Animal Care – Where Do We Stand?

Animal care is the well being of non-human inhabitants. In formal terms, animal welfare is an attempt to achieve better standards of animal care, better exploitation and abuse prevention, better use of animals for research and teaching, and more humane handling and rehabilitation of animals. Animal welfare is also the application of what we know about animals to make it better, faster, stronger, and more useful to humans.

Animal welfare comes in many forms. It is human-based, with animal care involving animals as a way of trying to improve human life. It is animal-focused, using animals to help humans in specific ways, such as in research, teaching, and rehabilitation. It is vegetarian, with an emphasis on making sure animals don’t suffer for humans. Finally, it is environmental, trying to make sure that animals aren’t subjected to conditions that would cause harm in any other way.

Humane treatment of animals is at the heart of animal care, and an advocate of animal rights. While it might be hard to imagine anything more humane than letting a dog roam freely, let alone letting it have the freedom to be a bit destructive. However, there are some areas where animal welfare and the law clash, such as with battery farming, which is an inhumane manner of farming where cows are made to be fed hormones, pesticides, and other chemicals. Veganism is another example of how a person can be both animal lover and vegan without being a vegetarian, because some vegans refuse to eat animal products and utilize eggs, milk, and other dairy products. By thinking carefully and acting responsibly, animal welfare can benefit animals, people, and the environment.