Animal Voices (Part I)

In the first of a six-part series, Animals Asia’s Animal Welfare Director Dave Neale discusses how humans assign value to animals.

Q: Some people consider animals to be of less importance and value than humans. How do you combat that kind of thinking in your work?  

Everybody places animals on their personal moral ladder, usually with animals which we see as closer to humans higher than others. Therefore, there is often a large gap between the way in which we look at animals close to the top as opposed to those closer to the bottom of our moral scale.

We address this through our animal welfare education programmes in both China and Vietnam. The aim is to bridge this theoretical gap between people and animals, humans and non-humans by relating peoples’ lives to animals’ lives. We’ve been doing it by getting people to put themselves in the shoes of the animals.

For example, many animals live in similar social structures to ourselves. They require the social bonds that we have, and they need these relationships in order to live a happy life. This is no different to you and me. We don't want to live isolated lives, we require people around us, we build and maintain relationships which are essential to our happiness - and many animals are no different.

Through our welfare education work, we highlight these points and relate them to our treatment of farm animals or animals kept in captivity. From my experiences in China and Vietnam, people are often very surprised to hear that the lives of animals are not so different to our own. This helps generate an interest in animals for who they are rather than how they can be used.

We’re not trying to say animals should be exactly equal to humans, but let’s try to give them the respect they deserve and not just think of them as sources of food or entertainment. In so doing, we can help reduce the theoretical gap that we each develop on our personal moral ladders - the first step on the way to hopefully changing peoples’ attitudes and more importantly their behaviour towards all animals.

As Animals Asia’s Animal Welfare Director, David Neale works to improve the plight of animals in zoos and safari parks and increase overall veterinary and welfare standards in countries in Asia. His prolific career has taken him all over the world, rescuing animals in Bolivia, rescuing and rehoming hens in England and promoting animal welfare education in schools and universities in China. Since joining Animals Asia in 2002, David has travelled extensively across the continent helping to rescue moon bears in Vietnam carrying out zoo and circus investigations and working with zoo staff on welfare improvement programmes.

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