As a young child I used to take myself off fishing around the rocks. I would come home with my catch, consisting of small fish that the cat refused to eat and no human was interested in eating. So they lay on the grass in the sun until I had to return the dead bodies to the sea. What a waste! But I never saw it and my parents never commented on the needless loss of life.
I kept mice in small cages and I loved them dearly. I kept budgies in cages with the same love. As a young teenager, after years of persistent begging, my parents bought me a pony. She lived alone on ten acres for some time before giving birth to a little filly. Then she was no longer alone.
Through all these experiences, I did not realize the impact of loneliness, or the stress placed on the small animals who were mostly confined to tiny cages or the sacrifice of life made by the innocent fish on the end of my line. The human race has docked animal’s tails or cropped their ears, removed body parts, artificially inseminated animals for our own ends, stolen and trapped animals for our amusement, slaughtered them in the name of sport, destroyed their habitats, isolated them, exploited them in the laboratories and this is only the tip of the iceberg. Of course, we have also formed great bonds with them, rescued and cared for them and tried to ensure their right to live freely in their natural environment. Individually some of us go to great lengths to ensure the happiness of our animal companions or those whose lives are threatened by extinction or abuse.
As I become more conscious of my beliefs, thoughts, emotions and my soul experiences greater depths of connections with the animals, I see things differently. I realize I simply did not know how my earlier actions were impacting on the animals around me. I did not have a good handle on some of my emotions and so my actions were not always considerate or understanding.
My increasing knowledge of myself, grows alongside my understanding of the animal kingdom, of nature herself. I know that once I know something or become aware of it, I cannot unknow it and I may be required to respond through a change in attitude and/or action. I understand this to be true for all of us. Condemning ourselves for actions made in ignorance are not helpful. Changes can be small, incremental and made by everyone of us and it doesn’t really matter what route we take, but we do have a choice.
We can sign petitions, we can use our consumer power to choose carefully what we purchase, we can research products, share that information with interested people and if we want to, we can become involved in animal rights groups. Closer to home we may change some of the ways we relate to animals, the way we manage their livelihood, we can simply think differently, changing some of our attitudes so that we have a more respectful relationship with animals. We can use prayer, we can donate to causes we trust or volunteer our time and energy or we can rescue a bee stuck in water, grow plants that provide homes for the critters outside and we can find out how each animal contributes to the eco-system. In New Zealand, many people don’t realise that moths are the pollinators of the night. They are one of the little creatures that pollinate the flowers as they go about their business.
We can always change if we are willing and we can continue to learn about the animals we share the planet with.