Pete Seeger died this past Monday at the age of 94. I'm still devastated by his going away and likely will be on some levels for the time I have remaining. He became a hero of mine while I was still in high school and he remained one throughout all this time. He never never failed to delight, he never failed to enlighten and he never failed to "fight the power".
I asked my Tuesday class whether they had heard of Pete Seeger...none of them had. And that made me ever sadder.
It may be that some of you are not familiar with him. If so...here is one of the numerous pieces about his death and here's another. He made beautiful and meaningful music and he stood up against power and he stood up for those being treated unjustly. Even if he didn't make it all the way through to becoming a vegan...I have no doubt he would have at some point or other.
I've sort of had my eye out for something written about him that was worthy of him and here's a piece written back in 1990 that does a very good job.
What does this have to do with animals? Nothing and everything. Pete Seeger has fought the power for a long time. Summoned before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1955,
he pleaded not the Fifth but the First Amendment. He declared that he
had the right to discuss (and sing about) politics with whomever he
pleased. In 2003, as the nation prepared to invade Iraq, an 84 year-old
man stood by himself on a cold, snowy street corner in Beacon, New York
holding a hand-painted sign that simply said: “Peace.” As Bruce Springsteen
observed, Seeger’s life and work has been all about driving a “stealth
dagger into the heart of our illusions about ourselves and our country.”
Mr. Springsteen's observance about driving a dagger into the heart of illusion is also a fitting statement about the job of every vegan. It is our task to puncture humankind's illusion of superiority and dominance and freedom to harm without consequence that characterizes how most behave toward our fellow Earthlings. I will forever believe Pete would have understood and sympathized. RIP Mr. Seeger...we are all lessened by your not being here.
Recently one of the blogs, Animal Rights, I follow regularly posted a piece entitled Applesauce and Boiled Pigs (the author is adept both at writing and title creating). She often writes essays that are both funny and painful and this one included content that is smile making and also sad and also dismaying.
I responded with a comment that included the phrase "stranger in a strange land". Science fiction affectionados will recognize the phrase as one used by Robert Heinlein to title one of his most well known books. One that I read way back when I was fairly young and deeply immersed in the reading of science fiction. The book, by the way, centers around a character who, as an outsider, challenges many well-accepted social mores (and eventually gets murdered for his trouble).
What I was trying to wrestle with in my comment was the fact that veganism and the realizations of truths that drive someone to live life as a vegan carry a rather heavy price. Not the least of which is that taking this path is going to place one outside (and not just a little bit outside) of the mainstream way of living of most all of the human cultures on the planet. Culture and her footsoldiers (all those who practice particular ways of seeing things and doing things) do not suffer change gladly. This is a truth most everyone who has protested or resisted or even avoided participation in the murderous mayhem that is accepted as "reality" knows well.
It doesn't matter that veganism extends and places into practice behaviors and ways of feeling and thinking that are generally considered good or desirable...such as compassion, kindness, respect for others, etc. None of this matters to the cultural behemoth. What stirs resistance is change...it doesn't matter that the change is positive or that the change can only be considered good or beneficial...what matters to the culture is that it is different. Period.
If you step out of "being normal" be prepared to discover that human animals are generally not all these wonderous things we've been told that they are. Being frightened of applesauce doesn't say much for intelligence or rationality or wisdom or insight. Be prepared to discover a number to things that are painful about human behavior. Daniel Quinn addressed this phenomenon in his book Ishmael (more in this previous post). He does a great job of exploring this difficult topic.
Be prepared to learn too, if you haven't already, that: "Animals are no where near as different from humans as we’ve been taught..." (source). There's sort of a balance here...as we move toward giving up delusions of "specialness" and "uniqueness" we discover that we live in a world where special and unique doesn't just apply to one type of animal but to all animals. We find we have many more and varied beings that are enjoyable and admirable and that enrich us for knowing them.
