There are different kinds of animals in the world, they have different needs. Wild animals do not need people or wish to be around them, although they need people to try and preserve some room for them on the earth, which we have failed to do.

Pets need people to survive, for food, shelter and their very existence.

Domesticated animals need people for much the same things, although to varying degrees. Donkeys are domesticated animals, so are working horses and some Asian elephants. They have worked with people for many thousands of years, they attach powerfully to people. Every animal on our farm – every animal in this photo – is attached to one person or another, and seeks and needs attention – grooming, talking, touching, listening.

In our culture, most people have moved far away from animals, and are often confused about their needs. Many people see all animals as pets, needing the things pets need. You would never ask a dog to haul firewood or sleep outside in the winter, although some could and would.

Everyone has their own ideas, draws their own lines. I live around wild animals – they are all around us here, and have pets, and also own domesticated animals.

I do not believe wild animals should be forced to live among people, or should be confined as pets. I do not think killer whales belong in theme park pools.  I do not believe domesticated animals should be treated as wild animals, and forced into lives – into the mythical wild – where most could not survive and have never been. Domesticated animals need people, and they need work – even stupid tricks work, which many do happily.

Domesticated animals need work, it is part of their genetic make-up and long history with human beings. To deprive them of work is to abuse them in the most literal sense of the term.

These distinctions are important, animals depend on us to understand the different needs among them, since we totally control their environments and living spaces. Every morning, our donkeys gather and stand by Maria, or me if she is not around, and they lean into her and near here, they talk to her and they listen, they need to be touched, brushed, groomed, shown attention.

It is something they clearly need, we see that. It grounds them, settles them. So do the sheep, in a different way, we are their safety and sustenance, they watch us and follow us. They gather around us and stand and sit with us.

And then there is Red, who needs work, attention, encouragement, affection. I am important to him, and him to me. We need one another. As animals vanish from the world, some through human greed and development, some from climate change, some from disturbed human beings who kill them for sport or poach them, others through the relentless drive by the animal rights movement to separate animals from human beings, it becomes urgent that we listen to them, understand them, know what it is they truly do need.

There is not too much time left for us to continue to mis-understand them.