Why is it important?

Neglectedness: All animal issues are extremely neglected, but urban animal (not including cats and dogs) are especially overlooked. There is more work on factory farming, and reducing wild animal suffering has some very professional Effective Altruism oriented organizations working on, though only a handful. Even for cats and dogs, for whom local initiatives are numerous, I didn't find an effective global thinking non-profit that tries to systematically change their lives on a macro scale. Urban animals deserve better.

The influence activists can have on municipalities, and their ability to create change within the urban environments where they live, seems on the surface much greater than their ability to change farming or the wild for good.

Urban animals are a bridge: We usually notice cats and pigeons, but so many other species share the streets with us. People actually come in contact with them daily, and this create immense opportunities:

• Urban animals can be a bridge for compassion to all the animals and for animal personhood, because they are not behind close doors. People can get to know them personally, and their stories are much easier to track and tell, no one is hiding them like with factory farmed animals. When individual stories of urban animals are told, humans heart reaches out. Ruti the hyena is only one example.
• Urban animal friendly designed facilities, streets, and landscapes can serve as a living examples of environments crafted for the good of animals, precedents for a welfare space for all.
• Urban animals can help us understand how to reduce wild animal suffering, and serve as a bridge for sympathy with wild animals, as both groups free and in need of help. They also blur the line between categories, since some animals live both in cities and in the wild, and wild animals often cross through urban areas.