"I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs ... [they] are an obligation put on us, a responsibility we have no right to neglect, nor to violate by cruelty." ~ James Herriot, English Veterinarian and Author
C L U B M E D
MOOREA, FRENCH POLYNESIA
This page remains on this site as proof that a large corporation can make a difference in the welfare of animals. Animals and their advocates world-wide are in deep appreciation to Club Med's act of good will and compassion.
Update - October 8, 1998: Club Med has sent out a very encouraging statement via email about their move to rectify the dumped cat situation in Moorea. This was in response to second emails so many of us sent after receiving their first. Their latest email states:
Club Med, in conjunction with The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), is leading and financing the effort to remove all cats from a small, deserted island off the beach of the Club Med resort in Moorea, Tahiti. WSPA is a worldwide animal protection organization based in London with 10 offices around the world.
This project is being undertaken with the assistance of local veterinarians in Tahiti. The plans call for the spaying/neutering of all cats on the deserted island and at the Club Med resort. In the meantime, Club Med has organized food and water stations on the island to care for the cats until local veterinarians arrange their removal. Photographs of this operation will be available within a few days.
WSPA was selected by Club Med to undertake this project because of its more than 42 years experience in conducting humane programs for animals in foreign countries. They have worked on similar cat projects in Antigua, Greece, and Cyprus.
Club Med will also be enlisting the support of "Fenua Animalia", a local animal protection group in Papeete, other hotels and the Tahitian government.
Any organization interested in participating should work through WSPA. Sincerely yours,
Edwina Arnold
Public Relations Director
This is wonderful, wonderful news for both the cats and all the people who rallied behind the effort to help the marooned cats.
Outstanding job, Club Med!
This is an amazing story of good will and compassion of a global corporation. It's truly a boost to animal welfare and we need to thank these people for their positive action in organizing a rescue effort and their financial help.
This is the original story leading up to this amazing act by Club Med:
According to Club Med's
website, Moorea is 10km (six miles) Northwest of Tahiti, in French Polynesia. The online brochure portrays a lovely paradise; one can hardly wait to contact the Club Med travel agency, pack bags, call a cab and rush for the airport - to enjoy the lush scenery, engage in exciting activities day and night, join in the touring and shopping until one drops - all described in detail by them.
However, there appears to be something dreadfully wrong with this fantastic picture the travel organization paints for vacationers.
Is Club Med a paradise or a sheer living hell?
Below is one lady's email (permission granted to post on this page) which details her experiences on her Club Med vacation in Moorea, French Polynesia:
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 18:45:52 +1200
From:
Mary Hackshaw
Subject: nonCRF THE REAL CLUB MED
Hi folks I'm back from my short vacation at Club Med in Moorea (Tahiti). It was my second time there and as usual was very pleasant. Until...
On my second to last day I was sitting next to a pleasant American who said it was his 8th visit to this particular Club Med. We were talking about all the stray cats which hang around the open-air restaurant and scrounge food. (I am one of their best donors of "scraps").
I commented that I didn't recognise any of the kitties from my stay in May last year. This guy told me that last year the Club Med people did a round-up of the stray kitties and took them all across to a little island in the lagoon just off from the resort. The kitties were all just dumped there on a tiny coral island with some bush and a few tin shelters that picnickers have used, but nothing else. The island is mainly sand and coral.
I stewed over this all that afternoon and evening, and so I decided to go across in the morning and check this out. There is a water ferry which leaves every 20 minutes, so I jumped on and went over. Yes, sure enough, I found the kitties. It was without a doubt the most horrific sight I have ever laid eyes on. Some of these kitties were so starved they swayed and wobbled as they walked. They were in
APPALLING condition. There were 2 pregnant females - one heavily pregnant. The rest - as far as I could see - were toms.
As I sat on the beach waiting to leave I was fighting back the tears. It was just without a doubt the saddest sight I have ever seen. A little ginger tom saw the boat come across and he walked down to the beach to the boat as if he wanted to go in it. Would you believe, a woman picked up a coconut shell and threw it at him. He took off into the trees, terrified.
