Friday, July 8, 2011

Welcome!

Greetings and welcome to PAWS blog spot. We hope to use this blog to help us in our mission to promote humane communities in central Virginia.  We'll address various issues relevant to responsible animal guardianship and effective animal management in central Virginia. Our goal is to encourage dialog and discussion about topics that influence how our communities cope with the challenges of animal welfare and, subsequently, people welfare.  We believe a well-educated and well-informed society is the best foundation for a humane society. Please share your opinions and your knowledge.  And, of course, please be respectful and courteous of the opinions of others.

5 comments:

  1. The real challenge is to get this information into the hands and minds of the people for whom this is not already second nature. Perhaps once we have a critical mass of people who are interested we need to develop outreach materials (presentations and handouts and brochures) to share with people at churches, synagogues, scout groups, Elks and Rotary club meetings, County and State Fairs etc. People are not going to see this information out. We have to take it to them.

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  2. Yes Julie - you're right. Getting the information out is the difficult and the critical thing. We're developing a mass of handouts and information to share and we have our first community workshop coming up in September in Louisa. But also what I've found is that we all need this information. It's true many of us know the basic pet care stuff, but few of us really understand the detail of how animal welfare issues play out at the local, state, and federal levels. Most folks I talk to, advocates included, don't really understand what "no-kill" means. Even at the CA-SPCA, they don't have in place a "pet retention" program that is a very key and necessary component of a successful "no-kill" effort. We all need to be talking and sharing info on these difficult topics. Thank you for engaging!

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  3. And, as is the hope throughout the communication effort, the more people talk and discuss these issues amongst themselves and with others, the more opportunities there are for information and ideas to continue spreading and reaching more and more people. The ripple effect starts with us!

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  4. One last thought here: I've participated and read lots of blogs and internet communication forums and I receive loads of emails daily about animals in need of rescue. But 95-100% of these communications and "discussions" are about adoption and rescue. Rarely do I hear or see locally, a serious communication about issues that fall outside of the critical need for rescue. And yet, there is so much more to the picture. So much more understanding and sharing is essential if we are to begin decreasing the need for urgent rescue. Let's talk.

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  5. For years I've watched Louisa rescue groups take desperate animals here and there. The vast majority of animals do not make it. I would hope people can begin to look at the "big picture". To do this, I would hope people interested in animal welfare would collaborate more together and look at the common goals. Let's think outside the box. How can we work together as a community to get more people involved? How can real change take place? Other counties in Virginia are doing it, so I don't know why we can't. What are the more successful counties doing that we aren't? I hope someone out there has some ideas.

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