Animals\' Angels - wir sind bei den Tieren | we are there with the animals

When we look at ANIMALS' ANGELS work today we find some basic ethical beliefs on which our day-to-day work is conducted. Let me call them "The Five C’s".
"The Five C’s" are important for every person who tries to change the world for the better. When I worked as a psychotherapist, I often felt deep compassion for my clients, I was committed to their emotional health. It took a lot of confidence in my abilities and even more courage to tell a suicidal person: “OK, go ahead, I cannot stop you anyway… the losers will be your kids”. And without true and honest cooperation between psychotherapist and client there could be no healing. Think of Amnesty International, of the organisations caring and fighting for children, women, AIDS patients … The Five "C’s" could be useful for all of them. Our focus is on the animals, but we belong to a much bigger community of dedicated people who try to change the world. 

For ANIMALS' ANGELS "The Five C’s" have the following meaning:

1. Compassion
Compassion goes back to the Latin word for a) suffering and b) longing for someone/something, passionate love.
Farley Mowat’s book about Diane Fossey is titled ‘The Passion of D.F.’ – thus using the double meaning of the word.  What does compassion mean in an ANIMALS' ANGELS context?
To be with the animals means to suffer with them. To share the hunger, the thirst, the tiredness, sometimes the parasites as well, the brutality to a certain extent, the hopelessness. It means to be treated like them, that is to say, being made fun of, not taken into consideration. To endure the ammoniac smell, the heat and the cold, the stink of bloodshed. Literally, physically.
ANIMALS' ANGELS-Teams need to be willing to go through all this “passion” side by side  with the animals. And this exactly is the ultimate reason for our success. If someone is not willing to take on this burden – and a burden it is – she or he will not survive long as a member of an ANIMALS' ANGELS-Team.
To be with the animals – that is to passionately long for an end to their eternal suffering.
To long for this, to fight for this, to dedicate one’s own wellbeing to stop the cruelty inflicted on them day after day. This is what basically drives ANIMALS' ANGELS-Teams to endure all these long distance journeys, to talk, to persuade, to film, to translate, to train the police, to change the drivers’ behaviour… A desperate longing for an end to something so awfully cruel to innocent beings.
So our first “C“ – compassion – describes not something we can do, it does not refer to changes to be made, nor to activities – but rather to something that goes on inside, something very personal, something we do not talk about often, something that is always there with every heartbeat.

2. Commitment
In my understanding the word commitment is something very serious. Once we are committed to the suffering animals there is no turning back. One has to become vegan eventually. One has to refrain from using certain words, because for a committed person there is no such thing as “pork” and “beef”, but the flesh of a pig or a cow.
If we consider ourselves as ambassadors of the animals, we have to present our credentials – just as a nation’s  ambassadors have to do. Our credentials are often asked for by drivers (“Do you eat meat?”), by vets (“How come you are taking all this trouble?”), by exporters (“Are you being paid?”) – and the answer always is about commitment. This is the force behind it all.
A committed person never gives up. My staff and I have created a saying for times when nothing seems to work, and all roads to progress seem closed: “Wir machen einfach immer weiter…“ (“Let us carry on, regardless…”)
 
Commitment is not related to everyday progress, to certain successes or failures. Commitment is embedded in one’s heart. It is a decision. Once made, it cannot be revised without losing something important in one’s life. Commitment is the force that carries us through in times of trouble.
So the second "C" again describes not something that we can do, nor changes to be made, nor activities to be carried out. It is something very personal but nevertheless very public, because it is challenged all the time by people we meet while doing ANIMALS' ANGELS work.

