Animals need our help more than ever.  Fortunately there are some simple actions you can take that will help save animals. 

Plastic is toxic to produce and difficult to recycle since it’s also toxic when burnt and it doesn’t biodegrade. Think of the plastic straw or fork you may have used at lunch time or the bottled water that you bought. How long did you use them for? A few minutes? Well it will take hundreds of years to decompose in the landfill. Think of that for a second, hundreds of years, for a few minutes of convenience.

In the meantime, the Pacific Ocean has become known as the world’s largest landfill or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area of garbage, 90% of which is plastic, that is twice the size of Texas. It’s also having a devastating impact on wildlife. More than 1,000,000 sea birds and over 100,000 sea mammals and sea turtles die from plastic each year either by becoming entangled or from ingesting it. That’s not the only problem. As plastic breaks into tiny pieces, it is becoming ingested by fish, which we eat which is not good for us either or the other larger fish and sea mammals that eat those fish. By reducing your plastic consumption as much as possible you will be making a major contribution to saving animals.

Volunteer with animals and you will feel so good that it's hard to believe that you're helping to save animals at the same time. You can look at volunteering locally at an animal shelter, or with a wildlife group. If you are looking for something more exotic consider a volunteer vacation in which you volunteer with animals anywhere from one week to one year! Volunteer opportunities exist for almost any animal you could think of so this is a good way to learn more about the animal you’re interested in while directly helping them. I did a volunteer vacation studying whales and dolphins off the coast of Scotland and would highly recommend doing this as another way to save animals. Check out Ecoteer for a list of some volunteer with animals opportunities around the world.

A few animal welfare organizations have gotten creative and with a simple click, sponsors will donate a certain amount of food for that organization. In return they place their ads on the site so it’s a win-win for everyone. Two of my favourite sites are: Click To Feed a Rescued Primate and Meow Trivia.  A simple click to help save animals - genius!

It’s difficult to see how reducing your energy consumption will help save animals when you can’t see the direct impact, but it certainly does.  Reducing our energy consumption helps reduce the amount of harmful green house gases and slows global warming.  This will help save polar bears, whose icy habitat is melting at alarming rates.  It also helps animals in Africa, who are experiencing longer and more severe droughts because of global warming.  Our impact for better or worse is farther reaching than we would imagine and reducing your environmental impact will help save animals.

At any given time there are hundreds of petitions you can sign supporting animal conservation, animal welfare or animal rights. One of my favourite animal petition sites is Care2 and it only takes a minute to make a difference to the causes of your choice.

Eating a vegetarian diet will certainly help save animals but if this is too extreme for you, even reducing the amount of meat in your diet will have a significant impact not only on the animals you’re not eating but also on other animals.   How you might ask? The livestock sector produces 18% of all the CO₂ generated by industries and we know that CO₂ leads to global warming.  This is more than the transportation industry produces with all its trucks on the road and planes in the air.   Furthermore, more than 70% of rainforest destruction is due to cattle grazing.  Source:  Thanking the Monkey, p. 278. 

Our taste for meat is also wiping out many species.  Chimpanzees greatest threat is being hunted for bush meat.  More than 100,000,000 sharks are killed each year for their non-nutritious fins used in shark fin soup.  We have wiped out most of the wild salmon populations because of our love for salmon.

Reducing or eliminating meat from your diet plays a key role in saving animals and is not as difficult as you might think. 

This is a fun one. Shop at stores (or websites) where the proceeds benefit animals. One of my favourite purchases is art prints done by chimpanzees which can be purchased at IDA Africa in Defense of Animals. Shop at your local SPCA or Humane Society for pet supplies. Support local artists and growers whose wares haven't been shipped thousands of miles and help save animals in the process.

Read and subscribe to my blog Fun Animal Facts to Save Animals featuring fun facts about a different animal in each post followed by simple actions you can take to help save that animal. I love writing this blog and am learning so much about animals and how a few simple actions can help save animals, it really is amazing how all the "little things" really do add up.