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Rescuing children should be as heart warming as rescuing animals

This is a topic that I have long pondered about, but have been afraid to write because of my fears of others' reactions. This is a delicate topic.


This is a topic that I have long pondered about, but have been afraid to write because of my fears of others' reactions. This is a delicate topic. Why are we so quick to act, react, rescue, and even save a dog from an abusive environment, but not a child? We see story after story in our Facebook feeds and in news sources of dogs being rescued by community members from alleged abusive homes. While these are heart warming stories, there are cases of children being just as malnourished and abused as dogs, but we are reluctant to act or even say anything about it.


I realize this issue has its nuances, is complex and can't be easily summarized, but let's get some background of this concern and issue.


Mary Ellen Wilson was a little girl who was severely beaten and maltreated by her foster parents. So much so, that her foster parents moved to different apartment buildings to avoid questioning. In 1874 when Mary was 10, her case was brought before the courts. At this time there were no child abuse or welfare laws, because children were considered the property of their father or caregivers, so they had to turn to animal cruelty laws, and advocates from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, to be able to charge and convict Mary's foster parents of abusing her.


Since 1874 when children were protected by animal laws, there has been a great deal of effort to separate the two with the creation of child welfare and abuse laws in Canada and the United States.


Fast forward to 2014, 140 years since Mary Ellen Wilson's case, and we are now reaching the point where child welfare and abuse laws appear to be used to protect animals, in particularly dogs, as if they are, again, one and the same. But children are not animals, and animals are not children.


We as a society are moving so far up our hierarchy of needs, as created by Maslow, that we seem to be eroding the foundation.


Now don't get me wrong, animal cruelty is disturbing and action should be taken. I understand the fear that if someone is harming an animal who knows what they may be doing to others, so harsh punishment, out of fear, may be preventative.


I also understand the therapeutic nature that pets can provide to individuals as they care for and nurture their pet, and the companionship that comes with that. But I also know that human beings have a different capacity for being, with thoughts, reasoning, insights and accountability that comes with our fascinating brain that isn't found in animals. And as such, there needs to be separation between animal and child laws.


Despite mandatory reporting laws, we tiptoe around child abuse issues, are less likely to get involved, and still abide by some of the principles of the mid-1800s that children belong to their parents. What we are forgetting, is that it takes a community to raise a child, and that our society rises and falls by how we treat our little ones.


Let's not have a child's need go unnoticed.