Yesterday, I was involved in a discussion with a woman who lived in Tunesia for 5 years, and now had to return to Germany for family matters. She mentioned the cats living in Tunesia, ferals mostly, who are occasionally fed by people but usually eat the garbage. The life span of these cats is - of course - short. She thinks that's the way it should be, and that natural selection is a good thing (she's referring to herself as an animal lover and believes animals have a soul). She believes a cat should live free and rather die before ending up in an animal shelter.
I told her about the trap spay neuter release-organisations like Cat Care in Kassel, who help to reduce the amount of wildly born kittens, and she thought that's an ridiculous and unnatural effort and a waste of money. She didn't believe me when I told her about the suffering and dying in the feral populations, and when I mentioned viral diseases, she answered that this subject was only pushed by the pharmaceutical industry.
At that point of the conversation, I got upset and mentioned people I know (PT people mostly) who give literally their last cent to help cats, but with that, I obviously touched a sore spot. She argued she would never understand why people from so called rich countries (like the US or Germany) would spend money on animals instead of giving it to the poor. It's true that many families are living in poverty now in Germany, and so they do in other countries as well, so I can kind of relate to her point, but I also believe that animals on this planet need our help also.
I then made a radical statement: Told her that my sympathy for the human race is limited anyway, as it's the one species that managed in only a couple of centuries to bring our nature totally out of balance. No other species did so much damage to Mother Earth and abuses all live on this planet, just for their own greed. Many species are already gone, and many more will follow, not from natural selection and evolution but from our irresponsible acting. And I told her that's why I'm happy when there are people now who have realized what's going on and who try to give back at least a little bit to the animals.
When I finished, she was like "Uhm, well, you're kind of right with that", and changed the subject...
Kirsten
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