Animal Chronicles

A Beautiful Obsession: Stirring Compassion In Ireland

by John Thompson


Compassion can be taught, or perhaps awakened, but some people are born with its bright fire. Marion Fitzgibbon claims it is encoded in her genes. “I always just loved animals,” she says. “I felt sorry for the cows in the field, any animal left out in the rain — I wanted them to have an umbrella. I always felt that animals were just like us and needed affection.”

Marion’s journey with animals began in earnest when she moved to the big city of Limerick, Ireland, 33 years ago and saw the pitiful condition of the street dogs there. She took food to them at night, paid for veterinary care and even brought some home to recuperate. Having only one bathroom, Marion would post a “Dog Inside!” sign on the door. “But they put up with me, the family did,” she says.

Then one night, she encountered two women who were also feeding the dogs. They joined forces and Limerick Animal Welfare was born.

The women improvised, begging space for animals with friends, farmers and boarding kennels. And although the group is now much larger, their strategy remains unchanged.

For Marion, it’s all about an unquenchable love for animals. “If you see one down and in pain, you just literally can’t pass it up. And you try to keep every day and every hour separate, otherwise you start thinking ‘What am I doing and what difference have I made?’ You have to keep saying it makes a big difference to that animal.

“Why we are like this I don’t know. It’s in your brain the whole time and it overtakes your life. The compassionate person may want to rest, but the call comes in and they’ll get up again and go out. But it is also a blessing.

“I believe in doing whatever you can for an animal. I think it’s worth cleaning up an animal, even if you can’t save it. Even if it only has a couple of hours or a couple of days, that animal knows that it had been cared for at least once in his life. And they are grateful. You can see it in their eyes.”

Is the work dangerous? People occasionally threaten her, “But I’ve never been hurt by a dog,” she says. “You go to an animal with compassion and love, and their response is instantaneous. They just know it. If they are injured and in pain, you must be careful, but the normal abandoned dog just lying there with malnutrition, sores, maybe sick with a temperature, is very, very gentle, always.”

Limerick Animal Welfare came to the attention of the Marin Humane Society through volunteer and dog training instructor Emma Clifford of Novato, who grew up in Limerick. "Two years ago, I was visiting back home and saw an article about young kids throwing kittens into a fire to see if the mother cat would follow them in — it made me very sad to see that this cruelty was being committed by children and that nothing had changed since I was young. Limerick Animal Welfare was the organization that tried to rescue the cats. I immediately felt the need to help and contacted them.”

While Emma notes that large numbers of Irish people love their pets and treat them well, she adds that the rarity of spaying and neutering produces an endless supply of animals to be neglected or ill-treated. "Unwanted puppies get thrown from cars or dumped in plastic bags at the side of the road. Unwanted dogs roam the street, which leaves them vulnerable to cruelty."

Marion’s group is presently caring for 130 dogs in seven locations, plus about 60 cats, five horses and the occasional goat. Always, though, she has dreamed of a permanent sanctuary and, today, that hope appears to have some legs: The organization has purchased 25 acres in the country. “We’re going to build this in five phases, and where the money will come from I don’t know, but I pray,” Marion says.

More than a home for the homeless, Marion envisions a place where kindness towards animals can be demonstrated and animals can find new homes. “We hope that busloads of schoolchildren will come up and meet the animals and let them be the teachers. It’s the most beautiful place.”

In March, MHS hosted a fundraiser for the Irish group, which was very well attended. “I just couldn’t believe the generosity from people so far away,” Marion says. “And I learned so much from the beautiful people at your shelter that I can take home and put to work in our own facility.”

In honor of her lifelong work, Marion has just been elected president of the Irish SPCA. “That may open a few doors, I hope,” says this very determined lady.

For a view of the new Limerick sanctuary, go to www.limerickanimalwelfare.com.