Education is Crucial- Final Reflection

There were several aspects of human-animal interactions that I had not considered prior to this course. Despite belief, there are numerous ways in which people interact with animals and in some cases they may be less apparent due to the indirect discretion of these practices. Because of this, I was blind to considering medical research utilizing certain animal species, as a mode of human-animal interaction. Although I was aware of the several positive human-animal interactions, I was uneducated in the possible negative human-animal interactions that exist as problems within our modern world today. But, because the rest of the public is naive to these aspects of our interactions as I once was, I believe education to be a crucial facet in informing our society properly today and changing existing perceptions. Offering opportunities for education to the public will allow for more informed decisions as well as knowledgeable stances on controversial topics.

Although individual perspective is extremely important, it is also important to gradually combine our positions to create opposition or support for certain circumstantial conditions such as in the case of controversial topics. Educated debates would ultimately aid in solving many of the issues we have in the animal world today. Because our society has grown to heavily depend on animals in our everyday lives, it is crucial to maintain respect and animal welfare within heavily animal-influenced communities and practices such as meat production or even clothing material production. To educate the public on these crucial matters would decrease animal neglect and cruelty and consequently increase the humane treatment of animals making it an even more widely accepted norm. This would make a large impact in animal entertainment forms such as the extremely controversial topic of animal use in circuses. Because much research has gone into demonstrating the intelligence of animals such as elephants and tigers, their abilities to feel emotions would make a large impact on communities of peoples everywhere and growing opposition may eventually eliminate the use of animals for this purpose. 

Just as this course did for me, individuals everywhere would be exposed to truthful yet informative material that could assist them in their future stances and decisions. The human-animal interactions that occur today, or will occur in the future, will bring both rewards for positive interaction such as unbreakable bonds of companionship and love, and heavier consequences for negative interactions such as the unjust and unruly treatment of animals that are unfortunately seen today in every aspect of our world.

"Animal Connections- Humane Education"

Sources: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpXqDEGjwYg