Come to the Edge - Parts 1, 2 & 3

[~flower~]

You don't have to agree with all of what this woman writes, but to say that their is not a problem with how humans treat other living creatures you can't deny. Some things are just wrong. And if we are the evolved animal species why are we so stupid that we can't see that, why do we think we must control everything on this planet to suit our own needs?   

http://aspenbloompetcare.com/2008/02/come-to-the-edge-part-1-the-scenario.htm

Part 1:

Come to the Edge Part 1: The Scenario

Kim and Shadrach Bloomer
© Written by Dr. Kim Bloomer
Edited by Dr. Bera Dordoni

“Come to the edge, he said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came. He pushed them and they flew.” -Guillaume Apollinaire

I’m going to take you on this long journey with me and my hope is that by leaving you with questions you’ll look within to find the answers.

Recently I was sent a link to a video that was recorded undercover by a group that is known for doing undercover videos for the intent of exposing animal cruelty and abuse. I hesitated to watch it because I knew it would be something horrendous for an animal lover like me to watch, so I saved it for the time just before I was closing down my work for the day. Not a good idea. I cannot tell you how devastated and terribly upset it made me. However, it was also the catalyst for this article series. Yes, I obviously needed to watch the video. Someone has to be a voice for those who cannot express their voices. But next time something like this comes in, I will not watch it at the end of the day so that it haunts me through the night.

I am not supplying the link to that video here because I’m sure many who are reading this article have more than likely already seen that video, especially since it’s been all over the mainstream news. And interestingly enough the video is not the real focus of this article. It’s more a question: What are we really doing? Are we really aware of what is REALLY going on with regard to animals?

Before I digress let me just share the video in words. In one word: abhorrent. In a phrase: complete disregard for sanctity of life. This video was taken inside of a factory dairy farm. These dairy cows are used their entire lives for milk and then for food themselves when their milk supply is no longer up to the demand. Let me first say before I go on that I am not opposed to using animals for food. Yes I am an animal lover but I also believe it is okay for us to consume animals for food but in gratitude to them for their unwilling sacrifice that can only be honored with the humane, natural care of these animals. As a veterinarian friend Dr. Myrna Milani, said “there are consequences to what we do to animals”. Yes, there are, indeed. Juliette de Bairacli Levy states in her book, The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable that she teaches natural care of animals (according to their species needs) and shuns their treatment as machines forcing the “unnatural” on our domestic animals which brings them much pain, fear, and misery but could all be avoided by their proper, humane, natural care.

Whether animals are our companions, or utilized for food, or for entertainment, or whatever it may be we MUST care for them kindly, humanely, in gratitude to them, and as naturally as possible or there will be and are consequences to our actions. Many animals are highly intelligent and deserve to be respected as the living beings that they are; our problem is that we are so wrapped up in our closed little worlds therefore we do not achieve the understanding necessary to work with or live with animals in our personal worlds.

In this video I watched as a downed cow (one that no longer can stand up because of a sick and weakened state) was being repeatedly - and I mean one right after the other – prodded with an electric cattle prod. She was screaming, and also frothing at the mouth in agony. It was obvious she was in agony and also very sick. But the worker continued to prod her. Then seeing that this wasn’t going to work he went and got a forklift to force UNDERNEATH her to lift her and carry her to slaughter. Now imagine this cow is already sick and in agonizing pain. She was repeatedly electrocuted. Then they ice the cake by shoving a painful piece of metal up underneath her. How she lived through all of that is beyond my comprehension. But no matter what, she did not deserve that kind of treatment even if the plan was to use her for human consumption. No animal no matter what deserves that kind of treatment. Never. Ever.

I have friends within the industry that say this sort of cruelty should never happen. I was told by one person that it is a violation to slaughter any downed animal. That’s right, and yet the cow I saw was not the only one that was downed nor was it the only one that was being treated in this manner. There were several that were downed and the workers were using forklifts on ALL of them. There was also a cow that was obviously deformed; she was walking on her hocks not her hooves. She was also in the pen for slaughter.

A filthy, dirty muck of a pen is where these animals resided, I might add. There was absolutely no regard for animal life at this large processing facility. None. And of course when we consume animals raised in horrid conditions like these who are obviously sick, deformed, and even malnourished we consume ALL of that into our bodies. Like it or not, believe all the naysayers who say it isn’t so but that does not negate the facts. And they are facts.

As I watched this video I was sobbing. Not just in shock or disgust but in complete and utter anger. I knew in that moment why so many people want us to be vegan or vegetarian. I don’t even think it’s because it is supposedly the healthiest way for us to eat (I don’t believe veganism is the healthiest way to eat). I don’t even believe it’s for the animals’ rights. I believe it is because it is just plain wrong for us to do these things to other living beings that were created by God. But this article is not about my own convictions and beliefs because therein lies the crux of all these animal problems in the first place.

When predator animals kill and eat prey animals they do so out of a necessity to eat what they were created and designed to eat. They eat what they need and in nature nothing is left to waste. Humans are the only beings on the planet that blatantly waste anything.

Any kind of reasoning that says we have to produce food for the masses in this fast, factory style so that there is enough food for everyone does not make sense because there are more starving people around the world now than ever before. To torture animals to supposedly get more food to more of the masses makes no sense either other than for pure and unadulterated greed on the part of these factories AND for we greedy consumers who don’t need near as much as we perceive ourselves to need to sustain our lives.

At the root of ALL our problems is one thing: greed. We greedily want our way or the highway. We greedily want more to consume. We greedily want more to sell. We greedily want more money, more power, more clothes, more tech toys, more, more, and more. We are never satisfied or content. Animals on the other hand only use what they need. Sure, we have overweight animals, but that is not of their doing; it is of our doing by feeding them what is unnatural to them and that in turn is creating volatile new diseases as well.

These horrific actions against animals push certain groups in an attempt to force everyone to comply with draconian laws that make the book “1984” written by the very insightful Orson Wells pale in comparison. The only ones, who really get punished, though, are the animals.

To open your heart means risking it all – to experience great joy and profound sorrow. — Tom Mathews

[~flower~]

http://aspenbloompetcare.com/2008/03/come-to-the-edge-part-2-the-questions.htm


Come to the Edge Part 2: The Questions

Kim and Shadrach Bloomer
© Written by Dr. Kim Bloomer
Edited by Dr. Bera Dordoni

“Come to the edge, he said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came. He pushed them and they flew.” -Guillaume Apollinaire

Continuing on with our journey of animal care, laws, welfare and rights…

We forgo health that causes suffering to stop suffering. To force baby animals to be neutered far too young rather than waiting until maturation, causes their suffering. Without their gonads at such a tender age, they are missing critical growth hormones. They end up suffering with joint, structural and behavioral problems, confusing their owners, which is often the cause of their being surrendered to shelters or just abandoned anyway; the very event that these new laws will supposedly prevent.

Some folks who work in shelters have told me they’d rather see the animals suffer with their health than to suffer by being killed in a shelter. But shelter numbers will increase rather than decrease due in part to the above stated health issues. Plus, creating poor health in an animal rather than killing them is just promoting another form of animal suffering and abuse. This is not protecting them. As I stated in Part 1, we will suffer the consequences of our actions.

I just wonder who stands to gain by upping shelter numbers by promoting this nonsense. Many shelters are currently understaffed, under trained, overworked, and underfunded forcing many of poorer ones to close their doors. But, I’ve heard, big multi-million dollar shelters are being built around the country just before mandatory spay-neuter laws go into effect.

