As I’ve mentioned before, I now only write posts when I actually have something to say. In the past I was forcing the posts just to be sure to have something out there on a regular basis because that’s what I thought I had to do. But when I was doing that blogging was no longer fun, it was work. Something I’ve been thinking a lot about and wrestling with for so long is what society sees as “normal” treatment of animals. This is also a part of why I stopped writing posts. Sometimes there are so many thoughts swirling around, so many questions, so much hurt that it becomes hard to put it in words. But I am once again attempting to put them in words.
I understand going along with what seems “normal” I also have done this. It is only when I took the time to read, research, look in an animals’ eyes, and empathize (put myself in their shoes) that I was able to allow myself to see the truth.
I made the following graphic with these thoughts I’ve been having in mind.
I wrestle with the idea of killing animals even for food or clothing, and I admit I am unsure of what God thinks about that. But there are two things I believe…
- In Genesis we learn about the fall of Adam & Eve and how this changed everything! So now here we are, hurting animals (and one another). (But was it God’s plan and is it ok? No.)
- IF God was ok with the killing of animals it would only be for food and maybe clothing. BUT not torturing, not neglecting, not keeping them from their natural environment, and not treating them as an object.
Take a look around or do some research. What we think of as farm animals are now factory animals. Many kept from nature itself, the light of the sun, and socialization with other animals. Kept in small areas, overcrowded, injected with hormones, and often beaten, and treated cruelly. Some of the factory workers actually enjoying harming/killing them. Do you think this is God’s plan for his creation?
Do you know what veal is? If not, I’ll explain. Veal is baby calves that lived their short existence being torn away from their mother and kept in an area so small so that they can’t run, walk, or move around much at all. Why? So they don’t build any muscle. No muscle makes for a very tender piece of meat. Do you think this is God’s plan for his creation?
These factory farms and treatment of the animals is cleverly hidden from most of us because the fear for them is that if we knew then we might care or speak up. It is only when we open our eyes, do the research, look in an animals’ eyes, and empathize that we will see this reality.
These are just a few examples of where we are in our society with so called farm animals. There is a big difference between raising animals for food by letting them live out their days in nature as intended, able to run, play, feel the sun, socialize with other animals, and cared for and free from abuse, neglect, and cruelty (as it used to be) vs. where we are today. There is no doubt in my mind that what we’re doing now is not what God had in mind for his creation.
This is just talk about farm animals but abuse neglect, and cruelty happens to all animals. The difference today is that at least we have laws against harming “pets.” Although I am very glad about this, I can’t help but ask why we don’t see other animals as also deserving of this protection. A cow, pig, and chicken bleed and feel pain & fear the exact same as a cat, dog, and rabbit do.
I created the following graphic with this in mind.
I just don’t get it and I will not ever see any of this as “normal.”
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
Edward Everett HaleChange happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.
Tony RobbinsThe righteous care for the needs of his animals.
Proverbs 12:10
Animals Are Feeling Beings Too 
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us🙏 I totally agree. I am vegan with focus on organic and sustainability products ❤️🐟🕊️🐑
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Thanks for your comment and letting me know you understand and are also trying to do something/make a difference.
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I 💯 hear, agree and add my agreement to your righteous endeavor and prayers.
Every night, I pray for the animals 🙏 ❤.
There’s an Indian proverb that says…
When a man shall die, he shall be met at the bridge between earth and heaven , by all of the animals of the earth. And they shall be first to judge the soul to see if it us worthy to enter heaven, by the way he had treated the animals he came across in his life.
I really wouldn’t put it past God to do exactly that 🙏. And I’d never take the chance He didn’t.
You are an Advocate for Hus Creatures that have no voice in this world.
No matter What happens, Keep speaking up and Keep praying 🙏.
If no one else hears you, know that I do, and so does God.
Be Blessed my sister Advocate 🙏 ❤.
You are in my prayers 🙏 ❤ 💛 Drea.
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Thank you for such a heartfelt well thought out comment. I definitely know that you are right there with me, and I appreciate it!❤️
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Good column to remind us of some “inconvenient truths” !
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Thanks for the positive things thoughtful folks like you try to do to help animals on a daily basis, i.e. animal shelters, kindly veterinarians, animal adoption, animal hospitals and organizations that are involved in the kindly and safe treatment of animals. Glad your not forcing your self to do posts on a fixed schedule, that can be quite stressful. Love your graphics. Peace and love. PJ 💓
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Thank you!
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There indeed is a big difference between factory farming and a husbandry, organic way of raising pigs, cows, chickens, and other farmed animals. And I understand your wrestling over what God thinks about us using animals for food and clothing. Did he really allow it? What was up with the OT scriptures with God giving the animals over to us for food (Genesis 9), and so many other scriptures to wrestle with and consider. I have come to the conculsion with a lot of studing the Bible that God did not want us to eat animals or wear them as clothing. A couple years ago, a group of us started an online church called, Creation Care Church. We have a whole host of teaching videos on all these topics. Here is one to start with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg5uvn_io9A&t=8s
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Thank you Kathy for your comment and for sharing that link.
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I think factory farming is a stain on the human race and beneath the dignity of supposedly sapient animals, meaning us.
It’s part of the larger trend of not caring about animals, or believing that activism is liking tweets by an account that posts cute photos.
Here we are two weeks after someone uploaded a video of a cat in a blender, and a day after someone copied the horrific stunt and uploaded a second video. There are thousands of threats to make more such videos on Chinese social media. Is this the next thing to be normalized?
I have Google News alerts set up for my cat blog so I can write about interesting stories involving cats, but I also get alerted to every story about cats getting shot with arrows, BBs and even 9mm bullets, or jaded lovers taking out their psychotic frustration on a cat, or some lunatic decapitating a cat and placing its head in a playground for kids to find.
It’s too much. There are too many sick people in this world, and in the US at least, schools have done a very poor job of educating students about what animal life is and why we should respect it.
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Ugh, heartbreaking things happen way too often.
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