animal welfare

The death of Cecil, a well known lion who lived on a protected reservation as part of a research project in Zimbabwe, was hard enough to come to terms with. It took about a week of me seeing posts about it in my Facebook feed before I could bring myself to look into it further. Then when the killer was identified as a trophy-hunting dentist from Minnesota, it was even harder to deal with the fact that Cecil will so needlessly killed by an American. As rage poured out from around the world, it was clear that Cecil’s killing struck a very deep chord in many people.

But then as others began comparing their causes to Cecil’s, as if to minimize what happened to him, my feelings became a jumble. Of course these other causes were important, but so was this case, which represented far more than just one lion but the entire relationship of humans with animals and the environment. To sort out my feelings, I wrote a Facebook note called “Comparing Causes,” which several of my friends began sharing and told me deserved a wider audience.

One of my friends had a particularly good suggestion: Submit it to The Dodo, an online publication about animals where writers and bloggers could submit their work. I took her advice and posted it. Then the next day I emailed the editors to ask if they would be willing to feature it — and they did! This was quite an honor because only a very few pieces are selected to be featured on The Dodo, and usually those are by big names in the animal welfare profession.

On August 3, my piece — under the new and more click-worthy headline “Let’s Just Stop Using Cecil To Talk About Abortion” ran next to pieces by Adam Roberts, CEO of Born Free, and Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States. The piece makes the points that all efforts to increase the welfare of humans, animals and the environment are important, that they are all related, that not every person has to participate in every cause, and that no one is perfect at even their own causes.

The Dodo posted the piece on their Facebook page, where it got over 1000 shares, and their Twitter feed, where it got about 100 retweets, favorites, and responses. It also got 46 comments on the piece itself, most of them favorable but some not. I was happy to see all of them. This is my first foray into online publishing, and if I get this inspired by something in the future, I may just write something else.

Group photo after a hot day of installing a biodigester.

Note: Lots of pics from service day are at the bottom of this post.

So I’m not going to lie – last night was a little freaky. We had the light on in our room so we could write in our journals, and it attracted bugs – monster bugs. I don’t freak out easily, but a bug the size of my hand kept flying towards me.

Backing up a bit … I was pretty tired by the time we were done with dinner that I decided to sit on the bed and journal before getting ready for bed. Lidia came in and took down the mosquito netting above the bed and wrapped it all around the bed. I asked if we really needed that, and she said yes. Within 10 minutes I saw why. I could not have been more thankful to have the netting when the monster bugs came in. I finally convinced my roommate that we *had* to turn off the light. The trouble was, I hadn’t gone to the bathroom or changed into my pajamas – but I wasn’t about to leave the protection of the mosquito net with the bugs flying everywhere.

Once we turned off the light, the bugs calmed down, but it was a couple of hours before I got the courage to get up and go to the bathroom and change clothes. Even so I had a hard time sleeping. I tried playing word games on my phone, which is how I get sleepy at home, but the light from the phone got the bugs stirred up again, so that wasn’t going to happen. I may have gotten three hours of sleep if I’m lucky.

I vowed not to make the same mistake again tonight, so as soon as we got back for the evening, I showered, dressed, repacked the suitcase, and put the mosquito netting over everything on my bed and the bed where I was storing my stuff – all while it was still light. I guess everyone who travels to developing countries has a crazy bug story to tell, and now I’ve got mine.

Anyway, today was service day. We painted a church and installed a biodigester on one of the local farms. It was fun and also good to be of use to the people here. The group seems to be gelling pretty well and getting along. One thing I’ve found in life is that the quickest way to really get to know people is to 1) live with them, 2) work with them, or 3) travel with them. People are starting to get more comfortable with each other which is good because it takes less effort to get along. I’ve enjoyed the smaller group at the home stays where we’ve had a chance to talk more with just a few people about matters of substance. Becca was our Spanish speaker in the group and really stepped up. It’s also been nice talking more to Leesha and Carla.

I have really enjoyed seeing the farms, especially how the farmers integrate and use everything. That’s the idea of the biodigester – to put the manure to use in cooking food. Both farms I saw do a great job putting together food scraps for the animals. I did see a few things on both farms that concerned me. Both had dogs tied up by themselves in the back. At one the dog is kept tied up to watch the tilapia pond. The other had two dogs tied up by themselves – one a little cockerpoo that needed a shampoo and trim as bad as any dog I’ve seen.

All these dogs did have dog houses and plenty of food. But dogs are pack animals. They are evolved to be social. It’s really not fair to them to keep them so solitary all the time – if they don’t have a dog pack, then humans are their pack, and they should be kept with us. Of course some people in the U.S. tie up dogs alone, and sometimes forget to feed them, which Mario said happens here too. In some cases at home, the neglect gets so bad that humane agents take the animals – one of my friends runs an agency responsible for this in rural counties outside of Columbus, and the things he sees are terrible.

While the welfare of dogs that I saw at the farms here was certainly better than what my humane agent friend deals with in the U.S., dogs and cats don’t seem to be considered part of the family in Costa Rica. Apparently it’s not part of the culture. I wish it were, but those sorts of norms take a long time to develop and a long time to change. We asked Lidia if they would ever consider bringing their dog in the house, and the answer was a definitive no. She seemed a little surprised when I showed a photo of my cats sitting on the bed with my husband. This is a common occurrence at our house but would never happen here. I don’t think it’s something they can relate to.

Of course as people establish close relationships with their pets, they start thinking about their relationships with other animals. Some people call this anthropomorphism, but I really don’t think it can be dismissed so easily. Animals, especially mammals, have evolved the same structures in their brains as we do to create emotions, and they form the same attachments to people and to each other – as well as the same dislikes, fears, jealousies, etc. Anyone who pays attention to animals can see this. On the other hand, the welfare I saw for farm animals in Costa Rica is much better than for most animals at industrial farms in the United States. So every culture has its pluses and minuses.

Service day photos