• If laws now demand that everyone spay or neuter their pets, then why don’t we need smaller shelters, and less of them, allowing for better budgets since we should be looking at LESS intake of animals?
• Who benefits by outlawing good, reputable breeders?
• Who benefits by telling everyone that if you adopt animals from shelters but don’t buy from breeders that you are a good citizen?
• Who stands to benefit?
• Who stands to gain by promoting this type of thinking?
• What if the only pets you will ever be able to have eventually come from these multi-million dollar facilities or from government-approved puppymill type facilities?
• Aren’t these new laws designed to stop puppymills and backyard breeding? Seldom do you find purebreds because breed rescues work with shelters to rescue their breeds from shelters, and foster and rehab these animals before placing them in good homes, and they are almost always already neutered.
• Aren’t up to 80% or more of all domesticated dogs and cats in pet homes already neutered?
• Aren’t shelter numbers composed primarily of feral cats and dogs not owned by anyone anyway?
• Then, why mandate these sorts of laws, punishing breeders who aren’t contributing to the statistics within shelters?
• Aren’t there many Trap/Neuter/Release (TNR) programs in place to reduce feral populations?
• Aren’t No Kill Shelters thriving and saving animal lives without these draconian laws that will not protect animal suffering in the long-term?

As a sidenote before I move on note these facts:
ALL dogs are mixed breeds. Yes. ALL purebreds came by mixing other breeds together until a breed “bred true” – meaning until each time puppies were born they all looked the same, over and over again. That’s the simplest way for me to explain that. And mixed-breed dogs are now a conglomerate of purebred dogs. So the argument on mixed breeds vs. purebreds is a rather moot point in my opinion.

Something you may not be aware of is that the very puppymills these laws supposedly will stop are not governed within the parameters of all these new laws. They pay high government fees that allow them to be government-approved turning these animals into merchandise – quite different from the way, good, honest, reputable breeders feel about their animals or operate. Before you decide I’m a breeder working to promote my own agenda, think again because I am not a breeder, plain and simple. I never have been and I never intend to be because that is not my calling in life. As for those so-called “backyard” breeders, they never have been in compliance of laws and never will be. So we’re back to square one, aren’t we? More laws won’t force people into compliance. Creating citizen police units knocking on doors to inspect your animals, checking to see if you are in compliance of anti-liberty laws, is not something that should ever be allowed in a country that professes to be land of the free. Never. Ever. It is indicative of exactly what transpired in the dark days of Nazi Germany.

It is fear-based. It is dictatorial.

Nothing is to be feared in life - only understood. -Marie Curie

• If we believe this is all for the protection of animals, all for ending their suffering, pain, exploitation, and enslavement, and giving them their rights shouldn’t we be asking them what they want?
• IF animals are on equal ground with us, shouldn’t someone be asking the animal communities and each species what’s on their minds?
• And who of us have the right to determine, truly what is right for the animals?
• Each of us has our own convictions and thoughts on what is or isn’t right. What is right?
• Who determines that?
• Isn’t this just our own convictions and agendas we’re really pushing?
• Aren’t we all exploiting the animals then?
• Isn’t this all just a setting for a thriving black market of animal flesh? Think Prohibition. That never stopped the sale of alcohol, it fueled it. Creating a coup for the criminal element.
• Why don’t legislators listen to all the facts before making their decisions? What is in it for them?

We want the government to solve more and more of our problems including any and all animal problems. Ban dog breeds because people get mauled and bitten – even though more people die from car accidents in one day than dog maulings in years. Neither way is a good way to go and I don’t wish either way on anyone, of course, but the point is, banning breeds is not a solution, it is a bandaid on a gaping social wound. It is once again punishing an animal for human lack of responsibility and human callous disregard for all life including human life.

Mandate neutering so that animals won’t be born unwanted, even though those same laws will fuel a huge black market. Once again we punish the animals because of human irresponsibility and human lack of knowledge about animals.

Laws don’t fix problems or force responsibility. The laws are put in place to make us all aware of wrongdoing but they do not enforce good behavior or responsibility. Those are learned and either incorporated into your being or not. Good behavior and responsibility are a choice that can never, no matter how harsh be mandated.

Have we all considered all the options or just those that promote our own agendas and convictions?

