23. Philzoothropy

NARRATOR: Hello and welcome back to the Animal Friendly podcast.

In this episode I’m going to talk about Philzoothropy.

If you are frowning slightly and thinking, hmm, I’m not familiar with that term, you would be right, because I just made it up. It’s a new word.

I’ve been talking and writing about people who help animals and I found myself using the term animal philanthropy quite a lot and after a while, I started to wonder whether there was a more precise phrase.  

So you may know that philanthropy is a love of humankind; demonstrated by contributing money, time, energy, etc to improving general human welfare.

The word philanthropy comes from ancient Greek and is made up of the combining forms phil or phile (to love, to be fond of) and anthropos (mankind, humankind). A person who practices philanthropy is a philanthropist. 

But what about people who love animals and want to make their lives better? How do we refer to them? We call them animal lovers or animal advocates. We could call them zoophiles, which uses zoo (the combining form meaning animal) and phile (which we just learned is the combining form meaning to love). A zoophile or zoophilist is a lover of animals but the definition also includes “an erotic fondness for animals” and “someone who has or suffers from zoophilia”.

So nobody really goes around calling themselves a zoophile and nobody is likely to say that they donate money to further the cause of zoophilia.

So on the one hand we have philanthropists who help humankind and on the other hand we have animal lovers.

Generally speaking, a philanthropist is referred to with respect and admiration. They receive praise in the media for making the world a better place. Animal lovers tend to be regarded as somewhat quirky and we talk about them in mild, benign, slightly condescending terms.

So I’ve made up the word philzoothropy – which means a love of animals that is demonstrated by contributing money, time, energy, influence etc to improving and saving their lives. 

It’s made of the combining forms, phil (to love), zoo (combining form denoting animal) and anthropos (humankind). Hmm, why is humankind included? I’ll explain later on.  

So, it’s a new word, feel free to use it, if you are a philzoothropist yourself or if you know people who are into philzoothropy.  And if someone says to you, that’s not a real word, well…. defeat, disgraceful, fairyland, lonely, well-read, successful, amazement and moonbeam weren’t real words either until Shakespeare started using them.  I mean, do we have to go running to Shakespeare every time we need a new word? I think not.  (Yes, I am comparing myself to Shakespeare).

Okay, so I’ve made up a new word, which anyone can do. However, in order for a new word to be recognised as a word it has to enter common use. A word gets into a dictionary when it is used by many people who all agree that it means the same thing.

So I’ll be writing about it and bringing it up in conversation with people and then I hope that others will pick it up and use it too. The more it’s used, the more likely that it will be noticed by lexicographers, or dictionary editors.

They are looking for 3 things:

The first is frequent use. This means that the word is used in the same way over a significant amount of time, over years.

The second thing is widespread use. The word has to be used by different people across industries or regions. It should be a word that an average adult might need to look up in a dictionary; like they heard it or read it and they want to know what it means.

The third is meaningful use. Which means that the word has an actual meaning. That you can define. 

So, a word doesn’t become a “real word” when it’s added to the dictionary. It’s actually the other way around: words are added to the dictionary because they’re real. Because they’re really used by real people in the real world.

This podcast episode is the very first use of the word philzoothropy. 

Maybe in ten years’ time, if you read an article mentioning philzoothropy, or maybe you hear about someone winning an award for being a great philzoothropist - you can feel a warm glow of smug happiness knowing that you were one of the first people on the planet to hear it. 

And maybe even that you were instrumental in spreading the word.

So if we’re going to use the word, philzoothropy, we should be familiar with what it means.

The simplest definition is that it is the active effort of using money, time, energy, influence and anything else to help improve and save the lives of animals.

Let me talk about money first. 

I started this podcast with the intention of talking to people who were using their talents and skills to help animals, in order to find out what was the very best way to be an animal advocate.

What I learned – and continue to learn – was that there are incredible people with loads of different ideas and strategies and creative approaches to the problem of alleviating the suffering that animals do endure every day on this planet.

However, everyone I talk to, and everyone I interact with on social media and in webinars and talks say that they could do so much more if they had the funding to expand their operations or increase their reach.

So this led me to look into the funding that animal advocacy gets.

It led me to explore where charitable and philanthropic donations tend to go.

Giving USA is an organisation that publishes an annual report of charitable giving in the United States. There are 9 different categories and they publish a graph showing how much money goes to each category.

In 2023, Religion topped the charts with $145 billion and then Human Services with $88 billion and then Education with $87 billion and so on down along the categories of Foundations, Public-Society Benefit, Health, International Affairs, Arts, Culture and Humanities, with the amount of funding getting smaller and smaller until you come to the very bottom where the Environment and Animals, year after year, always get the least.

In 2023 it was $21 billion which sounds like a huge amount but it’s only 3.5% of the total amount donated to charity from all sources that year. For every $10 that went to charity in the US that year, animal causes got 35 cents. 

I spent a number of weekends studying an Excel document that outlines all the charitable giving in Ireland for the last 20 years and calculated that animal charities received 0.4% of the total. For every €10 given to charity in Ireland, animals get 4 cents. 

In the UK, things are better, with animal causes receiving about 9% of the total charitable giving.

Following the bushfires in Australia in 2019 and 2020, support for animal welfare and wildlife rose significantly, suggesting that people do want to help animals when media coverage and visibility makes them aware of the need for help.  

However, in general, most support for animal causes goes towards companion animals, so wild animals, farmed animals and the animals used in laboratory testing are a long way from getting the support they need.

You might be saying, well, humans are more important than animals, they should get more money and it’s okay if animals only get the dregs of our charity. 

Philzoothropy doesn’t say take money from humans and give it to animals; it says let’s spend the money in a more intelligent way, in a way that helps both.

The Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, who has written books on the topics of altruism and happiness, has this to say:

RICARD: So we have to change our attitude. The question is not just to be only busy with animals, to have compassion only for animals, but to have compassion for human beings of course, but also for animals. And when the silly people who tell you; "ha, why are you taking care so much of animals, you better go to do some humanitarian works, to help human beings, to resolve conflicts,"...great. But what do they do, most of those people? They do nothing. Neither for human beings, nor for animals. Because it turns out, in history, that it was the most, strongest proponents of human rights, of freedom, against slavery and others, who were also preoccupied by animals. Again, if you have compassion, you have compassion for all. And by the way, nobody tells people when they...Sunday afternoon, they do their gardening or they collect stamps or they play music..."oh, you, you are such a selfish person, you should go to Africa to help poor people." Why do they say that for animals? Because somehow, it reminds them, this kind of schizophrenic moral, ethical incoherence in their behaviour. So we should now have a real coherent ethics. It is the time. Not to devaluate human beings, not to raise animals to be the same as homo sapiens. This is all not necessary. Simply to embrace everyone with benevolence, with kindness, with compassion. And stop instrumentalising animals just to feed ourselves with their flesh. To distract ourselves by looking at bulls being killed, in bullfights, or all kinds of terrible distractions like, making animals miserable just for our own pleasure. And let's be compassionate, not only to humans, but to all.

NARRATOR: Great philosophers and thinkers have presented clear arguments that we can attempt to fix many different world problems at the same time. That we do not and should not try to fix them in a linear fashion – first this one, then the next and so on – because it is impossible to rank suffering and injustice and also because many problems intersect. 

VOX is an online media organisation. They specialise in journalism that explains complex issues. Here’s their take on industrial factory farming. 

Quote - If the cost to animals wasn’t bad enough, industrial animal agriculture also spells peril for us: It fuels antibiotic resistance and zoonotic disease threats that keep scientists up at night. It’s a massive environmental liability, emitting what researchers estimate is between 14 percent and 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and devouring more than one-third of the planet’s habitable land. – endquote.

And here’s a line from a Guardian article which is titled: EU pumps four times more money into farming animals than growing plants.

Quote: Animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of the accelerating death of wildlife around the world and is responsible for 12%-20% of the planet-heating pollutants making extreme weather more violent. Endquote.

And here’s something to consider, from the Plant-Based Treaty Safe and Just report.

Quote: Indigenous territories cover around 30% of the Amazon. Indigenous Peoples face threats to their safety and Amazon homes from deforestation, fires and land-grabbing. The expansion of animal agriculture threatens Indigenous Amazonians and is linked to more killings of Indigenous land defenders than any other business sector. Endquote.

Just think how much benefit there is to be gained from winding down this cruel, inefficient and dangerous method of food production.

Supporting organisations that promote plant-based eating, like Veganuary or Plant-Based News, is one of the most animal-friendly and human-friendly things you can do.  

But we shouldn’t just help animals because it will help humans. We should help them simply because it is wrong to exploit and torture and kill them. 

Philzoothropy is like philanthropy-plus. It involves funnelling money towards causes that either help both animals and humans or causes that help humans without harming animals.

Akashinga is a terrific example. The organisation trains female anti-poaching rangers; a model which has demonstrated impressive success in protecting wildlife but also puts money into the hands of women, which then filters through to communities, creating stability and opportunities.

From their website, quote: With doors to education being opened, women’s leadership opportunities being created, and jobs opening in rural Africa, we are not only protecting iconic wildlife, we are driving sustainable, social change – endquote.

Another great example is the work of retired police officer Mark Randell with the HiddenInSight organisation, which educates police forces about animal abuse and the link between that and violence against humans. Their work protects animals but because animal abusers are often people abusers as well, a consequence of that work is the protection of humans.

You might be starting to see that philzoothropy is a vast and inclusive practice.

It encompasses people who work or volunteer in animal rescue and animal sanctuaries.

It includes animal photojournalists like We Animals, who document the lives of animals exploited for food, fashion or entertainment, and much more, and ensure that their suffering doesn’t remain invisible.

As mentioned earlier, a great example is all the people and organisations who are promoting plant-based eating. The companies who are re-directing their funding towards plant-based products and dwindling the amount they invest in animal products, recognising the shift in the market. 

We could talk about the scientists and technicians who develop meat, fish, dairy and egg alternatives, as well as all of the lawyers and politicians who ensure that these alternatives are legally recognised and can be produced, marketed and sold. And then all the people who do that production, marketing and selling. 

Philzoothropists investigate animal welfare crimes and collaborate with forensic vets and law officers to ensure these crimes are recognised and prosecuted. They investigate and expose wildlife trafficking, devoting their time and energy - and sometimes give their lives - to the protection of wild animals and their habitat.   

People who write articles and books, record podcasts and make videos and documentaries which promote respect, benevolence and compassion towards animals; they can all be considered philzoothropists.

There are plant-based chefs, doctors striving to ban animal testing, vegan vets, animal rights campaigners, ethical consumers and vegan venture capitalists.

Philzoothropy may seem like a long word but there is a great deal of innovation, creativity, perseverance, strength, empathy and resilience that it must describe.

So, that’s your introduction to philzoothropy and congratulations on being one of the first people on the planet to hear about it. I’ll be spreading the word – literally – with articles and interviews and a newsletter. You can find out all about it and join me in the endeavour at philzoothropy.com.

And of course I’ll continue to have great conversations with amazing philzoothropists of all stripes in this podcast.

Thanks for listening, that’s it for now, see you next time.