18 Comments

Wayne you are such an integral part of history for the welfare of animals. You are a true hero for them I have such respect for you and I know exactly how you feel . Just know that your Joan will be around you as thereโ€™s no such thing as death and life continues albeit on another plain. Your suffering will only make you stronger ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿผ๐Ÿ’š

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Thanks, Lin. Joan was the best.

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Dear Wayne,

best of luck for you and your endeavours. Your article about Rocket and your dear Joan I found truely heartbreaking.

Protecting animals is such a high and crucial moral thing to pursue, and I do wish you all the best. Like you, I do hope that activism and veganism are moves that can finally break the walls.

Best regards from Old Europe

Olaf

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โ€œAnimals are a window to your soul and a doorway to your spiritual destiny. If you let them into your life and allow them to teach you, you will be better for it.โ€

โ€• Kim Shotola, The Soul Watchers: Animals' Quest to Awaken Humanity

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i'm always having to stop when i read you either to let the tears flow or the thoughts and i usually want to write a note to you before i can go on and read the rest of your soulful and percipient posts. this time i had pause to do a post of my dog friend lulu sitting in henry moore's mushroom cloud chamber on the university of chicago campus. i also thought of my cat jasper and the way he purred reassuringly for us before he died.

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Thank you Wayne.

Many years ago I was an undergraduate student at the University of Texas in psychology. Itโ€™s hard to write about, but killing rats and dissecting their brains was a casual part of the curriculum. One day a professor gave a demo of how to dispose of rats that were used in experiments but which were not to be dissectedโ€”by throwing a live rat into an incinerator.

I was horrified and protestedโ€”to which the professor smiled condescendingly and said, โ€œIt didnโ€™t feel a thing.โ€

I still wonder about these people in white coats with their smug PHDโ€™s who believe they are super-intelligent and have the right to take the lives of defenseless, innocent beings. What happened to their heart of compassion, which I believe every child is born with?

And my bigger question is, how can we help others grow the seed of compassion, once it has been so nearly extinguished?

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"It didn't feel a thing." You have to be taught to believe that, and I should know because as a child I attended Catholic school. According to the Catholic Church: โ€œBrute beasts, not having understanding and therefore not being persons, cannot have any rights. The conclusion is clear. They are not autocentric. They are of the number of THINGS, which are anotherโ€™s: they are chattels, or cattle. We have no duties to themโ€ฆ. Nor are we bound to any anxious care to make [their] pain as little as may be. Brutes are THINGS in our regard: so far as they are useful to use, they exist for us, not for themselves; and we do right in using them unsparingly for our need and convenienceโ€ฆ.โ€ Jesuit Joseph Rickaby

That animals can suffer troubled many consciences. But the official dogma stood firm that "brutes" had neither personality, "intellective soul" nor future life. Their place in the universe was fixed forever in Genesis 1:38, that they live and died for human convenience. As late as the middle of the last century, Pius IX refused permission for the formation in Rome of a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals on the grounds that it was a theological error to suppose that humans had any duty toward animals.... IN ADDITION, echoes of the Cartesian idea occur in a statement made by Pius XII to the effect that when the "lower" animals are killed in a laboratory or an abattoir, โ€œtheir cries should not arouse UNREASONABLE COMPASSION any more than do red-hot metals undergoing the blows of the hammer, seeds soiling underground, branches crackling when they are pruned, grain that is surrendered to the harvester; wheat being ground by the milling machine." SOURCE: "Men, Beasts, and Gods - A History of Cruelty and Kindness to Animals" -- Gerald Carson (1972)

The Catholic Church isn't fit to preach this rubbish as the teachings of Jesus himself -- which is exactly why I left it! Imagine, teaching children this rubbish--I know, I was being indoctrinated as a child--to regard other animals as "things," "property," "resources," and "livestock" as a matter of morality, dogma or doctrine! Hardening their hearts at a tender age! In general, the Catholic Church's teachings have helped to harden many hearts, starting as children under the authority of parish priests, Sunday schools, parochial schools, and news media saturated with what the Pope says and does in public.

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Horrifying. Thank you for sharing that experience, Uldra. And for your compassion, even in the face of authority asking you to. suppress it.

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"And with this new knowledge, the world will never be the same." Wayne, thank you and beloved Joan for helping us find the way to fight and bring light into the darkest places on earth. With your inspiration, let's do this for the Hidden.

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Wayne's essays never fail to touch and inspire.

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I agree that people are becoming more aware of the sentience of animals. I have even seen it in Chile, where I am currently travelling, from my home in Canada. I spent New Years' Eve in Valparaiso, which is considered THE place to celebrate New Years in South America due to its over-the-top fireworks display which attracts huge numbers of observers. Yet, I was informed that this tradition will be discontinued due to its harmful effect on animals. How heartening that they are willing to abandon this beloved tradition for the sake of animals!

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Amazing!

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A very important article about Rocket and Joan . Thanks for sharing this very valuable piece!

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Thank you for writing these hopeful words and for continuing to be a voice for animals!

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A great many more people would have discomfort with animal use industries if the sight of the consequences were as ubiquitous as the end "products" themselves.

Because facilities for animal experimentation and food are intentionally well-sequestered, people can easily fail to examine their own consciences.

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Animal testing as saying no doubt millions of lives and allow them to be lead on a quality basis. That said, it should be done with the utmost respect and honor towards the subject.

Confinement animal operations are hundreds of magnitude more common and every bit as morally bankrupt.

I applaud your decision to be a vegan and lead the lifestyle. I also abhor anyone advocating for a diet other than one emulates our 400,000 years of evolution. I have no problem with anyoneโ€™s personal decision. Advocating publicly is a completely different thing. Especially in the society where the average person doesnโ€™t know enough about nutrition to fill a thimble.

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Thank you for this thought, Hudson. I agree that people (including me) don't know much about nutrition, and that our diet should reflect our evolutionary needs. For you, does that include animal products?

Re: animal testing, I wrote about the question here. Would be curious as to your thoughts:

https://blog.simpleheart.org/p/how-harvard-justifies-animal-torture

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If you think it's morally justified to experiment on other highly sentient mammals, what's your thoughts on experiments on mentally handicapped people who may be less aware than for example, a dog? Have you thought about putting yourself forward for experiments, for the sake of humanity?

I'm now 37 years into a plant-based diet, after being raised vegan by my parents. Please enlighten me as to which nutrients can only be found in animal products? There is a moral imperative to advocate as many people go vegan as soon as possible because of the acute suffering caused by the animal agriculture industries.

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so we hafta watch guardians 1&2 before 3 i'm told. ok den.

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