Bev Luff, Founder Of With Compassion & Soul, Shares Her Story

Millions of animals are exploited, abused, tortured, neglected, & slaughtered around the world daily. This very fact made it difficult for me to choose only one issue to make a stand against and so I decided to raise awareness and funds for them all leading to the birth of With Compassion & Soul Inc.

Having been a Vegetarian, later progressing to Vegan and then a POF (palm oil free) Vegan for the last 34 years, I know that the diet I choose goes a long way to saving many animals lives in my lifetime, but I wanted to do more.

Twenty years ago I joined Animal Liberation South Australia to experience a more activist role in animal rights but I still wanted to do even more so 9 years ago I started With Compassion & Soul, a not-for-profit association which raises money and distributes to over 20 different organisations which help animals globally. We also raise awareness for all animal issues via our websites, facebook pages, stalls and products.

The real impetus for starting With Compassion & Soul was a small disabled dog called Buffy. A few times a year I travel overseas on short holidays usually in countries which are still developing and where animal welfare laws are non existent. I decided I wanted to do something to contribute to the countries I was holidaying in and as my life was about animals first and foremost I decided to try to find small animal not-for-profit organisations in each country who could benefit from both financial donations from me on a regular basis and raising awareness on their organisation and what it does.

I first saw Buffy lying around a restaurant in Langkawi, Malaysia. Apart from a few pats and scritches, that was the extent of our relationship until I returned to Langkawi in 2003 to find that Buffy had been hit by a car in the street, and was now being treated in LASSie, a non-funded animal clinic funded by Sydney woman Narelle McMurtrie who owned a small resort in Langkawi. The clinic was fairly bare of medicines and equipment and had no X-ray machine, so Buffy�s injuries could not be properly diagnosed. All that was known is that her back half was paralysed and she could not walk. I spent a part of each day in the clinic doing manual physio on her legs hoping that I could help her legs to move again, eventually my holiday was over and I had to leave Buffy which was difficult.

I learned that Narelle looked after many dogs and cats which had been neglected, injured or dumped & was attempting to sterilise all the cats on the island with her own money and no government help, she continues to run LASSie on a much larger scale today and LASSie is one of the organisations I continue to support.

In short I couldn’t help Buffy, but Buffy became the proud owner of some nifty wheels for dogs which help her get around for parts of the day. On my return to Adelaide I decided to try to help the animals in Langkawi, and With Compassion & Soul began.

Today we financially help over 20 different organisations in 5 different countries who are helping animals by engaging in one of more of the following:

sterilisation, vaccination & education programmes
providing animal crisis care services
working towards abolishing cruelty
helping animals on the brink of extinction
fighting factory farming & live animal export
fighting animal experimentation & testing
fighting against animals exploited for sports & entertainment
plus numerous one off projects here and there involving other issues.

Buffy via With Compassion & Soul has helped 1000�s of other animals over the last 9 years.

It is 2012 and I have just returned from my recent trip to Langkawi and, even though it is now 9 years later, Buffy continue to thrive in the care of LASSie Animal Sanctuary.

She is now an old dog but as beautiful as the day we met.

Bev Luff

LASSie wishes to thank Bev for sharing her story and supporting LASSie and her beloved Buffy for so many years. To know more about With Compassion & Soul and learn how you can contribute, please visit their website.

Source: http://www.langkawilassie.org.my/blog/foundation/bev-luff-founder-of-with-compassion-soul-shares-her-story/

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The Langkawi Animal Shelter and Sanctuary Foundation is set-up to receive, rehabilitate and care for neglected, abused and needy animals. The organization also runs the Langkawi Island Animal Clinic - a charity project aimed at the sterilization of the stray cat & dog population. Both are non profit ventures, staffed partly by volunteers and aimed at improving the lives of unwanted animals.

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