Service First Meetings, and Beginning of the Year Goals:

I feel that this year is very unpredictable in terms of what we can accomplish. I do not know if the school will be open, or even if we will be able to have service. However, I am committed to making a change and somehow impact my service group. School has started up, but due to COVID rules, we cannot have service meetings, as we must stay in our cohorts at different grade levels, and in different groups. This makes our options very limited for the time being. However, I am very optimistic that the school will fully reopen soon and that we will be able to have our weekly service meetings with all of our members soonish. For the time being, the school has closed down (and we are no longer able to be there in person), so we are currently learning online. However, a positive note to this is that the service program has started up again and we can have our weekly meetings. Since we are starting up quite late this year, and we have only just had our first few meetings.

Our first Care for Paws Meeting with the Newly Welcomed Members:(Screenshot Credits – Yangki Sherpa)

This year, there are many things I hope that we, as a service group can achieve. An event we organized last year was an October 4th wear purple for animal awareness. However, this date has passed already and we did not meet together fast enough to organize a spirit day for this. Additionally, this year October 4th fell on a poya day in Sri Lanka (which means no school), so it was very difficult to organize. However, since we do still have quite a lot of time, I really wanted to do our annual sterilization and vaccination camp, where we go out and both sterilize and vaccinate many street animals. This helps reduce the Sri Lankan street dog population, which helps the street dogs that do exist to get better care and help (as many are neglected and in very poor living conditions). Last year, we managed to have one very successful camp, which I really hope we will be able to do this year. Additionally, last year we also planned a second vaccination camp, (to give some animals their follow-up vaccinations from our first camp). We had planned it all out and were ready to follow through, but unfortunately, the school closed down and we were not allowed to do it. However, I am optimistic that possibly this year we will be able to possibly follow through with both camps if the COVID situation allows us to and if we plan well. The big Sterilization Camp is the main event that I hope to achieve for our service group this year, and my initial plan is to slowly move forwards towards this camp. One way to begin acting on these initial plans is to start a service fundraiser.

For the fundraiser,  we will have to raise lots of money to pay for as many street dogs and cats sterilization as possible. This is because the more money we earn, the more street animals we can directly afford to vaccinate and sterilize. To do this, there are two different ways that I hope to fundraise as my initial plan. The first fundraiser option would be to have our (so far annual) Pre-Order Christmas Bakesale, and the other fundraiser option would selling tie-dye t-shirts. For the Pre-Order Christmas Bakesale, we would try to raise money by making a survey of different sweets options (many cookies, snowballs, and even 7 layer bars), and create a variety of 3 different plates to sell (with fun names, like the “Santa”, “Rudolph” and “Grinch” plates. Next, we would start the process of making all the cookies and sweets to put on the plate over multiple service lessons. Then, we would put together each plate and organize a way to distribute them based on their order. Last year we were able to successfully complete this event, and I would really love it if we could do it again this year. However, due to the uncertainty of COVID, I am not sure if we will be able to complete this. However, currently, I do plan to try to make this event happen. The second possible fundraiser would be to sell tie-dye t-shirts (either by making them ourselves and selling them, or by letting people come in during an event, tie-dye their own shirt, and eventually buy it and bring it home). I would also really like to do this event, as it is a continuation of a planned event last year (that we couldn’t complete due to COVID causing the school to close). We have already ordered and received many white Care for Paws t-shirts, with our logo, as well as tie-dye. If we can get permission and clearance to complete this fundraiser plan, I think it will really help contribute to our sterilization camp.

