THE SOULS OF ALL LIVING CREATURES: Three short reflections on animals
Presented by the Committee for Ecology & Social Action
January 14, 2018
On Crows Who Think
By Barbara Hale
My best friend and roommate is a soon to be 12 year old pug named Olive. I don’t know if you all know much about the pug breed, but they were bred to be companions to royalty. Okay, I know I’m not royalty. So let’s just say that pugs, being products of their breeding, have the sole purpose to be with people and to make people happy. They are very good at that. The flip side of that is that they don’t like to be on their own. I’ve told people that if you ever want to be alone in the bathroom, don’t get a pug.
When my husband Greg was alive, Olive went everywhere with us when we went on driving vacations. She’s been to Canada and Texas, to South Dakota and Florida and everywhere in between. As long as she was with us, she was a happy dog. So when Greg got sick a couple years ago and was in the hospital for a month, I had to leave her alone frequently and for very long times. If she was left alone for long periods during normal times, she would have shown her displeasure by leaving a little present now and then, if you know what I mean. But for that month while Greg was in the hospital, Olive was the model citizen. Did she know that something was different? She must have.
I know that those of you who have lived with and loved dogs and cats can probably relate to this kind of thing. Some of you may have dogs who won’t leave your side if you are sick. Or maybe a cat that always wants to lie on your keyboard when you’re on the computer just so she can get some of your undivided attention. These anecdotal stories show that domesticated animals know how to figure stuff out. I think that they use their intelligence as much as their breeding to make us happy and to get what they want as well.
But intelligence in animals isn’t confined to domestic animals, of course. Take corvids, for example. Highly regarded by the scientific community as one of the smartest birds, the New Caledonian Crow is said to have the intelligence of a five to seven-year old human. American Crows aren’t far behind.
The Audubon Society says this about the American Crow: “The crows in your neighborhood know your block better than you do. They know the garbage truck routes. They know which kids drop animal crackers and which ones throw rocks. They know the pet dogs and they might even play with the friendly ones. If you feed them, they probably not only recognize you but your car as well, and they might just leave you trinkets in return. These birds live their lives intertwined with ours, carefully observing us even as most of us barely take note of them. That’s how they survive, and they’re good at it: In recent decades the American Crow has taken over our suburbs, and even moved into the hearts of our big cities. As we’ve reshaped the landscape, we’ve created an ideal environment for an animal that is canny and perceptive enough to exploit our riches.”
The intelligence of crows has been well acknowledged for many hundreds of years. Take the fable written by Aesop around 500 BCE:
A Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it. He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair. Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him, and after casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save his life. The moral of the story: Little by little does the trick.
But another moral of that story is that we shouldn’t take the crows’ intelligence for granted. A study done in 2014 by scientists in New Zealand proved that Aesop was onto something when he wrote his story. The abstract from this study is as follows:
“Understanding causal regularities in the world is a key feature of human cognition. However, the extent to which non-human animals are capable of causal understanding is not well understood. Here, we used the Aesop's fable paradigm – in which subjects drop stones into water to raise the water level and obtain an out of reach reward – to assess New Caledonian crows' causal understanding of water displacement. We found that crows preferentially dropped stones into a water-filled tube instead of a sand-filled tube; they dropped sinking objects rather than floating objects; solid objects rather than hollow objects, and they dropped objects into a tube with a high water level rather than a low one. However, they failed two more challenging tasks which required them to attend to the width of the tube, and to counter-intuitive causal cues in a U-shaped apparatus. Our results indicate that New Caledonian crows possess a sophisticated, but incomplete, understanding of the causal properties of displacement, rivalling that of 5–7 year old children.”
If you are interested in seeing videos of these crows, when you get home Google “crow study with stones and water.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m betting on the crow to figure out the width and U-shaped apparatus problems one of these days if they are given the opportunity.
Crows seem to have emotional intelligence as well. Studies have shown that crows can hold grudges and remember the faces of humans who mistreated them even after years had passed.
When I think about the crow, it makes me think that we have far more in common than simply being made of the same star stuff. We are interconnected with that intelligent, beautiful, sleek being and it behooves us to admire and respect him and all his fellow beings whose intelligence we have yet to study, discover and appreciate.
