Notice by Mari:
THE LINKS IN THIS ARTICLE CONTAIN GRAPHIC IMAGES OF REAL SITUATIONS.
NOT ALL STORIES HAVE A HAPPY ENDING.
I do plead you to please not shut your eyes, these animals depend on you!
My name is Umar (Patrick) and I have been rescuing animals independently for over 6 years. I am Irish but currently living in Klaten, Java, Indonesia.
It all began when I saw how animals were treated here. Neglect, abandonment, cruelty are daily occurrences. The first animals we rescued were pretty much discovered by accident on the side of the road.
Animal welfare is, to all intents and purposes, non-existent – especially where I live. There is also a general lack of will to do anything, or help animals, or donate towards their rescue or rehabilitation on the part of the vast majority of people here.
Since starting, I have been trying to help those unfortunate animals to somehow make their life worth living. Which for the most part means rehabilitating them, getting them fit and healthy, socializing them and trying to find good, responsible humans to adopt them. Sometimes, I come across abandoned baby kittens on the side of the road, or just as often, they are thrown away at dumps. This means they have no chance of survival. They can be completely on their own, or in entire litters. Their ages range from only a week old (a litter of 4 kittens which some children found on a river bank and brought to us) up to all stages of adulthood.
Obviously, the majority are nursing kittens or teenagers. Whenever I have time I can go to any of the hundreds of rubbish tips, official and unofficial (the difference here is trivial) and find abandoned kittens of all ages and in all types of condition. We also find abandoned adult cats which were ‘family’ pets. These cats have conditions like scabies, old age, or are females which were thrown away because they are pregnant. We have rescued three pregnant females in the last month alone from different situations.
Helpless Kittens are Dumped…
Sometimes young adult cats like this are thrown away for no reason at all. While we have helped, and will continue to help all kinds of animals (dogs, chickens, quail, ducks, bats, etc) – the overwhelming majority of animals we help are cats and kittens.
The animals we usually find are in a range of conditions from a health standpoint. From just having been dumped but invariably with chronic worm infection, or infected with fleas, fungus and in a state of being malnourished – all the way to kittens or cats who are in the late stages of scabies or chlamydia infection (already blind) or, with bad injuries, or seriously ill for other reasons and who would inevitably die without urgent treatment.
Finding Adopters
After rescue, we treat the animals for whatever conditions they have. And we try to reverse the effects of malnutrition and abuse. Because of the nature of panleukopenia being practically endemic here due to the lack of care, and a lack of vaccination – all our rescued animals are quarantined strictly for 2 weeks.
Assuming they survive to this point, then we will start to socialize them with other cats and kittens. Any kittens which were on their own at this point will get paired up with their own little buddy. We always try to adopt them in pairs. The ultimate goal is to find RESPONSIBLE adopters which will take care of them properly as well loved and well looked after family pets. This is one of the two biggest challenges we face. The other challenge is trying to obtain funding to keep things going. And especially for the vaccination and neutering of the animals prior to adoption.
All our adopters must sign a contract in order to try to safeguard the future of our rescued cats. The conditions are compiled from those used by the DSPCA in Ireland and from those used by many shelters in the USA, etc. We learnt the hard way about the necessity of having a contract for each adoption. Moreover, we had to learn a lot of veterinary treatments due to poor standards and the risk of contracting panleukopenia from clinics here. This means literally everything from intensive support for cats with panleukopenia, treatment of scabies, worm infestation, feline chlamydia, flea infestation, malnourishment, pain medication, hypocalcaemia, neo-natal care, and so on. We also provide basic medical care and medicines for vulnerable people who are poor and cannot provide for their cats, in addition to the small number of people who actually rescue kittens or cats themselves.
Animal Rescue in Indonesia: Help is Needed
In the beginning we used to try to fund things through the small petshop which we operate. But, as time has gone by, with the increase in the number of animals we encounter, this country entering recession, and the reluctance on the part of people here to treat the issue of animal neglect and rescue seriously, we have found it increasingly difficult to fund our work.
With that in mind, I started trying to engage on social media, especially YouTube, in the hope of raising funds for our work. I have two YouTube channels running, mycammedia and mytravelmedia. The first one deals directly with content which is about animal rescue and the situation for animals which we encounter in Indonesia. We try to show some of their rehabilitation and the end result of their stay with us, and not just actual rescues alone. The second channel is related to scenery and travel, but the purpose is the same: to try to raise awareness. And, ultimately, to raise funds.
We need donations more than ever. Especially to try to fund neutering and vaccination. The reluctance to adopt female cats in particular if they are not already neutered causes us ongoing problems. Anyone who wishes to help, contribute or support us can do so by any of the means below.
Mycammedia’s PayPal:
https://paypal.me/Mycammedia
Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/mycammedia
Buy a coffee for Mycammedia:
https://ko-fi.com/mycammedia
Our Youtube channels:
mycammedia – YouTube
mytravelmedia – YouTube
Facebook:
https://web.facebook.com/Mycammedia/
Instagram:
https://instagram.com/mycammedia/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mycammedia
Google: AMTI Petshop:
+62 0822-4362-8094
Google Maps:
https://g.page/AMTI_petshop?share
I hope you found this article about Umar‘s work of animal rescue in Indonesia informative and inspiring. Please do look into Umar’s work and consider supporting. Supporting with money is most important, but shares, likes and subscribes also help to spread the word to other people who have the means to make a donation. The more support is given, the more animals can be rescued.
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