Introduction

I’ve been interested in helping stray animals ever since my family took in a litter of stray kittens off the streets when I was in sixth grade. In the past few years, I’ve had experience volunteering at various shelters, fostering kittens, and learning about related problems, such as product testing, animal abuse, etc. Through this work, I’ve gained a strong desire to help homeless animals and to learn more about the issue. Ever since I heard about the MYP personal project, I knew that I wanted it to be related in some way to stray animals, but I had a hard time figuring out what exactly that would entail and what the product would be. I’ve also always been fascinated by foreign cultures and was somewhat aware that there was a link between cultural attitudes and the conditions for strays in different countries. So I decided to make a documentary about how religion and culture around the world have affected the lives of homeless animals.