Many people care about animals, but their compassion remains inconsistent, free-floating, and inert; unanchored by knowledge of animals' lives and the effects of common practice on their welfare. This chapter talks about a course that the author conducts: Taking Animals Seriously. It is an introductory seminar in animal ethics combined with volunteering and field trips to a variety of rescues. The four-week short term course presents experiential outcomes that are dramatic, and often life-changing. Students gain knowledge of acquaintance of animal minds and animal suffering at human hands. They experience and reflect on the consequences of unexamined philosophies such as anthropocentrism and moral psychological phenomena such as self-deception and willful ignorance. A course on social justice and poverty could be conjoined with service to homeless shelters or tutoring in underfunded schools. Doing animal ethics in a communal and practical setting enables students to develop the resilience needed to manage the emotional demands of animal advocacy.