If you are very interested in the animal cause, know that you can participate in serious animal missions to live your passion. You do not need to carry out actions of the magnitude of those of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation to make yourself useful. An expedition to an animal protection center in eco-volunteering can be a good stone for building the just world to which you aspire and where animals will have a more important place.
Mission for Animals: A New Form of Humanitarianism in the Air of Time
It must be recognized that animal missions represent a phenomenon that is in the air of time. This explains why we resort to neologisms to name certain realities linked to this new form of humanitarianism. Ecovolunteer and ecovolunteering are some of the new words that come from the lexical universe of this philanthropic activity of a particular kind.
The goals of animal missions are as varied as the motivations of the people interested in these projects. A person affected by the unfair trade in elephants may decide to go on a mission to protect these animals. Another will be drawn to the cause of gibbons, aquatic creatures, bears or even pythons.
In most cases, it is an animal shelter or an animal protection center that will serve as a framework for the realization of your dream. And it can be in an African country, in Eastern Europe or in an Asian region. Your daily life will be punctuated by actions aimed at allowing your protégés a more comfortable life: cleaning up their habitat, feeding them properly and caring for those who are in poor condition.
However, some pitfalls await those who want to carry out an animal mission. What are they?
Pitfalls to avoid when looking for an animal mission
You may want to dedicate part of your life to helping animals voluntarily, but your project will not come together as easily as you might expect. The activity is now invaded by people whose intentions are completely different from the defense and protection of animals. Their only goal is to make money on the backs of animals and their real benefactors. You must learn to avoid these false humanitarians.
The modus operandi of these unscrupulous associations is to entice eco volunteers with flashy advertisements with catchphrases that sound like a scam. But more often than not, they will make you pay hundreds of euros at least to take you for a useless ride on some rural tracks in Africa or elsewhere. So if an association intends to make you pay money to do volunteer work, be wary of it.
Some precautions to take to find a good organization
The Internet is indeed a way to easily find an association that will offer you the opportunity to participate in an animal mission. But do not make any decision that commits you without physically meeting the managers of the organizations that you contact online. You can, if necessary, establish a list of organizations by means of your research on the Internet. You will then need to conduct your investigations to assess the level of seriousness of these organizations. To this end, ask questions to the people you meet. If your need to know more about their activities and sources of funding bothers them, it is a bad sign. Among your selection criteria, give priority to seniority and to the fact that the association benefits or not from the financial support of one or more international organizations.
An association that has a renowned organization among its donors is a priori a serious structure. Otherwise, it could not gain the trust of such an organization.
Going on an animal mission is a decision motivated by a strong passion. However, you must avoid acting solely on the impulse of your heart. So use a critical mind to sort the wheat from the chaff within the organizations offering eco-volunteering missions.
