A barge carrying a humpback whale that had been stranded in shallow waters near Germany since March has begun its journey toward the North Sea. Nicknamed Timmy by German media, the whale was spotted ...
This is something that we need to be mindful of as rehab people.
The one rehab training video I’ve seen starts with this internet famous cat rehab lady going off on people. It then explains she can get away with that because people like cats and dogs. People are familiar with them, feel they understand them, and so on. People will keep helping cats and dogs even if this lady annoys them and lectures them. Wildlife rehabbers don’t get that benefit, and trust me, some people will infuriate us by messing with nature, or are downright hostile to us for existing like we’re as hated as the IRS or DMV or something. We have to wait until you leave for us to talk about how we really feel. Because helping wild animals is hard, inconvenient, expensive, and poorly understood. If we lecture people or tell you about how you sealed this animal’s fate, people will never come back to us again. They will spread the word how trash we are and discourage others from helping animals.
And having to remain cool does help a bit too, I think. We can’t undo the dumb people have already done, but hopefully we can get some better advice to sink in for next time. Honestly, it’s hard to be mad at people who honestly think they were helping. It is nice to see these strangers pooling together and taking all this time and spending all this money to try to help. It would be many times over better if they would just leave it to the trained people and accept when something can’t be saved. We don’t enjoy putting animals down, but sometimes a humane end is the best we can offer if the damage is already done. Put that money and effort towards animals that aren’t at the end of their lives. It’s better for everyone, animals included. Once Timmy is tossed into the sea and that boat turns around and everyone goes back to ignoring whales, what did we really accomplish, even if he does swim away? If they aren’t giving it actual medical help, they likely haven’t tagged it or anything to see if this paid off.
I just want them to learn something. Develop a solid love for animals, learn to do things that actually do save them, get involved on a local or national level to help them, fund the people that do if they can’t personally. They have the right mindset to make a positive difference, but stuff like this is just starting down the wrong path for what they want to accomplish, and for their sake and the animals, I don’t like seeing that because it just goes poorly for everyone involved.
This is something that we need to be mindful of as rehab people.
The one rehab training video I’ve seen starts with this internet famous cat rehab lady going off on people. It then explains she can get away with that because people like cats and dogs. People are familiar with them, feel they understand them, and so on. People will keep helping cats and dogs even if this lady annoys them and lectures them. Wildlife rehabbers don’t get that benefit, and trust me, some people will infuriate us by messing with nature, or are downright hostile to us for existing like we’re as hated as the IRS or DMV or something. We have to wait until you leave for us to talk about how we really feel. Because helping wild animals is hard, inconvenient, expensive, and poorly understood. If we lecture people or tell you about how you sealed this animal’s fate, people will never come back to us again. They will spread the word how trash we are and discourage others from helping animals.
And having to remain cool does help a bit too, I think. We can’t undo the dumb people have already done, but hopefully we can get some better advice to sink in for next time. Honestly, it’s hard to be mad at people who honestly think they were helping. It is nice to see these strangers pooling together and taking all this time and spending all this money to try to help. It would be many times over better if they would just leave it to the trained people and accept when something can’t be saved. We don’t enjoy putting animals down, but sometimes a humane end is the best we can offer if the damage is already done. Put that money and effort towards animals that aren’t at the end of their lives. It’s better for everyone, animals included. Once Timmy is tossed into the sea and that boat turns around and everyone goes back to ignoring whales, what did we really accomplish, even if he does swim away? If they aren’t giving it actual medical help, they likely haven’t tagged it or anything to see if this paid off.
I just want them to learn something. Develop a solid love for animals, learn to do things that actually do save them, get involved on a local or national level to help them, fund the people that do if they can’t personally. They have the right mindset to make a positive difference, but stuff like this is just starting down the wrong path for what they want to accomplish, and for their sake and the animals, I don’t like seeing that because it just goes poorly for everyone involved.