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Animal Rights/Vegan Activists' Strategies

Costs of Caring for Abused Animals Are Existential Crises

From Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today
January 2025

Marc Bekoff discusses why global losses of animal well-being should be considered existential crises and provides suggestions for animal caregivers to avoid burnout.

There are many different definitions of the term "existential crisis" and two that I find useful that cover a lot of the ground considered in other definitions are: "...any psychological or moral crisis that causes an individual to ask fundamental questions about human existence." and "a period of anxiety and conflict about purpose and life’s meaning. Some psychologists focus on the existential crisis as a question of identity and whom a person wants to be. Others say it revolves around feelings of responsibility and commitment versus independence and freedom."

While it's very common to read that the increasing severity of climate change and losses in biodiversity have become existential crises, I can't find any discussions of how global and increasing declines in the well-being of nonhuman animals (animals) living on earth, in the air, and underwater can become, or already have become, existential crises. Indeed, research shows that human well-being and nonhuman well-being are tightly linked.¹

In a long and very interesting series of conversations I've bounced this idea off of a number of different people and they agreed that it's about time to put global and increasing losses of animal-being being in the wild, in captivity, in our very homes, in entertainment, and in research into the broad arena of existential crises. Here, I'd like to put forth the idea that declines in animal well-being already are existential crises for many people who care for abused animals and their prevalence is likely to increase in coming years unless we do something now to put an end to the mistreatment of other animals in our diverse relationships and encounters with them.

Compassion fatigue, empathy fatigue, and burnout: The costs of caring

Research has clearly shown that many people who work to save our magnificent planet and/or to make the world a better place for humans and other animals suffer from various psychological conditions including compassion fatigue, empathy fatigue and overarching burnout. Even witnessing or otherwise learning about rampant environmental devastation or widespread animal abuse can have these sorts of unintended effects. However, the extent of these profound side-effects—some call them "collateral damage"—all too often go unnoticed and don't receive the attention they deserve (see note 2 for further discussion). Traumatic compassion fatigue and empathy fatigue often are close neighbors.

Compassion fatigue can be characterized as follows: "People whose professions lead to prolonged exposure to other people's trauma can be vulnerable to compassion fatigue, also known as secondary or vicarious trauma; they can experience acute symptoms that put their physical and mental health at risk, making them wary of giving and caring." Empathy fatigue is "the emotional and physical exhaustion that happens from caring for people day, after day, after day...Over time, we start to see people experiencing a sense of numbness and distancing or difficulty continuing to care.”

While both of these definitions and most others only refer to people taking care of other humans, people who care for nonhumans also suffer from different degrees of compassion and empathy fatigue. Many lose hope and stop doing the very thing they love to do—namely, taking care of nonhumans. Mary and Jonas, two people who have worked incessantly in various situations in which they were caring for abused animals, once told me pretty much the same thing: They simply could not continue putting themselves in these never-ending care-giving situations. It's was killing them and taking a toll on everyone with whom they interacted, human and nonhuman.

Self-care is critical for keeping healthy and active

Here are a few tips that others and I have found useful for avoiding compassion and empathy fatigue and building and maintaining meaningful lives.

• Think positively. Don't let people get you down. I'm not a blind optimist but along with all the "bad"' things there are "good" things happening and that's what kindles and rekindles me, at least. Negativity is a time and energy suck and all of you good people need to keep doing what you are for as long as you can and this means, at least for me, rekindling from time to time and taking deep breaths and enjoying whatever it is I enjoy. The bottom line is take care of yourself so you can do what you do for as long as possible.
  
  
• We are caring people and we don't have to apologize for feeling.
  
  
• Be proactive. We need to look at what's happening and prevent further abuse and not always be "putting out the fires" that have started.
  
