Sharing with Travellive about taking care of the common home of stray cats and dogs during social distancing, the GroupHanoi Pet Adoption, FestivalDanang Animal Rescue, StationSaigon Time Dog and Cat Rescueshows a "common denominator" that they are all facing difficulties and shortages of human resources and funding. However, above all, the most valuable thing about volunteers is their love for animals, their efforts and their never-give-up spirit.
The city is isolated, making relief difficult.
The Da Nang Animal Rescue Association was established in 2013, operating on a foster home model, with dogs and cats being taken care of by volunteers in the Association. After more than 7 years of operation, the Association has taken care of and found new owners for more than 3,000 dogs and cats. Sharing about its activities during the pandemic, the Da Nang Animal Rescue Association said: “The rescue and care of dogs and cats is facing many difficulties. Due to the pandemic, many volunteers from other provinces have had to return to their hometowns, temporarily stopping their activities, causing a huge shortage of staff, while the number of dogs and cats are all given to the remaining volunteers, causing an overload situation.”
A kitten is being cared for at the Danang Animal Rescue Society.
Operating in Hanoi, Hanoi Pet Adoption Group was established in 2015 by a group of young Vietnamese volunteers and some foreigners. Over the years, the Group has helped rescue over 2,000 abandoned, stray, and abused dogs and cats, and found new homes for them.
However, during the pandemic, due to the need to limit going out, Hanoi Pet Adoption said they have temporarily suspended their rescue activities. “When we received the news, we could only post, hoping that someone who loves dogs and cats nearby would come and take the babies home to shelter them or take them to the nearest veterinary facility.”
The group also shared that recently they often receive cases of dogs and cats being "intentionally" abandoned by their owners due to illness: "Knowing that we do not accept dogs and cats with owners, they pretend to be passersby who picked them up, then bring them to the group or leave them at the clinic."
Hanoi Pet Adoption volunteers rescue a cat in Hanoi.
Shortage of staff seems to be a common situation at rescue stations during this time, Uyen Nhu - volunteer of Saigon Time Dog and Cat Rescue Station said: "Currently, the station is short of staff because volunteers have gone to the field hospital to serve. In addition, bringing dogs and cats to veterinary facilities is very difficult because of quarantine checkpoints."
It is known that Saigon Time was established in 2015 in Binh Chanh district, Ho Chi Minh City with only 5 members. Currently, Uyen Nhu is a key member who has been working here for more than 5 years.
Uyen Nhu - a key member at Saigon Time for over 5 years
Silent sacrifices
The limitations in relief and human resources are making it difficult for members to continue to stay, they have to spend a lot of time and effort, maybe double or triple the normal to maintain operations.
The Da Nang Animal Rescue Association said that the number of volunteers in the rescue and transport team has decreased significantly, causing cases requiring rescue and transport to be delayed for quite a long time; this greatly affects the quality of care as well as the Association's ability to receive new cases. "You are having to go to your main job and take care of children with many different illnesses and physical conditions, this is gradually becoming a burden for the volunteers" - the Association representative commented.
Volunteers have to do their main job and take care of dogs and cats at the same time.
Hanoi Pet Adoption also shared their concerns during the epidemic season: “The most worrying thing is that the Group's volunteers may be in the F0 or F1 category, leading to the risk of the shared house having to close. Therefore, members are also proactively limiting travel as much as possible.”
The rescue team said they had calculated a number of backup plans, proactively stocking food and necessities for both volunteers and cats and dogs. Until Hanoi applied social distancing, some volunteers decided to stay at the shared house: "The most valuable thing is that you decided to stay here for 14 days, both to comply with epidemic prevention regulations and to take care of the health of the cats and dogs."
When the rescue team needs to be... rescued
The lack of funding has also been a major obstacle for most relief stations in recent times. There are even rescue teams that are almost in need of... rescue.
Saigon Time shared that they only try to “take care of the children as best as they can, but they don’t know how else to do it.” “We will post cases that need to be rescued on our Fanpage to ask for help from people nearby, but the cost depends on the support from generous donors.” In fact, the Station’s support fund is still not enough to take care of all the dogs and cats at this time.
“The support from donors is also decreasing significantly, the revenue of Pet Up (the Association's fundraising booth) is not as good as before, while the Association is having to bear a huge amount of expenses every month for medical treatment, medicine, food and other supplies for the animals” - Da Nang Animal Rescue Association said.
Due to limited financial resources, the Association must also consider the type of dogs and cats to be rescued, only accepting cases that truly need help at this time. At the same time, costs will also be carefully considered, with priority given to emergency cases.
Hanoi Pet Adoption also shared that finding owners for cats and dogs during this period is not easy, especially for foreign owners. "Foreigners are often very supportive of adopting cats and dogs from rescue stations. However, due to the pandemic, they have lost their jobs and even had to return home, so they do not have the financial resources to complete the procedures to bring the babies home with them."
In addition, most of the dogs and cats that are adopted are in very bad condition, resulting in high monthly hospital bills. Not to mention, the weather this season is changeable, so dogs and cats are susceptible to respiratory diseases. Unable to take them to the hospital, they can only connect with their familiar veterinarian to update the situation daily and "treat" them themselves.
The security guard and the dog at Hanoi Pet Adoption's shared home.
Hanoi Pet Adoption volunteers sing to help cats "de-stress".
We, humans, are not the only “victims” of the pandemic; dogs and cats can also become depressed, hungry and need to be cared for and cared for to get through this period. We can only hope that the love of the people in the shelter is big enough, and durable enough, to be a strong pillar for them.
And if you can, share some love with them.
