A Death in the Forest

I notice that when I talk to my animals, they respond in their own way, and it's plain to see.

And I'm not the only one. Farmers and ranchers will understand this, as most of them engage in the same behaviours. As a matter of fact, many of them already know that cows, for example, will produce more milk when the farmhand talks to them or when soft music is playing. It soothes them.

When I speak to my animals, the same effect is achieved. They calm down, or get more relaxed, if they are already calm. It's a sense of trust, a confidence that a friendly being will not hurt them.

We live in a strange world where people are divided about almost everything. This is no different.

You will find those who say how ridiculous an action is to waste one's time talking to creatures that can't understand a word you're saying, while you have others that go further, and say why waste your breath. They're just animals; who cares?

Oh, how shallow can a mind be?

I supposed those people never looked an animal in the eyes, and if they had, only saw the void that they had in their souls. I feel bad for the ones in his company.

There's an exquisite, indescribable sensation when that pure innocence touches your heart. It's a sublime rapport that only the two of you are aware of, even if for a few seconds.

But during those moments, they forged or reinforced a bond. To them, it is being in the presence of a friend, not a foe. A trustworthy person, not a predator, and so forth.

As a well-positioned species to deal with unknowns and prepare for the knowns, we must always use compassion and empathy towards those who depend on us primarily and also the ones who don't. The ones who face a daily struggle for survival in places less comfy than our homes.

Personally, I have trouble recognising why we treat animals so differently. They, themselves, don't see there's any. Prey or predator, they don't see a discord. In nature, a function follows a universal law. You are either a friend, a mate, or a lunch, but there is no discrimination to go along with it. On the other hand, we treat them with complete disregard, unless we “own” them or profit from them.

The heartless people who maintain factory farms and separate mothers from their babies are criminals. The corporations that do the same are barbaric and show the worst side of our blind capitalism.

Tiny cubicles, as far as the eye can see, containing living, sentient beings that hardly ever see the light of day, enjoy the sunbeams, or graze in the fields right in front of their cages. Pig mothers never get to touch their children, much less be together.

Iron bars, which they try to chew desperately, separate them, and as soon as the piglets are old enough for slaughter, we brutally take them out of their crates so they can end up in the market for sale. Same with baby lambs, calves, and any other mammal or crustacean we see fit to consume, such as lobsters or crabs.

Lucky are those who, at least, know a bit of life in the wild.

Reflecting on the fact that we dispose of 40% of our unconsumed food in the US alone, we realise that's not just incredible. It’s a reflection of where we are as a society.

We need to ask the ethical question of why. We like trendy toys. Hunters find it more fun to shoot an arrow through an animal's torso than to blow their heads with a cleanly placed shot. Most of the time, the animal doesn't die but gets injured, runs into the forest, and succumbs to a slow and painful death.

We should rethink our hobbies when they produce such suffering for others, instead of ignoring their pain.

Unless one lives off the grid completely and needs to survive, there’s no need for the cruel “sport” of hunting, with bows and arrows, slingshots, or high-powered rifles. Such a sport is non-existent, and only thought as such in the brains of cruel people.

The same goes for trappers for profits. The agonizing death of a trapped animal is disconcerting, and we still take it as the norm. We have heard of some wolves, foxes, and several other mammals chewing their limbs off to secure their freedom. That is how important life is for them. I greatly doubt humans have the courage and capacity for pain to do such things. And yet, they rejoice when their traps are filled with the carcass of a dead animal or when they see a severed limb in them. Is that who we are?

When we finally evolve, that will be a thing of the past. We will look back at what we've done to these poor souls for millennia and shake our heads in disbelief.

If we survive on this planet unscathed, and don't blow ourselves up, in a not-so-distant future, we'll see the pain and damage we have caused to our fellow beings solely for the sake of our taste buds. Then, we will realize we could have done better than that.

In our Western world, we have a life of plenty. Some live with extreme excess, and they go hunting for pleasure. We should stop supporting them. They are all that is wrong with the world: a lack of empathy.

Those who agree with me will understand my words. We don’t have to continue with our old ways, because that’s what our ancestors did. We are our own selves, with our own brains, and living in the present. Let us let go of our brutal past.

There’s always room to grow.

~o~