It is with profound sadness that we share this little one’s story. For 20 years SCARS has worked to educate and change attitudes towards animals. In so many ways, we have made such incredible progress. Trusted partners, working in communities, teaching about animal care and providing support. There has been incredible progress and vast overall improvement, yet there are still cases that wound our spirits and shake us to the core. We recently had one of those days.
Our community outreach coordinator was contacted about an animal in distress. A volunteer driver was dispatched late in the day to pick up the little dog and bring it for medical care. Our volunteers are amazing people – over 2 ½ hours of driving to a rural community after dark to try and help a suffering animal. Our driver recognized the level of distress and headed straight to Pulse Veterinary Emergency. The assessment was grim, the poor little girl (likely a senior) was in terrible condition, with infection running rampant through her system. Despite best efforts, despite the work of the emergency vet team, despite our desire to give this little one her second chance, we were ultimately too late. Her condition was such that she could not be saved. Sadly at 2 AM, our intake coordinator along with the veterinary team decided to ease the burden of suffering and let her spirit soar. SCARS mission, in this case, was to be there till the end and stop the suffering.
We are saddened to see an animal in this condition, and we can’t help but think if the call had come earlier there might have been a different outcome. Helping our neighbours, helping the animals in our communities, takes the efforts of all of us. Maybe it is a check in to see that everything is alright, maybe it is an offer of help to someone who themselves are overwhelmed, maybe it is a call to an organization like SCARS as soon as you see an animal in distress. We have come a long way and made much progress, but to get to the point where no animal is suffering needlessly, it will take ALL of us. Rest easy little one, we hope for the day that no animal suffers as you did.
“We are all just here walking each other home” – Ram Dass.