I am not "friends" on FB with any of my relatives or offline friends at all, so spend no time looking at people's selfies, pics of tattoos etc. My FB "friends" are all over the world, and together we have formed a rescue network that is raising hundreds of thousands of pounds and rescuing and rehoming thousands of dogs and cats that would otherwise have suffered torture and death in their home countries.
On Sunday we flew 10 dogs from Bangkok to Los Angeles. They had been rescued from the Thai dog meat trade when activists stopped a truck carrying 300 street dogs and stolen pets to Vietnam, where they would have been tortured to death and eaten. The torture is said to make the meat taste better. Waiting for these 10 dogs at LA airport were volunteers from one of their dog charities and several families that had already adopted some of our doggie passengers. Two more have been adopted in the past couple of days, and very soon all 10 will have loving homes and will be living the happy lives that all dogs should live.
These "Freedom Flights" and rescues are happening all the time all over the world, and without a tool like Facebook our network couldn't function. How else could £2,000 be raised in 4 hours for surgery on a street dog found in agony in an alley in Egypt that day, having been beaten so badly that it's back is broken? How else, within a couple of days, could a month's food be paid for and delivered to a public shelter in Romania, where 500 dogs are starving to death because the town council has collected them off the streets and dumped them in the shelter with no food or water? How else would a ten year old dog that's spent its entire life alone, tied to a chain on a roof in Greece, find itself loved for the first time in its life in a home in Sussex, with good food, a comfy bed, and doggie siblings to play with? It's possible because of FB.
There are thousands of other networks too, doing great work in other fields using FB. They are working for and supporting the elderly, the mentally ill and abused children to name just three. The image of FB being projected here is far from the truth, and I really wish people would stop putting down people that use it and educate themselves and learn what it's really about.