Becoming a stranger in a strange land can be painful and disorienting and difficult to endure. But it also can make the world much bigger and more phenomenal than we ever thought it could be. I've met wise rabbits and sassy donkeys and silly ducks...and if I had continued to live in ways that included being threatened by applesauce...I would have been blind to the uniqueness of each of those beings.
Being a stranger in a strange land doesn't mean there aren't other humans there with you either. If you've opted for the strange stranger path (veganism) be sure to be kind to the other human strangers you encounter. You know it's a tough road because you're on it...it's tough for them too...so encouragement, acceptance and appreciation are always beneficial. Being vegan means living a life of kindness to strangers...those strangers being all the other animals that you will never meet that were spared harm because of your veganism...remember to be kind to the human strangers too.
One final thought. If at all possible, get involved with a rescue and/or sanctuary, not only to help them...but to help yourself. By that I mean I think it is nourishing (that's the best word I can think of) to spend lots of time around other types of beings. Especially beings that are safe from harm by humans.
Rescues and sanctuaries (vegan ones) are the closest thing there is to a vegan world that we have right now.
Being involved with a place like that lets you get a taste of what we're all struggling to achieve. It can be a transformative experience. And, if there isn't a vegan rescue or sanctuary near you...maybe you can get involved with one that isn't and begin the process of changing it. I think most of us spend way too much time around other humans and not nearly enough time around unhuman Earthlings...especially other Earthlings who are safe and who are given the respect and acceptance that they deserve. They blossom...and hanging out with blossoming beings is pretty nifty.
post over at The Animal Blawg. It is one of the best discussions I've ever run across about the problematic issue of "feeding" and interacting with the free animals. The author is a gifted writer who attracted my attention and admiration several years ago and I keep an eye out for anything she writes.
Developing into a respecter of our fellow animals (as well as being, on my part at least, a "lover" of them too) can be a struggle and can be difficult.
By the way, the same sort of perspective applies to interacting with your fellow human animals. Jumping in and doing everything for some other human that you care for is, in general, not a particularly good way to express caring. It's also sort of invasive and can be demeaning...and can be damaging. Why would we think what doesn't work for us...does work for the other animals? Ah well, when has reasonableness and perceptiveness ever defined human activity?
I'm not going to wade into this issue much further. Ms. Stachowski has written well and thoroughly about it...go read it.
And...obviously...if you want to quit harming the innocent...go vegan.
Many are aware that about six years ago there was a scandal because a pet food supplier from china had used melamine as an ingredient (because the presence of melamine causes tests for protein levels to be higher...and I presume melamine is cheaper than protein) and this had caused death for a number of pets. Melamine has also been used to boost apparent protein level in foods designed to be used by human animals. "Melamine is a by-product of the coal industry. It is a chemical
compound with numerous industrial uses, including the production of
plastics, dishware, kitchenware, commercial filters, laminates,
adhesives, molding compounds, coatings and flame retardants." (source)
One of the lessons to be learned here is that the desire to make a profit can result in harm to living beings.
Recently Heartland Rabbit Rescue took in two bunnies from different situations where the rabbits were returned along with some of the food they had been being fed. One of the foods came from Walmart, a brand called Small World, that is apparently manufactured for Walmart by a company called Manna Pro. The other bunny was being fed a house brand rabbit food (called Ranch Pro) that is carried by a farm supply retailer called Atwoods. The negative effects of these pitiful "diets" on these two remains to be fully seen.
The link to the Small World brand food goes to a page that lists the ingredients, they include (in order of how much there is of each)....dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Wheat Middlings, Roughage Products, Soybean Meal, Feeding Oatmeal (whatever that is) and the list then degenerates into a litany of chemicals and vitaminany sounding names, e.g. "sodium selenite".
