Animal Cruelty and not being able to help everyone all the time

There are days when I scroll through my social media on my phone, sometimes when I am cozy and comfy in my bed, when amidst all the cheerful pictures, a photo will show up on my feed displaying the most horrific animal cruelty cases.

Two come to mind, and I will spare you the gory details. In one, a man who owned several animals, brutally assaulted them. Most recently, a series of photos of 70+ dogs were locked in a house in horrible conditions and were denied the most basic of needs. The dogs were rescued over the holidays by the Animal Rescue Corps.

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These are only two situations out of many, but the photos posted by rescue organizations haunt me. I see expressive faces of these animals, fearful of the humans who came to their aid, because they were taught by their owners that people are meant to be feared and distrusted.

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I have seen many more cases since then, and I am well aware that there are thousands upon thousands of cases of animal cruelty that occur every day in the US and abroad. I donate what I can to the organizations that are working hard to rescue the animals in these cases and then I curl up in a ball and feel sad, and if I’m being honest, completely heartbroken and hopeless.

After all, what can one person do to resolve the abject misery of millions of animals around the world?

I give myself a moment to mourn these animals and their tragic lives, then unfurl myself as I remember the people who are working hard every day to save animals.

There are hundreds of nonprofit organizations, who strive to make life better for animals because they believe, like I do, that despite the overwhelming number of animals in need, it is better to try and take care of as many animals as possible because it can make all the difference. Just because we can’t save every single animal every time, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try.

So the next time you (myself included) see a sad photo posted by an animal welfare organization, the attitude is to give what you can, even if that is a small amount, and rejoice in the fact that people exist who want to make the world a better place for animals and their humans.

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