Hunters: The Serial Killers of the Forest

Sneaking around in the woods, hiding behind trees, hiding behind your guns, looking for unsuspecting, unarmed creatures to shoot–quite the challenging 'sport' eh? Come on, hunters, you know that hunting each other is the only fair way to play your blood sport. 

Anthropomorphism?

The concept of anthropomorphism: nonsense based on the assumption that feelings, such as affection, sadness, fear and emotional pain, are solely human emotions, and that if we attribute these characteristics to other animals we are 'anthropomorphising' or sentimentalizing them. Too many believe that these 'feelings' are ours and ours alone, too many fail to recognize the commonality between us and other species. Those who believe this forget that we humans are just another animal species, that we don't have a monopoly on sentience. It's not only arrogant and shortsighted, it’s also a convenient excuse to diminish the rights of non-humans, allowing us to continue to use and abuse them without compunction. We are not smart enough to truly understand other species. We can at the very least stop promoting hackneyed theories which go against common sense and cause harm. Humans, of all the animal species on our planet, are especially unlikely to be the sole intelligent, feeling beings. 

How to Make an Outdoor Feral Cat Shelter

Cats may not mind some rain or snow as long as they have access to a warm dry home. Here in Montreal feral cats lose ears and toes and even die from hypothermia during the cold winters. For those out there who care about their suffering here’s how to make an outdoor cat shelter:

-use two plastic storage containers, the kind with removable covers that snap to close on top, one small enough to fit inside the other so long as the inside one is large enough for the animal to turn around and/or stretch out in

-place the smaller container inside the larger one

-cut a door hole through both containers’ walls at the same place a few inches up from the bottom(heating the area with a blowdryer first for a few minutes makes this much easier by softening the plastic)

-tape with duct tape all around the aligned holes to smooth the edges

-insulate with straw or wood shavings in the space between the walls of the inner and outer containers

-fill the inner container with straw for warmth(not hay because it retains too much water)

-snap both covers shut

-duct-tape a pliable cutting board or equivalent to the top over the door as an overhang to keep rain out

-place shelter on a table or some other high place if possible because cats feel safer when higher up, or at least off the ground on a pallet or on bricks

Guns and Religion

People pray and sing hymns for the murdered children from December 14th. It's sad and also ironic that two of America's mightiest idols are god and guns.

We need to look to ourselves for answers. We're adults. There's no parent in the sky.
In any case, what good is religion when it doesn’t stand for an all-encompassing compassion, the most basic of ethical values? Faith certainly doesn't spare our innocents from harm.

And it’s time to stop defending gun ownership for the 'sport' of hunting. How is sneaking around in the woods with a gun looking for unsuspecting animals to murder even a sport, let alone a right? Our biggest obstacles to having a kinder, safer world are the serial killers in our forests. The ugly truth about guns is only discussed in relation to our own safety, and only when our own are killed. 

If we want our children to grow up to be good and decent people, or to grow up at all, we need to eradicate guns and and the 'sport' of killing from our culture, along with the idea that belief in god is necessarily righteous.

Running with Dogs

People don't always realize that when they run or bike with their dogs alongside, even young and/or healthy dogs are at risk for heart attacks. Their physiology requires them to do short sprints with frequent breaks, and they require more water than we do.

You can slow down or take a break when you're out of breath, or feel weak, but your dog will try to keep up with you at all costs, even if their lungs or hearts are telling them to stop, or if they're in need of water, and their distress isn't always obvious.
Also, where's the fun for them when they can't visit or play with other dogs on the trail, or just sniff stuff along the path?

Poem #1 - in memory of Marti Kheel

I really loved life though I did feel the anguish,
of sentient beings who sadly still languish,
mankind, people say, but I’m not so sure,
for our actions toward animals are too far from pure,
we take all we want with no thought to their needs,
to live and to thrive, free from our evil deeds

the pain all around could have paralyzed me
but instead it ensured that I couldn’t help see,
a voice for the mute was still missing, still needed,
that I could give mine to be heard, to be heeded,
could find answers and cures where it seemed there were none,
though at times I felt sure it would never be done

it's not in my nature to rest or sit tight
so I always felt sure that I had to set right,
a world too replete with venomous factions
with all of our arrogant, merciless actions,
determined to keep up our cruelty, our greed,
never seeing how unjust that the bound are not freed

I now know that I was more tired than I thought,
for if I could have I would have kept on, would have sought
to finish the job, to make people kind,
so sad that in fact so many stay blind
to the ugly mean truth that our species abuses,
that the power we wield means that everyone loses

the point of it all I still do not know,
but when it’s our time, we all have to go,
I did all I could to redirect might,
it’s time for all people to speak and to fight,
I now see no vitriol, I see no more blight
finally for me it’s all out of sight

Celebrate Don't Desecrate

We cut down the trees that have been growing for five to ten years, drape them in cheap tinsel and baubles, and then throw them in the gutter to rot when we're done with Xmas. Why not decorate the trees outdoors? They're just as beautiful to behold and aren't destroyed afterward.