Beyond the Shoreline: What a Coastal Cat Project Taught Me About Conservation

When people hear the term animal welfare, most immediately think of dogs and cats.

● Rescue.
● Sterilisation.
● Vaccinations.
● Adoption.

As someone who has spent much of my life working around animals and animal welfare organisations, I probably would have answered in much the same way.

What I would not necessarily have thought about is marine conservation.

Yet recently, a project along Thailand’s coastline challenged some of my own assumptions about where animal welfare ends and where environmental conservation begins.

Rob’sDogs Foundation recently partnered with the Aerial Recon & Recovery Initiative (ARRI), an organization focused on understanding and addressing threats to marine ecosystems, including ghost nets, marine debris, biodiversity loss, and the wider pressures facing our oceans.

At first, it may seem like an unusual partnership. One organization works primarily with dogs and cats. The other focuses on marine environments. On paper, there is very little overlap.

In practice, there is far more than most people realize.
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