The World Ignores Inequality Between Animals

The elite Western animals vs their Shit-eating colleagues in Africa

By Dulue Mbachu

Quite often I hear people talk about inequality between people in rich countries and those in poor countries. But I’ve never heard anyone talk about the inequality between animals in the rich countries and those in the poor ones. The gap is also huge, and I’m surprised animal rights activists haven’t noticed.

Take the case of this Fat Cat that lives in a rich house somewhere in North America. It has a rich pantry of assorted foods, has a room and bed all its own. And because it does not need to chase after rats, the owners had to buy it toy rats to play with, just a playful reminder of how its ancestors used to live.

What’s more? This Fat Cat also has travel documents and gets to go with its owners to Florida in winter to return in early spring. And wherever it went, it was properly provisioned, like a toddler. And all it has to do is say “Meow! Meow!” and everyone would be at its beck and call.

Now, compare that to the life of cats in “shithole countries” where things are really hard already for people. The cats, lean and hungry, are always on their fence watchtowers scouring, and scowling, as they wait for rats crossing house lines, rats even more determined than them to survive. Just imagine the war going on in those alleys.

What goes for the likes of Fat Cat also goes for all the privileged dogs and other pets that find themselves in the rich countries of this world. Sometimes the dogs are even better treated than the cats, which may have some justification because there are guard dogs, hunting dogs and service dogs. I’m yet to hear of any such cats, and now they won’t even catch rats anymore.

Multibillion Dollar Affair

At least, $150 billion would be spent on pets in the U.S. alone in 2024, up from $147 billion in 2023 when the global pet industry was valued at $246.6 billion, according to the World Animal Foundation. In the U.S. 80% of dogs and 20% of cats are insured, said the same organization. In other words, many pets do get to fare much better than human beings in this life. Don’t be surprised if people volunteer to become pets for the sheer quality of life that comes with that status in rich countries.

The fact is that all the animals in the rich countries, whether pets or non-pets, are having a mighty good time when compared to those in the poor countries. The inequality is a chasm, just as bad as that between rich and poor humans. Take even the common squirrel. In the rich countries, they grow fat, running around backyards without a care, as if they owned them. I remember my sister’s daughter in the U.S. at a time used to leave nuts on the back deck of the house for the squirrels that romped there. After a while, they would come and knock (scratch) on the back door to announce their presence anytime they came around.

Such a relationship between a child and a squirrel is not possible in an African village or Haiti. They would know the deserving treatment to give such squirrels. I’m not justifying the allegations made by Donald Trump and his supporters about Haitian immigrants in the U.S. But any African child knows that you only give a squirrel a nut to trap it.

In the rich countries they’re having such a good time that the biggest risk squirrels and other rodents face is being hit by a car on the road while playing. Recently in one of the rich countries, I heard a radio rock music presenter telling the story of how he accidentally hit a squirrel or some similar rodent while driving one day. He said he was glad the rodent survived and that he stopped and dropped several nuts on the roadside in compensation. Then he watched in his rearview mirror while driving off as the rodent went for the gift and he was relieved.

The danger in promoting and ignoring such blatant inequalities in the animal world is that it could trigger mass migrations of animals from poor countries to rich countries, much like the case with their human counterparts. Can you imagine if all the hungry cats and the terrified rats of this world learned about the standard of living Fat Cat enjoyed and decided to emigrate to rich countries? Of course, the rats would join the movement knowing they would be safe since there would be enough to eat for the cats. That even when they had the ancient craving for rats there would be toy rats to play with and prevent a return to the savage past. Most of the cats may be adopted, which would give them a good life even if they didn’t get to go to Florida in winter.

Boat Cats and Rats

Think what it could be like if most of the cats and rats in sub-Saharan Africa decided to emigrate. Thousands would cross the Sahara Desert every day, heading towards Morocco to reach Spain, others would head in the direction of Libya trying to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa. Somewhere in the Pacific, there may be boat cats and rats, trying to travel on makeshift rafts and pirogues to make it to a rich country. In Central America, long caravans of cats and rats would probably form, heading towards the U.S. southern border.

And that’s talking about cats and rats alone. There is no guarantee that all other animals wouldn’t find out that something was going on and decide to join the bandwagon. Then you may have the Great Migration of animals from the countries of the south to the rich countries of the north. Will the Animal Immigration Services Department, if such a thing exists then, be able to deal with such a mass movement? In the U.S. they would be forced to elect a Donald Trump yet again to deal with it.

For the poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, it will be such a huge blow to lose all their animals. Think of the brain drain and the loss of animal skills of different types. Then the loss of important food resources that had guaranteed the subsistence of their ancestors. Indeed, the consequences could be so far-reaching that you would have expected some international brainstorming about it by now to figure out some possible solutions.

If there was any doubt about the size of the disparities, the birds could always be called upon to testify. Many bird types go to the southern, poorer parts of the world during winter. They can testify to their harsh experiences in places like Africa, parts of Asia and Latin America, where hunters of all ages, young and old, would go after them with catapults, traps and even guns, so much that it was always a hell to make their daily living.

They can also tell about the contrast in rich countries where people rarely tried to kill them for food but instead put food for them on bird feeders outside their homes, and even came to watch them on tree tops with binoculars and expensive cameras. When recently I bought my favourite bag of roasted peanuts (groundnuts) from a popular shop in a rich country, the cashier asked me if I wanted to feed the birds. I said no, I was going to eat them. She told me most people bought them to feed the birds. That illustrates the extent people go to show kindness to birds and other animals in the richer parts of the world. It’s something unheard of for animals living in the poor, undeveloped regions where life is “brutish and short” for animals and humans alike.

I humbly suggest that international bodies, especially the multilateral, the United Nations, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization and climate and environmental agencies, should all put heads together to look into the dangers posed to the world by the inequality between animals in the rich world and those in the poor world. They should look into the implications of a mass migration of animals from the poor regions of the world to rich countries. There may be threats to the environment and climate-change risks posed by the widening inequality among animals in different geographical areas. There may still be time to do something before things become irreversible.