Compassion and Concern for All Creatures

Expanding our circle of compassion is a source of unending joy when we become aware of how desperately we are needed, in this chaotic and often very cruel world. Billions of animals, birds, and creatures of the sea, the world over, live desperate lives under horrific conditions. They are in agony and physical pain, often go without food, water, protection from the elements, and suffer sickness and disease.

It is a given, most do not receive veterinary care when warranted. Lacking any quality of life, most of their lives come to a hideous and gruesome end, because most of the world considers them “products.” It behooves us as caring human beings to step up to the plate and speak out against this carnage and suffering, and encourage others to speak out. We must adopt a way of life that embraces a boundless mercy and compassion towards all living beings, as a matter of course. It must become who we really are.

Within all of us is a powerful capacity for good. We must open the windows of our souls and feel their pain and refuse; to take part in, purchase anything, be a witness to, or eat anything that is a product of this never-ending, vast and deliberate brutality. Empathy demands action. Indifference must not be the norm. It is a tragedy that such a global catastrophe is easily dismissed as drivel and trivialized.

Blind acceptance of the peril these living beings endure diminishes us as caring people. It should not be what defines us, instead we should be known for benevolence and acting to stop any and all suffering. Fortunately, we have evolved as animal stewards, even though it is at a snail’s pace. There are millions of caring people the world over who have made their life’s work to decrease the suffering of innocent beings.

There is much work to be done in your own community and all over the globe, with unlimited opportunities to join with well-established groups and organizations to help, rescue, improve the lives of, or maybe adopt an animal in our midst. Like Martin Luther King said when discussing the misconception of time when he made it a point to state, “actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively.  

We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.” For our fellow creatures we share the planet with, the time is now. None of these injustices will end without our commitment now, at this very moment in history.