Sex Changing Frogs
by Wendy Newhall
Newsweek: MALE FROGS MAY BE TURNING FEMALE THANKS TO ESTROGEN IN SUBURBAN WASTE BY DOUGLAS MAIN ON 9/7/15 AT 6:41 PM
In a study published September 7 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers sampled hundreds of young frogs from 21 ponds in Connecticut, which were all geographically close but varied widely in terms of how developed their immediate surroundings were. The scientists, led by Yale University researcher David Skelly and doctoral student Max Lambert, were surprised to find that the extent of development was strongly linked to the proportion of females; ponds in forests contained lower proportions of females, whereas males were in the minority in some areas of the ‘burbs. Previous work by Skelly’s group found a large percentage of female characteristics in male frogs in these same bodies of water; all 34 ponds examined by Skelly and team turned up males whose testicles also contain eggs. The development of such “intersex” or hermaphroditic traits have been linked to endocrine disrupting chemicals like the herbicide Atrazine. But much of the work in this area has focused on agricultural chemicals. This is one of the first studies to suggest that estrogenic wastes from suburban homes and yards are directly affecting frogs (and perhaps other animals), Skelly says. “This is literally bringing it into our backyards.”
Lambert says that they were surprised to find that estrogenic chemicals from plants may be playing a major part. Compared with forest ponds, he found large quantities of phytoestrogens in suburban water bodies. These chemicals, which can mimic estrogen and affect the sexual development of frogs and other animals (including humans), are produced by plants such as clover and other legumes (soybeans and peanuts, for example). It could be that just by maintaining a lawn and removing native plants from their yards, humans could be impairing the hormonal development of animals. Chemicals that have this effect, like bisphenol A, are called endocrine disruptors. “This shows that endocrine disruption is a much more diverse phenomenon than we previously realized,” Lambert says. The study also turned up traces of other estrogenic chemicals called estrones, which are excreted by humans and other animals under normal circumstances. But they didn’t find any trace of synthetic estrogens like those contained in birth control pills. The endocrine-disrupting chemicals may be coming from lawns and leaking septic and sewer systems, Skelly says, although they haven’t conclusively determined their source. …
"This is an extremely important study that should make us all think about the collateral damage of suburbanization to natural ecosystems," says Brad Shaffer, a researcher at UCLA who wasn't involved in the paper. "Amphibians are very sensitive bioindicators, and this study shows that [suburbanization] has profound impacts on the life history of a common, seemingly resilient species of frog. The observation that the amount of landscaping is having a quantitative effect on the sex determination and population biology of frogs in a nearby pond is amazing."
As many of you know, I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and when I found out that my cancer was estrogen positive I asked the oncologist what could be done about it and why I would be high in estrogen. Her reply was, “Some women are just high in estrogen.” I also found that there is no reliable test to determine estrogen levels in the body because they naturally vary so much from day to day. So I think the best we can do both for our own health and those of the animals is to do what we can to avoid these estrogen mimicking chemicals. Here’s a list of some of the sources of esterogen mimicking chemicals we can avoid:
Sources
http://www.newsweek.com/female-frogs-estrogen-hermaphrodites-suburban-waste-369553 Study in Connecticut that shows that the percent female frogs is much higher in suburban areas. They link to the amount of lawn space.
https://www.livescience.com/10957-pesticide-turns-male-frogs-females.html Study shows that atrazine, a common pesticide used in corn crops can not only change the sex of a male frog into a remailer but that frog can actually reproduce.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XenoestrogenXenoestrogens are estergen mimicking chemicals such as PCB’s, BPA, and phthalates.Phytoestrogens are naturally plant derived estrogens. Includes a list of common ones.
https://www.naturalhealth365.com/estrogen.html/
The Soul of All Living Creatures
by Fritzi Foster
Genesis 1:28
And God said to them, s“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
Born into a Catholic family, I grew up hearing this bible verse. I’m sure many of you did, too. I reflected on this verse quite often, even as a young child. It seemed important to me to understand exactly what this meant. My relationship with animals, and with the rest of the Earth, has always been the way I find my path in the world. It shapes most of my ethical decisions.
Eventually, I started to allow other philosophies to shape my spiritual life. I learned of Buddhist monks who wouldn’t kill an insect. I tried living that way. It was a little inconvenient at times, what with mosquito bites and such.
