There’s a situation taking place in the animal advocacy community that has led me to the decision not to write about cats who have already been rescued who need help with funding for medical care. It’s not something I take lightly but with great grief as it’s not only myself being attacked in comments, it’s the person who actually stepped up to save a cat.
Several of my recent articles have received comments that don’t make it past moderation due to the fact it could give the commenter “free reign” to spread their hate.
I’ve come to learn there are two types of haters. The problem has grown to such proportion many animal advocates have removed themselves from the Facebook community. Some have unfriended everyone on their list involved in animal rescue.
I can divide these people into two very distinct groups.
The cat hating troll
This person hates cats (especially feral cats) and leaves long comments using words like “cat licker” and “vermin.” They preach about cats killing birds to the point birds are going extinct. They don’t take into account that community progress is a lot more deadly than a cat could ever be blamed for. Forests are being destroyed and tall buildings being built, which cats literally run into and are killed.
The cat trolls also start Facebook events to infuriate people. Remember the Jamie Cardy pages a few years back? I covered it in this PoC article. Jamie even went to the extent to send out friend requests to the unsuspecting and after that person accepted he’d put the person as one of the “administrators” to his cat killing events. A lot of innocent people received death threats from his acts.
The animal advocate who holds a grudge
This person holds a grudge against a rescuer, whether it be an individual who rescues or a 501c3 non-profit. That person is closely watched and criticized for everything they do to help an animal. If an animal is humanely euthanized it’s asked why they didn’t hold off on euthanasia. If the animal isn’t euthanized, the rescue(r) is accused of allowing the animal to needlessly suffer. There’s no way to win with a cat advocate who holds a grudge.
What’s really sad is the rescuer can go to the person’s Facebook page and it’s full of animals needing help and people being asked to share the post.
I’ve also been told this is common practice in the world of pure-bred cats, dogs and horses.
As for me…I’ve ended up in the middle of it all
I realize there have always been people out there who hate my writing or who hate me personally. Especially on articles about feral cats. One comment that recently didn’t get approved for an article even accused me of not knowing about TNR. I’ve helped with 13 TNR’s to date and am also available to help train newbies.
I’m also hated because I won’t write on rumors. I need a credible media source or a police blotter report showing an arrest. I’ve had to sit on stories for MONTHS because rumors of a rescue doing this or that haven’t been shut down. It’s different for the average person to comment on an article than it is for me to write and that difference is called “libel.” Because of my refusal, I’ve been put on do not rescue/adopt/transport lists, despite the fact I haven’t even been to the shelter since 2013. Protecting myself from a lawsuit has put me with the title of “animal abuser supporter.”
Are any of you being harassed?
Are any of you being attacked via social media? Please sound off in the comments. It doesn’t have to be cat related. I’d like to see how widespread the issue has become.
As for my writing in the future to help rescues-score goes to the people who harass. I won’t put any more rescue(s) out there for bullying. I can still write about shelter cats and report on cats news.
Do not know if this is helpful but I locked down my FB page in my privacy settings, I have it set to where no one can post on my timeline unless I approve, or tag me in photos without my OK, if they are not friends they have to PM me to contact at which point I can block them on FB since lots of weirdos try to harass women on FB as well as meanness/psycho rants from cat haters. I had a guy get mad and send pics of his privates when I kept ignoring his hi baby PMs, deleted and blocked him of course. So I am not saying I am special but affirming there are many people on FB who would do things from behind a computer screen including meanness as you described and it is a waste of time letting them take up space in your head or drain your time and energy. You cannot change them but you can take steps to stop them before they start. So we have to lock down our pages. You can also create a group that you send your rescue and pledge requests posts to that are legitimate rescue friends. You can also restrict views of your friends list to you only to protect everyone from trolls. I have also had to go in and restrict views on certain pics of myself to friends only or me only as I accepted a friend request one time and the person started posting old pics of me from my page – not embarrsssing but still – and making comments. I have no idea how he did that, so be careful who you accept as a friend also because that gives them access to your private info and pics. I had total strangers ask me how old was I and where did I grow up, why did I not post my relationship status, on and on, blah blah blah, just delete and block, people have become beyond rude and nasty due to social media hiding behind a screen, so take steps to lock down your page, post as little personal information as allowed.
