Essays Contents
Animals
January 2, 2023
There is a "wrong way"...
and there is a "right way."
Mankind has taken numerable species of animals out of the wild...
and has bred them... to be domesticated animals.
As a result... these animals have come to depend upon mankind
to provide for them... an environment...
where they can flourish and breed...
in their own natural way...
to live an existence of fulfillment...
at least in the time that they are given... to live among us.
In a way... we have made them like our children.
And yet... in modern times, at least...
they are living their lives in abject cruelty and neglect.
Oh... they get fed and watered... ya, that...
but they are fed things foreign to their bodies...
and are forced into too small of spaces to...
keep their feet off of each others' shit.
Even domesticated animals have herding patterns.
They have connections to one another... naturally...
and care for their own young...
and train their own young...
to understand their world... and to function in it.
Anything else... would make them... somewhat... insane.
I see these animals kept in small pens...
and I also see the brain death... the misery... the mourning.
They are given no companions to share their lives with.
They are fed garbage or dried food... dirty water...
and are never brushed off or groomed or nurtured.
I've heard someone say, "I've done this all my life,
and this is how it has been done for a long, long time."
But in my own thinking... they haven't bothered...
to consider just WHAT it is they have been doing.
These animals are left to die in storm and snow.
These animals are herded like they have no senses or feelings.
And I guess I will say it...
although I haven't thought all the way through on it...
"if you don't know how to properly care for an animal...
just like... if you don't know how to take care of children...
then you just should not have them."
I look at the symbolism of Jesus "being born in a stable"...
and it occurs to me... there is a lesson to be learned...
that God thinks of animals, also...
as his children.
and there is a wrong way.
