LOVING TREATMENT OF ANIMALS

I am trying out an experiment. Long time ago, I used to do contract work for the Department of Children and Family Services in the States. I learned a lot about what NOT to do when trying to intervene in families to protect children from abuse and neglect... I am constantly learning now too. I realized that anger is a destructive emotion unless we channel that anger, unless we have re-direct it. Judgement is also not productive. It is not addressing a "moral" stance. I am just looking for what works best, what drains me less, what is more effective in the long-run, basically I am looking (just like all of us) for what works.

A couple of days ago I had a booth at an event to celebrate and encourage conservation in our area. Two young women approached the booth and began asking questions about what to do with a person that is mistreating his dog. Wow! I could feel my blood begin to pump harder... it is an emotional reaction. Of course it is a HUGE problem... violence, I mean. Not just violence against animals, but against people, against the environment and against our very selves.

I have been pondering, reading, talking to others... what to do? We can take animals away to safe places (if we had enough) and some times, it is necessary to do so. But thisi s only part of the solution. The other part is to influence others the way it was done long ago, through social pressure. It has worked here in some instances. Merely asking around if they know the person and their animal, it gets back to them that others are watchig, that others care.

But it has to be done without judgment. It has to be done with the goal of educating and under the blanket of compassionate understanding. Yes, I know. How can we have compassion when someone is being violent towards an innocent and defenseless creature? This is where the inner work begins, and I have not been writing much on this blog for the inner work (along with the spay/neuter clinics, placements, etc.) is taking much of my time, but I feel like this is where I need to be... learning about my own nature, and therefore, about the nature of all of us... after all, we are all coming from the same Source.

There are some things that I have been trying to test. Like some truths. One of them is that whatever we focus our attention on, grows. I have been testing it in personal relationships and in my life in general. It seems to hold. So I am thinking I need to apply it to this huge issue as well.

Another one of those truths is that in everyone there is "light" or a spark of the Divine (whether you call it God, Universal Intelligence, Buddha Nature, etc.). And if we can get past the "ego" or the little mind, we can finally get to know what we are, and once we know what we are, fear stops, the need to control stops, inner pain and anger stop. Hmmm, well, I am not there yet. But it is certainly very appealing to think that we are aiming for something so lofty.

So to get "past" the ego one must not threaten the ego. One must approach with an open heart and mind and witht the real willingness and trust that we can reach the Divine in that person. If we approach with judgment in our hearts, our neighbor's ego immediately will get engaged and all we will touch of each other is our individual egos... nothing will get accomplished.

Yes, we could just forgo all this non-sense of the Divine Nature, but what we would have is an aparent change in behavior based on fear/threat of some fine or of losing their animal, of embarrassment, or whatever. And I guess, some times this works (temporarily). But I think we are seeking longer-lasting solutions.

So, going back to those two young women. I recommended that they engage their neighbor in conversation. That THEY do good things for the dog and love him... often when WE love someone else's property, then all of the sudden it has value in the eyes of the owner who previously just took the animal for granted (I know this works, because I do it all the time). I still stop by and give bones to certain dogs, and pet them and ocassionally if time permits take them for a walk. I call the owners to see how they are and if they need anything. I engage in their lives. Often they begin to tell me about what is eating them up... there is most of the time a reason that we can understand of how those people came to be so callous. If we can understand that reason, we may even be able to extend our love to them... that is the REAL healing trick. Because love is energy and energy travels. It is what we are and what they are. Once we can ressonate at this same vibration of love, compassion, understanding... the rest is all good.

Not everything makes sense to me, but I am inclined to think that most people are not born evil. I just can't visualize a brand new born baby and think of him/her as a cruel person. I am thinking something happended along the way to hurt them so much that they are filled with pain (and pain quickly turns to anger). I just can't think that someone violent is a happy person, a joyful, loved and loving person. So they must be wretches. This is why we can have compassion for them, not condoning behavior, just not judging the actual person.

To be continued...