The Heart of Communities

           After hearing Claire Tillman and Terri Martin’s presentation on animal welfare and humane education in the community, I began to think about how vital communities are and also how seemingly neglected they have become. Humans, like many other species, are co-dependent or community-oriented animals. However, after spending time at the PSPCA and other animal rescues and after spending almost a semester studying human-animal community, I have begun to wonder if perhaps our societies do not fully support the natural spirit of communities. To me, communities are places of support and coexistence with other humans, species and the environment; where people work together, help one another, etc.  But it seems as though this important aspect of life, of giving, caring and helping is not common way.  For example, during Terri Martin’s presentation, it became clear that a major struggle for her is getting other people to care and help one another and other animals.  It seems to me that many people are trapped in their own umwelt, if you will, and have difficulty embracing and acknowledging the needs and welfare of other animals and people that they share the planet with.  I have also seen this at the PSPCA and with the other animal rescues I work with: so many people (not all) come to adopt an animal for their own self-interests and not necessarily for the animal’s well-being. I cannot count how many times I have had someone contact me with a list of specifications about the kind of cat or dog they want, but I can only remember less than a handful of times that people have contacted me with a genuine interest to help the stray or feral cats or lost dogs that they see on the streets or in the backyards.  

            At the same time, I’ve also encountered many people who come to PSPCA wanting to a rescue an animal and give him or her a loving, nurturing home, but I often wonder whether or not they try and help the homeless animals that are living on the streets or if they ignore them like so many do. I even remember a person asking me about adopting a cat and saying something along the lines of, “there are a bunch of stray cats in my backyard that are friendly and they made me realize that I want to get my own cat.” I cannot help but ponder over the need and want to help animals and people within one’s own community, and how our city, our earth would be if we all cared a little bit more about everyone and everything else.

            The humane education program that Claire Tillman enacted for k-8 children is an amazing example of the significance of working within communities. The fact that Claire’s program not only helped children to learn how to treat animals in their homes and communities and how to care for them but also influenced them to treat one another kindly truly demonstrates how powerful working with one another and caring can really be. It made me think that if everyone was more knowledgeable of the other animals that exist within our communities and knew how to care for them, perhaps there would not be as much suffering. Perhaps if all adopters at the PSPCA were required to partake in the volunteer cat and dog handling classes there wouldn’t be as many returns or dumps, or have licenses for owning pets like Bernard and Michael Rollin suggest in their article on “Dogmaticisms and Catechisms: Ethics and Companion Animals.”  What if everyone worked together to help one another and other animals?

It’s a known fact that biodiversity is vital to life, but I think working with one another and helping and caring for all aspects of our communities is just as imperative.