This week: Our Duty Towards Animals Edited by: NaNoKit  
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Animals are not so different from us. They deserve - and need - our care and kindness. Unfortunately, they aren't always treated as well as they should be.
This week's Spiritual Newsletter, then, is all about the natural world, and about avoiding harm.
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I had a different newsletter in mind for this week. With it being Birthday Week I planned on something cheerful, something fun. Unfortunately, current events got in the way. It’s been a bad few weeks for animals. If you have followed Operation Hercules, or the story of poor Geronimo the alpaca, or the fate of the mother fox with her three little ones who dared hang around a British school you will know what I am talking about. Some of us may value animals, but they aren’t valued enough.
“You hypocrite,” you might say. “You’re about to lecture people about animal rights, but are you a vegetarian? Are you a vegan?” Yes, you could ask me those questions and dismiss anything that comes next because the answer is that no, I am not. I could try to excuse it – I have food allergies that make a vegetarian or vegan diet extremely difficult. It does not help that I don’t actually like all that many vegetables. I have tried, I truly have, and I do limit the amount of meat I consume, but consume it I do. To help in what small way I can I purchase my meat from local farms, where I have visited the animals and know that they live their lives in the very best conditions, out on the hills (except in the cold of winter) rather than in those horrible cages. Life consumes life in order to survive and is rather cruel in its design. That does not mean that we should accept, let alone encourage, unnecessary cruelty.
It was once thought that animals are just things. Things that exist without thought, without feeling. There was doubt that animals could even experience pain. It surprised me when I learned that. Anyone who’s ever been around animals has surely observed that they experience a wide range of feelings and emotions. I have been around cats all my life and it is very clear to me when they are happy, playful, mischievous, startled, frightened (mine don’t like the vacuum cleaner), contented, hungry or in need of fussing. It can happen that jealousy sets in between my two – for example when I am petting one and the other wants attention. They have big personalities. One might hide under or behind something, waiting for the other to pass by so that they can pounce. All the cats I have had over the years have had their very own personalities, as have the other animals who I have shared my life with.
They are not so different from people, you know. I have heard the argument that humans are unique because we use tools. Some other species use tools, too. Apes, for example, and elephants. Birds such as crows, ravens and rooks. Dolphins. Sea otters. Even among fish there are those who use tools to access food or build shelter. And octopuses, of course, are very clever.
Another argument I have heard is that other species don’t plan. That they are driven purely by instinct and respond to the situation as is. Not so. It is not uncommon for octopuses to sneakily escape their tank and, more than that, a few years ago an octopus was caught in a very well-planned act : he’d climb out of his tank, open the lid on a nearby crayfish tank, steal fish, replace the lid, return to his own tank and cover his tracks by closing his tank behind him! That is a series of actions that takes thought and consideration. It is more than mere instinct.
Why, then, do us humans still all too often treat animals as though they are far removed from our own species? Perhaps because it’s easier that way. It is more comfortable, psychologically speaking, to do things that we know are wrong when who we are doing it to are seen as very different to us. Lesser. We do it to other human beings, for example when going to war. In fact, whenever governments wish to put in place policies that are harmful to other human beings they will use dehumanising language, Other those people, get the public on board that these people are not like us. The lazy benefit scroungers, the swarms of fortune-seekers at our borders… What chance, then, do other species stand?
Did you know that plants communicate with the other? That they share resources? That a mother tree knows its own offspring and supports them, but will also assist neighbouring trees when they are in distress, even those of different species? And when a tree is at the end of its life, it will pass on its resources. They aren’t things either.
Life consumes life, as said. It’s cruel. That shouldn’t stop us from treating the world around us, and all living beings with as much respect and care as we possibly can. We must, at all times, avoid being the cause of unnecessary suffering. We are a powerful species, and with great power comes great responsibility. If we are to be the guardians of this planet, let’s make it a kinder, gentler place. Let’s guard all those who need us.
NaNoKit
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Spiritual: September 01, 2021 Issue [#10964]
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