As the
Spring Festival holiday approaches, ushering in the
Year of the Dog in the Chinese zodiac, one Shanghai
organization fears that animals purchased to mark the occasion
could end up on the streets once they've outlived their
novelty.?
"We're really hoping there won't be a surge in abandoned dogs
during this period, but that's what we're afraid of," said Carol
Wolfson, founder of Second Chance Animal Aid (SCAA).
SCAA Director Cathy Brandell is equally wary: "We've already had
several people looking to re-home puppies through us, which we're
not worried about because we make sure all our adopters are
properly educated about the animals' needs, but it does seem to be
connected to the holiday and we are worried there will be a lot of
dogs bought to mark the New Year that will end up on the
street."
Since its conception less than a year ago, SCAA has adopted an
innovative approach to tackling Shanghai's abandoned animal
problem. It has not to set up a shelter and instead relies on a
network of foster parents to look after rescued animals.
For Wolfson, the decision was a no-brainer: "If you have a
shelter and you have an address, that's a recipe for dumping;
people will just come and leave animals on your doorstep ... It's a
lose-lose situation."
The group is working to establish a network of foster parents to
care for animals until a permanent home is found, while also
running an active education program.
"If someone comes to us with an animal they have taken off the
street and asks us to take it, our answer is 'no.' They picked it
up, it's their responsibility," Wolfson explains.
"What we will do is offer help and support. We will help them
get the animal spayed, for example, and through our website and
adoption program, we will help find the animal a permanent
home."
The group, which since March last year has found permanent homes
for 127 animals, has around 30 foster carers.
By the end of the year, SCAA hopes to re-home 300 cats and dogs
and triple its fosterers to 100, a figure Wolfson sees as
equivalent to having a permanent shelter.
"We are always looking for more foster carers," Brandell said,
herself an active fosterer. "People can foster for just a couple of
days or even several years. It's great for people from abroad, who
know they won't be able to take an animal back home with them, but
can look after an animal while they are living in Shanghai."
One fosterer, Karen Nielsen, became part of the group last
October after finding an abandoned kitten in her garden.
"SCAA helped put the kitten up for adoption but when no one took
her because she was so small, I decided to keep her."
Although mainly active within Shanghai's expatriate community,
SCAA has teamed up with the Jane Goodall Institute's Roots and
Shoots program to work with young people in the city.
Tori Zwister, director of the institute in Shanghai, said: "We
work with more than 130 schools in Shanghai and whenever there's a
request for an animal welfare project, we point them in the
direction of the SCAA.
"Seeing children stroke and experience pets for the first time
is a heartwarming experience."
Unfortunately, the comparatively small number of carers means
that, for the moment, there are always more animals in search of a
safe home than there are safe homes to go to. "We need more
fosterers," Wolfson said.
(China Daily January 20, 2006)