I do have some strong opinions here so please keep in mind that they are just MY opinions, I’m not lecturing anyone.

I view pets as family members that should be treated the way we treat infants and toddlers, you never abandon your infant or toddler and move away do you? Unfortunately, a lot of people treat their pets as an extra that can be discarded anytime; just because pets don’t talk and express their feelings with words doesn’t mean that they don’t really love us and consider us as their parents, they express their feelings with their cute and lovely actions and those who are experienced pet owners will know exactly what I’m talking about.

Pets to me are at the same priority as kids. I am saddened that whenever a natural disaster like a hurricane happens, the evacuations do not include pets. Why? They are also family members.

I also don’t like when dogs are hired in dangerous jobs. I know they have a better capability at detecting if something is wrong but it’s not their job to protect humans from what another human is doing using some human’s invention. I’m talking about guns, bombs…etc. All these were man made, why do we endanger another species to protect us rather than stop making these things at the first place? Or at least restrict ownership of it to the military and police?

I do not support Euthanasia except for two cases: in case of rabies or some other dangerous infectious disease or if it’s going to be for food, otherwise we do not have the right to take a soul without that soul’s consent, it’s the same as murder to me. When an animal is living with a painful condition, it’s tempting to think that you are doing mercy to it by euthanizing it BUT as long as that animal did not leave the planet, it has decided to stay and to adapt to the situation so if we euthanize, we are going against its will.

Egypt has a lot of stray dogs and cats and a lot of Egyptians have this belief that as long as there are still people in need, we should not yet pay attention to animals and help them, instead, we should use the money spent on helping them to help people first.

I of course disagree with that belief and I believe there will always be people in need because humans create their own reality, so as long as there are people who think their well-being is dependent on something outside of them, there will always be people in need. Then should we not ever help animals? Of course not.

This leaves the stray dogs and cats of Egypt in trouble because no one wants to help them or donate to the shelters that help them. And on the other hand, the animals sometimes cause noise in the streets and people complain about it but how does the government handle the situation? The veterinarians of the ministry of agriculture go out to either shoot them or poison them.

The shelters of Egypt then race against the clock to try to save these poor souls. Some are saved and some receive help too late. This poison, I don’t know its name, affects anyone through breathing it and some people who were trying to save the animals got affected by it and died.

In my opinion: humans, by religions, are given higher value because we were given the responsibility to take care of nature, not to be the number one priority; it DOES NOT mean that humans are more important than animals. We are like parents to nature and all other creatures; we were given the privilege to take care of it and to seek the good of ourselves as well as all the other creatures on the planet. Will you make yourself the number one priority before your children? I don’t think so. That’s why I think we should strongly help animals before humans because humans are built to help themselves, they can pull themselves out of any situation especially that when animals need help, they often need help staying alive, that’s all they ask.

ESMA, Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals, is the largest animal shelter in Egypt. They have a dog shelter and a cat shelter. They are in constant need of donations because as I said before not many Egyptians donate to animal shelters. They accept donations and adoption requests from all over the world; they pay for the expenses of that. They have a Facebook page here if you would like to help and support them. 

They also go by a no euthanasia policy and a good example of following that policy is the story of Pinky who was found nearly dead and was paralyzed but managed to make it with the help of ESMA. Read her touching story here.

In conclusion I think that helping animals will help us become more humane because animals can’t tell us what’s wrong with them if they’re sick, but if we try our best we will practice our empathy skills to try to figure out what’s wrong with them and therefore we will become better empathic humans.