The Ranch Pro brand sold by Atwoods list ingredients (in order of how much there is in the "food") as being "plant protein products, processed grain products, roughage products, dehydrated alfalfa meal...and then the list degenerates again into a listing of chemicals and vaguely nutritional sounding stuff like "copper sulfate". The Ranch Pro brand does say right under the logo that "This feed is designed to be fed to grower and breeder rabbits." In other words...it is designed to make the bunny get as big as possible as fast as possible because getting big fast increases profits that can be made from the bunny. The Small World brand touts itself as "Complete feed for rabbits".
Both of these "foods" are absolutely and totally unacceptable items to give to a rabbit...unless you care nothing about the well being of the rabbit.They will have the same effect as a poison...slow acting poison maybe...but poison nevertheless.
In contrast to "complete feed for rabbits" you might want to look at these nutrition guidelines from the Minnesota House Rabbit Society. They note: "Overfeeding of pellets can lead to obesity, heart disease, liver
disease, kidney disease, chronic soft stools and bladder stones." And even on the Minnesota page, they aren't clear about the fact that alfalfa should be given to adult rabbits only in rare instances...alfalfa is not hay (grass) it is a legume...from the same plant family as peas. Here's another (and maybe better) source to consult concerning food for rabbits.They note: "Perhaps the single most important item in the rabbit diet is grass HAY, and it
should be fed in unlimited quantities to both adults and baby rabbits." Notice they specify grass HAY, not alfalfa.
What's all this about food for rabbits? Well, the truth is, most human's are clueless about what rabbits should be eating (I promise I was) but most of us humans simply take Walmat's word that they are selling us a "complete feed" for rabbits and go merrily on our way of slowly poisoning the rabbit(s) in our care.
Furthermore, most of the food "manufactured" (manufactured food is a strange combination of words when you think about it) for rabbits is created to make "growers and breeders" of rabbits happy. That means the rabbit grows large quickly so they can be killed or they can start "breeding" quickly. None of this food is designed to assist the bunny to be healthy or long-lived...it is designed to satisfy the needs and wants of those who exploit rabbits for profit. The fact is, most commercial rabbit "food" is slow acting poison. Period.
I came across a couple of videos recently that do a good job of injecting humor into a topic that is really not humorous. Food for your rabbit (or for any living being) is literally a matter of life or death...and that's really not funny. Never ever ever pay heed to information coming from an exploiter ("grower", "rancher", "breeder", "exhibitor or shower") of living beings about what is beneficial for the beings they exploit. In the end, they don't know or care, they care about profit and what they can get out of those they exploit.
I'm including one of the videos here...the other on uses a clip from a movie about Hitler that I actually thought was good too...but found myself conflicted about it because it shows Hitler advocating for rabbits. And the juxtaposing of an evil being advocating for beings I care about left me dismayed and ambivalent.
You can find that other video here if you want to see it. Look...we are an ignorant species and our ignorance...even when we are well intentioned...means if we are responsible for someone else then they will likely suffer because of our ignorance. If you are going to take on the awesome power of caring for someone else....you have an obligation to minimize your ignorance. Harming someone you care about is very painful...for you...and even more so for the one you harm.
Even if you don't live with another species...you have to live vegan to minimize your harming...so quit harming...if you haven't already done so.
with a few graphics and photos. These images spoke strongly to me and maybe they will to you too.
Voicing (and living) support for veganism not only offers the opportunity to awaken others, but it also serves to signal to those who live vegan that they do so as members of a community. Because...sometimes it seems to be a lonely and isolated way of being.
I think it is important to be aware that stepping beyond the boundaries of "how it's supposed to be"...in any direction...is going to result in distance from those who've not moved. And that can be uncomfortable...and cause all kinds of turmoil and upset.
If you're living as an ethical vegan, remember...you're living a kind life. And if you're not living as an ethical vegan...you are not living a kind life. The two are mutually exclusive. And for those who are strongly concerned with spirituality...well this next graphic depicts a deep deep truth.
