Consider for a moment that every species with a brain, and especially those with a layered brain, have a range of intelligence. If the human species has Einsteins and Hawkings, can we dismiss that other species do not also? We do that, dismiss them as merely animals, because we are the weaker species in love, high in intellect but very lacking in empathetic love.
I live on a farm. One year a cow gave birth to what I can only describe as a very smart calf. I named him Einstein. The farm was no longer being run by my family, so the fate of the animals was not in my hands. I could go on and on about the things Einstein did that made him so different from the other cattle, but in the end, sadly, the people running the farm wanted females, to bear young ones for profits. Einstein was sent to the scrotum snippers and later to auction.
I sometimes imagine that Einstein gave whomever acquired him a little bit of hell. He could master locks and chains and fence gates. He had a refined sense of smell, so that medicines delivered in 'watering troughs' he would not touch. And he appeared to understand some human words, as he proved the day they came to try and coax him into the cattle trailer for transport to the vet for inoculations and snipping.
My old heart aches for the animals we take so crassly for granted. The cattle show they know they're about to be slaughtered when they tremble at the meat processing ramp.
What the hell was God thinking when he made us so damned cold in our hearts? ... Or is it we who have chilled the warm hearts of the children? ever seen the training videos of Palestinian training their littlest children to hate and slaughter, so they can oppose 'the Jews'? Yet we question where God commanded Saul to take no booty, no living thing from certain of the Israelite's enemies.
What an insightful post. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for pinging me.
As I like to say “Those eyes are not just there for decoration. There is someone looking at you through those eyes.”
The Vedas teach that every living being is an eternal soul. The consciousness level is different in different species obviously, and even among the same species.
The cruelty exhibited by so many humans is the result of envy towards God, the hearts are coarsened and hardened, and the more cruel acts, the more dirty the hearts become.
That is why this world is so painful, no other reason.
The good thing is that with God all things are possible, so individual redemption is always an open door. I pray that more and more humans will know this to be true.
I understand your post, I think.
I can’t stand killing things for the sake of killing them.
Take bees for instance. They don’t bother me and there are hundreds in the garden every day. There is a large group of bee hives about 1/2 mile from the house.
They are for the growers but the bees ignore the territory.
So I am outside last week and a friend is spraying the garden with Bee and Wasp poison. I started yelling “What the Hell are doing?!”.
She didn’t want bees around for her party and thought someone might get stung.
I told her she was crazy. Bee’s know they only have one life and their supreme job is protect the hive. Unless they are agitated they aren’t going to sting and even then it’s only going to be one loose nut ball bee who deserves to die.
I asked her stop and I started flapping my hands through the flowers and all the bees.
I said “See, Nothing. They aren’t going to sting you”.
She just kept spraying.
Dang that made me mad.
I pick them little guys up when they get lost in the house and put em outside so they can find their way home.
Your cow story reminds me of this true story of Nickel, an amazing bison calf who imprinted at birth with dogs (his mother died giving birth) so the rancher at the refuge raised him with their dogs. A sad, sad story — he was never accepted among his fellow bison and too big and active to stay with humans.
nickelbuffalo.com
Yellowstone refused to carry the book because it portrayed so much interaction between humans and bison. But Nickel was a local hero in Denver. When he died, the Rocky Mountain news printed his obituary, which skyrocketed the sales of my friend’s book. A bookstore in Evergreen said it actually outsold Harry Potter the first year!