How many times have you heard someone (or yourself) say something like:
“I love animals, but I can’t stand people.”
“I like every single dog and maybe three people.”
“I’ve never met a cat I didn’t like, but there are tons of people I detest.”
I’ve definitely said that I like dogs more than people on many occasions, usually in response to an animal abuse or welfare situation. And, truth be told, I’d much rather spend my time at home with my dogs and cats than out in a crowd of people.
But here is the reality, the hard truth of the matter: You cannot care about animals without caring about people, too.
We simply can’t have animal welfare without human welfare.
With assistance programs being gutted across the US on a near-daily basis, gas prices skyrocketing, grocery bills soaring, housing becoming unattainable, and so on… people are finding themselves in difficult situations.
Imagine the choices:
If you can’t afford to feed your kids, what are you going to do with your dog? If you don’t speak English well and your vet no longer provides a translator, or you can’t afford your car and can’t take your cat to the vet on the bus, or the spay-neuter assistance program you relied on got cut, or you get laid off and need to pay rent and your cat becomes sick, and on and on… put yourself in the shoes of someone facing these situations. (Read this post and the comments section to really get a sense of the realities here.)
How do we definite “welfare”?
Welfare, to me, means health, happiness, and well being. It means we are all
