
Complaints & Bad Reviews
Our Response
It is unfortunate to receive a poor rating of our charity (especially if you have not tried to talk to us privately first), however, we are certain that should you strive to understand our perspective, you will find it unnecessary and frankly, extremely detrimental to animals in need to leave it up.
We can only hope you choose to consider what you truly intend by speaking out against our charity for anything other than that of a seriously egregious offense.
The picture with our mission is bigger than you. The voices of animals speak much louder here any individual unhappy with us at this moment. As it stands, the animals speak through our 5 star ratings and disgruntled people (sometimes extremely unjustifiably so) speak through the 1 star ones.
The rule of charities is this: If the charity fails to do something- or do it well- it is only because of a lack of resources to attend to that weakness as a for-profit would.
Typically, that is lacking someone to do that job- and the lack of resources to secure that person- paid especially- but as well, someone truly committed as a volunteer.
This means it is a lack of people willing to help (which we encourage everyone to do, especially those who find problems with our structure and operation) that creates the weak links in our chain of operation.
Many times the people willing to help, assist with many tasks and duties, not just one- attempting to make up for the lack of additional support available...people who don't get paid and never ask for anything in return, working as quickly as they can around the clock...people who shouldn't be judged for their intense- though perhaps at times, imperfect- efforts.
Organizations are not corporations without thoughts, opinions or feelings- they are a team of volunteers with the same feelings as you...people who would be extremely upset to read what some have said about their commitment and effort...
Such criticism is enough to make volunteers want to quit sometimes, actually- which is never going make the organization better or solve the problems you speak of. The only ones it will truly impact are the animals...hurt feelings heal but euthanization is permanent.
Please ask yourself, what is your goal for publicly speaking out against an organization whose members and founders have literally dedicated their lives to animals- unpaid- despite the difficulties we run into with people?
And as people really are NOT our mission, what really are you reviewing if you are not the one served by us?
Customer service with an animal organization is extremely relative- and extremely difficult to get right, however in whatever ways we may “fail” we provide many more instances of success…and any of those failures or weaknesses are not for lack of attention nor desire. No charity desires to be bad- but charities do everything with NOTHING.
Every day a charity stays in business is a miracle.
A charity should be rated based on its mission and how well that is accomplished. While that is clearly subjective in terms of the varying degree to which people we work with think, it is ultimately the animals we serve first-.
We serve people only by providing the animals what they need first.
The fact is the animals’ needs are always crystal clear in black and white…yet so rarely is this true for people who run the gamut in their thoughts, feelings, emotions and actions. Trying to navigate the human condition while trying to do good in the world is an extremely thankless job- and it is harder when people cannot stop to think of the bigger picture before they are quick to judge.
We find it unfortunate that we can’t serve every person in the way they want, but this is the intrinsic nature of trying to find matches for the animals over just finding homes. The extent to which we go to ensure the animals are matched properly may be a detriment in someone’s eyes (“so much work”, but we know all too well it is the only option for us in terms of the animals’ best interest- and ultimately making those great matches with few returns is the true gauge of that effort…not someone’s opinion.
We go so far because we never again want to see our animals come back to us and thankfully, most don’t- but when we see them it is because of the amazing engagement we have with the families we have worked with and adopted to. It is because of the investment they have made in us, just as we have the animals- we work to build relationships, not transact animals.
Many people don’t want what we offer- and have said so here…but that doesn’t mean we have failed to provide good (or even, great) service to them…or the animals.
Ultimately dissatisfaction comes down to the fact that they wanted something from us- often something that was impossible to achieve in the first place (ie serving them as a shelter would- please see our web page: https://www.motleyzooanimalrescue.org/what-we-do on the differences and how this affects your selection of an animal organization to adopt from and your potential satisfaction).
People often have very unrealistic expectations of what we can do at all, never mind what we do well or not.
We understand that what we do and how we do it is not universal knowledge, but if you don’t know, maybe just go with the flow? Trying to go against the grain, to dictate, demand and belittle- or flat our slander- our volunteers and organization accomplishes nothing good…however, it can indeed harm.
Please pick what you say carefully (always) but especially here because quite literally, animals could die for your opinion.
Is that what anyone wants or intends when writing a poor review of our charity? We doubt malice is intentional, but we believe the one it reflects poorly on is actually the reviewer who is clearly lacking a big picture view on what is happening here.
Despite this, we always make the effort to turn around the problem and create a solution from the conflict- especially by inviting unhappy individuals to join us- or any animal org- to understand how and why many times things are not able to be the way you hoped and expected.
Through your volunteerism, however, you could potentially help make “that problem” less of an issue for the next person- and so you experience for certain the quality of our organization and our dedication to making it amazing. We don’t do the bare minimum- we go far beyond…but doesn’t mean we can make everyone happy, especially when there is only one of each animal.
We comfortable however knowing we are doing what we set out to (and doing it well)- despite a few bad instances- because far and away, people do love and appreciate this organization and our efforts. This is why the reviews rarely sit in the middle- they are either 5 or 1.
The 1 stars we couldn’t even get to work with us- but the 5 received every bit of our attention and effort.
Ultimately, that is what counts to us.
If you truly take umbrage with us, join us and help be the one to fix or improve the issue- because that is literally the only way your voice truly counts.
Words will do nothing to create a good change- but they can hurt unnecessarily.