  
• Be nice and kind to those with whom you disagree and move on. Sometimes it's just better to let something go, so pick your "battles" carefully and don't waste time and energy. Don't waste time "fighting" people who won't change and don't let them deflect attention from the important work that needs to be done. Don't get in useless "pissing matches" with people who want you to waste precious time and energy fighting them, time and energy that must go into working for animals and earth and peace and justice.v
  
  
• Learn as much as you can about the animals with whom you're working and also how individual personalities figure into how you treat them.
  
  
• Teach the children well, for they are the ambassadors for a more harmonious, peaceful, compassionate, and gentle world.

All in all, follow as many as possible of what I call the "13 P's of rewilding"—being proactive, positive, persistent, patient, peaceful, practical, powerful, passionate, playful, present, principled, proud, and polite. Personally, I work hard, rest hard, and play hard, and to avoid burnout and getting overwhelmed I walk away from my cortex.³

Expanding the definition and arena of existential crises

The mindsets of compassion and empathy fatigue suffered by many people working for animal well-being are, and should be viewed as, existential crises similar to the way many people feel about climate change and losses in biodiversity. By doing so, we can only hope these people will get the care they really need and that they will be able to keep their hopes and dreams alive for long periods of time. Blowing them off as "animal rights activists" or "radicals" is misleading, insulting, and doesn't capture the commitment these people have made to help a wide variety of animals in need.

Little things count when we make humane choices concerning animals and inveterate caregivers need to know they are making large differences in the lives of the animals with whom they work. When this occurs, compassion and empathy fatigue will likely decrease and animals will also benefit, a win-win for all.

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References

Empathy Burnout and Compassion Fatigue Among Animal Rescuers; How Animal Rescuers Are Burning Out Their Empathy; Beating the Burnout While Working For a Compassionate World; Animals and Us: Maintaining Hope and Keeping Our Dreams Alive in Difficult Times.

Why do some people call climate change an “existential threat”? Climate Portal, November 7, 2023. ("The phrase can refer to a literal threat to humanity’s existence, but also to the danger that unchecked climate change can pose to our ways of life and place in the natural world.")

Build a Meaningful Life Helping Animals and Nature. (Carrie Freeman and Melody Paris discuss how to incorporate animal and eco protection into your life in meaningful ways to meet your own life goals, priorities, and interests in big and small ways, syncing up with actions and virtues the world needs from us humans.)

1) The Complexity of the Human–Animal Bond: Empathy, Attachment and Anthropomorphism in Human–Animal Relationships and Animal Hoarding; About One Health ("One Health is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach — working at the local, regional, national, and global levels — with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.")

2) After reading this essay, conservation scientist Dr. Gosia Bryja shared with me her thoughts on the psychological toll that both witnessing and being aware of violence against animals can take on individuals. She wrote: "We can also address the trauma experienced by people who, while not directly involved in animal care, become accidental witnesses to their abuse and killing. For example, in many urban areas, residents are doing their best to peacefully coexist with wild animals, such as black bears. Unfortunately, once these bears are labeled as habituated and thus deemed dangerous, they and even their entire families are often killed by wildlife authorities in the name of public safety. Such unnecessary cruelty leaves many residents deeply shaken and traumatized."

"Importantly, this goes beyond witnessing firsthand the harm done to wild animals. The awareness of widespread violence against animals brought about by hunting, poaching, or government-sanctioned wildlife 'culling,' can also trigger lasting emotional trauma. Here again, it is not only the perpetrated violence that harms the psyche. The fact that such inhumanity is sanctioned, legal, or even celebrated, and that opposing it is ignored, evokes a feeling of alienation from society. A caring person for whom sentience extends beyond humans becomes a stranger in a world that discards interspecies empathy. Powerlessness in the face of profound injustice renders one anxious and morally distressed. It also engenders a sense of futility of any compassionate effort, and this discourages active involvement, further deepening emotional scars."

3) Ma, Lybi, Take a Walk on the Rewild Side (Animal behaviorist Marc Bekoff, Ph.D., wants to save the world.) Psychology Today, November 5, 2014.

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Posted on All-Creatures.org: January 6, 2025
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