Would I Still Be At Home?

No serious evidence supports the idea that other animals besides humans engage in mass killing of one another.
In 170 years of combined observation by chimpanzee researchers in Africa we know of only between ten and twenty killings of chimpanzees by other chimpanzees.
( Jeffrey Masson )

Is there anything more evil than a slaughterhouse.

When it comes to respect for British wildlife, Her Royal Highness is seriously lacking.
She sees only the utility of animals.
To hunt, ride or keep her company.
Not only is gassing badgers ineffective, it is cruel, as it causes these much-loved, intelligent and curious animals to experience agonising deaths underground.
Instead of devising ways to dispense with animals, the Princess should use her considerable influence to advocate changes that will improve their lives.
Those who have everything in life should not be calling for the deaths of horses and badgers, whose only crime is to be born into a world where humans are in charge.
( Ingrid Newkirk, 05.04.2014 )

Dogs actually love us more than we love them (more even than they love themselves), possibly the only such instance in nature.
That apart, all animals who meet us are traumatised by the encounter.

UK universities experimented on 825,000 animals last year.
Mice were used for 79% of tests but seals, badgers and primates were among other species used, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed.
Of 50 universities that replied to our request, Oxford was top with 190,169 animals followed by Imperial College London on 130,358 and Cardiff on 63,578.
Some of them survived but others died during the tests or were humanely put down.
( Daily Mirror, 27.03.2014 )

It’s hard to understand why so many people don’t care about the barbaric massacre of the innocents that goes on day and night in our midst, and beyond understanding why so many people put their ‘taste’ above the suffering and the brutal slaughter of so many helpless, gentle animals.

All animals, including humans, have a right to lives of dignity and respect, without forced intrusions.
( Marc Bekoff )

If God had wanted us to eat His animals, do you really think He would have given them emotions and let them feel pain and fear?

Mankind must be a steward of the Earth.
Caretakers for all that dwells upon it.
We must learn to share the tears of every living thing, to feel in our heart the pain of the wounded animal, each crushed blade of grass.
Mother Earth is our flesh.
The rocks our bones.
The rivers are the blood of our veins.
We are all children of the Creator.

Animals are my friends.
And I don’t eat my friends.
( George Bernard Shaw )

Animal farmers and the meat industry abuse and torture and slaughter animals for financial game.
And it’s legal.

I am fond of pigs.
Dogs look up to us.
Cats look down on us.
Pigs treat us as equals.
( Winston Churchill )

Evolution – Seeing animals as our friends, not our food.

If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow.
But the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.
( Mark Twain )

You people like eating meat?
If humans weren’t meant to eat each other, then why are they made of meat?

All his life he tried to be a good person.
Many times, however, he failed.
For after all, he was only human.
He wasn’t a dog.
( Charles M. Schulz )

How we treat the vulnerable is how we define ourselves as a species.

Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day.
t is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.
( John Grogan )

You claim you are an animal lover.
What you have on your plate suggests you are not telling the truth.

The dog is the most faithful of animals and would be much esteemed were it not so common.
Our Lord God has made His greatest gifts the commonest.
( Martin Luther )

Just like us, animals have one life.
It’s not ours to take.

Holding this soft, small living creature in my lap this way, though, and seeing how it slept with complete trust in me, I felt a warm rush in my chest.
I put my hand on the cat’s chest and felt his heart beating.
The pulse was faint and fast, but his heart, like mine, was ticking off the time allotted to his small body with all the restless earnestness of my own.
( Haruki Murakami )

All dogs deserve humans, but not all humans deserve dogs.

Not responding is a response.
We are equally responsible for what we don’t do.
In the case of animal slaughter, to throw your hands in the air is to wrap your fingers around a knife handle.
( Jonathan Safran Foer )

The Dairy Factory (they like to call it a farm) where milk is forcibly extracted from cows (who were sexually abused by humans) to sell to the people who believe the milk meant for baby cows is just what they need and what Nature intended.

May all that have life be delivered from suffering.
( Gautama Buddha )

Keeping silent about cruelty, inflicted on humans or non-humans, is betrayal.

An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.
( Martin Buber )

The most evil animals on our planet are the human animals who have no compassion and no conscience.