I used to get a random hater here and there over the years and as I got busier I was so glad not to have time for Facebook. Now I get blasted because I don’t post updates on every single shelter cat pulled. Many times NOW IN THE PAST rescues would pull for other rescues too and if you have a great network of rescue friends, you can accomplish miracles. Then when you do you get accused of horrible things and without any proof. Recently my current hater has posted that I am worse than Julianne Westbury?? She herself went through people attacking her and knows how it cut her funding off and now she has done exactly that to us, to a sanctuary where the cats have special needs?? She is a murderer in my eyes if a single one of these cats die because of something I will not be able to provide for them. But then again, she attacks one person after another and I could give a list but hopefully they will speak up here for themselves and maybe by facing down the bullies out there, we send them back under their bridges. If you are getting bullied and attacked on Facebook, remember there are laws to protect you especially when the comments being made are anywhere close to being threatening. They can say the most outrageous things and the “mob mentality” of miserable people band many together so you end up feeling you can’t turn around without slamming into another nasty negative person. Funny thing is, I STILL don’t get on Facebook much. I have real cat care to do, I have real earning of funds to do, no time for trolling through years of shelter pictures to find old pulls, to run around commenting on everything I can to push my agenda by sticking nasty jabs everywhere and try to get people to gang up on someone working their ass off too hard to see the trash going on non stop on Facebook. Yep, non stop. Some bullies are so obsessed that it seems they don’t even sleep. The comments, digs, running around everyone’s posts and pages making sure nothing is said about them back. I have to say I feel sorry that their lives are so miserable and empty.
And if a new rescue shows potential but is wavering or a long standing rescue hits a hard time, or anything in between, instead of slandering it into the ground, we should be helping that rescue and trying to keep as many decent rescues as possible because we NEED rescues. So many have given in and quit. I could “retire” after 23 Years but I can’t. I know that everyone has their own ideas on how to do things but if an animal control office tells you a group is ok, then they are ok. There is NO COVERUP, there is NO PAYING THEM OFF to hide things for you. They aren’t going to let a bad situation go on and have it blow up worse down the line with them now as “conspirators”? Really, some of the rumors are almost hilarious. I say almost because there are the sheep that jump on every drama bandwagon and believe it all, practical or not. And they are always the same rumors against each person. A favorite used seems to be “they are selling cats to labs”. Not once have I seen this one to be true in the list of people I know of attacked by this one person. And really not by any attacked by the whole clique’ of constantly seen names in the realm of wannabe self appointed rescue police. Leave the job to the professionals, please! A lot of these people need to get a grip and find something to do to CONTRIBUTE to their homes and communities AND FIND SOME HAPPINESS somehow to lessen whatever hate and anger makes them so vicious against a person that they are ok letting animals die to get the satisfaction of hurting a person.
I am sure I have plenty more I could say. I hate it when people ATTACK and scream THEY are victims in this cat rescue war. The ONLY victims are the innocent cats that these attackers are causing to die.
And people gripe because many of us avoid Facebook? I wonder how many times I have said this?
“What did animal rescuers do BEFORE Facebook? DUH! THEIR JOBS!” Now there is serious true concern if people want to find something to worry about and that is how can a person spend most of 24 a day on Facebook and still take care of their own rescues?
Signing off and standing strong,
Suzanne “Suzie’s Zoo” Melton
Many thanks for a great comment Suzie. I may convert it into an article (with you as the author of course) as it is article length and instructive.
Thanks Michael Broad!
Suzie, would you mind if I published your comment as an article, under your name of course.
Please feel free to use it any way you choose. Thank you for asking!