I went back on the last boat before the lunch break, feeling ill. My bus for the airport was leaving at 3:45 so I had very little time. Straight after lunch I went to a supermarket, which as luck would have it, was shut for siesta until 2:30. I sat and waited until it reopened, then I bought tins of cat food and raced back to the village. I got the boat back across (3 pm now) and went to where the cats were. As soon as the tin was opened and they caught a whiff of the smell, cats appeared from everywhere. I found coconut shells and fed the kitties in those. It was surely the first proper meal these kitties had
EVER had. It was just gut-wrenching.
This place has got no food - maybe just a few skinks and gekkos. No fresh water. Some American friends I made on the vacation had also been over and they said that they saw the kitties trying to eat the flesh out of coconuts which had fallen and split open. I saw one kitty trying to eat a bit of stale bread dropped from someone's sandwich into the sand.
Unfortunately my time ran out and I had to get the boat back. I arrived back at Club Med 15 minutes before my bus left for the airport.
I did take some photos of these poor darlings. None of them was truly feral and they all came around me and let me stroke them as they ate. Before I left I stole from my room a book called "Club Med Cares". In it is listed all the wonderfully environmentally friendly things Club Med does at its resorts, including living in harmony with and respecting the wildlife (yes, those are the exact words).
I am so distraught about this and
SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE. When I went to collect Fluffy from Dr Mark this morning he suggested going to the Holmes show, a local news/current affairs programe on tv. Also the SPCA, who hopefully have overseas connections. I checked the telephone book for Tahiti before I left and there doesn't appear to be an SPCA there.
Please all you friends, what suggestions can you come up with? I am so serious about this I'm prepared to go back to that place and personally take those cats off the island and return them to the mainland. But I really want to do more than that. Please think hard and give me your suggestions. This is serious. Mary
PLEASE...write those emails to Club Med, letting them know they
must bring those cats back to the mainland and treat the animals they chance upon more humanely. I can find no email address, but if you will go to their site, there is a comments section within the site where you can send them your thoughts on their abhorrent actions and inhumane treatment of the cats. Click
HERE to reach the site.
Since receiving a form mass email from Club Med, this is the mail addy that was on the response,
clubmed2@ix18.ix.netcom.com.
October 6, 1998 - Please Note: It has been brought to my attention that the following fax number has been disconnected (how convenient for them, but what about the cats?). Please send your emails, though. We must make a difference for the sake of those stranded cats.
You may fax your letters to:
Club Med Corporate Office
Attention: Kelly
Fax Number: (212) 977-2143
Please note: Do use your
real name, not your screen name or online nickname as a signature.
Update - October 6, 1998: Many of us who have voiced our concerns to Club Med have received an email from them which appears to be a form email. I'm
assuming all of us who have asked Club Med to investigate the matter will, if not already, receive the same one. I'm hoping this is a sign that they have had an overwhelming response and are sending it out multiple bulk email.
Regardless, I find the email
very unsettling in the fact that they state:
This is not and never has been a Club Med practice at Moorea or anywhere else. Please be advised that the island (motu) where the cats live is privately owned. Club Med pays a fee to the owners to use a part of the island for its weekly picnic.
The fact that the motu is "privately owned" does
NOT relieve them of responsibility in this act of abuse. They are apparently using the "Corporate America" mentality - "passing the buck," so to speak, to another organization or person(s) instead of owning up to the fact that a group of their employees have erred in judgment of action, either out of mean-spiritedness or simply
profound ignorance - though I seriously doubt people employed by a large corporation such as Club Med can be that ignorant, much less that
stupid.
The cold, hard fact of the matter is that their Moorea employees are alleged to have committed this cruel and inhumane act. Club Med needs and
must resolve the cat situation created by their employees alleged actions.
THAT'S the
ONLY issue here, plain and simple.
