Kendra Coulter, Chair of the Department of Labour Studies at Brock University, had a piece recently published in The Conversation about the need to significantly improve the ways animals are treated in society so as to avoid future pandemics.

She writes:

“COVID-19 raises crucial questions about how best to move forward from the pandemic and its many effects. We are reassessing key political and economic assumptions and perceptions of what is possible and desirable.

Basic income guarantees, public child care, loan forgiveness and other programs are laudably being considered as we recognize the fragility and interconnectedness of our socioeconomic web, and grapple with how to prevent future harm.

We also need to take animals seriously. Our families, communities and society include animals. There are inspiring, mutually beneficial and even life-saving ways we engage with other animals. But animal suffering not only harms other species, it endangers our own. This is a significant ethical and moral matter. It is also fundamental to the future of our economic, environmental and physical health.

 This is not about vegans versus omnivores, or pitting cities against rural cultures. This is about humans and the future of life on Earth.”

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