Cross-Cultural Blog

I too am a fellow animal lover. I own two cats and two dogs and have to stop and pet any dog that I come across when taking a walk. While I definitely think that animal rights issues are important, isn't Egypt plagued with more pressing issues? I am not that well read on the current events in your country, but I do know that a lot of militant groups daily insight unruliness. Just yesterday 11 European hostages were released after being contained for 10 days. Shouldn't these more pressing issues concerning human rights, justice and maintaining general order take priority over Animal Rights? An issue that many would just view as trivial.

Isn't every nation plagued with issues "more pressing" than animals rights? That is, human-centered issues? The U.S. economy is threatening to crash, with global implications; the War in Iraq grinds on and on; 22 million adults and children in Sub Saharan Africa are living with AIDS. And yet how well or poorly we treat one another -- other human beings -- is not the only measure of our humanity, is it?

I live and have grown up on a horse farm, so my entire life has revolved around respecting and caring for animals. I always want to naively believe that everyone has had the same experiences that I have had and so think about animals in the same way that I do, so It is eye opening for me whenever I learn about the horrific treatment that many animals receive on a daily basis. It is good to hear though that there is resistance taking place across the globe and that nations that previously had little national interest in animal rights are becoming more active in the fight.

WOW! I am extremely impressed the students of the American University in Cairo created the FIRST community service club that supported animal rights. The fact that students are the first to take initiative in animal rights provides a bright future! Even more uplifting is the interest displayed in the club. Hopefully someday the students that initiated the club will become leaders of the world.

By the way, the picture of the goldfish in the key chain is absolutely abhorrent.

The pictures that you posted up are heartbreaking to me! I never seen a fish in a keychain like that. It is shocking how people can go about “using” animals as tools. I have been sympathetic to animal abuses, and whenever I see pictures like that I feel more urge to support animal causes. Throughout the world, I feel like the animal rights issues are not considered heavily as other subjects such as global warming or human rights. It is impressive that the students of the American University in Cairo have started the movement. I hope more people will become sympathetic to animal causes and consider these issues seriously.

In response to Carolyn's comment-- you reminded me of a quote by Gandhi: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

That goldfish keychain was a powerful and heartbreaking image. I think that animals provide a wonderful bridge for the "gap" between humans and the planet. Animals, as sentient beings, remind us of our own natural state. Treating them with kindness and respect is the first step to creating a more livable world. This is not to say we should all stop eating meat or using leather, necessarily-- these are thousand-year-old practices, and they are as natural as a lion's hunt of gazelle. But we must learn to do these acts in a more respectful, less wasteful manner. I think this will get us far in our pursuit of a better world. It opens other windows of understanding that may not have been available to us beforehand.

I'm glad to hear that you as students are picking up an area of need where your government has decided to glance over. How we treat animals often reflects how we treat fellow humans in a parallel aspect, so it's good to see you are spreading decency and hopefully awakening fellow egyptians to your animals' plights. It would be interesting to note what exactly the Egyptian government considers its top "priorities."

So many cultures measure their growth through advances in technology, architecture and knowledge. It is often overlooked that regardless of the speed and scale of our growth we can go nowhere without a steadfast understanding of where these modes of advancement are taking us. Animals and Nature should be at the top of our list of priorities because without them there can be no "us".

There are so many things that we take for granted and animals rights is one of them. I personally remember that when I migrated to the United States I did not had an idea of what was animal testing or animal abuse until one day my English teacher in Jr High assigned us to defend a case of animals rights in class. At first it was kind of exciting to learn something new but when I started researching about the topic, the horrible visuals of animals been mistreated break my heart. Since that day and until now I believe that animals are part of our lives and if we are destroying them is like destroying part of us. Animals give a different perspective about life...thank you for getting the message out there so that people who were at one point of their lives ignorant about they can open their eyes and realize the beauty that animals bring to our lives. They make life so much interesting. Keep changing the world and thank you again for been the voice for the voiceless.

This story is truly inspirational and I'm glad that you guys have taken the initiative to develop an organization such as this. The fact that this is one of the first clubs dedicated to this cause in Egypt is both grand and sad at the same time. As Carolyn mentioned a lot of human issues tend to take the foreground and animal rights which is just as important are lost. The pictures convey the message very well. The fish keychain is powerful because one immediately sees the struggle the fish as to go through and who can resist the cuteness of the bunny. I wish you luck as you spread awareness to animal rights across Egypt.

It has become clear as many developing countries are booming and taking a more central role in the world economy and politics, that often very important rights issues take a back seat: human rights, environmental protection, and animal rights. Our global perspective as become one centered on measuring a countries worth and status based on simply its GDP or natural resources it can provide, rather than the protections and rights it affords. It is inspirational to hear a success story of driven, forward-thinking students in such a developing nation because in an increasingly globalized world, these issues affect us all and few are immune from measuring value in economic terms.

I think that we have to give prioity to humans then to animals, I know that we should think about wars and victims in Iraq, but God has also these living creatures to help the man. thanks for commemts.

When i read your comments i knew that the world is full of people who suport animal rights...what would you think if you were treated this way??? so just spread the word to others. yes i know we have the power to hurt these poor creatures but does that mean we have to use this power? WE have the gift of using our minds so we really have to start thinking before doing these acts.

I would think the world is big enough and have enough heart to support animal and people rights. People come first but animal cruelty is first step to people cruelty.

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