do you know why animal welfare will never get better? it is because it relies on humans and we are stuck in a vicious circle of human issues. we can't get past our ignorance...our arrogance that somehow we are actually better. i don't mean just better than the animals...i mean we think we are better than most other humans too.
until we realize that we don't have all of the answers, that we aren't necessarily smarter than joe blow, that our arrogence in looking down our noses really hasn't accomplished all that much...we are hooped and so are the animals who need us so.
i have been doing this for more than 20 years and i have less answers now than i did way back when.
for 20 years i have been fighting the same battles over and over again...new names, different faces, same game plan....make it thru the day, help as many as i can, try not to burn any bridges and tomorrow may have some progress made.
that's the problem with being a dinosaur, you live in the never ending circle where the end just doesn't exist and you have been around the same block over and over again.
the problem is every time you turn around there is an animal in need and all of us working so hard every day can't even come close to meeting all of the need.
but hey that doesn't matter because i can console myself with..i am better than x, y and z.
except i am really not better...i still make mistakes, i still don't really know it all, and the problems and their solutions are in reality, so much bigger than me.
its not about helplessness or hopelessness or those dreaded words..compassionate burnout.
it's about accepting the fact that one person, one group, one society, one organization can't do it all....can't do enough.
we are outnumbered 100,000 to 1..try winning that war...it absolutely cannot be done.
so what do i do?
i don't know.
the only thing i can think of is to keep doing...one animal at a time..on bad days maybe 2 or 3. and try to keep hope floating that one day humanity will get better...if not now, maybe for the generation that comes after me.
Val, your answer is so true. We do what we can---we can't save the world
but we do our part in various ways and that's all that's expected of us.
Blessings on SAINTS and a Thanksgiving full of peace.