September 19, 2008Comments are closed.attitude
When we started PetRescue there was a huge resistance to the project by people who firmly believed it would never work. Rescue would never pull together, no one in rescue had the time and who the hell were we to be telling them how to rehome animals!
And you know what? It could have just as easily failed as succeed and JB and I could have returned to our regular jobs and the story would have ended there. No harm no foul.
But PetRescue does work for precisely the same reasons the naysayers thought it wouldn’t – it was really, really different.
In the year since Nathan Winograd’s Redemption was published an awful lot has happened to the rescue industry. Almost overnight all the people who had visions of a better way, but who’s opinions had always been quashed by ‘it will never work’ found a voice which says we are allowed to believe we can do it better and that we are allowed to try new things.
So why still so much resistance within the rescue industry to trying anything new? As the ones encumbered with the killing, shouldn’t we most want to see animals saved and the most keen to do anything in our power to do so?
Competent people have a predictable, reliable process for solving a particular set of problems. They solve a problem the same way, every time. That’s what makes them reliable. That’s what makes them competent.
Competent people are quite proud of the status and success that they get out of being competent. They like being competent. They guard their competence, and they work hard to maintain it.
So with this call from the No Kill movement to start trying new ideas, suddenly there is a chance of failure. People who are competent resent the stress this puts on them; Adopting outside our area? Too risky. Starting a foster program? Too hard. With competence stifling any chance to be innovative they’re stuck; unable to move forward and clinging to the way it is now. It’ll never work! they chime We know what we’re doing, how dare you question that we’re not doing enough! and then the deflection which give them permission to keep on being competent; why don’t you blame those truly responsible, the public for the death of these poor animals.
But No Kill with it’s newly found voice and creative ideas challenges us to identify new opportunities to save lives. No Kill advocates believe ‘good’ pet owners far outnumber the ‘bad’ and that all of the people who walk into a shelter are potential adopters, foster homes or volunteers. We believe that engaging our community in life saving programs can make our shelters a hub for all pet-lovers. And that by getting people help when they need it, not judging them, allows more pets to stay in their homes.
But most of all No Kill demands more than competence from rescue organisations. Instead it requires us to raise the bar and embrace proactive thinking and innovative action. And that can only be a good thing for the pets presently dying through competence.
