The McMuffin Dilemma

Do you help 1 dog or 100s?

Certain dogs I share just capture the imagination and McMuffin was one of those. After finding her in a horrendous state, myself and my friend had 99% decided to put her out of her misery.

This was a dog who had given up and her vitals were so bad that I spent a restless night making peace with myself about what had to be done.

Not only was she covered in what looked like tumours but she was literally at death’s door. She had tick fever, Anemia, blood parasites and a whole host of issues.

I took her to 3 different vets and there were a range of opinions. Nobody was optimistic that she would even make it through the night.

Luckily McMuffin had other ideas and started to turn the corner so quickly that now, 2 weeks later, I have a full plan in place to hopefully get her better.

• Her short term issues are being fixed and she is on medicines until the 18th Sep that should clear all those up.

• She is staying in the vets to get 24/7 care

• Her vital organs are all looking great now.

• She has had tests and she has TVT cancer. She has over 40 tumours on her body

• Luckily Chemotherapy has very good results for this type of cancer in dogs

• She has a 5 week plan for chemo which starts when she is strong enough

• We are reasonably confident she can recover

She’s won the first part of her battle staying alive and is now ready for her next big fight.

Saving A Dog

Most people think saving a dog is the only option. The reality is a lot more complex and there is so much to take into account…

• Taking the dog off the street

• Administering medicine on a daily basis

• Paying for vet care ($500 to keep McMuffin alive so far)

• Finding the dog a temporary place to stay (nearly impossible)

• Finding a sick dog a forever home (incredibly hard as no one wants a sick dog)

• Deciding to put the dog back on the street (who could do that?)

• Visiting, walking, caring for their daily wellbeing

• Carrying the emotional baggage of looking after a sick dog

Saving 1 Dog Versus 10,000 Dogs

Without being too blunt about things the more McMuffins I save the less I can help on the bigger picture. McMuffins treatment will probably end up costing $2000. For that same price I could…

• Sterilise 40 dogs stopping 1000s of puppies

• Feed 100 dogs every day for 2 months

• Give preventative medicines to about 100 dogs for 3 months

You have to make very hard choices not only with money but especially with your time. If you had a stone cold heart and a ruthless streak of efficiency you would say you turn off the tap of new dogs through sterilisation and forget about the sick dogs.

Easy to say, harder to do.

The McMuffin Dilemma

When I talk about the McMuffin Dilemma I’m not talking about this one single dog. It goes without saying that I’ll be trying to keep her alive. I’m talking about this process being played out over and over again. I could drive down the street and find 20 McMuffins tomorrow morning that need urgent fixing. There are 2 options…

Option A

• Treat all sick dogs I find

• Sterilise dogs

Option B

• Don’t treat sick dogs

• Sterilise dogs

I’ve done lots of research on previous efforts to tackle the street dog problem around the world and it all falls down when people with good intentions go with option A. They quickly end up spending all their time and money on sick dogs and stop working on the bigger picture and the mission fails to scale. It is something that is repeated over and and over again.

I always look for the positives in these hard situations…

1. McMuffin has survived 2 weeks more than everybody thought.

2. She has a very good chance of beating this treatable cancer over the next 2 months.

3. I know how to fix the The McMuffin Dilemma. The involves splitting out operations on sterilising and helping sick dogs with a strict firewall in place. More on that as I roll it out.

4. If she does pull through she will live with me and become a real life mascot for this project and to give people hope when all seems lost.

I feel like I learn something from every dog I come across. Probably none more so than McMuffin. She’s taught me to never give up, to look for innovative solutions and to always look your best no matter how sick you are with her lovely bandages.

Have a lovely week everybody and wish McMuffin luck with her coming battles!

Niall

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