Remember, hearts exist in all shapes and sizes of beings. Living vegan is an expression of recognition of this truth, living vegan means recognizing and respecting many, many, many more hearts than ever possible any other way.
All living beings are just trying to live their lives...in that respect we are all the same. My thanks to each and everyone who is living a life of respect toward others. I hope your new year is a happy and excellent one for you and for all. If you're living vegan...you have my gratitude and respect...if you aren't...well....what are you waiting for?
Finally...just a reminder...
and in truth, given the track record of humans in respect to what they've done to the beings and the environment over which we do have some degree of power and control...not being able to control everything is probably a very very good thing.
Live vegan and you'll be living well and kindly and controlling (as best you can) the harm you might do to others....please enjoy your New Year,
(P.S. My thanks to everyone who's taken the time to visit and read these posts and my special thanks to everyone who's taken the time to read and to comment. Your responses are greatly appreciated and enjoyed. PPS. All graphics were found on the internet and my gratitude goes to their creators)
This time of year is a good time to reflect a little on what veganism is all about. Lee Hall as written an excellent piece that does just that.
To be a vegan is to adopt a revolutionary worldview. We have found that
that egg, flesh, and dairy production and consumption can be hazardous
to the planet and our bodies; and that animal husbandry, whether
pasture-based or assembly-line, involves exploitive treatment of other
conscious beings. We don’t want to play a role in that; nor do we wish
to be at war with free-living animals. As vegans, we strive to live
harmoniously with the planet and all its inhabitants.
The above paragraph is from her writing and it is well worth reading in toto. She also makes reference to something near and dear to me, she writes: "It’s really important that we figure out how to disagree without hurting, and to agree without competing."
That sort of reminded me of a previous post here about saying things well enough. Probably being able to say things well enough is going to require being able to disagree without hurting and to agree without competing.
Living vegan is the only way we can live with a minimal amount of hurting, and that's a good thing.
It isn't long until the holiday that revolves around killing and calling it a celebration. I really like the variation given by changing the first g to an l and calling it Thanksliving! Because celebrations are about life...not killing innocent beings.
Someone shared this captioned photo on facebook and I thought it was exactly on the mark.
So...I'm posting to urge you to write your local paper advocating for a non-harmful Thanksliving celebration. I did...and it was published. I'll copy it below and if you want...feel free to use it...you can save yourself the effort of coming up with your own letter (mine isn't great but it gets the message across). You could likely do much better...but if you don't want to...feel free to copy and modify this one to fit your area.
Please speak up for these feathered folks. I believe it is important to get awareness about this wrong out in front of people...and the local newspaper is one way to do it.
Wouldn't it be great if every newspaper in the country, every year, had at least one letter objecting to the harming of the innocents around this holiday?
Thanks ahead of time. And Happy Thanksliving to you and yours. And go vegan if you haven't already...and if you have...hooray for you!
Letter:
Editor, The Transcript:
Make it Thanksliving.
The upcoming annual national holiday usually includes eating the
flesh of a sensitive, intelligent and playful animal. Those birds are
killed after only a few brief months of miserable living, so having a
turkey dinner means eating the body of a baby that led a short and
suffering filled life. Yuck, that doesn’t sound like much of a time of
thanks for them or for anyone with a modest degree of compassion.
Luckily, the number and variety of plant-based food items available
that allow a family to prepare a tasty, festive and abundant meal are
readily available at the Earth grocery and other Norman area food
merchants. In addition, readers can visit the website of the Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine to find plant based Thanksgiving meal
tips or they can browse tryveg.org for a wide range of food suggestions
and recipes. Our own Oklahoma Vegetarian group also has an excellent
resource page for accessing recipes that are tasty, healthy and
cruelty-free.
After all, if you can live a happy and healthy life without harming
anyone else, why wouldn’t you? Please consider making this holiday
occasion one that doesn’t involve the death of innocent beings. Happy
Thanksliving wishes to all.
