Saturday, August 4, 2007

The final push for ACRES wildlife rescue center

ACRES wildlife rescue center at Pasir Ris is near completion and they need the financial help to see this through. For more information about the wildlife rescue center, click here. They have also come up with a short video to show the plight of wildlife animals in the illegal wildlife trade.

13 comments:

Fredrik said...

Help them out! These guys are hard-working and sacrifice a lot, just to help the animals. Without ACRES, there's appears to be no one in Singapore to speak up against the illegal wildlife trade and to take care of the animals when smugglers are caught.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I would like to ask, since they are also keeping the confiscated wild animals, are they sorta making their own collection of rare animals??

Fredrik said...

Previously, and until ACRES wildlife rescue center is completed, all captured animals will be brought to Singapore Zoo. Should the zoo find no use for them, they will most likely be killed.

Unlike the zoo, ACRES will not display unique animals for profit.

Unlike the zoo, ACRES will accept ALL animals that are captured from smugglers.

Unlike the zoo, ACRES will strive to return animals to their natural habitat.

Unlike the zoo, the needs of the animals are the priority, not the needs of the paying visitors.

Anonymous said...

But, aren't they going to hold those educational tours for the public and charging them? Isn't that similar to the zoo??

Fredrik said...

The animals need food and medical attention and that isn't for free. It's a fine line, of course, but my points above are still valid. The ultimate goal of the animal sanctuary is to close it down... The educational aspect of ACRES is as important as the sanctuary itself. The illegal trade is only possible as long as there's a market. By educating the public about the illegal wildlife trade, the market will erode. By informing the politicians, better laws can be created and more govt resources can be used to fight it.

The reason why I support ACRES is because of the outstanding people working there. Some of them are highly educated and yet choose to dedicate their lives for a good cause with very poor income. ACRES had anticipated critique such as yours and, therefore, are fully open about their finances.
http://www.acres.org.sg/aboutus.html

You should come to an ACRES event and listen to them speak and I'm sure you'll understand why this group is unique and so desperately needed in Singapore today.

Jari (travelling-vegan) said...

Sounds like an excellent org well worth supporting! How common is the illegal animal trading in Singapore then? And what happens to the animals caught by the customs, are they sent back to where they came from or to Acres or the zoo?

I just heard of a raptor rescue centre in Beijing (www.brrc.org.cn), there'd probably be birds who get lost in SG also.

Anonymous said...

With all the recent scandals of the SG charities, I am very cautious towards donating to any organizations. I would prefer giving small sums to handicapped beggars. At least they can use the money directly without chances of it being siphoned away somewhere.

Fredrik said...

Singapore is a hub for illegal wildlife trade. They have a gigantic harbor (spread out over the island) and only a small crew to battle illegal animal smuggling. The most absurd thing is that the crew only works weekdays ... from 9 to 5. So any smugglers out there - avoid office hours and you'll be safe. (Not sure if this still is true though, but it has been in the past.)

Regarding trust in charities: Of course you choose where to donate your money, but a dedicated group of people working together can accomplish a lot more than twice as many people working by themselves. I've told you the reasons for trusting ACRES, and I do donate lots of money to them. Even the government trusts them nowadays. Since a few months back, ACRES have been granted a special charity status which means for every dollar you donate, you can deduct two when declaring your income (tax deduction)!

dreamy said...

Jari: Illegal trading is v common here. It will be quite expensive to send them back to where they are so I guess some of the animals die in the illegal trade... better ask Eda to confirm.

Anonymous said...

Eda, are you are volunteer at ACRES too? Coz you seem to be speaking out for them.

Anonymous said...

And, I am quite sure when ppl donate, they don't really care abt how much tax they are saving.
Oops.. maybe coz I haven't got any taxable salary yet.. :P

dreamy said...

How much salary is taxable btw VB? (sorry off topic :))

Anonymous said...

I don't know.. I have never started work yet.. haha...

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