People should treat animals like humans with respect and dignity like you would a child, said a humane association board member.
“I have respect for all animals,” said Lewis Carinci, Wanderers' Rest Humane Association Inc. in Canastota, New York board president. Hunting and farming isn’t necessarily wrong; it’s just different treatment of animals. Everybody’s different and I will not disrespect anybody’s opinion as long as animals aren’t abused, he added.
However, hunting and farming don’t provide equality to animals. They’re used for food, clothing, testing, and more. According to animalequality.net, “We need to stop thinking of them as just resources, and to start viewing them for who they are: individual sentient beings whose lives deserve to be respected and valued.”
“Food” animals can be treated poorly and abused during their life before they are slaughtered in one of many ways. Some mistreatments include chickens having their beaks cut off without anesthesia, pigs having their tails cut off without anesthesia, and cows repeatedly being artificially inseminated to produce more milk. Some slaughter methods include shooting, suffocation, and gassed or minced alive. (For more information on this, check out Earthlings.)
“We’re animals ourselves, so why should we be put above other animals?” said WRHA Animal Care Coordinator Sabrina Dalinsky. “We all deserve the same rights, the same level of respect.” Showing others how much animals are like humans and working toward getting out that public knowledge could help with animal rights and equality, she added.
A lot of companion animals already have respect, but wildlife and micro-animals aren’t always viewed the same, Dalinsky said. “We’re all animals, so who says that we deserve a right to this earth more than they do?”
They should be treated kindly, said WRHA receptionist Delaine Stauring. They’re not people but they’re live beings that hurt, have feelings, and love. “They should be treated that way, all of them, from the littlest snail to the biggest elephant,” she added.
Humane treatment of animals would be treating them like we humans want to be treated, Dalinsky said. If they’re in captivity, they should be given the best possible care. We should make sure they’re all healthy, whether they’re companion, zoo, or farm animals, she added.
Farm animals deserve equal rights. Chickens are packed extremely tightly into trucks to be taken to their destination where they’re used for eggs and slaughtered for meat.
“It’s pretty sad,” Dalinsky said.
Recently equality for animals, specifically pit bull dogs, was questioned in Montreal, Canada. A pit bull ban was ordered, but later suspended on Oct. 5, 2016. According to thedodo.com, the ban deemed all pit bulls unadoptable, and therefore, would cause them to be euthanized.
“It’s ridiculous,” Carinci said about the ban. “There are so many techniques on training them.”
“They shouldn’t judge the whole breed on a few bad animals, and it probably wasn’t those animals’ fault that they were the way they were,” Stauring said.
“There are just so many pit bulls. Obviously pit bulls are going to be the ones that you hear about that have more of the aggression because there are more of them,” Dalinsky said. You don’t really hear about it when other types of dogs attack someone.
“It’s sad that a specific breed is targeted,” she added.
“A lot of times owners don’t socialize the animals properly,” Dalinsky said. Aggressive animals could be because of owners not fully knowing how to control them, but also because some animals are bred in the wrong situation and have an aggressive side, she added.
There are many places in the central New York area to get dogs spayed and neutered. According to cusepitcrew.org, getting your pet fixed can help prevent bites, result in better behavior, and help your dog live longer.
There are times animals at WRHA have to be put down. It could be because they’re very sick or are court-ordered to be euthanized, Carinci said.
Wanderers’ Rest Humane Association Inc. is the only shelter in Madison County for cats and dogs. “The staff works tirelessly and has a passion that is unbelievable,” Carinci said. The shelter’s role is to take in as many animals as possible and find them a “forever home,” he added.
The goal is to help stray and unwanted animals, Stauring said.
“We want to find good homes for the animals that come to the shelter and provide the best quality care for them,” Dalinsky said.
The shelter offers both adoption and foster programs. There are photos and biographies of the animals online to help them get adopted faster, Carinci said. Dogs are typically adopted within 13 to 15 days of being brought to the shelter, while cats tend to take a little longer.
People are able to return the animals they adopt. If the animals don’t get along with the other household pets, the owners can bring the adopted ones back. “We want all animals in the home to get along,” Carinci said.
To reiterate, all animals deserve equality, Dalinsky said. We need to keep providing public knowledge of abuse of mistreatment of animals to continue the fight for their rights.
