A volunteer wildlife rescue group is calling people out for abusive behaviour

An animal rescue group on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula is asking people to be mindful of what they say after the group's head says they've been inundated with abusive messages and photos of dead animals.

Rock Wildlife Rescue is a volunteer group that rescues and rehabilitates domestic and wild animals.

Director Karen Gosse says while most people are supportive of the group, she's recently witnessed a flood of rude and aggressive messages.

"I've had pictures sent to me of dead animals saying, 'You know, if you had gotten here when you said you were going to get here or when I called, this wouldn't have happened,'" Gosse told CBC News.

She attributes these types of messages to people who don't understand the group is made up of volunteers.

"They think it's a service that we offer. That it's our job. It's a business. It's an obligation — and it's not," she said.

"We are all volunteers and we choose to do this in our spare time on top of our full time jobs. And most of us have families, other things that pull our time away."

The rude messages prompted Gosse to make a post to the group's Facebook page in early August in an effort to get people to rein in their expectations of what the group can do.

"I think most of it was just having to outline some expectations that people had and some illusions that people had and try to set some ground rules and some boundaries," said Gosse.

She said some of the messages were demanding in tone, like being ordered to come and get an animal, or being told they're not responding fast enough and calling them lazy. Sometimes only an hour would go by after a call would come in and they'd be asked why the group hadn't arrived yet.

Underlying these types of messages is a belief that it's Rock Wildlife Rescue's responsibility to respond to all calls, said Goose, adding they are a small group with limited resources.

"There's only so much we can do. We can't take them all. We can't take them in the assumption that something will happen. And we only have so much space, we're a small rescue. So that space is limited to injured and orphaned animals."

Asking for understanding

Goose said their work takes an emotional toll on volunteers and the abusive comments make their work harder.

"It makes a long day longer," she said.

"We see a lot of terrible cases. We see a lot of human cruelty cases, and they're really hard to deal with ... they're hard on the heart. They're hard on the head."

In some cases, the animals are too injured and have to be euthanized, she said.

"When we answer that call to get a message, calling us names or saying that we're not doing enough ... it makes it difficult."

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