What about the animals lost in the haze of our perceived truths?

Here is a statement from the GodThoughts Wired newsletter than can shed some light on truth and freedom:
To reject the truth is to reject the one thing that can make you free. The only way to be “unified” with someone who rejects the truth is to compromise the truth yourself. However, when you compromise the truth for the sake of “unity,” you are withholding the one thing that can bring freedom to the individual(s) with whom you are seeking “unity.” WHAT A HORRIBLE TRADEOFF! “I want to be your friend and I want you to like me so I won’t talk about truth, thus leaving you in bondage, but at least we’re “unified.”* Uhhh, that’s certainly not love, and that’s precisely what Jesus DID NOT do. Jesus never preached unity, He preached truth, and those who received His truth were naturally unified…To withhold the truth is to withhold the means to the freedom that people so desperately need.

This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. - 1 Timothy 2:3-4, NIV

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. - 2 Timothy 4:4, NIV

[~flower~]

http://aspenbloompetcare.com/2008/03/come-to-the-edge-part-3-the-conclusion.htm

Come to the Edge Part 3: The Conclusion

“Come to the edge, he said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came. He pushed them and they flew.” -Guillaume Apollinaire

In conclusion of our journey of animal care, laws, welfare and rights…

Possibly all the people pushing for these new hard-core draconian laws really believe it will make things better for the animals. I tend to think that many believe this but at the core of the movement behind these laws are those who believe that animals should be living separately from us in order to allow animals to have “real” lives. Some even believe that, for animals to live with us, work with us, play with us and/or help us is for them to be enslaved, and they are better off dead than enslaved. I honestly don’t think my dog thinks he’s the slave in our house. He has it pretty good, especially considering that before he came to live with us he had been a very abused, starved and neglected puppy. He hasn’t missed a meal since he came to live with us and he is rather demanding that his meals be on time! We bathe him, brush him, do his nail trims, minister to him when he’s ill, pay for his food (he is fed a species natural diet) and all his expenses which include the best nature can offer to an ailing animal, get up at ungodly hours so he can cavort with his dog friends at the park, and play with him. I think the “enslaved” part of this thinking is grossly misplaced. And I don’t he’d rather be dead in place of the life he now leads even though he previously led a life of abuse and neglect.

Possibly people want to see the end to the horrific abuse we thrust upon animals in the name of both economics and protection.

We say to protect them we must vaccinate them with toxins that harm their overall long-term health. The same toxins are created by those who perform vivisection with callous disregard for animal life. We feed unnatural diets that create ill health instead of feeding them natural diets. We create more and more chemicals rather than looking to nature for our health, which would eliminate the need for much of the testing that we protest. We force the mutilation of their pristine baby bodies vying it’s for their protection from potential unwanted offspring because we are negligent. We angrily fight for laws to protect animals from trade in the fur of their bodies or from being sold in stores, yet it is our own demands that keep these practices as thriving enterprises. Unscrupulous “mills” sell large quantities of animals to stores or animal farms set up to give the air of neglect so that “sympathy” buys will happen by people unversed in animal nature that will ultimately contribute to the throw away pet population. Then we punish reputable breeders instead of looking at our own lack of knowledge about economics and animals. We are callous in our care of food animals because, after all, aren’t they only food? Only to have recalls that render their lives useless; lived in vain. We are shocked but do nothing to change anything that doesn’t further our own personal agendas.

The following quote magnifies the error in our thinking. This quote and the one after which this article is entitled, were supplied by veterinarian friend, Dr. Myrna Milani:

“We need another and a wiser and perhaps more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees therefore a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves, and therein we err, we greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by the man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and more complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.” Henry Beston, The Outermost House, 1923

The dignity for animals lies in allowing them to BE what they are; to BE the species each of them is and to work with them within those parameters. They are not lesser beings than we are; they are simply different in their own right. The animals certainly do their best to work within our parameters and they have for millennia. Yes, they have for MILENNIA and yet here we are working to remove them from our immediate presence because of those who perceive their lives with us as enslavement. The animals choose to be with us. They choose to cohabitate with us. They choose to share this world with us. And we owe them the respect, the dignity, the kindness, and humane, natural care that their choice affords us. We owe them our gratitude in joining us for the enrichment and interdependence their lives lend to us.

