This Beautiful Moment Between a Rescued Dog and Goat Will Remind You How Similar All Animals Are

There is such a duality to life. As beautiful and kind as it can be, it is also intertwined with cruelty and prejudice. For every human being that is celebrated, there is another exploited. The same goes for animals. For some reason or another, humans favor animals like dogs and cats and decided at one point that these particular animals merited the status of “best friend.” Dogs and cats are our hiking companions, our furry confidants, and our favorite snuggle buddies. They bring a smile to our face when we pass them on the sidewalk and they fill our social media feeds with their cuteness.

On the other side of the spectrum, farm animals like cows, pigs, and goats, hardly get this kind of love. While every now and again you will see a video of these cute animals jumping around an animal sanctuary, this represents just a  sliver of their population. Most of these animals actually have to spend their days in the abusive confines of factory farms. Whether it’s a hundred goats crammed into a meat farm shed or shoved onto a dairy rack to be milked brutishly, these animals are treated in a way that is not even comparable to how dogs and cats are treated.

It is only when we truly observe these animals that we realize how similar they are. They both are intelligent, they both love to cuddle and play, and they both have an undeniable desire to live. With new research further confirming how similar goats and dogs really are, it’s getting difficult to deny the parallels between these two species.

Just look at the way they curiously stare at each other… They do not see an animal that is below or above them, they just see someone who looks a little different. 

It’s scenes like this that truly reminds us how much we’ve cherry-picked our favorite animals and put them above one another. In reality, these animals are both deserving of love and care, they both deserve a life free of fear of torture, and if humans didn’t intervene in the matter, they probably would coexist just fine. It may be easier to just think of goats as dumb and unfeeling and go about living our lives, but if we are to truly evolve as a species, it is necessary that we see animals for what they truly are: unique individuals who deserve much more than what we have given them.

Image source: Santuario Igualdad Interespecie/Facebook