Animals are more than ever a test of our character, of mankind’s capacity for empathy and for decent, honourable conduct and faithful stewardship.
We are called to treat them with kindness, not because they have rights or power or some claim to equality, but in a sense because they don’t.
Because they all stand unequal and powerless before us.
( Matthew Scully )

The most powerful antidepressant has FOUR paws, fur and a wagging tail.

Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul.
( Pythagoras )

Our perfect companions never have fewer than FOUR feet.

Teach your children to respect me, please.
Teach them not to taunt or tease me, or to pull my ears or tail.
I am not a toy to be neglected or abused.
I am a living creature that feels pain, physical and emotional.
Teach your children to speak up for me, and to protect me, please.

The thinking person must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo.
When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another.
( Albert Schweitzer )

Calves cruelly taken from their mothers often try to suckle the fingers of the slaughter-house man in their final moments before they are murdered by the same man.

We must embrace Mother Nature.
She is our friend.
We must never make nature our enemy.
For we will surely lose that battle.
When Mother Nature calls on you for help, listen to her.
Take care of all living things.
From the largest ocean, to the smallest creature.
( Anthony Douglas Williams )

Meat-eater: “Stop shoving your way of life down my throat”.
Me:  “I will, when you stop shoving their only life down your throat”.

Animals understand more words in our language than we do in theirs.
( Alfred Hookins, 1892-1956 )

The meat on your plate is the result of violence, terror, and brutal death inflicted on gentle animals in blood-soaked slaughterhouses.

To kill something for sport is an empty expression of power.
It will never be right so let’s stop it now.
( John Bishop )

Why do some vegans want their food to look like meat?
For the same reason people use dildos – looks the same, feels the same, fills a hole, and no one else suffers.

Unite and fight the ignorant fools who view our wildlife as mere toys for them to use, abuse and kill as they will.
In the clash between the compassionate and the callous words alone are not enough.
Support the Hunt Saboteurs, the only people who save lives in the hunting fields.
( Mike Huskisson )

Why be cruel to animals when they treat you better than people?

An activist is someone who cannot help but fight for something.
That person is not usually motivated by a need for power, or money, or fame, but in fact driven slightly mad by some injustice, some cruelty, some unfairness.
So much so that he or she is compelled by some internal moral engine to act to make it better.
( Eve Ensler )

When I die do not say “I will never have a pet again, for the loss and pain is more than I can stand”.
Instead, go find an unloved dog, frightened and lonely in a shelter, whose life has held no joy or hope, and give my place to him.
This is the only thing I can give.
The love I leave behind.

I Wish I Could Have Met You ..
The kennel staff just offered me my last meal, but I’m really not very hungry.
They don’t think I know what’s going to happen to me at 6am, but I do.
I’m just sorry that the nice man has to walk me into the room.
I know he feels bad.
And I know that he’s going back into my building for the next dog.
He will do this over and over again until his list is finished for the day.
Tomorrow he will get up and do it all over again.
He hates his job.
I would too.
I guess I just wanted to say thank you for trying to find me another family.
And thanks for sharing my photo and my story, hoping I would be saved in time.
Maybe you can try again tomorrow with the new dog that will sleep in my kennel?
I wish I could have met you.
I bet you would have really liked me.

The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.
( Charles de Gaulle )

Would I Still Be At Home .. 
You got tired of me and took me to the shelter.
They were overcrowded and I drew an unlucky number.
I am in a black plastic bag in a landfill now.
Some other puppy will get the barely used leash you left.
Would I still be at home if I hadn’t chewed your shoe?
I didn’t know what it was, but it was leather and it was on the floor.
I was just playing.
You didn’t get me any puppy toys.
Would I still be at home if I had been housebroken?
Rubbing my nose in what I did only made me ashamed to go at all.
There are books on dog obedience that would have told you to teach me to go to the back door.
Would I still be at home if I hadn’t brought fleas into the house?
Without anti-flea stuff I couldn’t get them off me after you left me in the yard for days.
Would I still be at home if I hadn’t kept barking?
I was only saying, “I’m scared, I’m lonely, I’m here, I want to be your best friend.”
Would I still be at home if I had made you happy?
Hitting me didn’t make me learn how.
Would I still be at home if you had taken the time to teach me manners?
You didn’t pay attention to me after the first week or so.
But I spent my time waiting for you to love me.
I died today.

We stopped checking for monsters under our bed when we realised they were inside the cowards that harm our animal cousins.
( Florence Emily Hookins, 1896-1962 )