How To Help Animals – 18 Simple Ways To Be Kinder To Animals Every Day

Do you want to help animals and stand up for animal welfare in your everyday life? Then you have a great attitude and you've come to the right place! Whether it's guide dogs and avalanche dogs, horse and dolphin therapy or simply the calming velvet paws of a cat: animals support us humans - and we have a duty to help animals too.

Every day we have the chance to give something back to them! Animal exploitation and cruelty to animals are unfortunately still the norm in our society. Animals are mainly exploited and mistreated for our clothes, our food, our entertainment or even for our laboratory experiments - and there are many reasons for this: Habit, peer pressure, hatred or greed, for example.

In this article, I would therefore like to introduce you to my best ideas and show you how you can protect animals in your everyday life and actively or even passively promote animal welfare. Let's go!

18 ideas & tips: How can I help animals in everyday life?

I'm very sorry to start with a picture like this. But it is by far not the worst photothat is available to me. But if you have the opportunity to show these images in the spirit of enlightenment, you should do so.

And perhaps they motivate you even more now to help animals. Now we continue with animal welfare tips for everyday life.

1. eat a plant-based diet

Our Eating habits are to blame for the scene in the picture you just saw. Factory farming and the increased consumption of meat in itself unfortunately also massively accelerate the environmental problems of our time. Whether climate change, Water shortage or the Deforestation.

By giving up meat or eating an entirely vegan diet, you can above all Cows, pigs, sheep, chickens but also many other farm animals and protect them from psychological and emotional suffering.

I can warmly recommend the Online course "Going vegan made easy "*.

Here are also some Contributionsthat will give you a good start:

• Vegan living - tips for the start
• Why don't vegans drink milk?
• Shape nutrition sustainably

2. avoid clothing with fur, down and feathers

Real fur and faux fur are hardly distinguishable. (see Fur industry)

In addition, many Garments made from down (lower plumage of ducks and geese) or feathers. All this provides animal suffering.

If you want to prevent animal suffering, then you consume sustainable fashion and take care of your clothes so that they last as long as possible.

Tip: You can also get more input about this in the article about the decelerated Slow Fashion.

3. check your cosmetic products

In many cosmetic products hide not only Microplastics, but also animal componentssuch as fish scales, milk and eggs. Palm oil is also contained in many products and thus costs the orangutan its own habitat, for example.

In addition many products torturously tested on animals, before they go to market.

Pay attention to Ingredients and seals on the back of cosmetics. The PETA logo on the packaging, for example, is an indication that you are not supporting animal suffering with your purchase.

4. work as a volunteer at the animal shelter

Things are going haywire in German animal shelters! Support is basically needed everywhere. If you want to help animals, you can volunteer at an animal welfare organization or an animal shelter in your area.

Be it by using the Cleaning cages or dogs, cats and other animals simply your Attention you give. Walkers and cat petting are always wanted!

Tip: You might even find a permanent job in animal welfare at the sustainable job portal. Take a look!

5. adopt animals

Anyone who has ever been to an animal shelter knows how much the animals long for a new home. And if you too are longing for a pet, then just pop into your nearest animal shelter, instead of looking for a breeding. Alternatively, you can also use a Adopt dog from animal shelter. That's how we did it and would do it again.

In my opinion, there is no better feeling than suddenly seeing a shy, sad animal again. lively, happy and infinitely grateful to see.

6. report and rescue injured or orphaned animals

If you observe direct or indirect animal cruelty, then you should report your observations to the responsible Veterinary Office or an animal welfare organization.

If you see an injured, wild animal (for example after a wildlife accident), then report it immediately to the Police or directly to the responsible Gamekeeper:in.

7. make your garden a paradise full of life

A garden pond, a Sandariumsome piles of leaves and dead wood, lots of wildflowers: these are the ingredients for a Mecca of biodiversity on your own property.

If you have the opportunity, then Design your garden sustainably and offer insects, frogs, birds and many other native animals Accommodation and food. Already with a wild corner in garden you help animals and benefit from the soothing sound of birdsong every day.

Tip: You may also be interested in the environmental problem of the Species extinction. Because this is a consequence of human overexploitation of nature. More about this - and how you can Stop species extinction you can find out in the linked blog articles.

8. support animal welfare organizations with a donation

Non-profit organizations such as animal welfare societies receive Unfortunately, hardly any state subsidies worth mentioning. That's why they depend on every penny they can get to finance their work. Even with a small donation you can help animals.

You can find a nice overview and the appropriate explanations in the article about the best animal welfare organizations.

9. adopt an animal

Self, if you do not have the time and moneyIn order to keep a pet, you can help animals with a simple animal sponsorship, for example. For example, you can support an animal shelter in the care and maintenance of a particular animal.

Notice: Do you know what a flight sponsor is yet? You can be one. Namely, by taking over a short sponsorship for an animal on a return flight after a vacation abroad, which is rescued from bad conditions and handed over to an animal welfare organization after arrival.

10. observe wild animals instead of disturbing them

Just because a baby fox sits lonely in tall grass doesn't mean it needs help. As long as the animal is not orphaned or injuredyou can assume that it is waiting there for its mother.

