Caring about animal welfare is not a “white person thing,” Or at least it shouldn’t be. One of my favorite lyricists, Common, questions in his song “The People,” “why white folk focus on dogs and yoga.” Aptly named, “The People,” puts this in the context of the struggle that Common’s fellow African Americans and ultimately, people in general have faced.
This is a general argument that I’ve heard from friends and peers here at HLS when they discover my interests in animal welfare. Only people with a certain amount of privilege, perhaps white people, can afford to care about how animals are treated. Why should I care about how orcas at SeaWorld are being treated when black people are unabashedly murdered by law enforcement and refugees throughout the world are struggling to find asylum?
While I very much understand where such people are coming from, I believe that they are unnecessarily creating a binary. I don’t have to care about animals to the exclusion of people and vice versa. While I hope to help animals with my J.D., I also hope to use it to help people gain access to medicines through an altered patent system.
Ultimately, however, we do choose to focus on things that our experiences have lent themselves to. Having grown up with my best friend, my dog Sheeba, I grew fond of dogs and animals in general at a young age. I grew from valuing animals as a source of comfort and therapy to valuing animals as individuals who have their own emotions and personalities.
However, for those who haven’t had such experiences or aren’t concerned with the treatment of animals, particularly when pitting it against the struggles faced by human beings, there are anthropocentric reasons to care about the treatment of animals. The philosophy behind animal welfare has dealt with the subject from various points of view, including one that looks at animal welfare as inextricably intertwined with human welfare.
Promoting compassion towards animals is not incompatible with promoting compassion towards our fellow humans. The same factory farm that brutally mistreats its animals is likely to also outrageously exploit its workers. The same man who beats his pets also beats his wife. And a growing realization of the number of dogs murdered by police officers during drug busts and arrests underscores the pervasiveness of police brutality. There is no question that human violence and animal abuse have a deep connection. Hatred, racism and fear are manifested as violence, discrimination and exploitation- be it towards humans or animals.
My goal is not to convince everyone to go out and advocate for animal welfare, but to convey the message that animal welfare and human welfare are not mutually exclusive. Not only can people care about both animal and human well-being, but affinity groups and animal welfare groups have many goals and many enemies in common. There is ultimately great opportunity and potential for collaboration that must be acted on.