I’M VOLUNTEER Armando Rodrigues My name is Armando Rodrigues, I’m from Quinta do Conde and I’m 38 years old. I own 3 pit bulls, 2 males and one female, this adopted from Bianca. I always had interest in animals. Unfortunately, when I was young my parents didn’t allowed pets. So from the moment I gained my independency and got my own house, I started to have pets, especially dogs. What motivates me the most as a volunteers is helping the animals, directly or indirectly, so they may find some comfort and happiness. I like to think that everything I do will make them happier and give them better conditions. I know they would do the same for me if they could. Unfortunately I have witness a dog being hit by a car. He crossed the road and the driver in the car in front of me caught him and did not even step on the break or stop to see what was happening. Further along I approached the man and I was so mad to see his contempt for the situation. That marked me and made me realize how some people are ignorant. In what concerns Bianca the best episodes for me are the times I go to the shelter and ask about a particular animal and they answer me he was adopted. I get mixed feeling of sadness and happiness, because I will not see him anymore but it is good that he found a home and a family that will love him. What I love the most about being a volunteer is helping animals at the shelter, seeing the joy they show when they see us, looking at them and seeing that, even when acting on instinct, the first feeling with which they receive us is joy. Feeling their happiness when we give them treats or put them on a leash and walk them and seeing that expression of freedom even if for just a few moments. My closest family also volunteers at Bianca. The animals’ conditions are bad in Portugal. . . very bad. . . Every day you meet new cases of abandoned animals, mistreated, dead. . . And the people who do this still walk away without punishment. Since animals are members of the family and there are so many rules regulating animal ownership (fees, taxes, licenses, mandatory vaccines), it was time for this country to defend animals’ rights and apply severe punishment for those who abandon or mistreats animals. If stealing is a crime why is not abandoning or mistreating animals a crime too? They live in our society and are living beings like us. The message I would like to leave here is for people not to abandon animals. We have domesticated them thousands of years ago for them to help us at our daily work. Today they are our best friends, the only ones who will never disappoint us. The only ones who welcome us with the greatest joy in the world whether it was a good or a bad day. We have the moral obligation to help them, because they depend on us entirely. Abandoning, mistreating, keeping them on a chain without conditions. . . If the roles switched would people enjoy being on their skin?
http://bianca.pt/english | http://bianca-pet-rescue-adoption.blogspot.com
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