Animal Caregivers Mutual Aid (ACMA) exists to support people caring for nonhumans with both financial and non-financial needs. We share all requests and offers via our monthly newsletter.
Much of the time, in animal caregiving spaces, the only legitimate form of caregiving is a particular kind of sanctuary however caring for nonhumans should be recognised in all its forms. Whether you are a human running a micro-sanctuary or someone defending nonhuman habitats, we know there are many human caregivers whose set-up or approach may not fit into the common idea of ‘sanctuary’ yet aid is needed for those people too.
In creating Animal Caregivers Mutual Aid we want to also agknowledge the history of mutual aid as a practice, particuarly how it has existed within nonhuman, Black, brown, disabled and other marginalised communities forever. So, although ACMA is about nonhuman care, we expect humans to be redistributing wealth with their privileges in mind.
To learn about the Black history (and white appropriation) of mutual aid read this.
Inspired by the UK Mutual Aid guidelines
1. Please make sure your requests/offers are to the point. Give us the basics of the situation, without going into loads of detail for ease and clarity.
2. When requesting, be transparent and accountable. For all financial requests please create a PayPal pool, GoFundMe or similar for accountability, so we can see your goal and how much you have so far. A facilitator will host your pool if you need to be anonymous – please make it clear you need this in your request.
3. If you offering or requesting something non-financial, both parties are responsible for organisation between each other. In these circumstances you must provide your contact details e.g. a phone number, email, social media.
4. Please do not ask for funds to support you as a human. This mutual aid group is about nonhuman care and all requests/offerings must be directly related to them. Animals must ALWAYS be the centre of your requests and should be to their benefit over anyone else’s. We do, however, accept requests for hunt saboteur equipment, post-rescue money, animal rights related bail funds and animal liberationist prisoner support (who all care for nonhumans in various ways).
5. We accept requests and offerings to support animals of all species, including free-living, companion and farmed animals in need of assistance. These animals can be permanent or non-permanent residents in human homes, (micro-)sanctuaries, rescues and more. We do NOT support breeders, farmers or any other kind of animal exploiter. We do not have the infrastructure to support on-going costs, so if you are looking for grant options or larger donations, please see microsanctuary.org or the Anti-Patreon Patreon Club.
6. You may only submit ONE financial request open per month. This is for fairness and so nobody bombards the space. There is no limit on non-financial requests or offers.
7. This mutual aid group is anti-speciesist therefore, oppressive behaviour of any kind will not be tolerated. This applies to things that happen in and outside The Radical Companionship Project. Depending on the severity, you may be banned from our spaces.
8. We expect active engagement from everyone – all involved should be educating themselves, networking, donating and sharing in support of nonhumans are caregivers. As humans with privilege, we all have a responsibility to support the futures and lives of nonhuman animals. Some marginalised humans may not have the same social and structural power or access to resources that could support nonhumans – this means white cis-het able-bodied and class privileged people (to whom the world is catered to) please step forward in your solidarity to both marginalised humans AND nonhumans.
i.e. if someone can look after, walk, feed an animal in your care
expenses for vets, to other countries and for healthcare/adoption
We will respond to all requests/offers and recommend that if yours is time sensitive, that you send it before the last week of each month.
We are not an emergency mutual aid group and may not have the capacity to help if you need something urgently.
We cannot guarantee that it will be filled but we will do what we can to ensure all are shared and supported.
All requests and offers are shared via our monthly newsletter.
If you have any questions, please email radicalcompanionship@tutanota.com