First I want to bring attention to the carnage we inflict on our fellow beings with those metal monstrosities we use to get around with...automobiles. I found a couple of resources that provide some tips on reducing the chances of harming others when you're driving. You can read them here and here. Slow down, stay focused on your driving...please.
Next...we are in the month of culturally celebrated carnage...that "holiday" that centers around the murder of turkeys. For me this time has rapidly morphed into a dreaded experience because of all the killing and the juxtapositioning of happiness and togetherness and celebration with the horror of the killing. However...this year there's something a little different being injected into the cultural cacophony. While I have not seen it myself, there is a new children's animated movie out called Free Birds. One description of the story: "The movie tells the story of two turkeys, Reggie and Jake, who travel
back in time to take turkey off the first Thanksgiving menu — and save
billions of lives going forward."
I'm really impressed that this movie has popped up on the scene...if it indeed does present a clear objection to killing. I hope it is as is advertised and if so it offers a glimmer of hope during a rather grim season. Apparently the Farm Sanctuary thought enough of it to partner with the movie folks for the Farm Sanctuary Adopt A Turkey campaign. Cool beans!
And finally just a little piece of writing I ran across that presented some studies about differences in visual perception between human females and human males. Apparently "...guys required a slightly longer wavelength of a color to experience the
same shade as women and the men were less able to tell the difference
between hues." It made me feel a little better about being fashion and decorating challenged.
If you get a chance, please write a letter to your local newspaper urging a Thanksliving holiday...killing is no reason for a celebration. And...if you're living vegan...thank you....and if you aren't....well....there's no better time to start than now.
You will recognize (maybe) that line from the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is part of a work he wrote that was called: "Ode, Inscribed to William H. Channing."
I found myself thinking about Emerson while I was reading an essay by Chris Hedges titled "Let's get this class war started". I strongly urge you to read his essay and while you do or at least on a second reading pretend that you are not reading about oligarchical domination within humankind but rather that you are reading about humankind's domination of all other living beings. I would be greatly interested in your thoughts on it.
Back to the title of this piece. There are two words in that little line that represent oppression, that epitomize precisely what both Emerson and Hedges are rejecting. Saddle and ride. Saddles are instruments used to assist in the subjugation of living beings...mainly for the purpose of "riding" them and "riding" is the stealing of efforts of one being to benefit the "thing in the saddle".
And yet...as eloquent and as perceptive and as good intentioned and Mr. Emerson and Mr. Hedges seemed or seem to be. With all their gifts and their talent neither, as far as I know, have (or did in the past insofar as Mr. Emerson is concerned) arrived at a life-path of living vegan. For instance, this thought was written in a deconstruction of his Ode: "Tactics that rely on force can never, in Emerson's view, add anything to
the sum of human virtue; they may control behavior superficially, but
the sickness remains and will find other outlets when denied this one." Mr. Emerson apparently strove and strove hard to live virtuously...but he was profoundly marked by "the sickness" if he didn't live vegan.
I find it almost impossible to wrap my mind around the persistent and pervasive ability we...including me...have to believe we are trying to be good and kind and wonderful creatures while behaving as if we were monsters. It's a very frightening thing. It scares me about other humans and it scares me about myself...and it makes me fearful for mother Earth and her children. For instance, as much as I find to admire about Mr Hedges and some of his ideas and writings...as far as I can see he's only making a call in this essay to resume the old old dance. Maybe it hasn't been said well enough...I don't know. I have hope that veganism offers the opportunity and path to opt out of this old dance of destruction that plagues us...and that we plague our fellow beings with. If nothing else, veganism offers a way of reducing the number of innocent casualties...and that's a good thing.
Living vegan and thinking vegan and seeing vegan is a dismal choice as a way of being...in some ways. Dismal because of the awareness of the killing, the hurting, the slavery, the imprisonment of most of mother Earth's beings that goes on each day. All by humans. And mostly by humans who believe they are good and kind and wonderful beings who are doing their best to live good lives.
