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THIS PAGE: *Site Updates *History & Mission Statement, BOD *MM Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) *Our Accomplishments *Disclaimer, Contact
HISTORY AND MISSION STATEMENT, BOARD OF DIRECTORS
(BOD)  2006:
The Year In Review"The Matilde Mission: Pet Homes For Ranch Chinchillas, Inc." is a 501(c)3 registered charity that was founded in November, 2005 as a result of the success of the 2004 Pet Homes For Ranchies (PHFR) Midwest Project which ran from 10/04-06/05. We are not an animal rights organization, although our leadership includes positive animal rights activists (not extremists, there's a big differece) who are dedicated to helping ranch and pet chinchillas in need.  The
photo at right shows Matilde, MM's mascot and the chief fundraiser
for the 2004
Project.Affectionately nicknamed "Matty" by her doting chinparents, they teamed with the ChinCare webmasters to form this charity that carries on the good work of helping chinchillas in her memory; dear Matty passed away in June, 2006. Matilde's Mission is now twofold, helping both ranch (PHFR) and pet (ICRN) chinchillas in need, but MM was initially formed to expedite the transition in the U.S. from regarding chinchillas as both pelts and pets to protecting and respecting them as valued pets, only. Details about our work in conjunction with the present-day ranching situation are covered in FAQ's. MM believes in setting aside differences (egos, agendas, negative typecasting) in the pet chinchilla community to pursue a common good: to help chinchillas in a positive way using only peaceful, legal and educational means. In July of 2006, MM initiated projects to include benefitting pet chinchillas in need of rescue/ re-homing, as indicated by our accomplishments. In January, 2007, the International Chinchilla Rescue Network (ICRN) program was launched to include: helping the public with pet chinchilla rescue/ re-homing contact referrals, ICRN Program Grants, educational and informative material (Tools and Resources, Tips) and the annual ICRN Applause Award. The ICRN program is a continuation and expansion of the work of IPCR (International Placement Coordinators for Chinchilla Rescue and Re-Homing), which ran from 2003 until MM's ICRN Program assumed responsibilities in 2006. IPCR had networked extensively within the international chinchilla rescue community, assisting in scores of cases (in Europe and nearly all 50 U.S. states) that involved everything from routine re-homings to emergency rescue assistance. MM BOARD OF DIRECTORS 
H. Schwyzer- President
E. Schwyzer- Secretary and Treasurer
C. Glikis-Scott- Advising DVM, Birmingham
Veterinary Clinic in MI
A. Blacke- IT Administrator, PHFR
Project Leader
S. Blacke- MM Website, Project Leader for PHFR
and ICRNThe Board of Directors of MM volunteers their own time, labor and resources to the charity's projects, they receive no compensation and all donations go directly to helping ranch and rescue chinchillas. Matilde's Mission partners with the rescues listed on the International Chinchilla Rescue Network (ICRN) Team for the good of chinchilla rescue and the chins they serve.
MM FAQ's
To better understand our perspective, which is NOT stereotypical, see : In Defense of Positive Activism (.doc) "How does MM help ranch chinchillas, are ranchers taking advantage of the pet community?" Most people mistakenly believe that the ranching situation in the U.S. today is the same as it was fifty years ago. This is not true, but since talk shows and world leaders didn't come forward to announce the change most people's thinking is still mired in the past. About ten years ago, high production costs and a market demand for cheaper pelts for fur trim made pelting unprofitable in the U.S. Ranchers that didn't subsequently retire switched to selling their animals live as pets (pet stores, direct sales) or breeding stock (to other ranchers or pet breeders), see CbC for references and details. Ranchers pelt the animals they can't easily sell live, but when pelting is done it's at a financial loss compared with wholesale pet prices; young, healthy chinchillas become at-risk when they are deemed expendable or undesireable for live sale. Ranching is a business and MM realizes that there must be an economic incentive for ranches to prefer working with us to pelting at a loss, in other words, they're not going to just give their animals away, that'd be even less economical than pelting. So, Matilde's Mission raises funds through donations and acquires at-risk ranch chinchillas without "rewarding" ranchers because we purchase these ranchies at prices between what they'd get for pelts and the wholesale pet prices they would get from their live animal brokers. We are NOT helping ranchers to breed more chins, we ARE saving chinchilla lives that would otherwise be disposed of through killing and/ or pelting. We help participating ranchers to do business entirely in live animals, benefitting everyone: ranchers who don't have to pelt at a loss, the pet community that gets to save chinchillas in need, and the chins who get to LIVE! We screen adopters/ foster workers so that the ranch chinchillas are placed into responsible pet homes. Everyone wins!
