humans are from venus and animals are from mars...
Carol · Sept 5, 2012
one of the nurses asked when her kids could come and hold the baby pig..i basically said never. i did say they could come see her but not hold her because pigs do not like the whole close contact, being held up off the ground, cuddling with humans thing. they are prey animals and it would terrify her.
as a species we are pretty clueless regarding the needs of different species than ours. we assume that because cuddling gives us great pleasure, it also gives pleasure to every other living thing. my general rule is..if an animal comes to me and asks to be picked up and carried, then i will oblige. otherwise i interact with them with their four feet on the ground.
animals lose their homes thru no fault of their own simply because they sometimes can't meet our great expectations. they don't have our moral or social standards because they are built differently. animals cannot always fill that great need to be overwhelmingly loved that wells up inside us because they feel and express their emotional needs differently.
dogs are the preferred family pet because in many ways dogs needs are similar to our own. but still even with dogs we get our knickers all tied up in knots because they dare to behave like dogs sometimes instead of perfect little four footed furry humans.
we will continue to exploit and use animals without any return payment to them if we cannot reach the point where as a society we actually respect and honor and understand and value the uniqueness of them.
they are not simply our pets, our entertainment, our warm and fuzzy fix, they are not just some thing that ends up on our plates or becomes our shoes, or safety tests a new cosmetic or medical treatment..
they are living, breathing, thinking and feeling creatures that in these ways are the same as us but in many more ways are actually confusingly different.
even in rescue we think animals are simple...give them food, water, clean housing, good medical treatment and our human version of kindness and love and training and everything for them will be good.
well sorry to say it is still not enough if we don't stretch ourselves further and respect and value their own unique needs that makes them intrinsically their own unique species and non-human.
the problem with animal lovers like us is...we crave the fairy tale.....the dr.do-little bullshit of living in physical and emotional harmony with all animals. but we can't have that until we learn that animals are not humans. they were built with a different set of rules, a different context of quality of life and survival.
the main thing we really share in common is...that the human race is the root of almost all of our problems. it is our needs and greedy wants and stupid ideas and thoughtless/careless fickleminded, selfish and self centered ways that impacts all of the unique life around us.
I am not on facebook but I can still see the SAINTS (and some other organizations') page without having a login.