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Matilde's Mission is a 501(c)3 non-profit registered charity and the only chinchilla charity in the U.S that focuses on saving both rescue and ranch chinchillas. MM is not affiliated with any animal rights organization. We promote positive activism in the pet chinchilla community and give aid to programs initiated by others to help chinchillas in crisis situations. We also conduct rescue and ranch chinchilla outreach programs of our own, see Achievement Reports. Positive activism gets lasting results, without extremist hate and violence. Through Change by Choice we raise awareness of the plight of chinchillas in the U.S. today: how pelting is no longer profitable but how some pelting still continues because interest in peacefully opposing it and saving ranch chinchillas has been subverted by some pelter club members who exert influence over the pet community, and how chinchillas raised for the pet market are often treated as livestock, not valued pets. In life, selfish choices are typically easy and unselfish ones more challenging, like valuing an animal more than it's coat, show potential or adoption value. We believe that the unselfish choice, to put the chins' best interests first at all times, is more rewarding. At Matilde's Mission, we don't indulge petty politics. We set aside differences in order to work WITH people, including cooperating ranchers, to save ranch chinchillas and to see that every chin we work to help, whether rescue or ranchie, gets a chance at life and happiness as a cherished pet.

SITE UPDATES: October 7, 2010 2010 Achievement Report Chinnie cheers to Croatia for their successful fur protests and more power to them as they progress toward becoming a fur-free nation! ACHIEVEMENT REPORTS, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, ABOUT MM Achievement Reports: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Board of Directors Hugo S. - President Eira S. - Secretary and Treasurer Christine Scott - Advising DVM, Birmingham Veterinary Clinic in MI Mya T. - MM Website and Project Manager The Board of Directors of MM volunteer their own time, labor, and resources for the charity's projects. They receive no compensation and all donations go directly to helping chinchillas in crisis. About Matilde's Mission "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 homed 100 at-risk ranch chinchillas with the pet community between 10/2004 and 6/2005. The photo at upper 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 rescue and ranch (PHFR) chinchillas in crisis, 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 the greater 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, as indicated by our Achievement Reports. In January, 2007, assisting the public with rescue related advice and assistance was included in our activities. MM FAQ's "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. In the mid 1990's, 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 unfit 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 at prices between what they'd get for pelts and the wholesale pet prices they would get from their live animal brokers. This does NOT encourage ranchers to breed more chins, the "at-risk" lives we save are those that would be killed, regardless, if we did not intervene. 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 crisis, 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 have been 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. 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 (information, 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 have rightfully earned a place in our hearts as valued and cherished pets. "What happens to the chinchillas that are purchased with donation money?" See: PHFR Process Summary "Is PETA behind or 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 side is above reproach, neither is 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 under 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) are NOT candid footage from some "pelting day." The PETA investigators REQUESTED those killings specifically so that they could film 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. Yes, the suffering chinchillas in that video were sentenced by PETA to gruesome deaths just so they could film their sick publicity stunt, which continues to rake in donations to this day from people who don't know the whole story, people who want to believe that PETA is actually doing something to help ranch chinchillas. But the sordid truth is, after making their film PETA turned their back on and DID NOTHING for the rest, the hundreds of chinchillas languishing on that fur farm. They put their nose in the air and simply WALKED AWAY, knowing full well they were dooming the rest of those chinchillas by abandoning them. 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 business years before, preventing the hundreds born since. Clearly, getting a "victory" over the rancher was far more important to PETA than saving chinchilla lives, the proof is in their actions and the choices they made. PETA's conduct is an example of extremism, where the focus is primarily on attacking people for self-righteous gratification (making an example of the rancher, killing chinchillas for publicity) rather than putting the animals first and doing what it takes (buying out and closing down the fur farm) to save them. By contrast, positive activists will ALWAYS put the animals first: 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 within easy grasp 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 since the mid 1990's 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 it takes to save as many from pelting as possible. SITE DISCLAIMER, COPYRIGHT NOTICE & CONTACT View matildesmission.org's Disclaimer and Copyright Notice. Contact matildesmission.org at: projectleader@matildesmission.org.  We're always happy to do what we can regarding advice or referrals.