Aren't ranchies vicious and mean from lack of human contact? No. At least, not the ones from the ranchers we work with. These ranchies are shy and sometimes very scared because they're unsocialized but as put forth by the PHFR Process Summary, we don't release them to the public until they're socialized. Ranchies have an inexperienced social disposition that makes it easier for them to get along with other chins when they're right off the ranch. This article was written for people getting chins directly from ranches, not from a PHFR project, and it addresses expectations. If you can't "save them all," then why bother? Suppose you were one of the ranchies being welcomed into a pet home rather than facing a cruel death at the prime of youth, would you question the value of our Mission then? Working towards a future where chinchillas are protected and respected as valued pets, only, is absolutely worthwhile, because every single life saved matters. Also, large chinchilla ranches in the U.S. are gradually phasing out due to production costs and market demands that make pelting unprofitable. Matilde's Mission PHFR projects provide an immediate, direct way of addressing the problem of unnecessary killing of (at-risk) chinchillas in the U.S, we CAN phase out pelting sooner rather than later and end the senseless killing now. We may not be able to save them all, but we will save the ones we can. Britain has made the break already, pelting is illegal there and the pet chinchilla community in that country thrives because they kept the good (research, resources, etc.) and left the bad (pelting) behind. We CAN make a vital and significant difference, today, here in the U.S. to put an end to the unnecessary killing of the animals that we've come to value and cherish as PETS. "What happens to the chinchillas that are purchased with donation money?" See: PHFR Process Summary
"Is PETA behind/ involved with MM projects?" NO. "The Matilde Mission: Pet Homes for Ranch Chinchillas, Inc." is a federally registered charity in its own right and has no affiliations whatsoever with ANY animal rights organization. Gain a better understanding of the big picture and what's really going on between PETA and big business by reading this article; neither are above reproach and neither are necessarily, "all wrong/ bad." But PETA has registered a very sour note with those of us who are actually DOING something to help ranch chinchillas. Their 2004 investigation of a chinchilla pelting ranch (ref) presented them with a golden opportunity to buy out and "shut down" the ranch and save ALL the animals there, which numbered more than five hundred. In fact, the PETA investigators went to the ranch on the pretext of having an interest in buying out the entire herd and the ranchers were interested in selling it so they could retire from breeding/ pelting altogether. We know both sides of the story from direct correspondence with both parties. The chinchilla killings in the video that the investigators made (ref) aren't candid footage from some "pelting day," the PETA investigators ASKED FOR those killings specifically so that they could videotape them. They told the ranchers they were interested in buying the herd to use for selling chinchillas as both pets and pelts and they wanted a demonstration of how to kill and pelt. Those chinchillas were killed only for PETA's sick, self-serving publicity stunt, and then to add insult to injury, PETA turned their back on and did NOTHING for the rest, the hundreds of chinchillas languishing on that fur farm. That's right, they simply WALKED AWAY knowing that they were abandoning those chinchillas to die. Three years later, in 2007, they claimed a "victory" when they got a judge to order that particular rancher to euthanize with vet advisement rather than electrocution or neck-breaking. He could continue to breed and pelt, of course. What a JOKE when PETA could have put that fur farm out of busines years before, preventing the hundreds of lives produced since. Clearly, gaining a "victory" over the rancher was far more important to them than saving chinchilla lives, their actions proved that, they CHOSE to exploit a few for their publicity purposes and then do nothing for the rest. Of course, PETA keeps their investigative video online (ref) , showing the shocking, horrible deaths of the chinchillas whose suffering they have cashed in on for YEARS; years of collecting donations and support from people who don't know the real story behind the video and who think that PETA is doing something to help ranch chinchillas. Nothing could be further from the truth. PETA's conduct is an example of extremism, focusing on bullying, hate and personal gain (making an example of the rancher, killing chinchillas for publicity) to please themselves rather than solutions (buying out and closing down the fur farm) to save the animals. By contrast, positive activists (.doc) will ALWAYS put the animals first: chinchilla welfare, their lives, are the bottom line. When the ChinCare webmasters were working on the 2004 Project that saved 100 ranch chinchillas from pelting, we wrote PETA out of curiosity just to see if they would donate to support our efforts, and they flatly REFUSED! Their specific reply was: "If they cared about their chins at all, they would just let you take any animals that they planned to kill. You would be doing them a favor! As it is now, it appears that you are just giving them more money to breed more chins, and perpetuating this awful business. We want to help shut these ranches down, not pay them to breed more animals." What a whopping hypocritical lie considering what they did on their fur farm investigation, when the opportunity to put a fur farm out of business was right in the palm of their hand and they refused to take it. PETA's response to our inquiry also revealed their ignorance about the present day chinchilla fur industry, because pelting in the U.S. has not been profitable for about a decade now and ranchers breed for pets (pet stores, direct sales) or breeding stock (to other ranchers or pet breeders) and only pelt to eliminate those they cannot sell live. The MM perspective is, we WILL work with ranchers to save at-risk (of being pelted) chinchillas, chinchilla lives must come first and we will do what we can to save as many from pelting as possible.