A number of years ago, I learned of the UU seventh principle,
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part.
Now, finally, I had a framework that I felt enabled me to begin finding my place in the universe.
Most of what excited my passion to explore what is right and wrong was actual experience, or hearing of others’ experiences.
Just yesterday, I learned of a zoo in Sweden, which has killed 9 healthy lion cubs in the last few years. This sounds heinous, and maybe it is. It is supported by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria’s code of ethics, however. The animals were culled because they were superfluous. This made me wonder if someone operating under the biblical belief of having dominion over animals would see this differently from a UU looking at the interdependent web of existence. I don’t know, but I think our 7th principle at least means taking a step back and trying to figure out another way.
On another topic, there is an organization called the MA Coalition for Animals. Its members comprise a variety of animal professionals throughout MA, including shelter directors, veterinarians, and rescue groups. Their purpose is to improve the lives of companion animals in MA, and to maximize resources in doing so. They are the group behind the animal friendly license plates, which you may have seen.
The group has been in existence since the year 2000, but they almost didn’t survive their first meeting. The manager of a local pet store was in attendance. Another member objected to his presence, because selllng animals went against her code of ethics. The commitment and wisdom of this group was such that both members remained in the group, and the organization made it a top priority to acknowledge and incorporate all points of view. By the way, that pet store no longer sells puppies and kittens, but instead holds adoption events for nearby shelters. This organization was instrumental in changing Massachusetts laws regarding the sale of cats and dogs.
Our 4th UU principle comes in here, as well: A responsible search for truth and meaning. Each one of us uses our life experience to make the best decisions we can each day.
Personally, I have committed not to eat meat unless it comes from a farm where I know the animals had a good life and a compassionate death, and to work toward the elimination of factory farming. I am leaning toward eliminating meat from my diet entirely.
I have found ways to improve the lives of companion animals. I take care of my own, I have volunteered at shelters and educated myself as to the needs of dogs and cats. I financially support the MA spay/neuter license plate program.
One more aspect to our 7th principle is respect for existence, OF WHICH WE ARE A PART. To me, that means it’s important to allow for the fact that my opinions are just that: MY opinions. This community has been valuable to me because all of you are willing to share your own searches for truth and meaning.
I was recently speaking with a coworker who said she was unable to find Smithfield products in New England. She had a coupon. I used this opportunity to tell her that Smithfield was among the worst of the factory farming operations. She immediately threw up her hands and said “I don’t know anything about that”, which clearly communicated that she didn’t want to know anything about that.
Although I felt dismayed that someone was unwilling to hear this message, I also understood and respected her point of view. She is a mom who is living paycheck to paycheck. At this moment in time, her prime consideration is feeding her children, and she’s not ready to complicate that with more ethical considerations.
When we think about the situation of life on earth today, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the problems facing us. Our dominion over the earth has been spectacularly unsuccessful in so many ways.
And yet, as I look around, there are signs of hope.
Do you remember how common it used to be to see dogs tied to chains in a backyard? That is now considered by most of society to be substandard care, and it’s because people understand that you can destroy a dog’s spirit that way.
I remember visiting the Forest Park Zoo as a child. The big cats were housed in bare concrete cages, directly across from the monkeys, in similar cages. The idea of “enrichment” was not a consideration. The animals were there for the amusement and education of people. Even as a child, that was horrifying to me, but I really felt I was alone in that feeling. Although roadside zoos still operate this way, there are fewer and fewer of them, and it is the public which continues to point out cases where standards are “soul-destroying” to the animals involved.
There is so much to consider. Wanting the best for our earth, for all the creatures in it, for the wildlife around me, for the companion animals who live in my home, and, yes, for the tiniest of insects which cross my path, what is my responsibility? What is your responsibility?
Each of us has to decide that for ourselves, and we also owe it to one another to help each other come to those decisions.
We will be helped in that endeavor by looking into the soul of each animal we encounter and giving them the respect that they so richly deserve.
