Blog 5

What initially drew me to this course was the opportunity and neccesity of volunteering at the PSPCA. I had been wanting to volunteering with animals in shelters for a long time, but this course provided the needed push to actually get me doing it. Almost every experience volunteering with the dogs has taught me something, be it about myself, animals, or education. The experiences that I have had while volunteering have also shaped and reinforced my viewpoints on animal literature as well as the points made by some of the authors of the essays, poems, and stories that we read. It is one thing to read about animal welfare, but it affects you at a whole different level once you actually deal with animals who have suffered from the lack of attention and reform of animal welfare and rights. Every time I leave the PSPCA after volunteering, I get a refreshing boost of hope and dedication becasue I have been reminded why things need to change and why I care. Having personal experiences from volunteering also helps make my opinions more solid as well as giving me a basis for comparing the opinions of writers on the subject. This allows me to formulate and defend my own opinions based on my true feelings rather than how good someone else defends and pushes their opinions of animals.

When dealing with such a controversial and personal topic such as is animal welfare and rights, you are bound to end up feeling a variety of conflicting emotions. I found this both in my volunteering and while reading the literature assignments for the class. While reading and volunteering my emotions and responses have varied from sadness to anger to hatred to disappointment and more. When someone cares so strongly about a topic, it is hard to try to academically and equally consider all viewpoints not matter how opposite they may be from your own. This course material, however, demands the student to consider all sides and how they have historically have effects and impacted animal welfare and rights which have molded animal welfare as it currently stands. It is necessary to understand the history of animal welfare and how it has gotten to what iris today in order to create ideas for reform that will be more likely to be successful. The course literature as well as experiences at the PSPCA have helped me to gather a more well rounded understanding of animal welfare as well as what some reasons are for why people stand on the other side of animal welfare than I do. The best way to change someone's mind is by understanding their defenses and manipulating them to have opposite effects. All of these resources, experiences, and gained knowledge will no doubt help aid animal welfare and rights reform to make the world safer and better for animals and humans.