Dismal Day For Animal-Assisted Therapy At UPM's Dogathon 2013 Tomorrow.

aNt's aNgle:

Whilst animal lovers will be having a whale of a time at tomorrow's Dogathon 2013 on University Putra Malaysia's grounds, the same can't be said, unfortunately, for disabled people and animal-assisted therapy.

Unlike the recent noticeable feature of this great doggy event tradition for several years, one is unlikely to see the presence of animal-lovers with disabilities in the function. 

That's because Petpositive is not included in tomorrow's show. 

This is a far cry and a big blow for the promotion of animal-assisted therapy as Petpositive has always been included without fail each year by the organisers. 

UPM Dogathons had even gone the extra mile by providing disabled-friendly toilets, creating special wheelchair paths and giving Petpositive a booth to carry out our activities. 

Organisers had also made it their tradition to provide special gifts and food for our disabled members who have included persons in wheelchairs and the blind.

These features were a result of each Dogathon spending weeks and months in consultation with Petpositive before the actual event. 

Petpositive Snapshot with UPM

When I spoke to a co-organiser this

Petpositive's booth in 2012

afternoon about this, he brushed off Petpositive's participation by saying that Dogathon 2013 was leaving out "established groups" and concentrating more on new and upcoming animal NGOs. 

When I asked about SPCA and PAWS who were even more "established" groups than Petpositive participating, he appeared speechless about the obvious double-standard.

I told him that it was very sad that the disabled will have to miss the 2013 event.

Furthermore, I have always made it a point of covering UPM's Dogathon for several years in Wheel Power in The Star - always praising them for coming up with new and ingenuous ways of making sure that handicapped people also participated with the able-bodied. 

Dogathon's move this time is a dismal step backward and a shock. 

I can only hope that people with disabilities will be sincerely included in every of their future Dogathons and activities - without having Petpositive reminding them about this each year.

UPM's top brass must make this compulsory not only in an effort to promote animal-assisted therapy for the disabled and the elderly to the public but also to sensitise all veterinary students about the issue.

I will be personally raising the matter up with UPM's head Prof Dr Mohd Hair bin Bejo. 

In the meantime, for those of you who are going, have a great time! If you can, please express your support for us to the organisers.

Woof! Woof! Y'all! 

UPDATE: PET+NEWSFLASH! The adviser to UPM's Dogathon 2013 had just called me to sincerely apologise for overlooking Petpositive's participation in the event. They invited me to come on behalf of the society tomorrow and promised a booth for us. However, it was difficult to organise things at the last minute and we have decided to give the event a miss for this year. It is most encouraging to note though that animal-assisted therapy is still in the agenda of future Dogathons and we look forward to take part in Dogathon 2014. See you guys then! 
   
PET+BLOGSPOT is the ONLINE BLOG of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association or Petpositive. Our stories are CURRENT, ACCURATE and RELIABLE. We offer both local and foreign news on animals, disability and the elderly. PET+BLOGSPOT was first established in October 2007. Our hits since then are now 250,000 and ever increasing! PET+BLOGSPOT is updated daily. Kindly note that views expressed in PET+BLOGSPOT are not necessarily those of PETPOSITIVE. You may also visit our Webpage by browsing: www.petpositive.org You can also find us in Facebook under PETPOSITIVE EMPOWERMENT. Please sign up as a FOLLOWER of this Blog if you haven't done so already in order to show us your kind support for our work. Thank you!