Presented by the Committee for Ecology & Social Action
January 14, 2018
On Crows Who Think
By Barbara Hale
My best friend and roommate is a soon to be 12 year old pug named Olive. I don’t know if you all know much about the pug breed, but they were bred to be companions to royalty. Okay, I know I’m not royalty. So let’s just say that pugs, being products of their breeding, have the sole purpose to be with people and to make people happy. They are very good at that. The flip side of that is that they don’t like to be on their own. I’ve told people that if you ever want to be alone in the bathroom, don’t get a pug.
When my husband Greg was alive, Olive went everywhere with us when we went on driving vacations. She’s been to Canada and Texas, to South Dakota and Florida and everywhere in between. As long as she was with us, she was a happy dog. So when Greg got sick a couple years ago and was in the hospital for a month, I had to leave her alone frequently and for very long times. If she was left alone for long periods during normal times, she would have shown her displeasure by leaving a little present now and then, if you know what I mean. But for that month while Greg was in the hospital, Olive was the model citizen. Did she know that something was different? She must have.
I know that those of you who have lived with and loved dogs and cats can probably relate to this kind of thing. Some of you may have dogs who won’t leave your side if you are sick. Or maybe a cat that always wants to lie on your keyboard when you’re on the computer just so she can get some of your undivided attention. These anecdotal stories show that domesticated animals know how to figure stuff out. I think that they use their intelligence as much as their breeding to make us happy and to get what they want as well.
But intelligence in animals isn’t confined to domestic animals, of course. Take corvids, for example. Highly regarded by the scientific community as one of the smartest birds, the New Caledonian Crow is said to have the intelligence of a five to seven-year old human. American Crows aren’t far behind.
The Audubon Society says this about the American Crow: “The crows in your neighborhood know your block better than you do. They know the garbage truck routes. They know which kids drop animal crackers and which ones throw rocks. They know the pet dogs and they might even play with the friendly ones. If you feed them, they probably not only recognize you but your car as well, and they might just leave you trinkets in return. These birds live their lives intertwined with ours, carefully observing us even as most of us barely take note of them. That’s how they survive, and they’re good at it: In recent decades the American Crow has taken over our suburbs, and even moved into the hearts of our big cities. As we’ve reshaped the landscape, we’ve created an ideal environment for an animal that is canny and perceptive enough to exploit our riches.”
The intelligence of crows has been well acknowledged for many hundreds of years. Take the fable written by Aesop around 500 BCE:
A Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it. He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair. Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him, and after casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save his life. The moral of the story: Little by little does the trick.
But another moral of that story is that we shouldn’t take the crows’ intelligence for granted. A study done in 2014 by scientists in New Zealand proved that Aesop was onto something when he wrote his story. The abstract from this study is as follows:
“Understanding causal regularities in the world is a key feature of human cognition. However, the extent to which non-human animals are capable of causal understanding is not well understood. Here, we used the Aesop's fable paradigm – in which subjects drop stones into water to raise the water level and obtain an out of reach reward – to assess New Caledonian crows' causal understanding of water displacement. We found that crows preferentially dropped stones into a water-filled tube instead of a sand-filled tube; they dropped sinking objects rather than floating objects; solid objects rather than hollow objects, and they dropped objects into a tube with a high water level rather than a low one. However, they failed two more challenging tasks which required them to attend to the width of the tube, and to counter-intuitive causal cues in a U-shaped apparatus. Our results indicate that New Caledonian crows possess a sophisticated, but incomplete, understanding of the causal properties of displacement, rivalling that of 5–7 year old children.”
If you are interested in seeing videos of these crows, when you get home Google “crow study with stones and water.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m betting on the crow to figure out the width and U-shaped apparatus problems one of these days if they are given the opportunity.
Crows seem to have emotional intelligence as well. Studies have shown that crows can hold grudges and remember the faces of humans who mistreated them even after years had passed.
When I think about the crow, it makes me think that we have far more in common than simply being made of the same star stuff. We are interconnected with that intelligent, beautiful, sleek being and it behooves us to admire and respect him and all his fellow beings whose intelligence we have yet to study, discover and appreciate.
