Animal protection is, like any specialized area of endeavor, filled with acronyms. At the recent conference of the New York State Wildlife Rehabilitation Council, one new to me cropped up: “CF.” It stands for “compassion fatigue,” related to the more widely known PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, increasingly recognized to affect those who were exposed to combat, terrorism, or other traumatic events, including accidents and natural disasters, that result in deaths and injuries.
CF is considered to be a secondary traumatic stress disorder suffered by those responding to the victims of tragedy. The keynote speaker was Patricia Smith, founder of the Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project. As Ontario wildlife rehabber Laurel Beechey later wrote, “Why would [Smith] be speaking to wildlife rehabbers, vet techs, veterinarians, and assorted others in the field about something like that?”
The answer is sobering. The suicide rate of veterinarians in Canada is about four times greater than that of the general population. The constant stress of caring for animal patients for which compassion is felt by owners and by veterinarians, of seeing so much legally-imposed abuse of animals by society, all can take its toll, and lead to CF. Animal care-givers, including wildlife rehabbers, are at risk.
My late mother, Phyllis E. MacKay, was a pioneer in wildlife rehab. Her devotion to animals took an enormous toll on her health, finances, and well-being. It was a path I was on and eventually mostly abandoned, partly because I had trouble with how much euthanasia was involved. I hope I can compensate by working against human actions that destroy so many more animals than any rehabber could save.
So, with the odd exception, I do “advocacy” rather than the “hands-on” work with animals that occupied so much of my youth, and still fight the grief that attends failure, the needless suffering and deaths of so many animals. Coping? I’ve felt the dark shadow of numbing depression many times, but I find relief in the act of doing something I love, artwork, and the pleasure of being in the company of healthy wildlife in natural settings, as well as enjoying celebratory moments with like-minded colleagues and friends.
Through the decades, I’ve seen many animal protectionists become disillusioned, depressed, or worse, upon realization of the impossibility of curing our own species of the cruelty and indifference behind so much of our treatment of others, our own kind and other species. So, perhaps the most important thing to do in holding dejection at bay is remembering that none of us can entirely change the world. All of the most successful people and organizations in the animal protection field focus on what we can achieve, work within our areas of expertise, and know that, in fact, we are making a difference.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry