Why compassion for humans and animals is one fight

Every year, December 10 holds two mirrors to the world. One is Human Rights Day, marking the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The other, far quieter but no less important, is International Animal Rights Day.

These two observances sit side by side not by coincidence, but by a moral logic we still struggle to accept. Uncaged, the animal rights group that established the day in 1998, intentionally chose this date to force us to see the connections we prefer to ignore. They wanted the world to recognise that the roots of violence and the roots of compassion are shared.

Whenever animal welfare enters public conversation, a familiar refrain arrives. We cannot even keep humans safe, so why bother worrying about animals. It is thrown like a trump card, as if human and animal suffering exist in a competitive hierarchy where only one deserves compassion at a time.

But this idea is not only flawed but dangerous.

Cruelty is not compartmentalised and violence is not species specific. The mindset that allows neglect or abuse of animals does not magically transform into empathy when the victim is human. A society that excuses the mistreatment of the powerless does not become kinder simply by changing the category of the powerless.

International Animal Rights Day forces us to confront this uncomfortable truth. The question is not whether animals deserve rights -- that they do is obvious and non-negotiable. The real question is whether we can claim moral credibility while ignoring suffering simply because we find it inconvenient to care.

This link between human and animal rights is not a philosophical theory but a lived reality. Studies across countries show strong correlations between animal abuse and domestic violence. Communities that normalise cruelty towards stray animals often normalise other forms of violence. Children who grow up watching animals being beaten or killed learn early that suffering is entertainment or that power is measured by one's ability to harm. Such lessons do not remain confined to the animal kingdom.

Bangladesh has witnessed this pattern repeatedly: a street dog is poisoned simply because someone does not "like dogs", a cat is beaten to death on camera and shared online as "humour", municipalities still conducting illegal culling drives, despite explicit prohibitions in the Animal Welfare Act 2019 and even an earlier High Court ruling against such practices.

As always, the law exists but enforcement does not. And what message does that send? That laws protecting the vulnerable can be ignored if the victims are considered unimportant.

Human rights require the very opposite mindset. They demand that we value every life. Drawing artificial boundaries around compassion weakens the very principles human rights rely on: dignity, non-discrimination, justice, and protection of the vulnerable.

This is why International Animal Rights Day matters. It is not an attempt to equate human and animal suffering. It is a reminder that the roots of injustice are the same: indifference, dehumanisation, and the corrosive belief that some lives simply do not matter. If we erode these foundations in one domain, we inevitably endanger the others.

Animal welfare work has never hindered human welfare. If anything, it has nurtured empathy, responsibility, and public accountability. Volunteers who rescue animals from drains, roadsides, and construction sites often go on to support human rights campaigns, environmental justice movements, and broader advocacy. People who intervene when a dog is being beaten are more likely to intervene when a child is.

There is also a practical reality we ignore. Protecting animals contributes directly to public health, environmental sustainability, and community safety. Humane stray dog management through CNVR (catch-neuter-vaccinate-release) programmes prevents rabies outbreaks, protecting wildlife prevents ecological collapse and regulating livestock transportation prevents disease. And none of these are luxuries; they are essential components of protecting human life.

So, when people say we should fix human rights before addressing animal rights, the answer is simple. The two are intertwined because a society that fails one will eventually fail the other.

International Animal Rights Day, paired with Human Rights Day, offers us an opportunity to rethink the hierarchy we have created. Compassion is not a ladder. It is a circle and when we widen it, everyone benefits; when we narrow it, everyone is endangered.

If we want a Bangladesh where every human can live with dignity, freedom, and safety, then we must also build a Bangladesh where cruelty is never normalised, where empathy is not selective, and where kindness is not dismissed as a distraction.

Because the measure of any society is not only how it treats its people. It is how it treats those who cannot protest, cannot vote, and cannot demand justice.

Caring for animals is not a detour from human rights. It is part of the same road.