Sex Changing Frogs
by Wendy Newhall
Newsweek: MALE FROGS MAY BE TURNING FEMALE THANKS TO ESTROGEN IN SUBURBAN WASTE BY DOUGLAS MAIN ON 9/7/15 AT 6:41 PM
In a study published September 7 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers sampled hundreds of young frogs from 21 ponds in Connecticut, which were all geographically close but varied widely in terms of how developed their immediate surroundings were. The scientists, led by Yale University researcher David Skelly and doctoral student Max Lambert, were surprised to find that the extent of development was strongly linked to the proportion of females; ponds in forests contained lower proportions of females, whereas males were in the minority in some areas of the ‘burbs. Previous work by Skelly’s group found a large percentage of female characteristics in male frogs in these same bodies of water; all 34 ponds examined by Skelly and team turned up males whose testicles also contain eggs. The development of such “intersex” or hermaphroditic traits have been linked to endocrine disrupting chemicals like the herbicide Atrazine. But much of the work in this area has focused on agricultural chemicals. This is one of the first studies to suggest that estrogenic wastes from suburban homes and yards are directly affecting frogs (and perhaps other animals), Skelly says. “This is literally bringing it into our backyards.”
Lambert says that they were surprised to find that estrogenic chemicals from plants may be playing a major part. Compared with forest ponds, he found large quantities of phytoestrogens in suburban water bodies. These chemicals, which can mimic estrogen and affect the sexual development of frogs and other animals (including humans), are produced by plants such as clover and other legumes (soybeans and peanuts, for example). It could be that just by maintaining a lawn and removing native plants from their yards, humans could be impairing the hormonal development of animals. Chemicals that have this effect, like bisphenol A, are called endocrine disruptors. “This shows that endocrine disruption is a much more diverse phenomenon than we previously realized,” Lambert says. The study also turned up traces of other estrogenic chemicals called estrones, which are excreted by humans and other animals under normal circumstances. But they didn’t find any trace of synthetic estrogens like those contained in birth control pills. The endocrine-disrupting chemicals may be coming from lawns and leaking septic and sewer systems, Skelly says, although they haven’t conclusively determined their source. …
"This is an extremely important study that should make us all think about the collateral damage of suburbanization to natural ecosystems," says Brad Shaffer, a researcher at UCLA who wasn't involved in the paper. "Amphibians are very sensitive bioindicators, and this study shows that [suburbanization] has profound impacts on the life history of a common, seemingly resilient species of frog. The observation that the amount of landscaping is having a quantitative effect on the sex determination and population biology of frogs in a nearby pond is amazing."
As many of you know, I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and when I found out that my cancer was estrogen positive I asked the oncologist what could be done about it and why I would be high in estrogen. Her reply was, “Some women are just high in estrogen.” I also found that there is no reliable test to determine estrogen levels in the body because they naturally vary so much from day to day. So I think the best we can do both for our own health and those of the animals is to do what we can to avoid these estrogen mimicking chemicals. Here’s a list of some of the sources of esterogen mimicking chemicals we can avoid:
- Weed killers, Insecticides and pesticides Sunscreen lotions that contain 4-MBC
- Food preservatives such as BHA Canned foods and plastics (BPA and BPA-S)
- Food Dyes
- Food chemicals that are used to protect fats and oils from becoming rancid
- Anti-perspirants that are made with Metalloestrogens or toxic metals
- Make ups and skin care products that have the preservative called paraben
- Tap water (most city waters are contaminated with estrogens from oral contraceptive pills)
- Detergents and surfactants
- Growth hormones in dairy and meat products
Sources
http://www.newsweek.com/female-frogs-estrogen-hermaphrodites-suburban-waste-369553 Study in Connecticut that shows that the percent female frogs is much higher in suburban areas. They link to the amount of lawn space.
https://www.livescience.com/10957-pesticide-turns-male-frogs-females.html Study shows that atrazine, a common pesticide used in corn crops can not only change the sex of a male frog into a remailer but that frog can actually reproduce.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XenoestrogenXenoestrogens are estergen mimicking chemicals such as PCB’s, BPA, and phthalates.Phytoestrogens are naturally plant derived estrogens. Includes a list of common ones.
https://www.naturalhealth365.com/estrogen.html/
The Soul of All Living Creatures
by Fritzi Foster
Genesis 1:28
And God said to them, s“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
Born into a Catholic family, I grew up hearing this bible verse. I’m sure many of you did, too. I reflected on this verse quite often, even as a young child. It seemed important to me to understand exactly what this meant. My relationship with animals, and with the rest of the Earth, has always been the way I find my path in the world. It shapes most of my ethical decisions.