"Pet vs. Pelt, where do you stand on that?" The whole Pet vs. Pelt matter has been completely distorted to serve the political agendas of those (chiefly, Rick Berman's big business PR machine, and PETA) who stand to directly profit from the deception and manipulation of the general public, see article. The two extremes (big business vs. animal rights) shamelessly lie, plot and scare the public on a regular basis, and anyone simple-minded enough to believe that the issues are really "black-and-white" are sitting ducks for their propaganda. The reason some people fear activists is because they've been influenced by the well-publicized hype of the anti-AR side who are very good at making all pet lovers out to be unstable, anti-social, barn-burning psychopaths. For our part, as positive activists (.doc), we catch criticism from both sides because we don't back either group's self-serving political agenda, we just put the chins first and d*mn the consequences. The fact is, ranching is a business and operating at a loss (pelting) isn't good business, ranchers WANT to cooperate with us so that their animals aren't killed at a loss of money, time and effort to them. The problem occurs when U.S. pet chinchilla breeders who are active in pelter clubs (pelter clubs are for breeders) propagate misinformation based on outdated assumptions and prejudices; we've been present on several occassions when they told the pet community that pelting was still going full force and that ranch chinchillas have better lives than pet chinchillas because they're fed and watered in clean barns. Ridiculous, but when pet chinchilla owners want an excuse to ignore the plight of ranchies, pelter club members make it easy for them to refuse to care. Read about the facts of pelting today because a lot has changed already and we can help ranch chinchillas in positive, peaceful, effective ways.
"Change by Choice looks like just another angry animal rights (AR) message" People often misjudge what the don't take the time to actually read. The "evil animal rights advocate" stereotype has been bandied about as a favorite scare tactic of big business, the fur industry and pelter clubs for so long that people practically run in terror of anyone who doesn't openly demean, abuse or exploit animals. Those who hate AR extremists to the point of persecuting all animal lovers are just as much a problem as the AR extremists themselves. And AR extremists ARE a problem, they're the reason for antipathy towards animal activism today (.doc). We do not promote hate, we only promote saving chinchilla lives because we are activists, not extremists. Our ego does not eclipse our willingness to find ways to implement solutions and save chinchilla lives. We will set aside differences and work with ranchers if that's what it takes, we won't sacrifice chinchilla lives to arrogance and conceit. People who hate anyone that doesn't fit their profile are bigots, those who inflict violence as a result of that hatred are extremists; MM is vehemently opposed to both. We put the animals first, not drama, bullying or ego-serving politics. Matilde's Mission is a charity that works in the best interests of chinchillas, we are not an animal rights organization but we are positive animal rights activists, that is, people doing something to help animals in POSITIVE, peaceful, legal and educational ways. It's ok if people don't agree with us, we've done our best on this site to present information factually and objectively and people are entitled to think what they please, we encourage independent and critical thinking. We respect the rancher's right to pelt while it is legal, but because we object to pelting we choose constructive (rather than destructive or terrorist) methods as our vehicle for change/ reform. Our chosen methods are one way that we, as activists, differ fundamentally from extremists. Respect does NOT necessitate acceptance or agreement with something that one finds ethically objectionable, but protest/ reform must take place the right way, from within the system using peaceful, legal and educational methods only. MM works with ranchers so they don't have to pelt, and we work with some pelter club members in our rescue work because we (and others, obviously) realize that in order to accomplish a common good, we must set aside differences. We don't judge, threaten or persecute those who disagree with our point of view although we've been subjected to all that from AR extremists and some pelter club members on various occasions, a result of the blind prejudice those institutions can instill against anyone who doesn't readily embrace their agenda. We don't have anything "personal"- by way of self-promotion, gain or vendetta- inspiring what we do, we are genuinely concerned that chinchillas are being needlessly killed because of the pet community's ignorance or complicity and that's why we strive to raise awareness, to educate and to inspire others to make positive change happen; that's the message put forth by CbC.
OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
SITE DISCLAIMER, COPYRIGHT NOTICE
& CONTACTView matildesmission.org's Disclaimer and Copyright Notice. See "About Us" for an introduction to the site webmasters and their credentials. Contact matildesmission.org at: ICRN @ matildes mission .org (no spaces when sending, put "chins not spam" in subject). We're always happy to do what we can regarding advice or referrals; if no response is received within 48 hours, please resend, we do get our share of communication glitches. |