So don't interfere with nature unnecessarily, but prefer to observe from a safe distance what is happening before you take any further steps.

11. don't believe everything hunters say

Not all hunters are the same - and not everyone knows as much about what happens in nature as they think they do. Here are therefore a few typical and quickly said arguments from hunters¹which, however, are simply not true:

• "Animals do not suffer when they are shot": This cannot be said as a blanket statement. Some animals flee shot and suffer an agonizing death in the following hours or days.
• "Hunting is essential for disease control": As hunting destroys family groups, there is increased migration and thus also faster disease transmission of animals. It is therefore an instrument of promotion rather than control.
• "Without hunting, the number of wild animals would get out of hand": In fact, the number of wild animals would even decrease without hunters. Regular hunting causes wild animals to reproduce faster, as their life expectancy decreases.

Is hunting animals at all still in keeping with the times? It can definitely make sense to simply question what purpose hunting even serves these days.

Tip: At animal welfare blog by the way, you can always find new inspiration to do even more for animals.

12. go to animal welfare demonstrations

Demonstrations are a good way to get involved in the fight for the protection of animals. For example, support the "Alliance - Berlin against animal testing" or make at the "Animal Rights March" and give the animals a voice.

Just as well you can simply Organize an event yourself! This could be a vegan stall at a village festival, for example, but also a concert or a movie night with vegan documentaries be

13. bring animals through the winter

Birds such as blue tits or robins, for example, need our help during frosty periods, as not enough food findable is. Create in your Bird friendly garden so also have a food and drinking water point that you fill up regularly. It's so easy to actively help animals.

14. inform yourself before you get it wrong

If you inform yourself once again to be on the safe side before skipping, you can help animals and give them may also save lives.

A healthy fawn hiding in the grass you should leave alone, since the mother will probably be back soon. You should not feed ducks, as they could suffer asphyxiation from swollen bread. And You must not put milk for hedgehogsbecause they have lactose intolerance, which can lead to diarrhea and even death.

15. start and sign petitions

If you want to make a difference and get a lot of people involved, you should have a Launch online petition. Such a Signature campaign Experience has shown that this works particularly well when you stand up for wildlife.

For example, get involved against the Maltreatment of animals for entertaining performances in zoos. Or advocate for Pigs in factory farming larger crate stalls get

16. refrain from animal activities and souvenirs when traveling.

Animals are often misused as tourist attractions. Monkey tamers, elephant riding or Snake charmer for example. Help the animals by not supporting such things in the first place and, if necessary, reporting them to the relevant organizations.

You also need to take a closer look at the souvenirs. In many places Ivory necklaces or Crocodile leather bags sold. This is usually illegal and importing such things can land you in prison.

Tip: You can find out more about this in the article about sustainable souvenirs.

17. collect garbage from nature

Have you ever thought about collect garbage on vacation? Or simply on a walk pick up a few things in the forestthat don't belong there? You can also do something for the animal world!

For example, you prevent Building a nest for birds from plastic threads strangle ourselves with it. Or that Turtles eat plastic bags and perish as a result.

Plastic waste in the environment is a massive problem! But every positive act, no matter how smallwhich are assigned to the so-called Littering is great and can be implemented very easily and almost incidentally.

Tip: I have a worldwide Facebook group for CleanUps where people around the world pick up trash from the environment and share the actions with others. Feel free to join us! Here you can see the organizers and gladly support also on vacation.

18. point out potential for improvement to manufacturers

If you discover products with animal ingredients or a background in animal testing, don't just move on. Each of us has the chanceto actively help with this, Redesign products.

In such a case, you can simply a friendly e-mail to the manufacturer in which you convey that you would have bought the product without animal involvement. Also One call can help. The more often people point this out to the company in question, the more likely it is to change something.

Tip: By the way, in terms of plastic avoidance, this works great for example with the Replace Plastic App. You use it to scan a barcode of products that are unnecessarily packaged in plastic or contain microplastics. When enough scans have been collected, the manufacturers are informed by the association "Küste gegen Plastik e.V.", which launched this app.

Helping animals: Everyone can do something!

You really can help animals in many different ways. Avoid entertainment shows with animals, eat less or no meat, don't buy clothes made from animal material and take care of animals that need help.

Animal welfare in everyday life is the most humane side you can show. Because Animals are also just emotional creaturesjust like us humans. And I hope that this article has inspired you to do even more for them.

"The world is not an inferior product, and animals are not a fabrication for our use."

Arthur Schopenhauer (more at Animal welfare quotes)

To avoid possible Prejudices against the vegan lifestyle by the way, I can warmly recommend the Book "Vegan is nonsense to the heart. If you like, get it here*.

Do you have any questions or suggestions about animal welfare in everyday life? Then simply write me a comment under this article.

Stay animal-friendly,

PS: Animal welfare is particularly importantbecause the animals have no voice! I will be happy to explain this reason and other motives in more detail in the linked blog post.

Source reference:

1. PETA Deutschland e.V.: The 10 biggest misconceptions about hunting (as of May 2019), available at https://www.peta.de/jagdirrtuemer. [22.09.2024]. ↩︎