Sometimes people who support animal rights, or animal charities are criticized for caring more about animals than people. As long as there are starving kids, you shouldn't spend money on pets, or rescues, or causes, or Cecile the lion.
But I don't think you can approach charity with this sort of dry, utilitarian reasoning. Are we really going to take all the suffering of the world and rank it? And then only pay attention to the group at the top, while we ignore everyone else?
If there's a stray cat in your neighborhood, are you going to ignore it, or bring it to the SPCA to probably be put down, because how awful to spend money on extra cat food, and constructing a little hidey-hole for the stray--how awful to spend that money on a cat than on a child!
Someone on facebook the other day was criticizing the cities that have banned the sale of new animals, complaining that such decisions are unfair to good breeders, and take away people's choices, and then they're going to order online. (I don't know how you order a puppy online.) He finished it by criticizing people for making decisions based on emotions.
But we can't and should not ignore our emotions. Tolstoy tells a fable about a king who wants to learn when's the best time to begin something, the right people to listen to, and the most important thing to do. By the end of the fable he learned:
...there is only one time that is important -- Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary man is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with any one else: and the most important affair is, to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!'
I first read this in a kid's book, and think about it all the time. The most important person is the person in front of me. We're allowed to feel love and compassion for anyone, any creature, who crosses our path. It's good for us, and it's good for the world. Do I have a big scholarly argument to back me up? No. This is instinct. And the result of reading about Ayn Rand.
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