To be amazed that there were any green discs in the Waitrose charity thing for the Cat's Protection League . . .

[BalloonSlayer]

. . . when the other two charities to choose from were a SCBU and a charity for families of people with Downs Syndrome?

There were about two feet of green disks for the SCBU, about 18" for the other charity and about a foot for the Cats' Protection.

I mean, I love cats, but would ANYONE think they were more important than the other two?

And yeah, I do understand the political argument that the SCBU should be funded well enough not to need to have to raise its own money.

Cats? You know - it's a cat.

LTOS

Did you know that the lovely Holloway Waitrose used to be a John Lewis? It was actually called Jones Bros but it was a JL. I never got over the closure.

Have since sold up and moved to the country (well E17 but its a bit like the country after Holloway)

Cant reeeely blame that on Waitrose though.

Btw, I was rather taken back that my local Waitrose was collecting for three local junior schools. (In a town with around eight, seems a tad unfair.) I put my disc into the box of the school in the most (relatively) deprived area, who seemed to be coming off worst. Probably because the parents don't shop at Waitrose. (And while the girl was waiting for a grown up to deal with my wine, I nicked a couple of other buttons to chuck in as I felt so sorry for them.)

Couldn't you just shop at Tesco?

YABU.

It's none of your business who gives what to which charity. Anyone who gives anything to any charity is doing a good thing. We cannot afford to discriminate between a 'good' or 'less-good' charity. There are thousands of causes out there needing support - it is a personal choice which ones appeal individually.

My own view is that animals are at the total mercy of people and have no other protection other than from humans from over-breeding, abuse, neglect, torture, extinction, hunting etc, they have no voice of their own and therefore are extremely deserving.

But according to my own argument, my view should not be relevant

edam

aha! Charmander. Lateral thinking

Yes Lovelytinofspam, you are right, there is a democracy going on that I have been unaware of.

I was there today and the boxes had changed. One of them was for a local hospital LOF, and if you scanned the blurb, mentioned a very famous clinic. But on close reading, what they were planning to do with the money was not exactly helpful to patients, or their loved ones, it was more concerned with history. Yet while I was dithering (DS1 was treated in that hospital) about five people came past and every one put their disk in that box, after what seemed like 0.5 secs contemplation.

It was the middle box, as was the SCBU (highest winner) last time. I wonder if that's significant.

< goes away to ponder a namechange as anyone who lives where I do will twig now and may get outed >

[ disgruntled emoticon] , as got quote of the week last week.

we went to put our discs in, and I encouraged DD to put our three discs in equally spread between the three charities as they were all for different disadvantaged childrens' groups. How glad I am that she is still too small to notice how rather pointless that was and so then to turn around and tell me so.

OK - someone explain, how are some of you getting 3 tokens? I went to the Hitchin one and spent just under £30 and got one and went to the Welwyn one today and didn't get one, despite my 4 bottles of prosecco.

I haven't read the whole thread yet, but from what I understand Cats Protection rescues animals from abuse? I was reading in the paper about a man who was torturing his cats ( he was spat on by members of the public outside the court good on em). This charity is just as important, animals can't walk away from these situations by themselves. I would support any charity that rescues victims of abuse such as NSPCC, RSPCA, because they don't have a voice.

Fattipuffs pleeeeease read my post of 20.50

Whatever Mumsnet have put on Discussions of the Day this is NOT about criticising people for giving to a certain charity and not another. It is about surprise that, in a situation where a charity has to be nominated, for someone else to give to, for a considerable amount of people (perhaps 20%) a cat charity would come above the other two charities.

The DoD thing is a bit misleading I agree.

claire re tokens. If you have a smiling toddler you get about 15 in my local place...

Ok that's an exaggeration, but she always gets more than one...

Do you need to borrow a toddler?

Or maybe they are just miserable sods in hitchen

balloon I think but would need to check back through my daily video recordings (joke) that the one to the left always gets the most in ours. Maybe it is to do with position of exit in relation to boxes?

claire I have never felt truly at home in the welwyn waitrose. Which is odd as my formative years were spent in the welwyn john lewis...

in our waitrose the animal charity wins every single month.

and I'm sorry but I think it is incredible that these charities (who are largely very well funded and not struggling for cash) are chosen above charities involving people.

I think it is very good of waitrose to give £1000 per store per week to charities. I think the green disk is a cunning marketing ploy too.

I think that people who spend time and money splinting the leg of a hedgehog rather than putting it out of its misery and then eat a battery chicken nugget have inconsistant reasoning. That is my main objection to animal charities.

YANBU.

In my Waitrose today, I noticed the 'popular' charity was the local CoE primary - one that is incredibly over-subscribed, in the wealthiest part of town, and generally described in terms of awe as, 'just like a private school!'

The other charities (a sports club for teenagers in the poor end of the borough, and a play centre for disadvantaged kids) had almost nothing.

I don't object to animal charities per se. I just would never, ever give money to one.

Ah charis that's the beauty of JLP/waitrose, it's owned by the employees, rather than shareholders, so they can do stuff like that just because they fancy it.

And you are unlikely to find anyone purchasing battery chicken nuggets in waitrose I'm not sure they even sell them...

Although i can't speak for the chicken consumption habits of hedgehog fixing types bet they're all well dodgy

I'm too poor to shop at waitrose, and have no idea what you are talking about

If you give to children's charities, particularly ones that look after disadvantaged children I always hope that one of the lessons they will be taught from said charity is how to look after things (such as animals) and responsibility. I would therefore always give to children's charities on this basis.

YABNU - I see similar in our Waitrose.

I love my dogs, and I'm certainly not averse to cats (have owned them in the past), but IMO charities supporting pets are not in the same league as charities supporting preemie or disabled children.

I hope nobody would teach their children animal charities aren't worth it. There are too many bastard animal abusers in this world already. My children fight all day but would never hurt our pets, while my friends child came round and thought it OK to put both hands round my cats neck.

junglist1 - nobody's promoting parenting that encourages children to be cruel to animals. I take animal welfare really seriously - 5 out of the 6 dogs and cats I have owned have been rescues - however, I don't think that the CPL is in the same league as saving a SCBU, I really don't.