I’ve fostered puppies and kittens for over 4 years. I enjoyed it. Absolutely loved training them and working through behavior issues. And I would hear the following: you are doing great helping to save lives. What a blessing you are doing. Don’t return foster pets too soon because they need stability and a safe home environment. We are desperate for loving homes to save many more animals.
Yet, many children are in juvenile detention center, hotels, shelters of no fault of their own. There isn’t enough foster homes for them. There isn’t enough funding. The system is… The system.
Where are the commercials saying come be a blessing to the kids? Come help save their lives and give them stability and a loving home?
Both animals and children get into situations out of their control. But why does the USA care more for the animals? (Many the same in other countries, I don’t know)
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>I’ve fostered puppies and kittens for over 4 years.
Seems like you can start by asking yourself that question first, rather than pointing the blame at the rest of the country for being heartless towards children.
I don’t think these people are prioritizing animals over humans. They are choosing to do what they can and where they can make the most impact. Adopting a pet is a dramatically lower level of responsibility as compared to adopting a child. Children require care 24 hours a day Whereas you can leave for work and just leave your pet at home. And most people can handle taking care of multiple pets whereas caring for multiple children at once can be overwhelming.
saving human lives is already a system. we live in that system and work in it to contribute to it. thats why going out of your way to help a human feels extra on top of all what you do.
a system for animals doesnt exist however. what we call nature is just a chaotic mess of blood and gore. it’s not like certain people dont feel sorry for humans as much as they do for animals, it’s just there arent many people out there helping animals.
when you try to help people it becomes a matter of fixing the system – politics and even ideology comes into play. for animals it’s just directly helping another living being.
I don’t. I think saving lives of children and saving lives of animals are not mutually exclusive. You can strongly support both.
Adopting a child is more lawfully binding than a pet. If worse comes to worse, I can put up a craigslist/facebook marketplace ad for a “free dog” and just get rid of them. Can’t do that with a child.
You are apparently doing the same so you tell me
Are you asking why there aren’t commericals for fostering children? There are aren’t there? And programs like Big Bros Big Sis.
Every time I’m at my parents, who still watch actual TV, I see endless commercials for St Judes along with Save the Children type commercials, so I’m not positive what you mean.
If there are no commercials for charities that handle housing homeless children then either they do not believe the net benefits would outweigh the costs of said commercials or there is some other stigmata at play.
The level of home inspection and cost to become a foster for a person is a lot to take on, not to mention that a lot of the kids that have been in the system a long time have issues that may make them dangerous to bring into your existing family.
Adoption is even more expensive and the average person cannot afford it.
Fostering a person is a MUCH bigger commitment than fostering a kitten. It’s not about caring as much as it is about not having the space/time/money to do so. A foster needs their own room, so even if I wanted to foster, I would not be able to since my house is too small. The size of my house would not preclude me from fostering a cat.
There’s much less paperwork for animals.
Some of the hurdles for fostering and adopting kids are absolutely justified, but some are just the system being horrible.
Standard issue kids are hard. Foster kids, well they’re in foster care for a reason – something dramatic and usually bad happened in their lives to where they need care. My five week old foster kittens are currently alone in a room for the day while I’m at work. I can’t do that with a 5 week old human.
There aren’t many commercials or advertisements featuring foster kids or anything like that because it would be incredibly exploitative. Children aren’t a good that can be purchased in the same way animals are; they have certain rights and dignities that animals don’t so they’re treated differently.
Also I feel like more people are willing and able to take care of an animal than a kid. I personally just don’t like kids, but I love animals.
I mean, I’d love to foster, but the standards for having a foster child is much higher than to foster a dog. I feel like there’s a class component but I don’t know enough about the system to say for sure.
Parenting, even foster parenting, is a huge responsibility and requires skills and money most people don’t have.
Fostering a dog is considerably easier.
Also, when there aren’t enough homes for dogs we just kill them. We kill a lot of healthy dogs and cats because nobody wants them.
We can’t do that with kids.
So, I don’t think we actually care more about saving animals.
As the owner of five kids (that’s a joke) I would definitely adopt kittens over kids. Children are a life long 24/7 365 commitment and incredibly expensive. I love my kids and wouldn’t trade them for anything but they are so so very expensive.
Some people are just emotionally or morally broken.
And let’s be honest, saving an animal is far easier and is much less than saving a child. Most animals average about 8-10 years of life. A child is a lifetime commitment
Because I love animals.
In my case, I have dogs who are rescues and have fostered dogs as well. I honestly like animals more than I like children, they are less work, and I am simply not interested in the emotional labor that would go into taking care of a foster child. If I were to ever consider fostering a kid, it would need to be teen at the youngest. I find younger kids to be too stressful.
Pets are substantially less expensive (financially, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually) than children.
People generally think animals (at least charismatic domestic animals like puppies and kittens) are innocent and blameless for any harm that comes to them and that’s why they feel an urge to protect them. But in America, there’s a strong cultural streak that believes people’s outcomes are the result of their choices, so if bad things happen to someone, they deserved it. That’s why poverty and income inequality are so accepted here, why the criminal legal system is so harsh, why unplanned pregnancies and births are seen as preferable to abortion, and so on. Even children can get caught up in that, or the harms to children are just considered an acceptable punishment for the wrongs of their parents.
Same line of thinking as lets feed all these poor kids in Africa… while cutting food stamps and meals on wheels in the US.
Most of the commercials you see come from Non Profit Organizations. They raise funds for themself via tv/radio/internet ads. The foster system on the other hand is done by the state, they don’t advertise about donations because it is funded by tax payers.
When it comes to taxes, people would rather pay less. Foster care has and is critically underfunded in many places in the US. But when a politician has a choice of funding foster care, that doesn’t have much publicity, or cutting taxes? Then taxes will be cut.
Been fostering both kids and animals. Here’s the truth – helping animals is straightforward. Feed them, love them, train them. But with children? You’re dealing with complex trauma, broken systems, and mountains of red tape. People pick animals because it feels less overwhelming.
My godparents who live in a very upscale home in southern California (they get to watch Disney fireworks from their backyard) we’re told when they tried to adopt 40 years ago that they were “too old” to be considered for adopting. They both (to this day) are very active, healthy, well educated, and make more than adequate income (by really anyone’s standards in the USA). It’s a failed system where being able to buy a child for the “right price” is more important than a stable home.