Editor’s Standfirst: In this new series, our Auckland Correspondent Vineeta Rao, focusing on human interest stories and people who make a difference in our communities. If you would like to shine the spotlight on someone who goes over and beyond in your community, please reach out to vineeta@indiannewslink.nz
Ashleah Copeland’s grandmother once told her “If you cannot find a kind person, be one.” She has made this the guiding philosophy of not just her life but also that of her kids.
Ashleah is known on Auckland’s North Shore for her work with animals. Armed with her trusty microchip scanner, she collects and scans pets who may have escaped their homes, met with accidents or gone missing and provides their owner with closure and a chance to say one last goodbye. Unlike many other organisations working with animals, Ashleah is a one-woman show. Well, not entirely, as she often ropes in her willing family to help.
The beginning
It all began by chance, she says. Her youngest son Max was born with a serious health condition that required multiple surgeries when he was still just a baby. Car rides seemed to settle him and help him sleep so Ashleah spent hours driving aimlessly with Max in his car seat at the back. She noticed that she kept driving past deceased animals frequently enough so she began keeping blankets in the boot of her car, so she could give them some dignity in death as she took them to the nearest vet.
A local animal rescue and not-for-profit, Saving Grace, offered to buy her a microchip scanner so she could scan for any ownership information. From there, it just grew. Max is now 11 years old but even today, as Ashleah put it, “If it is about an animal, anywhere on the North Shore to even Whangaparaoa, I am usually tagged in it.” On an average, she is tagged in around 27 posts per week about truant, missing or dead animals on social media.
Rescue work
So what happens when Ashleah is tagged in a post about an animal? First the microchip scanner is deployed. But, as Ashleah points out, a microchip is useless unless it is registered “A lot of people are under the misguided apprehension that the vets register the microchips, but they do not. It is up to the owner to register the microchips separately.”
Ashleah then scans the animal and checks the Animal Companion Register. If the animal is microchipped but not registered, she takes the animal to the nearest vet. If it is registered, she notifies the owner, often sharing tears with them over the loss of a beloved pet.
She also partners with local animal rescues to feed colonies, trap and neuter strays, collect truant animals who have escaped for a bit of a wander around the neighbourhood, and fundraising.
Her dedication is all the more remarkable when you realise that Ashleah is not a charitable organisation but just one person, trying her best to give grieving pet parents some closure and comfort. And for over seven years, she has done just that.
A legacy of kindness
Kindness is important to Ashleah and she has tried to encourage it in her children. Her son Max is known for his giveaways to children who have a little less than he does. He saves pocket money, gifts and money earned by doing chores to buy gifts to share with other children. Her daughter and older son are known for the assistance they provide their mother in her acts of community service.
A resilient woman
For an animal lover, there is nothing worse than seeing animals in pain or dead but it is a sight that Ashleah deals with regularly. So how does she cope? Her family rallies around her, surrounding her with love, she says, and the community’s appreciation. “I just watch a sad movie and cry a lot until I have got it out of my system,” she says, adding with the resilience that characterises her, “And then I get back up and do it all over again.”
Vineeta Rao is an Indian Newslink Reporter based in Auckland.
