Watch as Mother Rat Saves Baby From Snake: Wouldn’t Any Mother Do the Same?

A girl in Italy who happened to have a camera ready witnessed a powerful act of love.

The suspense-filled video will set your heart racing, but it also makes you think. Animals are conscious beings, they understand cause-and-effect relationships, form abstract thoughts, solve problems, use language, make tools, exhibit long-term memory, show empathy and, of course, love. And this loving mother did what any mother, regardless of species, would do – risked life and limb to protect her baby.

Devoted mother chickens use their wings to shield their babies from predators and have been known to refuse to leave their nests during a fire if they have newly hatched peeps. Baby elephants and their mothers cry out for each other when prevented from being together as the babies are beaten in order to make them perform confusing and even painful circus tricks. Mother monkeys grieve when their babies are torn away from them in the wild to be sold to experimenters. And mother cows will fight as best they can to keep their babies, who are torn away from them by the cruel dairy industry.

These bonds and familial relationships mean just as much to them as ours do to us. If we wouldn’t want to be separated from those we love, let’s not force that separation on others by supporting industries that use and abuse animals.