Animals Need A Better World Too

May 24 , 2025. By BEREKET BALCHA ( Fortune Staff Writer )

In neighborhoods like Ayat, CMC, Bole Arabsa, and Legetafo, it is common to see horses too sick or injured to work, left to die slow, agonizing deaths. Sometimes the hyenas relieve the equine of its misery by dealing the coup de grace. Donkeys, whose population in Ethiopia exceeds 10 million, the highest in the world, fare no better. Their suffering is constant and mostly invisible, writes Bereket Balcha.

A three-legged cat loiters at the gates of the Louvre, not the Parisian Museum, but a high-end French restaurant in Addis Abeba where I have had the privilege to dine on several occasions. The sight immediately reminded me of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the critically acclaimed animated blockbuster released in 2022. The film tells the story of a swashbuckling cat who burns through his nine lives with reckless abandon. But unlike the lucky feline on screen, the cat at the restaurant had only one life to live, and part of it had already been lost.

She had lost a leg after being electrocuted while climbing a wall laced with exposed power lines. A French friend dining with me that evening was deeply moved as we came across the animal outside of the restaurant in the parking lot. The cat has been lucky to survive, thanks to the restaurant staff and parking attendants who were vigilant and arranged the lifesaving emergency treatment needed after the accident. The outcome could have been entirely different in a less privileged, more dangerous neighborhood, one with a less sympathetic community and a harsher environment.

He bent down to observe the animal, noting solemnly that the wound was still open, raw and in need of further medical intervention. He wanted to do more, even contemplated taking her abroad for treatment, but he was flying out the next day, and the idea, however noble, was impossible to realise.

Flying animals out of the country is no small feat, something I learned years ago during a train ride from Frankfurt to Hamburg. Aboard the Deutsche Bahn, I met a Lithuanian woman traveling with a small pitch-black bulldog named Blue. I was hesitant to interact with the animal, then still indifferent to pets, but she encouraged me to pet the dog’s head. It pulsed gently beneath my palm, tender and warm.

Blue had flown in from Miami at a cost four times higher than her owner’s ticket. Between the custom-built crate, veterinary checks, insurance, and freight fees, the price was staggering. His owner was especially worried whether the tropical pup’s thin coat could withstand the harsh northern European winter.

Blue, however, was lucky. The cat at the Louvre, not so much. I had promised my friend I’d check on her, maybe arrange vet care in his absence. But once we left the restaurant, I forgot.

Months later, I sat with Michaela Engst, a German fashion designer and educator, working back and forth between Addis and Berlin since 2016, navigating Ethiopia’s unpredictable creative scene. Over glasses of Gebeta white wine at “The Space”, a vibrant art hub near the city’s Post Office Museum, Michaela struck me not just for her resilience and discipline, but for her compassion. As one subject led to the other in our laid-back evening in the small garden, the topic shifted to one that brought the cat’s fate back to mind.

We spoke of hobbies and passions, and to my surprise, she revealed she is an ardent animal rights advocate. She cares for a donkey and several dogs, feeding, sheltering, and providing medical attention out of her own pocket and her busy schedule.

When I told her about the three-legged cat, her reaction was immediate and visceral. She urged me to find out if the animal was still around. I reached out to my contacts at the restaurant. To my dismay, the cat was gone. Word had it she had been repeatedly impregnated by stray tomcats and considered a nuisance by passersby. Her disappearance remained unexplained, but not unexpected.

Michaela was heartbroken as the cat could have been afforded better medical attention only if located. Michaela’s unyielding German spirit persisted and her hope of retracing the cat was not extinguished. A close collaboration with the restaurant is giving her some leads though sketchy, but she still has not given up. She might succeed in finally rescuing the cat that she still did not see apart from my and other’s accounts. I really admire her kind heart and resilience in trying to resolve the existential problem of a helpless living creature living in distress. I keep my fingers crossed for good luck in the search.

There is a cruel irony here when you contrast her fate with that of world-famous Garfield, the lasagna-loving, Monday-hating comic strip cat who believes he adopted his owner. In the 2024 film, Garfield ends up in an animal shelter, bewildered and annoyed to find himself among the vulnerable. Watching that film last December and later spotting a Garfield T-shirt on a street in Bangkok during Christmas week, I could not resist buying it. The shirt reminded me of the comic, the movie, the nostalgia. But Garfield lives in utopian fiction. The real stories of animals, their pain, abandonment, and neglect play out invisibly around us.

Donkeys and horses suffer especially brutal lives in Addis Abeba and its outskirts. I once encountered a terrifying scene while driving along a cobblestone path. A horse, overloaded with household items, closets, chairs, tables, was being mercilessly whipped by its handler. The load was not only excessive but asymmetrically packed, causing the animal to panic. It reared violently, its hooves flailing in protest.

The chaos unfolded just feet from my car, and I felt trapped – like I was in the eye of a storm. Only a narrow gap opened up as the horse turned sideways, allowing me to hit the gas and escape. In my rearview mirror, I saw the cart lurch forward again. I could not help but wonder if my car’s presence had worsened the ordeal.

But that incident was far from isolated. In neighborhoods like Ayat, CMC, Bole Arabsa, and Legetafo, it is common to see horses too sick or injured to work, left to die slow, agonizing deaths. Some are covered in sores, blinded by infections, left to die a slow and painful death. Sometimes the hyenas relieve the equine of its misery by dealing the coup de grace.

Donkeys, whose population in Ethiopia exceeds 10 million, the highest in the world, fare no better. Their suffering is constant and mostly invisible. An article by Dawn Vincent from the Anglo-Ethiopian Society tells the story of a collaborative effort between the Donkey Sanctuary (a UK-based charity) and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Addis Abeba University. They have established a clinic in Debre Zeit, one small but vital initiative in a country overflowing with neglected working animals.

I am reminded of the late Professor Andreas Eshete, Ethiopia’s renowned philosopher and public intellectual. During my high school and early university years, I would often see an amber-colored mule grazing outside his home near Sar Bet. Many were baffled by the sight. Why would a man known for championing heritage, justice, and culture keep a mule by his villa?

Word eventually spread that it was his. It turned out to be a powerful statement, an effort to inspire dignity and compassion for an animal that had borne humanity’s burdens for millennia without thanks or reprieve.

Michaela once told me: “Animals have no voice to speak of their suffering. They cannot demand dignity. That responsibility falls to us. We must act with reason, conscience, and care in this shared world.”

She muses pensively in a manner that makes me really question our collective conscience and says “At least if one does not care about animal’s wellbeing, why be cruel? Just do no harm!”.

A powerful argument that triggers the need for serious soul searching as it is a rampant practice and an uneasy truth as most people are vicious against animals for no apparent reason. In my mind came flashbacks of people on the street raining a hailstorm of rocks on a stray dog, or a donkey driver mercilessly hitting the loaded animal with stick and no one bothering to remove the gruesome remains of cat or dog hit by speeding car. I really wonder what went wrong with us or where we derailed from basic moral universe when it comes to animals.

Indeed, the world should not just be better for humans, but for animals too!

PUBLISHED ON May 24,2025 [ VOL 26 , NO 1308]