A Call to Alms

I almost wrote this blog a few months ago, after the death of the amazing Stephen Sutton, but thought it might come across as insensitive. Then I almost wrote it again after the insane bandwagon-jumping weeks of the ALS Association’s Ice Bucket Challenge, but suspected it would be seen as self-righteous. Following the tragedy at Manchester Dogs’ Home last week, I can’t put it off writing it any longer, whatever effect it may have.

I can’t bring myself to write about the horrendous event itself, how those poor dogs’ lives ended so cruelly after a lifetime of suffering, the local heroes who risked their own safety to save lives, or even the motives and potential punishment of those responsible. As worthy of discussion as all of those things are, they could easily turn this blog into a 300 page social study. Instead, I wanted to focus on a wider issue that all three of these national events had in common, and that’s the stark reflection they gave us of our current culture. Our society has sadly become reactive, not proactive.

Before firefighters had even dampened the flames at the dogs’ home, news broke, and hundreds of people descended on the scene with equipment, vehicles, extra pairs of hands and anything else that might be needed to help. These people left their houses at night, some travelling miles, driven by their compulsion to do something. Those that couldn’t do this set about quickly raising hundreds of thousands of pounds to rebuild the centre. Obviously, these actions are highly commendable, as were the donations to the Teenage Cancer Trust and various ALS/MND charities in the previous weeks. I would never dream of undermining these beautiful outpourings of all the best bits of human nature. But what saddens me is that it takes such a devastating catastrophe, a heart-tugging TV telethon or a social media phenomenon to inspire it.

‘Raising awareness’ seems to have become a buzz-phrase around charitable causes these days, probably because it allows people to believe they’re making a contribution and feel good about themselves by sharing a meme on facebook. I can understand this where rare and lesser known causes are concerned, but what person in the western world hasn’t heard of Heart Disease, or Diabetes, or Alzheimer’s?  Who doesn’t know that developing countries are desperate for adequate healthcare and clean water? We are all only too aware that children and animals are frequently abandoned, neglected or abused and taken to live in specialised homes which can barely cater for their needs while they wait in vain hope for a better future. Some charities even spend some of their precious budgets on TV and newspaper advertising in order to get these messages through to people in their own, comfortable homes.

We all have causes close to our hearts, and in the digital age it’s never been easier to find organisations that support them and ways to assist. Yet none of this is enough to motivate people to get off their sofas and act as passionately and immediately as they do when disaster strikes. If only it were, we may be able to prevent many of the disasters from happening in the first place, and ‘social conscience’ might become a trendy slogan too. But in daily life at the moment, people seem far more concerned with those better off than themselves than those who have always had it worse.

Stephen Sutton was a brave, determined and kind young man who vowed to live life to the full despite his terminal illness and single-handedly made an enormous difference to a lot of lives. But nobody can argue that they’d never heard of Cancer before he told them about it, and he certainly wasn’t the first young person to lose his life to it.

The ALS Association was established almost thirty years ago, in 1985. Most people are familiar with Stephen Hawking’s battle to survive motor neurone disease and continue to function so highly throughout its terribly debilitating effects since the 1960s. Yet its supporting charities had never raised millions in one month until it involved people sharing amusing videos of themselves and playing dares with their friends.

Manchester Dogs Home was founded in 1893, and staff have fought to cope with the ever-growing numbers of abandoned animals in the city ever since. I doubt that at any point within those 120 years, they’ve ever seen crowds queuing up at the gates to help before.

My point is not only that these charities and many others have all needed urgent help for a long time before some despicable events drew attention to them, but also about the people I’ve mentioned. Not one of them waited for the worst case scenario, for lives to be lost, or a media storm to break before they stepped up and did whatever they could to solve a problem they’d identified or been affected by. That’s the kind of positivity that should inspire us to make change, not the death and destruction that comes from allowing a problem to go on for too long.

I am a trustee of Shy Lowen, a small horse and pony rescue charity, and I’m sure the board members of other charities would agree that our main aim is ultimately to put ourselves out of work – i.e. to fix the root cause of whatever problem requires the charity to exist.

I despaired the other day when a teenager enthusiastically enquired about rehoming a horse, which should be a lovely thing to hear from a young person. However, she went on to mention that she ‘can’t wait until we get some more new horses in’. To her, this would mean more to choose from for her own personal gain. To us, it would mean that the problem we set out to eradicate goes on and on; and the limited staff, space, facilities and budget have to be stretched even further. To the horses, it means that though they have already suffered at human hands to end up with us in the first place, they will often continue to be treated as toys or commodities once again when they leave.

I’m not saying everyone should become activists, or volunteers, adopt multiple animals and children or dedicate their lives to charity, but if everyone did just the little bit that they can, we would see a massive improvement. As demonstrated in my anecdote above, changing attitudes and educating the ignorant are just as important in solving a problem as helping physically or financially.

Even responsibly thinking through the consequences of actions and choices can still make a major change for a lesser effort. For example, in the case of Manchester Dogs’ Home, there might not have been so many dogs trapped in that burning building if more people neutered their pets, or refused to buy them from careless breeders and puppy farms, and spent more time caring for and training them. If everyone gathered outside had consistently shown them the level of support and compassion they displayed the night its premises were destroyed, then they might not need all the help they need now. They might not have needed to be there at all. And we might not all have to live in a world where car and clothing brands, bum size and eyelash length matter more to people than the suffering of our fellow sentient beings. Or at least not until it reaches its most awful extreme and it becomes impossible to look the other way.

If everyone could only harness what they felt for Stephen Sutton and those 53 dogs and pay it forward to the countless others still living in similar situations, just imagine what could be collectively achieved.  

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