It’s Just an Animal

And animals are here for us to use as a resource. Whether they are food or just to be killed for sport, or even loved and kept as pets, they’re still “just” animals and they don’t have the same rights as we humans.

How arrogant and short-sighted can we get?

We all share this little blue rock floating through space. It’s a closed system. Chief Seattle said it well: “Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

We’re all brothers and sisters on the same ride called “Earth.”

So I get a little annoyed when people mock those who spend money on animals. Whether it’s a pet or a rescue animal, whether wild or domestic, it’s our brother or sister, regardless of what species it is. Well okay, some species are more like distant cousins, maybe, but we’re all still Earthlings.

Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. When we lavish love and care on an animal, we are setting into motion karmic consequences just as surely as when we mistreat animals or the ecosystem that supports them. And us. All of us. So when I read of a celebrity lavishing care on their pet, including such things as Reiki, acupuncture, massage, and aromatherapy, I am actually not bothered in the least by it.

It doesn’t begin to make up for the damage each of us is doing simply by living in a modern society consuming the resources that we all do by default regardless of how simply and frugally we live. But an act of love, an action in the other direction, is a good thing. It is an action, however small, and however selfishly or dysfunctionally motivated, that moves us one tiny bit further from the cruelty and ignorance that is our civilization’s norm.

Every act of kindness is a tiny step in the direction of love and respect for life. Simply because it is life, and for no other reason. Unconditional love and respect, the same kind our pets give us. Are we capable, as a species, to return it, or is it a one way street, with all love and honor flowing to the mighty two-leggeds?

Whether it is the life of a human being, a beloved dog or cat, or a red tail hawk with a broken wing, it deserves to be treated with profound respect and, yes, love. Whatever we do to any part of the web of life, we do to ourselves.

And that’s today’s holistic health tip.