The abuse and cruelty we thrust upon them MUST stop, but these laws are not the solution. All change, all improvement begins by changing ourselves. Mahtma Ghandi said to be the change we desire to see in the world. BE it. Not FORCE others into compliance with MY ideals. BE it. BE the example. Educate and teach others by our own actions.

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. — John Powell

Will animals die and suffer in the interim? Yes, of course they will and so will humans. That is the nature of this fallen world in which we live.

I desire to see respect of animals. I desire to see them cared for humanely, according to their natural needs. I desire to see education in the area of animal care and their nature. We should know these things prior to raising or bringing an animal home to live with us which would do much more in preventing their suffering and surrender far more than harsh, draconian laws ever will.

…my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. - Hosea 4:6, NIV

Education is what will help people to understand that there are predator animals and prey animals and that each needs to be cared for accordingly rather than overly anthropomorphizing their needs. How arrogant of us to believe they must be like us, forcing our ideals upon the very animals we are professing to fight for and to protect.

We must always remember that force is fear-based. Fear is the opposite of love, not hate.

I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me…all I ask is that you respect me as a human being. — Jackie Robinson

I would add to the quote above that in order for us to live in harmony with animals, we must also respect them in their individual species. Honor that and many of these laws will become moot.

Criminals will be criminals no matter how many laws we throw at them, so to penalize and hold accountable law-abiding citizens in the name of animal welfare and protection is not common sense. That is fascism.

What drives the horrendous acts we perpetrate against animals for human economy and gain is nothing more than fear, greed, and ultimately loneliness thinking we are islands unto ourselves and our ideals. We are right, and others who disagree with us are wrong. We are, everyone single one of us, guilty of that thinking and we are, every single one of us, guilty of using animals as the focus for our agendas.

“The more out of control we are ourselves, the more we feel the need to control others…from a Machiavellian mindset we would all rather be loved than feared but because love and fear cannot co-exist - they are mutually exclusive - we choose fear…” – Dr. Myrna Milani (paraphrased from a conversation on our show).

Fear tethers us. Fear binds us. Fear locks us in cages. Fear pushes for laws that punish others who don’t agree with our point of view. Fear shrinks, shrivels, and diminishes us until we’re locked in a dark, dank dungeon within our own souls thinking all is lost save our agendas to control others lest they control us first.

Only love delivers us from bondage. Only love sets us free.

Animals have been my constant source of love, acceptance and focus for my entire life and they will continue to be. They are God’s abundant treasure gracing our lives, as our companions, as our sustenance, as our mentors, as our consolers, as our entertainers, as our comedians, as our protectors, as our teachers.

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” -1 Corinthians 13: 6-7 (NIV)

God gave me my ability and gift with animals for His purpose and glory and I will continue to obey and honor Him with His gift. And through that gift I have learned some things:

Leadership is not dominance. True leaders serve the greater good. Horses taught me that.

Forgiveness and meekness is true power and strength. Dogs taught me that.

Healing can be as simple as a purr. Cats taught me that.

Dancing and singing with utter joy and abandon is fun. A bird by the name of Snowball taught me that.

Flight only comes after adversity. Moths and butterflies taught me that.

Love is true freedom. Animals taught me that.

Pride and arrogance comes before a fall. Humans taught me that.

If our desire is to see animal suffering end, animal cruelty end, animal care improved, animal respect elevated then we can start with the person looking back at us each day from our mirrors. Hold that person responsible. Hold that person accountable. Be the change. Be the example.

Will you come to the edge? Will you not be afraid? Will you fly?

Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be removed; it will not come near you. Isaiah 54:14, NIV