Mê Thú Cưng - Pet Magazine for Vietnam | Số 5 | Issue Five | Animal Welfare Vietnam | Page 74

Mê Thú Cưng

Cứu hộ, Chăm sóc và Phúc lợi động vật tại Việt Nam 66 77

Development of the animal welfare movement in
Vietnam - Part 2
By Catherine ‘Cat’ Besch

Với trụ sở đóng tại Hội
An, những nhà sáng lập
của Tổ chức Bảo vệ Động
Vật Việt Nam (VAWO),
Catherine Besch và
Emma Bolton, làm việc
với những bác sĩ thú y
địa phương và với cộng
đồng để hoàn thiện sự
đối xử với động vật thông
qua việc giáo dục bảo vệ
động vật, chương trình
triệt sản/tiêm phòng vắc
xin, giải cứu và nhận nuôi
động vật, và xây dựng
năng lực cho những
nhóm bảo vệ động vật
cũng như bác sĩ thú y địa
phương. VAWO tìm kiếm
những nơi tiêu thụ thịt
chó và nâng nhận thức
bằng ấn phẩm bảo vệ
động vật tại Việt Nam.

As they feel such
passion for both
their new country
and the animals
that inhabit it,
VAWO is prepared
to stick around
for a long time in
order to share their
contagious love of
animals in Vietnam.

72

Many animal lovers in Vietnam, both local and foreign, see animal suffering
here on a daily basis and wish they could do something about it. There are
rescue organizations, animal rights advocates, and animal shelters, and
individuals who rescue animals on their own or foster or volunteer with
organizations in the larger cities, but this may not be enough. As a founder
of Vietnam Animal Welfare Organisation, I receive many emails from people
asking what can be done about all these horrific situations for animals.
Animal rescues and animal rights advocates focus on the individuals animals
that we rescue from often horrible situations but often miss the big picture.
Long term strategy is not on the agenda it seems and progress in the animal
rights movement is often slow and very frustrating.
I see my career in animal welfare differently now. My job as an animal welfare
organization director is to put myself out of business and I believe this is the
strategy that all organizations should work towards. We all need to be in the
business of going out of business. In 40 years, I would like my organization
and others like it to be irrelevant in Vietnam because society and the legal
system will be capable of protecting animals with a culture that sees animals
not as accessories to be used and consumed for human entertainment, but
as living beings with rights that are the duty of mankind to uphold. I recognize
that this is a tall order, and frankly, it may not happen in my lifetime and the
possibility of me ever retiring from this work is just a dream. But this is a goal
I would like to see animal lovers working towards.
Below are the last of the 6 steps I have outlined to achieve this goal in Vietnam:
Educating professionals for animal
welfare
In order to protect animals, we need to
be bette r at our jobs and have volunteers
and staff that are knowledgeable in
animal rights, legislation, animal care,
sheltering, rescue, and the long term
strategy for eliminating the need for
animal shelters and animal advocates.
This means reading relevant literature,
keeping up to date with current
sheltering best practices and veterinary
science, and knowing how to run
the administration of animal welfare
organizations. What animal welfare
needs as a sector is not just animal
lovers, but business people just like in all
other sectors of development.
We need marketing specialists to run
our fundraising and public awareness

Số 05 | Tháng Chín & Mười & Mười Một 2014 | petmagazine.vn

campaigns. We need economists to
help us to understand how to effectively
end the trade in domestic animals
and wildlife for meat. We need public
health specialists to help us to connect
animal welfare to the needs of the
human population. We need political
scientists and lawyers to help us to pass
animal welfare legislation. We need
graphic designers, website designers,
communications people, and branding
specialists. We need media specialists
to get us into commercials, billboards,
and even movies that project our public
awareness campaigns. We need
education experts to develop program
for children and adults alike in animal
welfare. The more we act like charities
that beg for money to help save puppies
and kitties, the less respect we will
have from the non-animal loving public.

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