PAWScostarica TODAY

TODAY

In this blog I had intended to mostly bring you up to date on our local project, but my heart wants to write about Nicaragua. Before I do that, I do want to tell you that we are planning our next spay/neuter clinic at the end of this month or the beginning of June, so start spreading the word. It will be pretty much the same as the last one, on a Friday and Saturday, at Jesus's. The cost is 8000 colones for dogs and cats, males or females. The animal must fast the night before. People call for an appointment at the veterinary clinic. We will be providing SOME, but very limited subsidies this time to those who can't afford to pay the full amount. If you have identified a street female dog/cat, please call me directly at 2645-5008. If you want to help with transportation, animal care, posting signs, walking in Bajo del Cementario (educating about the benefits of spaying), etc., please call me.

I just came back from a trip to Nicaragua. It made more determined than ever to dedicate my life to this project. I don't need to go into a lot of detail as most of you have gone there and know of the rampant poverty and ignorance. I just NEVER saw the level of disconnection from themselves that causes such a lack of empathy. The lack of empathy that allows someone to continue to load a starving horse who has a bone-deep sore on its left leg, putting a empty milk jug in between his legs (tied to the tail by wire) so the sore does not continue to grow as the legs of the horse buckle under the weight and extreme starvation causing them to rub against each other. I also cried holding a starving dog that approached me...as I was supposed to be enjoying this beautiful sandy beach, but all I could see and feel was the every single bone on this dog. Its eyes looked at me and I made him a promise. I would never stop trying to help.

I see no distinction between human suffering and animal suffering, as I see all of as a manifestation of life, of God, of Universal Energy. All SENTIENT beings. All connected. I am writing this not to make your day a miserable one, but to invite you to sign WESPA's (World Society for the Protection of Animals) Universal Declaration of Animal Rights. Just go to WESPA's web site. It takes a minute. By 2009, WESPA is hoping to have enough signatures to present to the United Nations and hope that this helps the whole world present a united front. We are no longer willing to be passive observers of unnecessary cruelty.

It also brings up an answer to a question that was posed to WESPA's leader (CEO or president or whatever his title is) when he visited Costa Rica a few year past. The question was something to the effect of "with so many people starving in the world, why should we care about animals?" I have pondered this question ever since. And of course everyone's answer will be different. But MY answer (my personal opinion) is that because it is all part of the same problem, the same disease, the same underlying cause. Apathy. A feeling that it is all too big, too awful, so why bother. What can one little person do? But what if it is one million little people? Would that change the world?

When we teach empathy and personal responsibility to a child, we teach him to feel as others would and to do whatever he can to help. When we teach that we are all responsible for the state of affairs of the world, we get in touch with our personal power. When we teach a child to feel helpless and hopeless and to to turn a blind eye to animal suffering, it is a SKILL we are teaching, an attitude, a way of life. This skill gets applied to others, to human beings as well. We then wonder how there can be starving children in the world. Because we believe that there is no other way and that we can do little about it. One of the reasons I admire many people here in MV is that they do not turn a blind eye to problems. They do what they can within their power; we are not asked to give up our lives. That is all is asked of us. And that is all it would take to heal the world. If half of us did this, all 3.25 billion of us did just this... what a woderful world this would be indeed. So here we are, using animals to teach the skills of compassion, empathy, love and personal responsibility that the world so badly needs to heal its wounds, including those of the human kind.

Also, next time you travel, SPEAK UP! Don't just go back to your life with sadness or anger in your heart. We have so much power. If monkeys are chained up or parrots are caged. Tell the restaurant or hotel owner that you will not come back or recommend them until they stop chaining, caging or otherwise restraining wildlife. Speak up about the conditions and treatment of their work animals. Speak up about the overpopulation of dogs and cats. Many places depend on tourism for their livelihood. What you say DOES count... over time and after hundreds of tourists speaking up, their keepers will change their ways.

until next time...