When it comes to cats there are lots of pleas for funds. The fundraising website is growing in popularity. Anyone can post a fundraiser. I don’t want to be cynical about this but…we cannot make the assumption that every request for funds on one of the many fundraising websites is genuine.
These sites get a hell of a lot of visitors. Millions per day some of them. The website, itself, has to be funded. It probably takes a proportion of the donations. That encourages a website to have lax controls. Cats are very popular on the internet. Cats are more popular on the internet than in real life!
What made me think this dark thought was the request for donations to “Save Snuggles”. Snuggles is a sweet looking long haired calico cat who scratches herself.
The cat’s caretaker, Beth Kululu Berryman, states that she wants funding to declaw Snuggles because it is the only way to save her life. Here is part of the request, verbatim:
I am honestly begging for your help in possibly saving her life. For reasons we have been unable to determine since I found her 2 years ago, Snuggles will scratch at her skin until it is raw..
Sorry, I have great difficulty in believing this because it is so stupid and using “declawing” makes it very emotive. It does not make sense. If a cat is scratching herself you take her to the vet and diagnose the reason, which will be itchy skin caused by an illness such as a flea bite allergy (a typical reason but one of many).
As a cat caretaker you don’t hold your hands up in despair on the internet and ask for money to declaw your cat!
Bizarre — and for me unbelievable. Think about it. It is so easy to post a picture of a sweet cat and plead for money. Where is the evidence? Don’t get me wrong. I am sure most requests for money are genuine. You can normally tell. However, there has to be a proportion of fraudulent requests. The Snuggles campaign seems to me to be one.
There is a lot of fraudulent behavior on the internet. Beware.
Note: I could be wrong about Snuggles. Of course. But if I am wrong then Beth is stupid. Sorry Beth.
It seems that a lot of people didn’t do their due-diligence research. Here’s another fun FACT for you:
bbb D0T org SLASH charity-reviews/national/animal-protection/alley-cat-allies-in-bethesda-md-107/financial
They don’t even meet the criteria to qualify for being a reputable charity organization under “Better Business Bureau” standards. While Becky and all her close friends are laughing all the way to the bank to the tune of $5M in assets with a $6M income.
They all just flew to Hawaii recently for another “cat-conference” because, for some unknown reason, they had to be there to discuss these issues.
Support yet another organization that exploits the suffering of animals for their own personal financial gain, then try to sleep well at night.
While you’re at it, for another good laugh, don’t forget to check out how much Becky and her friend pay themselves in just ONE year with everyone else’s money.
bbb D0T org SLASH charity-reviews/national/animal-protection/alley-cat-allies-in-bethesda-md-107/governance-and-staff
She either wants to raise money full-stop or raise money for declawing and is using the scratching scenario as a reason. I agree she needs to be educated whatever she is doing because it is obviously not the way to fix any problem.
I have a feeling that this person wants to raise money period. I don’t think she wants to declaw. I think she has used declawing as an emotive subject that will get people discussing it. Just guessing.
Yes, if Beth has a picture of her cat she could have shown the sore bits but chose not too because I suspect there are none. I could be wrong so don’t want to be too certain. I’d just like some evidence and a different attitude because declawing is no fix anyway.
How commonplace is this Elisa? Do you know. The request for funding websites are gaining in popularity and becoming very successful. This will make the opportunity for fraud greater.
Thanks Dee for the support on this. This particular request looked odd. The other ones I have seen looked OK but it made me think.