Over recent decades, animal advocacy efforts have been mainly geared towards domesticated animals – including farmed, laboratory and companion animals – and with good reason. Every year across the globe, approximately 70 billion animals are reared for food and 115 million animals used in laboratory experiments. But, what about all the other animals? Wild animals, liminal (intelligent) animals or even invertebrates? If we adopt a narrower view of animal welfare and advocacy, we are forgetting about beings that do not live in our homes, such as urban rats or pigeons, but with whom we share cities. We are also ignoring invertebrates, such as wild pollinators, who contribute greatly to our shared ecosystems. For instance, in the UK, wild pollinators pollinate 85-95% of the country’s insect-pollinated crops, whilst honeybees are only responsible for 5-15%. Yet, there are way more efforts deployed to protect domesticated honeybees, than efforts directed towards the well-being of wild pollinators. If we disregard these animals, then their suffering – primarily inflicted by human activities – is callously ignored. Pesticides impair the navigational capacities of honeybees, as well as of other wild pollinators. These substances also harm these insects’ hormonal health. Anticoagulant rodenticides leave urban rats bleeding to death, over the course of several days. The ancient Greek saying “out of sight, out of mind” holds all its meaning in this context. If these animals are not more widely represented in campaigns or in animal advocacy efforts, they will not be considered worthy of an adequate level of…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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South Africa Today – Environment
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