SORROWS AND TRAVAILS VS CONSOLATIONS AND JOYS
6.2.1. Dealing with the Public: Direct Interaction
Back inside the house Jean tells me a story about a member of the public who rang to say she had 6 kittens and that it would cost too much money to put them to sleep. So she brought them to Jean’s shelter, and explained that she had to go on a pilgrimage
pilgrimage on the lake’s Station Island). Jean told the woman that she found her attitude somewhat hypocritical and tells me: “She told me she reared 8 children.
Well, I hope you done a good job on them, I said” (Field notes, cat shelter, November 19th, 2013).
Shelter workers must deal as much, if not more, with people than with the animals in their care. Members of the public admit animals, surrender animals, make complaints about animal cruelty, and perpetrate cruelty themselves. Equally, members of the public adopt or foster animals, volunteer at shelters, make donations, fundraise, and offer moral support and bear witness to the work done at the shelter. Nick memorably refers to this phenomenon as “the good, the bad and the ugly”. He further observes that his work is akin to social work as sometimes mental or addiction issues can be at play and outside agencies need to be contacted. For example, a person with a drink problem might adore an animal but not be able to look after it properly because the time of the day is blurred (Interview with Nick, 14th January, 2014).
Further, the high expectations of the public are a common source of irritation for my respondents. For example, people expect shelters to collect stray cat colonies from their garden which is outside the bounds of possibility for already overstretched shelters.
Nick partially attributes these expectations to the proliferation of animal rescue programmes on television:
Then there’s the programmes, the animals A&Es, they help but they also put more pressure on us because people see them and see soundbites and things that may have taken the rescue organisation 3 or 4 weeks to deal with, in the programme the problem is fixed in 15 seconds! (laughs) (Interview with Nick, 14th January, 2014).
Sometimes there are calls about dogs not being walked or that they are overweight.
“So the dog is fat, so is half the country, what can I do about it?” laughs Nick (Fieldnotes, August 2nd, 2012). These are commonly referred to as “bullshit calls”
and often they occur because of grudges between neighbours, according to many of my participants. On one occasion when I accompany Nick during his working day, we drive over 20 km to visit a home about which a complaint had been made. The dog in question was perfectly well-fed, had a kennel in the garden, and was in fact
sitting on the sofa when we arrived (Fieldnotes from day “on the job” with Nick, August 2nd, 2012).
Two public attitudes which are frequently cited as sources of frustration for shelter workers are attitudes to surrendering animals and towards neutering and spaying companion animals.
Animal surrenderers are sometimes described as “looking for an easy way out” and as not having “genuine” reasons for surrendering the animal to a shelter. Invalid reasons for surrendering described by my respondents include: moving home, pregnancy, the dog becoming too large or boisterous, moulting hair, or unforgettably
“going to the toilet in the garden”. Genuine reasons include: animal-related allergies, owner emigration or the dog snapping at children. Even in the latter case, respondents express scepticism as animals are frequently pronounced to be “for life”
and dog snapping is seen as a correctable problem, attributable to lack of training.
Likewise, a lack of funds to feed a companion animal tends to be viewed with scepticism, as this excerpt from an interview with Molly suggests:
The minute the recession hit we saw all the big breeds first. We were getting St. Bernards..like you can get a 15Kg bag of feed for 12 euro and that’ll last you a month minimum. So I can’t understand when people say they can’t afford it. But then you had a lot of people emigrating because of the recession and that can be genuine.
Personally, if I was emigrating I’d bring them with me. If you’re an animal person, you’re an animal person (Interview with Molly, 22nd July, 2014).
The difficulty in persuading the public to neuter or spay companion animals is a major source of annoyance for all respondents. This negligence is being alleviated due to the educational efforts of shelters, SPCAs and Dogs Trust all of which undertake school awareness campaigns. Many members of the public still fail to recognise the importance of neutering either due to inertia, unwillingness to incur veterinary fees, or the belief that it is ‘cruel’ not to allow a dog or cat produce a litter (Interviews, 2014).
Hamilton and Taylor (2013: 107) note with irony that it is perhaps the ‘‘undesirable humans who constitute the dirty work’’ for shelter employees and volunteers.
Although all shelter workers in the current study share a common worldview in
regard to animals, relations between shelters are not always harmonious. I attribute this phenomenon partly to the competition for public support and donations, and partly because of differences of opinion about what constitutes an acceptable standard of living for rescued animals.