Eventually, I started to allow other philosophies to shape my spiritual life. I learned of Buddhist monks who wouldn’t kill an insect. I tried living that way. It was a little inconvenient at times, what with mosquito bites and such.
A number of years ago, I learned of the UU seventh principle,
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part.
Now, finally, I had a framework that I felt enabled me to begin finding my place in the universe.
Most of what excited my passion to explore what is right and wrong was actual experience, or hearing of others’ experiences.
Just yesterday, I learned of a zoo in Sweden, which has killed 9 healthy lion cubs in the last few years. This sounds heinous, and maybe it is. It is supported by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria’s code of ethics, however. The animals were culled because they were superfluous. This made me wonder if someone operating under the biblical belief of having dominion over animals would see this differently from a UU looking at the interdependent web of existence. I don’t know, but I think our 7th principle at least means taking a step back and trying to figure out another way.
On another topic, there is an organization called the MA Coalition for Animals. Its members comprise a variety of animal professionals throughout MA, including shelter directors, veterinarians, and rescue groups. Their purpose is to improve the lives of companion animals in MA, and to maximize resources in doing so. They are the group behind the animal friendly license plates, which you may have seen.
The group has been in existence since the year 2000, but they almost didn’t survive their first meeting. The manager of a local pet store was in attendance. Another member objected to his presence, because selllng animals went against her code of ethics. The commitment and wisdom of this group was such that both members remained in the group, and the organization made it a top priority to acknowledge and incorporate all points of view. By the way, that pet store no longer sells puppies and kittens, but instead holds adoption events for nearby shelters. This organization was instrumental in changing Massachusetts laws regarding the sale of cats and dogs.
Our 4th UU principle comes in here, as well: A responsible search for truth and meaning. Each one of us uses our life experience to make the best decisions we can each day.
Personally, I have committed not to eat meat unless it comes from a farm where I know the animals had a good life and a compassionate death, and to work toward the elimination of factory farming. I am leaning toward eliminating meat from my diet entirely.
I have found ways to improve the lives of companion animals. I take care of my own, I have volunteered at shelters and educated myself as to the needs of dogs and cats. I financially support the MA spay/neuter license plate program.
One more aspect to our 7th principle is respect for existence, OF WHICH WE ARE A PART. To me, that means it’s important to allow for the fact that my opinions are just that: MY opinions. This community has been valuable to me because all of you are willing to share your own searches for truth and meaning.
I was recently speaking with a coworker who said she was unable to find Smithfield products in New England. She had a coupon. I used this opportunity to tell her that Smithfield was among the worst of the factory farming operations. She immediately threw up her hands and said “I don’t know anything about that”, which clearly communicated that she didn’t want to know anything about that.
Although I felt dismayed that someone was unwilling to hear this message, I also understood and respected her point of view. She is a mom who is living paycheck to paycheck. At this moment in time, her prime consideration is feeding her children, and she’s not ready to complicate that with more ethical considerations.
When we think about the situation of life on earth today, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the problems facing us. Our dominion over the earth has been spectacularly unsuccessful in so many ways.
And yet, as I look around, there are signs of hope.
Do you remember how common it used to be to see dogs tied to chains in a backyard? That is now considered by most of society to be substandard care, and it’s because people understand that you can destroy a dog’s spirit that way.
I remember visiting the Forest Park Zoo as a child. The big cats were housed in bare concrete cages, directly across from the monkeys, in similar cages. The idea of “enrichment” was not a consideration. The animals were there for the amusement and education of people. Even as a child, that was horrifying to me, but I really felt I was alone in that feeling. Although roadside zoos still operate this way, there are fewer and fewer of them, and it is the public which continues to point out cases where standards are “soul-destroying” to the animals involved.
There is so much to consider. Wanting the best for our earth, for all the creatures in it, for the wildlife around me, for the companion animals who live in my home, and, yes, for the tiniest of insects which cross my path, what is my responsibility? What is your responsibility?
Each of us has to decide that for ourselves, and we also owe it to one another to help each other come to those decisions.
We will be helped in that endeavor by looking into the soul of each animal we encounter and giving them the respect that they so richly deserve.
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