Went over to Jax’s place yesterday afternoon and hung out with a number of gorgeous chicks for a while.
It was difficult to keep a focus on any one in particular; the distraction level was huge as we spread a blanket on the grass out back and everyone just did whatever they wanted.
At one stage I had a couple of them cuddled up against me resting their heads against me but most of the time it was a free for all. Wall to wall beauty.
One of the chicks turned out to be a bit of a cock but seeing as how this is FL, I am not supposed to mention anything that could be construed as gay … there were kids present.
I caught much of the action on film (so to speak) so there are a bunch of shots at the end of this blog, if you like that sort of thing.
Anyway, it was really on the way in to Jax’s place that the thought for today’s blog occurred to me.
You see, each year in her class, Jax takes her students through the entire process of egg-embryo-life and so each year a whole cluster of little chicks get born into a friendly and loving environment.
They all eventually find homes and live out their lives in a caring and loving environment outside of the food chain.
My heart is so happy for the little guys and the thought I had was along the lines of how lucky they are to be part of a science teacher’s learning process as opposed to being born into a factory farm where they are manhandled, abused, and ultimately destroyed.
The two life styles couldn’t possibly be any different and it really made me question how much luck is involved and why their little souls should be subjected to little more than a coin toss when determining the lives they have ahead of them.
We of course, have something similar to a certain extent when we first open our eyes as a baby. Are we born rich or poor. Born into a loving environment of destined to be abused? That kind of stuff.
But nothing we go through even remotely comes close to the lives that animal newborns risk entering into.
Most of the negative that could possibly shape the lives of creature newborns are a result of something humans do. We might eat them, steal their environment, experiment with them, abuse them, hunt them, eat them, … oh wait I said that already.
Some people and groups argue for humane treatment of animals but the sad truth is we already treat them humanely. This is what humans do to animals. All the above and worse.
Most of them would be better off if we treated them inhumanely. Inhumane would be to show love and compassion, deference, respect, concern, and care.
Humans routinely don’t show any of that to animals.
Don’t get me wrong. Some humans do. Some humans are wonderful advocates for animals.
But humanity isn’t.
Humanity has elevated itself (in its own mind) above all living creatures and therefore the creatures don’t have rights on the same level we do.
We impersonalize them by grouping them as one and enabling us to treat them impersonally. They are all the same. Bird brained. Fish don’t feel pain. They all look the same. They are merely a commodity. They don’t have feelings like you and me.
We are conditioned to not treat them as individuals because then they become a person. Yet look at the pics at the end of this blog and tell me they aren’t all different. Each little guy came out of the egg, big-eyed, innocent, with hope and dreams.
But in factories they are manhandled in their hundreds and thousands, tossed onto conveyor belts as though inanimate objects. But that’s ok. Those guys came out of the wrong egg.
If god had wanted that little soul to be treated OK, he would have put it into a pet poodle that was born in a puppy farm for rich folks. God cares about puppies. Couldn’t give a shit about chickens apparently.
… just a thought!
