“Urban Animals Deserve a Global Nonprofit” by Ronen Bar

TLDR Most urban animals, especially those other than cats and dogs, are highly neglected, even though probably tens of billions of them live in urban environments, and suffer from preventable harms. This post argues for a global nonprofit that would research the problem, test interventions and support local groups under the idea that cities are multispecies societies. Despite major uncertainty about scale and expected value, this could directly help many urban animals and potentially have strong flow through effects: urban animals could serve as a bridge for empathy toward all animals, support wild animal welfare research, and bring new people and funding into the movement. In my view, a nonprofit dedicated specifically to urban animal welfare, compared with programs run by organizations with a broader focus that work on animals both in nature and in cities, could better address the distinct challenges of urban environments, avoid some of the philosophical controversy surrounding interventions in nature, and attract more funding and people, including from outside the traditional animal advocacy movement. Thanks to @Ben Stevenson, @Max Taylor, Richard Parr and Noa Deutsch for helpful comments on this post. All mistakes are my own. Epistemic Status Very unsure about the numbers I [...] ---Outline:(00:10) TLDR(01:27) Epistemic Status(01:48) What are Urban Animals(02:54) What do Urban Animals Suffer From?(04:34) Neglectedness(05:39) Organizations Whose Work Includes Neglected Urban Animal Species(07:38) Tractability(10:35) Scale(14:30) Reasons in Favor of This Idea(18:18) Reasons Against This Idea(19:21) What the Nonprofit Could Do(21:28) Open Strategic Questions(22:00) Conclusion --- First published: August 2nd, 2026 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/thEMWd6yA7kA2p4QE/urban-animals-deserve-a-global-nonprofit --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.