Dismal though it may be...living vegan is the best way of avoiding "the sickness" that I know of. You too can step a little further along the path of "virtue" (for want of a better term) by going vegan...if you haven't already.
We must give to others, that which we ask for ourselves. It isn't possible to live a worthy life without following this path.
I cannot overly express the appreciation and respect I have for each individual who has had the courage and caring to begin living vegan. Thank you and thank you again. For those who continue to support harming others...please consider what you are doing and who you are harming. You, whether you want to or not, are aligning yourself with monsters and destroying innocent lives. Please go vegan.
Here's a link to a compilation of nearly 100 animal rights documentaries all located in one handy place for you to explore. There are some excellent works out there and here's an easy way to access many of them.
And here's a link to a short video of a baby elephant sleeping on mom's lunch. I couldn't get the embed code to work so you'll have to use the link to watch. But it is worth it...give a smile to your day by watching this baby being busy sleeping. Babies of all sorts and shapes and sizes give their all to whatever they do...including sleeping. Enjoy.
And if you haven't decided to join those who wish to live without harming others...please do so by going vegan. You'll feel better about yourself and I promise those you stop harming will feel better.
I recently finished reading a book titled "My Father's Keeper" by Stephan and Norbert Lebert. It is an unusual book. One author is the father who did a series of interviews with some of the children of prominent Nazis in the 1950s, these interviews were then updated by his son in the 1990s.
I really can't recommend reading it unless you are prepared to be rather dismayed and disturbed...at least that's the principle reaction I had to the book. It is depressing and sad to read about the children who are appalled and/or horrified at their parents behavior and it is even more depressing and sad to read about the children who are not appalled and/or horrified or who deny any such behavior.
What was very saddening to me was that it seems that all the denial and/or unconcern with the murderous behaviors does not result in discernible psychological and/or emotional problems.
In the 1960s the Heiderlberg psychologists Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich made the following statement about the psychological health of the Germans:
“Astonishingly our experience in no way points to the kind of increase in the number of patients in a state of denial that might have encouraged us to identify a tangibly clinical illness. From the records of more than 4,000 patients it emerges that extremely few criteria could be found for a correlation between their present-day symptoms and their experiences in the Nazi era. Self-confessed Nazis virtually never appeared.”
The Freiburg psychoanalyst Tilmann Moser offered a similar conclusion at the end of the 1990s.
“It seems that we must resign ourselves to the fact that the perpetrators and their followers have uncovered no path to shame or guilt within themselves, and for this reason we remain faced with” cleavage, defiance, cognitive dysfunction, collective denial and anthropological limits to the establishment of identity and the continuity of conscience.”
After countless studies, his Munich counterpart Wolfgang Schmidbauer has come to accept the 'intensely unjust' state of affairs that for the camp murderer who has killed over and over again, or the camp employer who has profited by the deaths of thousands of helpless slave laborers, it is far easier to deny guilt, to shrug off scruples, to live a normal family life and be a respected father to his children, than it is for the victims, who are mostly visited by the severest feelings of guilt because they are the ones who survived. You have to look at it this way, Schmidbauer concludes: the perpetrators had to deal only with their fear of being caught and condemned. From a psychological viewpoint, it comes down to understanding that the perpetrator realised him or herself through his or her act, whereas the victim was hindered by the same act in everything that he wanted, and wants still, to realise. Or put it more cynically: torturing body and spirit has measurably fewer side effects than being tortured. Pp186-7
I don't want to draw some maybe obvious conclusions from these observations...I'm aware of many but am not inclined to fully ascribe to them...mainly because I suspicion they would prompt a really unpleasant state of depression.
It is all perhaps best summarized by this passage from the book.
The Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal says that it is a grave and dramatic mistake to proceed on the basis that only evil beings are capable of evil acts. One of the essential characteristics of many leading National Socialists, says Wiesenthal, was that at home they were utterly charming people. They were the same people who lovingly kissed their children goodby in the morning and then a few hours later were gassing or shooting Jews. This realisation , Wiesenthal thinks, is dreadful and at the same time hugely important, because on the person who has grasped it knows that evil lives dormant in most people and can break out at any time. Let no man say that such a ghastly dictatorship is no longer possible today. That is the true lesson from the horror of National Socialism: we must fight against it constantly, against evil, so that it does not emerge again. pp 182
Most of us who live vegan did not do so at some time. We lived ordinary lives doing extraordinary evil with no discomfort at all. Wiesenthal seems to be oblivious to the evil that is inherent in eating our fellow Earthlings...I find no references to his being vegan. We must not only fight constantly against evil, we must fight constantly to be able to even recognize evil. Living vegan is the only way I know of to mostly avoid participating in a huge huge evilness.
I've written before about history and human behaviors (here, here and here). I'll likely write more too. Having spent my professional life trying to understand and sometimes modify human behavior and personality makes me know how little I understand. I will say though, from what I can see, veganism as explained by Donald Watson and friends seems to be the best of the best of all ways to live while doing minimal harm to others.
Recently a kind neighbor woman (a Heartland Rabbit Rescue neighbor) decided to share her home with a baby miniature goat. We had been hearing his little voice sometimes in the morning and could occasionally see him way off in the distance. Finally the director of Heartland called and arranged a meeting at a half-way point in the fields that separate Heartland and the neighbor.
Ice
His name is Ice (his mom's name was Snow) and he's a beauty.
He apparently won't grow much larger. It was a fine thing to meet him. He's very friendly and as you can see...very handsome too. We're hoping that soon he'll get to come over to Heartland and meet the ducks and bunnies and Molly, Midnite and Judy too.
In other Heartland news, about 3 weeks ago a call came about a little bunny who had been found loose and injured in a cemetery in a small town east of OKC. When the Heartland director finally got her it was discovered that she had been attacked by a predator and had a back leg broken in 2 places as well as some gaping wounds that were infested by maggots. She was emaciated and frightened. The director, along with a long-time and experienced volunteer worked for a number of hours cleaning her wounds and stabilizing her. She was then taken to the vet the next day.
There it was found that she would likely have to have the leg amputated but she was too debilitated for the surgery so some rest and recovery and weight gaining would have to happen first.
Hope, after much recovery.
She is very young and weighed under 3 lbs when she first arrived. She was running a high fever and her behavior suggested she was stunned and shocked. Slowly, with lots of TLC by the director, Hope started coming around. She was always willing to eat...which...with a bunny...is pivotal. If they'll eat...there's hope.
She has been miraculous in her resilience. Once the fever was managed and her wounds began to heal, then her personality began to emerge. She's bouncy, spicy and a tad sassy. She's very people oriented and loves being petted. Now, there is a possibility she won't have to lose the leg...but she needs to not put too much strain on it and that's a difficulty because as she feels better and better...she wants to run and jump and binky. She's a baby and she wants to play. You can read more about her on Heartland's facebook page.
Hay snack.
Here you can see her having a bit of a hay snack as she rests a little.
Below you can see her pensively eying the photographer...no doubt thinking about what she wants to do next.
What next?
It is beyond being able to put into words...watching these little fur people who are abandoned and neglected and abused by the human species and then seeing so many of them be able forgive and forgive absolutely all that's been done to them. And to share their delightful selves freely and openly with any human willing to be kind to them.
It doesn't make us look very good.
Caring for Hope and others like her takes lots of time and effort and money...food, shelter and medical care is expensive. Help your local animal rescue/sanctuary...or help out Heartland if you want. The number of bunnies in need is always greater than the resources to help them.
Help all life and planet Earth and yourself by living vegan. Please. And care for those who depend on you...and be kind to everyone else. Ice and Hope both think these are all good ways of living.
