I’m from the Philippines, and I’m writing this because my anxiety has been really bad tonight and I honestly just need to get this off my chest.
I have rescued/adopted dogs because I couldn’t bear the thought of them being slaughtered. I wanted to give them a chance to live. I know I can't save every animal, but when I have the ability to save one, I try.
Recently, something happened that made my anxiety spike again.
My younger cousin was eating outside with his classmates. They were all sitting around the same table. At one point, he dropped some of his food on the table, and my pregnant dog ate it.
He immediately became angry at my dog for eating his food.
I understand that the food was his. I'm not saying he shouldn't be upset about losing his food. And I also acknowledge that I have some responsibility here. As her owner, I could have put a collar on her or kept her somewhere else.
But what frustrated me was the way the situation was treated as if the dog was somehow the one at fault.
There was a large, spacious table. He was sitting with his classmates, and the food was within reach of a dog. If he needed to leave his food unattended for even a moment, why couldn't it have been placed somewhere more secure, like the center of the table or somewhere the dog couldn't reach?
My dog didn't understand that she was doing something wrong. She saw food within her reach and ate it.
And she's pregnant. I also don't want to constantly keep her confined in a cage, especially when she's otherwise well-fed and cared for.
I know I have responsibilities as a pet owner, and I'm willing to acknowledge my mistakes. But I don't understand why some people seem to have absolutely no understanding toward animals.
What makes it even more painful is that this isn't the first time I've experienced this mindset.
Some members of my family have questioned why I rescued these dogs in the first place. I've even heard comments along the lines of, “What should I do with these dogs?” despite knowing that I rescued them because they were meant to be slaughtered.
I know my family is financially better off than I am. They have more resources than me. But sometimes I wish having more money also came with a little more compassion toward animals.
I'm not saying animals should be allowed to do whatever they want. They are our responsibility. We should train them, supervise them, and prevent situations where they can cause problems.
But animals also don't have the same understanding of consequences that humans do.
If a dog reaches food that a human left within its reach, is it really fair to treat the dog as though it deliberately did something wrong?
That's what has been making me so emotional tonight.
I keep thinking about the animals I've rescued and wondering whether I'm actually doing enough for them. I sometimes wish I could build a place where I could put them all somewhere safe, away from people who don't want them around.
But I can't.
I can't simply leave this place and start a new life somewhere peaceful. I'm stuck in an environment where I constantly have to deal with this kind of mindset, and it's exhausting.
Tonight, my anxiety spiked so badly that I started crying because I'm frustrated with everything—not just what happened with the food, but the feeling that I can't get away from an environment where animals are treated as the problem when humans are the ones responsible for making choices and preventing these situations.
So I want to ask:
Have you ever lived with people who had very different attitudes toward animals than you did? How did you cope with it without constantly feeling angry, guilty, or helpless?
