do - make you feel so awful you donate out of a guilt you shouldn't be feeling. I may feel very sad about animal abuse or child hunger, but I am not responsible for them.

Most people who watch the media at all, are online or watch television, are acutely aware there is horrendous animal abuse and child hunger, as they "see" it on an almost daily basis. We choose, if we are financially able, the charities of our choice. The whole carefully orchestrated guilt trip methodology totally turns me off any charity that uses it. It assumes either that people are stupid, or that they must be "forced" by guilt to contribute.

[ROMARY]

docsgirl: So heartwarming, and please send a thank-you note to your local police departments from all of us here. Hugs to them! Love them!

[Moonchilde]

Until animal abuse is made a FELONY, with JAIL TIME and financial penalty, it will sadly continue.

[ROMARY]

moonchild: I honestly believe that the ad dept. either took the wrong/inferior advertising classes or maybe taken none at all. It's really very basic (Advertising 101). Or, at least, it used to be. Maybe a few more seasoned ad executives/personnel on their team. Really, most of us cannot figure it out, for many, many years.

[ROMARY]

Being inhumane has to be regulated much more. Look what's happening to the dear dogs over in "C". Pathetic. How we treat our pets/animals is a reflection of how we treat humans. It's a different way of thinking, unfortunately. Why do we continuously receive toxic pet food from "C"? It all goes 'hand in hand'. Pets and people. No differentiation over there.

[hckynut]

we worked to get a bill passed in our county to make animal abuse a felony.

[deepwaterdotter]

On 3/1/2015 hckynut said: we worked to get a bill passed in our county to make animal abuse a felony.

Kudos to you John.

[ROMARY]

hckynut: Yes, sometimes we need more regulation. I'm one who is often saying that, in certain industries, we need more regulation, not less. If I were in charge, I'd be testing each and every batch/lot of pet food before it's released and distributed. The companies say that they have research facilities, etc. Why not test each batch? Especially when it's imported. Couldn't be such a horrendous task in this day and age, with all of the testing equipment that's available. Pet food isn't inexpensive, either.

[kittymomNC]

On 3/1/2015 KYToby said:

Changing the channel because we find the images unsettling is the problem. It is nothing but apathy towards hunger, illness, and abuse.

If these images disturb you, do something to help solve them rather than pretending they do not exist.

Those are very strong across the board comments, and I have to admit, I take offense at them. I turn off these commercials also, but I'm curious... why would you assume that just because people don't want to watch these commercials, that they don't do anything to solve the problems?

I'm well aware of the hunger situation in this world, but for the same reasons I give below concerning animals, sometimes I'm not in a position to help, and I don't deal very well with having these images in my mind when I know I personally can't do anything. When I can, I do - but I don't need to see the commercials to get me to do it.

I'm well aware also of the situation with abused and homeless animals -- I don't need such graphic pictures which tend to stay in my mind for days to tell me how huge a problem it is. I worry over every stray (or assumed stray) cat that wanders through my yard, have managed to capture a few, one for which I found a good home and others returned to their homes. I even captured a lost and starving racing pigeon that I refused to return to the idiots that set them loose, and instead found an aviary that keeps them safe forever. All my own cats have been either stray cats or kittens before I gave them homes. My son adopted four big dogs over the years that he found as strays, and now that they're gone, he's trying to care for feral cats on his property.

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, if I hadn't been the age I am and had the home responsibilities I have, I would have been right in the water with the animal rescuers! I wanted to go so badly that it almost felt like my heart literally hurt! I could not watch the news which showed so many pictures of the animals, I turned it off. However, that did not stop me from donating to several charity organizations who were sending volunteers to rescue them.

I also don't want to be reminded that for the last few years, I just can't afford to help these charity groups (animal or human) -- I've been spending thousands of dollars to care for my own sick cat, and will continue to do so until she can't be helped any more. It hurts me to know that I can't help the others. However, I have posted several things on the boards for people to go to the pet food websites when they've had special promotions to donate food to animal groups - and come back to the threads time and again to bump them up and keep them in sight of people who would be interested in helping. If that's all I can do for the time being, then at least I can do that.

I'm sure there are many others here who are like me and do whatever they can to help... I've posted with many of them. Not wanting to have those images constantly in our heads means nothing. People who genuinely care for animals or children don't need that to persuade them to help.

Just my personal thoughts and opinion....