For 75 years, the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria has been a resource to our community. From housing homeless animals to reuniting owners with lost pets, assisting wildlife in need, creating families and helping them stay together, the AWLA has been here for you. Read more about our journey below from AWLA from AWLA Executive Director Stella Hanly.
The dawn of the animal welfare movement looks very different from the field of animal welfare today, which just goes to show that these efforts, spanning more than 200 years, are succeeding. Before the 19th century, in much of Western society there were no laws governing how animals could be treated; in fact, there weren’t really many laws about how humans were treated either.
But in the early 1800s, people began to re-examine how work was being done in industrialized countries like the U.S. and Great Britain. This included child labor in factories; the role of a woman and her responsibilities at home; and working animals, including cattle, horses and dogs. The goal was to address suffering routinely experienced by these groups. Early “humane societies” were developed to safeguard women, children and animals, stating that “beasts and babes” had the right to protection because they had the capability of suffering. While their intentions were progressive, the fact that these “humane societies” coexisted with slavery in the U.S. and left BIPOC communities out of the conversation throughout this history and still in recent years, means white populations benefited the most from these advances.
Over the decades, the humane society movement diverged from those worried about the treatment of humans. Animal welfare efforts focused on horses working in the cab and transportation trade, on the sale and trade of livestock and the plight of unowned dogs on the streets. By the time the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria was established in 1946, those goals in Alexandria were focused more on domestic animals, such as dogs and cats, though when the original Payne Street Animal Shelter opened in 1951, local media proclaimed it could “take all animals but snakes and alligators.”
While the animal welfare movement has shifted over time, one element of those earliest efforts is again emerging as important: the focus on animals and people. Now that animals are afforded certain rights and protections by the law, their importance in our lives, as people, is clear. Loving a pet is in itself not a privilege; it is a right, and a right that should be afforded to everyone, regardless of race, nationality, income, culture — even regardless of where you live. Just as humans improve the lives of animals, so too do animals improve our lives, which is why the AWLA’s current efforts focus not just on connecting animals with people but on keeping animals with people. Pets have been proven to increase health and decrease stress; they are our best friends and, in some cases, our sole companions. Every person should have that opportunity.
Through AWLA programs like our Community Pet Pantry and Vaccination Clinics, Veterinary and Grooming Assistance, Crisis Care emergency boarding and AniMeals for pets of senior citizens, we strive to once again focus on the connection between animals and humans. Our efforts concentrate not just on the animals in our care but the animals in our community — and the people who love them.