This year, I think the main needs in the community (in terms of Care for Paws), is the overpopulation of street dogs, as it causes them to be treated worse with more populations, and as they are in a very bad living condition. This is the main community issue (As in Sri Lanka street dog overpopulation is very prevalent) that I would like to focus on helping to improve this year. To fix this, (as explained above), doing a sterilization and vaccination camp (and fundraising for them) would be really helpful. However, there are a couple more community issues that I would also like to focus on. One main issue in the community is animal cruelty, where there are multiple different issues prevalent. Despite being called “Care for Paws”, last year our service made the decision to move our focus wider to try to support and care for all types of animals in Sri Lanka. Some animal cruelty issues include people going on Elephant Back Safaris (where the elephants are being held captive, and have pressing weight over their backs), Animal tourism (especially turtle hatcheries, Zoos, and specific Elephant orphanages), where the animals are all being mistreated in some sort of way. We would really like to try and fix or improve these situations in our community, and one way we could do that is to get people to re-sign (or sign for the first time), our anti-animal tourism pledge), so they can refrain from visiting and supporting these tourist destinations where the animals are being mistreated. If we could also do the anti-aminal tourism pledge this year, I would feel very happy and successful.

The ethics of sterilizing street dogs and cats is a very debated dilemma, and many people have different opinions about why it is not moral to take away an animal’s opportunity to reproduce without their consent (As this is impossible, as they are merely animals). However, it is also considered ethical to many people to sterilize street animals (As long as it is done by a certified vet, and not by an unliscened person). Street animals are much healthier after their sterilization, as they have less risk to get some cancers, and other diseases related to their reproduction. Additionally, they are unusually happier, as they have less aggression, territorial behaviours, and spending less time and energy from their sex drive. Another argument for why sterilizing street dogs and cats is ethically okay is that the puppies and kittens of the animals are likely to suffer from starvation, parasites, and other diseases, due to the harsh street enviromnemtn they are born into. This means that ultimately, sterilizing street animals betters their life quality, and living standard, despite their lack of choice to reproduce. (Even then, this “choice” to reproduce is often only there for one of the 2 animals reproducing). Overall, it will better their life quality. 

Source – Natalie Erin (With a degree in Animal Biology)

 

Here are the Meeting Notes from our First Care for Paws Meeting this year:

Thursday, November 19th, 2020

Care For Paws A-ton (Animal Awareness Day)

• We could have like a zoomathon but for care for paws
• Include anti-animal tourism pledge
• Meat Free Monday
• Get videos of people with their pets
• Wild animal-friendly yard
• Week events of Helping care for paws
• Annual Christmas Bake sale pushed back (Easter)
• T-Shirt Tye Dye sale Pushed back to January
• IB Well Friday – Help CFP with Animal Missions
• Memes, Poster for Bulletin, Reminder Emails, Padlets
• Monday-Thursday
  • Draw your dream Pet
  • How Have you helped animals?
  • Meat-Free Monday
  • Picture of your pet
  • Videos of pets performing tricks
  • Funny Photo of Pet
  • Make your own Aminal meme
• Friday – anti-animal tourism pledge – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nuzFu5Qa6eTkGF07CeccLn3rhpRZodcFAs40_yBAHnM/edit#heading=h.14mpx6a8znb7
• House points for motivation
• Advertisement – Jan 4th to Jan 8th
• Spirit Week – 5 different days
• Email Proposal To Mr. Polous and Ms. Clover (Mr. Grady, Ms. Mqcuillan?)
• For everyone who participates, we donate money?
• Thank you note for Lucia Baker – Mali
• Fundraiser – Virtual Movie Night (Christmas?) -SQUAD watch movies together

Learning Outcomes:

LO3 Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience Students can articulate the stages from conceiving an idea to executing a plan for a CAS experience or series of CAS experiences. This may be accomplished in collaboration with other participants. Students may show their knowledge and awareness by building on a previous experience, or by launching a new idea or process.

LO4 Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences Students demonstrate regular involvement and active engagement in CAS.

LO6 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance Students are able to identify and demonstrate their understanding of global issues, make responsible decisions, and take appropriate action in response to the issue either locally, nationally or internationally.

LO7 Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions Students show awareness of the consequences of choices and actions in planning and carrying out CAS experiences.