Author: Catherine (Catherine Besch)

What makes VAAR different from other animal advocacy organizations in Vietnam and globally? For one, we are a non-speciesist organization, meaning we know that ALL species suffer the same and ALL species deserve the same chance at living a long, healthy life.  We know that in terms of numbers of animals suffering, fish actually are...

We need to talk about staff and why organizations like ours are not capable of running without having full time, year-round, salaried staff, NOT volunteers coming and going. To clarify for those who do not work with animals, these jobs cannot be classified as unskilled labor just because they do not require a degree.  Anyone...

We are strapped for cash to get the 5 animals out of our shelter ad into the US and we have exactly 2 days to raise this money. Without another $3000 in funds for the flight and all ground transport, we are not going to be able to get these guys to their homes! I...

While all focus remains on the dogs in Asia who end up in the dog meat trade, cats in Vietnam suffer the exact same fate as the dogs the media and welfare organizations (non-vegan, of course…) like to promote on their pages.  Cats are trapped, sold, stolen and transported on large trucks on highways and...

We have a flight going to the US taking 3 adopted animals, but we have room for 2 more! We have 25 cats in our shelter that all need homes. Can YOU adopt one? I’m doing the export myself after far too many failed attempts at getting flight volunteers, so hopefully my experience doing this...

The moral baseline of animal advocacy is fatally skewed and does not work for the animals, but for the humans who profit off animal suffering and exploitation and for the consumers of their services. The message dominating the field of animal rescue in the public discourse is one that perpetuates speciesism and continues to label...

I cannot imagine anymore what it is like to look at a puppy and just think about how cute it is.  The bobbling around, the pathetic little squeaks, the yawning and sleeping in funny positions are all objectively cute, yet to me, and to rescuers in general, they represent a failure.  While we care for...

The dog that we were treating after their motorbike accident was either stolen by or sold to the dog meat man, more than likely during the day as the owners told us outright what happened so we assume they were around for it. This is not to say that they did not personally sell him,...

These photos were all taken within 30 minutes of each other in Hoi An. Markets, cages, the side of the road- all just within a few kilometres. All blatant abuse. All preventable. All of this is up to you to stop. Chickens and ducks were stuffed tightly in wire cages waiting to be pulled out...