Our Purpose
We envision a world of fearless people and leaders of faith and spirituality who embrace and extend the principles of kindness and compassion for animals as core spiritual values.
Our Mission is to create a framework that serves to educate, engage and enlighten and empower people and leaders of faith to build and implement community models of change for animals and to inspire others to do the same.
Animals are masterful teachers and there is much to learn from the many lessons through which they guide us. This premise inspired our logo, where you see the human animal footprints following in the footsteps of his/her fellow animals.
Our earliest memories are laced with stories, films and fairy tales that instilled, deep within us, virtues of kindness, compassion and empathy. Animals were our familiar and beloved teachers and friends. But at some point along our life’s journey, there is a disconnect. For many of us, our consciousness shifted and how we felt about the animals who guided us through those early lessons, changed --- as did our relationships with them. We may have become desensitized to their plight.
The Interfaith Council of Humane Leadership was created to serve as a spiritual resource for those animals. To bring together people and leaders of faith and spirituality to restore that bond, educate others about it, engage them in a new spiritual advocacy for animals that enlightens them to its importance and which empowers them to do the same for others. In this manner, we create a new paradigm --- a transformed cycle of compassion for all of the animals who collectively share the planet.
Our Model
The Interfaith Council of Humane Leadership operates on a simple, incremental model:
Educate • Engage • Enlighten • Empower
This incremental model may be entered at any point. Our goal is to provide relevant educational and inspirational opportunities which will move those who wish to join us to a place of engagement --- a place where a personal willingness to create a better world for animals is inspired. Once this occurs, the heart becomes enlightened and empowered to seek out others who wish to do the same and then, to share the experience with them. Thus, the ripples of compassion extend beyond the one to embrace the whole. As the cycle of sharing repeats itself, the circle widens with a pervasive compassion.
Here is a contextual example of the model as it might pertain to Puppy Mills. Puppy Mills are cruel institutions for dogs. They live in stacked crates and are forced into non-stop reproduction cycles; most spending their entire lives in wire prison cells. A significant percentage of pet stores purchase their puppies from Puppy Mills and frequently, the animals suffer from genetic and conditional illnesses.
Most people are stunned to learn about Puppy Mills and once made aware of this type of animal cruelty the newly EDUCATED person might say:
“I never knew this existed --- it’s terrible that animals are treated this way.”
With the EDUCATED person, that acknowledgment may be all that occurs --- but typically, with additional education, this individual will move to:
The ENGAGED person, who expands the original statement:
“I never knew this existed --- it’s terrible that animals are treated this way. I will not contribute to this type of cruelty and will never again purchase a puppy from a pet store. I will only adopt from a shelter or rescue group.”
The ENGAGED person takes the education and turns it into self-action, thus becoming personally engaged in a compassionate outcome.
Then there are the final two categories --- People who feel compelled to find other, kindred spirits with whom to share their values and desire to create change for animals. The ENLIGHTENED person might say:
“I never knew this existed --- it’s terrible that animals are treated this way. I will not contribute to this type of cruelty and will never again purchase a puppy from a pet store. I will only adopt from a shelter or rescue group. There have to be others like me out there --- others who feel this way --- I’ve got to find them so we can put an end to this.”
Thus, the ENLIGHTENED person further expands the call to action from the self to the whole, seeking others of like-mind with whom to create sustained change.
When ENLIGHTENED people come together --- the world changes. As many minds and hearts gather with collective intention, they are EMPOWERED by the realization and inspiration of shared thought --- not only of the importance of creating change --- but also of inspiring others to learn what they have learned so that they, too, can be EDUCATED, ENGAGED, ENLIGHTENED and EMPOWERED to do the same. Thus, a new cycle of compassion is born.
The Interfaith Council of Humane Leadership hopes to create a "meeting place" for individuals who reside at any point within this model, with the goal of inspiring a level of compassion that will result in significant and sustained change for the world's animals.
The Council is open to all and was created to provide opportunities for relevant education, a forum for connection and engagement and, consequently, the opportunity to become enlightened not only to prevailing issues, but to the value of leveraging the efficacy and impact of one’s own work through relationships with others of the same mind.
Our Objectives
The Interfaith Council of Humane Leadership has targeted the following key objectives which are designed to create an urgent “call to action,” to people and leaders of faith and spirituality, to accept the invitation to step into Humane Leadership. Our objectives are:
- Develop and implement programs and activities that have a direct, positive and sustained impact on animals experiencing loneliness, cruelty, abuse, neglect, abandonment or exploitation.
- Extend the hand of compassion beyond one's existing faith parameters, inviting those from all faith traditions and beyond--- in true solidarity --- to participate in activities that support animals.
- Encourage dialogue and discourse regarding animal issues, among all people and leaders of faith, by creating a compassionate framework and opportunity for discussion.
- Provide people and leaders of faith with the resources, tools and support to successfully implement the organizational vision within and beyond their respective faith communities.
- Forge productive, enduring partnerships, between people and leaders of faith and animal welfare (and other) community organizations and leaders, that/who benefit animals.
- Create and engage in shared community experiences and events that benefit animals.
"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."
-Mohandas Gandhi