3. Confidence
In the context of ANIMALS' ANGELS "confidence" means to be confident in oneself and one’s work.
To be on the road so often, to check markets, saleyards, trucks and ships, to train the police and speak up to vets who consider themselves as the ultimate specialists  regarding animals – all this and many more tasks need strong confidence in one’s ability to bring about a change for the better.
This personal self-confidence (self-assurance) necessarily needs to be based on training, knowledge, education. Therefore ANIMALS' ANGELS-Teams are forever undergoing some training or other. Sometimes it is about learning a language: poor Iris had to learn Greek. Sometimes it is about dealing with complicated legal issues: Christine is getting ever more knowledgeable in this area. But all of us never stop learning.
Once I watched Christine doing a control in Italy in the middle of the night together with the police. This taught me a lesson about confidence I will never forget. Our ‘Queen of Bavaria’ exerted so much friendly authority that the policemen in their splendid uniforms and male-macho attitude in the end did exactly what they were asked to do – by a German lady who had no right whatsoever to push them around.  Another example: Julia often simply expects people to behave reasonably and with concern towards animals. Often I could not refrain from laughter when she said: “Oh, don’t  worry, the police or the market director or the driver will change his ways…” But at the end of the day – indeed they did.
Confidence comes with age, with experience and training.
But there is one other aspect that needs to mentioned as well. Do you know the expression: "confidentially"? "To be confided in" (being told something confidentially)?
More and more people share their knowledge with us, people who are frightened to lose their jobs, people who do not easily trust others. ANIMALS' ANGELS-Teams  are expected never ever to betray these people, even if they are enemies of the animals and therefore our enemies too. We have to keep our own standards, regardless of what others do. And one standard is to treat information given on trust confidentially.

4. Cooperation
Those of you who are Tolkien fans will know that one part of "Lord of the Rings" is called "The Fellowship of the Ring". One meaning of cooperation is fellowship. There are no people to be more trusted during an investigation than other ANIMALS' ANGELS-Teams. Formerly I often thought it a waste of expensive manpower to send two experienced women together. But time taught me that the results are much better than those we can get by sending only volunteers. And where there is stress, cooperation with familiar and trusted colleagues is much to be preferred. Therefore we have changed tactics and from 2005 we often have two or more ‘old hands’ together on the road.
Extended cooperation means we cooperate with everybody willing to help to ease the suffering of the animals. This often presents an ethical conflict. How can we even talk to a slaughterhouse director? Or to an exporter responsible for sending hundreds of thousands of lambs to a certain cruel death? How can we possibly cooperate with veterinarians, the only doctors who regularly eat their own patients?
I would like to state here clearly: It is up to each one of us personally to decide with whom we are willing to cooperate and where we flatly refuse. I will always respect the individual teams' decision, as I expect them to respect mine. People from different backgrounds, people with a different set of behaviour judge differently in this matter.
Cooperation between ANIMALS' ANGELS-Teams is essential. Cooperation with others is a matter of personal judgement.

5. Courage
What is it that takes the ultimate courage? To confess that one is frightened. Therefore all of us had to learn to tell others about our fears and anxieties, otherwise we would not find real courage.
Take Lesley, for example. She does not like to travel long distances on European motorways without a trusted colleague or friend. And she says so. This takes real and true courage, because Iris, Julia and Christine never even mention simple things like “car driver’s tiredness”. I myself am an easily frightened person and sometimes I really wonder how I can work together with so many tough teams…My life has become definitely easier since I have started to talk about my fears to the teams who never cease to encourage me.
We look out for someone we can trust, someone who understands our work and its many challenges and we tell this person about our fears. The reward will be – courage, of course.
One aspect of courage is correct judgment about what action is possible, which risk can be taken, which procedure is advisable. Courage must never be confused with recklessness. The animals do not need martyrs. They need people who are courageous enough to be with them and who are wise enough to stay away when circumstances are getting too dangerous.
Sometimes I think about how lucky we are that no ANIMALS' ANGELS-Team has ever got hurt, has ever had a serious experience with violence, or an accident. One reason for this is the cautiousness of the teams. And one reason is that all these compassionate, committed, confident, cooperative and courageous teams have their own guardian angels, who guide them and protect them. This at least is my belief.
 

These "Five C's" are the secret of ANIMALS' ANGELS' success.
It is true that we succeeded where many others failed. So far we are still a small organisation. And one of the exciting challenges in the future will be to keep focused on compassion, commitment, confidence, cooperation and courage, while getting bigger and more internationally acknowledged.
Will there be enough people who are willing and able to stay true to "The Five C’s"? Time will tell.