Urban Animal Suffering
Cats are dancing in the street, chasing trouble on four feet. All day long, so wild and free. No, no, no, this cannot be.
Suffering of farmed animals, suffering of wild animal, suffering of urban animal. I don't want it to sound like I'm saying it's all suffering, there's a lot of fun as well, but it is urgent to address the bad and evil.
Urban animals are free animals living in human dominated environments, like pigeons, hedgehogs, insects, mice, cats, and so. The field of urban animal suffering reduction can also deal with wild animals passing through urban areas (e.g. migrating birds), or animals living between the urban and the wild.
Urban animals sit in the middle of the human domination spectrum; they are not confined like farmed animals, but not living in an evolutionary designed environment like wild animals. They live in an environment very accurately crafted, but not for them 😔. Humanity doesn't recognize we live in a multi-species society, hence animals interests are a neglected to non-existent part of city planning, infrastructure, and architecture.
What do Urban Animals Suffer From? think about cats, most of them die very young, starve to death, suffer from disease, get hit by cars. Same for pigeons, hangdogs, and many other urban animals. Like wild animals, most urban animals don't have any "services" to help them, they are akin to living in a state which collapsed with no social and security services. Sometimes the solutions for the urban animals' plight are surprisingly easy!
We are so used to the urban environment we were born into and mostly never left (only for a short periods) that we may miss how insane it is. Think about roads, they are free animal Slaughterhouses; Human transportation is one of the most the violent technologies invented, and there is a very good chance you have run over a mammal, bird, or reptile during the last year.
Just think what would happen if Ekho had a evil twin, AnEkho, who is actually not "evil" in the regular sense of the word, he is just completely indifferent. AnEkho would have build such a crazy transportation system, an alien transportation which is destroying humanity.
Why is it important? urban animals seem like an effective group to work on from a macro perspective because they are very neglected, one can have potentially a lot of influence, and they are a bridge to other groups. For example, work on urban animals can create precedents of friendly designed environments, deepen sympathy to wild animals and blur the line between wild animals and urban animals.
How Can We help? There is so much to do for urban animals, e.g. creating a group of "Architects for Animals", or an umbrella global non profit, doing research, promotion of tech solutions, and so much more.
