25 Reasons to Become an Animal Welfare Advocate

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The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated . . . I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man. [Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948]

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Animal welfare advocacy is the practice of preventing animal suffering. Being an animal welfare advocate means that you respect, value, and believe in the humane treatment of animals and their inherent right to life. Animal welfare advocates learn, share, discuss, promote, encourage, and otherwise contribute to the welfare of animals. Why would anyone do this? Here are just 25 of the millions of reasons for being an animal welfare advocate.

1. Kittens are cute and puppies are cuddly.
2. Cats make great companions. Dogs are loyal. They will be your best friends in the world.
3. Over five million puppies, kittens, dogs, cats, and other companion animals are wrongly and unnecessarily killed in U.S. shelters every year.
4. Pigs are as smart, loyal, and protective as dogs are and they make great pets!
5. Each year, one million baby cows, or calves, are stuffed into 2×2′ crates, with their necks chained to impede any movement. They cannot turn around, stretch, or lie down. This makes their meat tender and it’s how veal is made. So, when you eat veal, you’re having tortured baby cow.
6. If you don’t know what factory farms are, watch The Meatrix.
7. Studies show that eating a lot of red meat may cause cancer, especially colon cancer.
8. Eating tortured animals cannot be a good thing for you, your body, or your karma.
9. People who prance around in fur are basically draping a dead animal carcass around their bodies. That’s disgusting.
10. Cavemen killed animals for warmth and protection against the elements. That’s survival. Today, people who kill and wear animals do so for prestige because they are ruled by greed. Worse, they are shallow, ignorant, and evil.
11. Animal torture and abuse is one of the early signs of a sociopath and serial killer.
12. People who torture and abuse animals are weak, impotent, dangerous, violent, and should not be roaming around freely in our society.
13. Animal hoarding is a sickness. Hoarders may cause harm to the animals they care for, but hoarders do not operate from malicious intent. They need help and so do their animals.
14. If a man or woman wants to get in a ring and senselessly beat or be beaten by another, that’s their choice. When dogs are put in a ring, they don’t have any choice at all. In short, dog fighting is sick and anyone involved in it should be locked up. Forever.
15. Nobody seems to talk about rodeos and how the cowboys like to torture poor helpless animals. Not all cowboys ride rodeo, but all rodeo riders SUCK because they’ve got no better skills than hurting animals for sport.
16. Animals do not exist for human entertainment. They don’t want to live in a zoo any more than you want to live a prison cell. Sure, some zoos are caring for endangered animals, or protecting animals that can’t take care of themselves in the wild. But marine parks and other touristy animal attractions keep animals and exploit them solely to make money off them. Yes, it’s a lot like slavery.
17. PETA consists of radical animal rights activists. PETA doesn’t want you to eat or wear animals, but they kill over 97% of the animals that enter their care because they’re too damn lazy to find homes for them. PETA needs to be exterminated.
18. Every year in the U.S., people spend tens of billions of dollars on the comfort and care of their pets. Meanwhile, animal shelter workers kill pets because they’re incapable of finding homes for them. This is not euthanasia. It’s murder.
19. Nathan Winograd has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that animal shelter overpopulation is a myth, and that animals die in shelters because the morons who are running the shelters are too lazy, caught up in bureaucracy, and worried about their own self-image to bother keeping the animals entrusted to them alive.
20. Here’s the human equivalent to declawing a cat: someone cuts off every single one of your fingers at the second knuckle. Doesn’t that sound nice? Because furniture is more important that the ability to use your hands. Everyone knows that.
21. People who have their pets’ vocal chords cut are too incompetent to train them properly and teach them basic social skills like when to be quiet.
22. When you buy a pet online, there’s a good chance it’s going to come from a puppy mill. This is NOT a good thing.
23. Human beings send their children to school for 13-20 years so they can function in society, and this is after they can already understand and speak the language. These same humans think dogs should magically understand every wish and command without any training whatsoever.
24. An animal once saved my life. Maybe one day an animal will save yours.
25. Why be an animal welfare advocate? Because animals have rights. They enrich our lives. Because Gandhi said so. It’s the right thing to do.

Help Me!

I want to grow this list. How many reasons do you think we can come up with? 100? 250? 1,000? Tell me why you’re an animal welfare advocate by leaving a comment. Right now, there are twenty-five reasons. Help me double it!

Disclaimer: I stand behind what I’ve said on this list. However, there are exceptions to every rule. I’ve heard enough stories to realize that extenuating circumstances do occur. Also, for the record, I’m not a full vegetarian. I believe that nature created us to eat meat but that we do not need to torture and abuse it before we consume it. In case you’re wondering, I do eat poultry and fish, but not very often.