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When you carry out acts of kindness, you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, yes, this is hiow I ought to feel.
Harold Kushner
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| Give our six point plan a try to help you decide how you want to help animals. |
"I wanted to help out, but did nothing about it for a while. What stopped me?
- I didn't know where to go, what I could do, how to make contact with these charities, and whether I'd be welcomed. If I made contact with the charity, would I be asked more of my time than I could give?
- I didn't focus on the idea strongly enough - it was something to do in the back of our minds for a long time but it was something to be done next year, in five years' time, in the future.
- There was always the question, Would I really be able to make a difference? How can one person help out and really improve things for animals? Would I be welcomed, or would my lack of experience be a problem?
When I got my act together and volunteered for a cat charity, I know I did a lot to help the cats - and saw lots of loving, beautiful cats go to caring, loving homes. I even learnt to drive a mini-bus. I wish I hadn't spent so long pondering over things - I could have helped more animals sooner if I'd put my mind to it."
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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead |
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Our Ambassador, Chico (and that's him above) says, Here are some benefits you may enjoy as a result of volunteering! |
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Please help the panda after earthquakes in China - there lots of ways to get active! |
When people want to know what to get you for your birthday, why not ask them to adopt an animal for you?
Last year, I decided to ask my husband for a polar bear for my birthday. My husband was a bit stunned when I told him what I wanted. But he obliged, and now I've got a polar bear, and also a panda.
Then my husband and I went to the Donkey Sanctuary in Spain on holiday, and we adopted Erica, a donkey who had been rescued from a market in Northern Spain; she was about to be sold for meat.
I'm going to get a gorilla next.
I think of "my" panda and "my" polar bear and "our" donkey every day, and wonder how they are doing. I keep turning the heat off and the lights down to try to look after them, especially the polar bear."
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We plan to leave something for our favourite animal charity in a will and do the legacy thing, and of course, charities need legacies. Many of them wouldn't survive without them. But one day it struck me hard that animals need our help today, this week, this year - not when I die.
I want to help animals without a home, or who are injured or suffering, or becoming extinct NOW - and goodness knows, they need it. That's why I've put this site together.
The key to helping out is to start giving time and your skill and resources, and it's just then that you discover how much you really CAN do and how much time and money you waste in your life on stuff which really is utterly meaningless when it comes right down to it.
Sally Longson
Lifelong animal lover and volunteer | |
