The general public has become very affixed to the idea of better rights for animals. "Fight for animal rights!" when they really want more protections for the humane care and treatment of animals in their communities.
Animal rights, by definition, is giving an animal the same rights as a human. One major key issue here is that they cannot consent or be given informed consent on anything. Have you gotten your dog's permission prior to her spay surgery? What about the brand of food you're feeding, did we ask for their consent first?
This is where we run into issues.
Not only does championing animal rights become problematic because of the extremes people will go to, such as making bomb and death threats against shelters that euthanize an animal they feel should have stayed alive, but it causes far more harm to the protections the animals truly have.
Animal welfare is all about providing what is humane and necessary for an animal to thrive, and if they are unable to thrive with basic accomodation there is cause for humane ending of suffering.
Now this is not to say that those with significant medical need cannot have good quality of life with their needs being met, but this must be taken into consideration.
A number of dogs can live fairly normal lives in mobiliity devices, but a number of others would have very poor quality of life if they are in constant, undue pain or are unable to keep clean.
Animal Welfare would see those suffering with difficulty managing needs allowed peace from that suffering, whereas Animal Rigths would prolong that to the bitter end simply because the animal has a "right" to life and medical care to keep it alive.
Animal welfare is about finding the balance between providing care and mitigating suffering.
In an high volume setting, sometimes this mean that the needs of the individual are considered secondary to the needs of the many.
What can this look like? While it is unfortunate, upper respiratory diseases can spread rapidly in a high volume shelter setting. Sadly, in early clinical stages it is impossible to know for certain the difference between a basic cough, influenza, or canine distemper. A shelter has large populations of animals and they have to take into consideration biosecurity and if they allow one dog that is distemper positive to continue care without knowing they could ultimately lose hundreds.
True animal welfare in a shelter setting takes this into consideration. Time is given for the dog to get out into rescue, but if none have the proper avenue to provide care in a safe environment keeping other dogs safe then ultimately euthanasia is what is necessary to protect the many other dogs that could be exposed.
While this is not a utopian reality, it is what is necessary in the current state of crisis pockets in high traffic areas of the country.
This is just the surface and the beginnings of the differences between animal rights and animal welfare. Animal rights would see every animal suffer to the bitter end, outlawing euthanasia and other needed procedures or human intervention.
Simply put, animal rights is about doing whatever you want to an animal so that the person feels better, whereas animal welfare is about doing what is best for that animal no matter how it makes you feel.
Please follow our blog as we will be discussing in depth the intricate differences and how we can better implement animal welfare into the rescue and shelter system. These will be hard topics, but ones that are necessary.
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