Hello my friend! Believe it or not, I’m actually showing up for our coffee share 2 weeks in a row! Shocking for me too!
How are you this week? Did you do anything fun? I’d love to hear about it!
If we were having coffee….I’d tell you that this week flew by and I’m not quite sure how. It seems like we went from Sunday to Friday in the blink of an eye. I have a feeling that summer in general is going to feel that way….it usually does.
If were having coffee….I’d tell you how much I’m enjoying our current rainy weather. We’ve had high heat and drought conditions for the last 2 months. So 60 degree temps and rain feel like a gift. We’ve been able to leave the windows open which is also a treat. With my neuromuscular challenges, I don’t handle heat well. Consequently, our air conditioner gets a good workout every summer. Windows wide open is a welcome change!
And yesterday, my husband hung up some wind chimes that had been forgotten in one of our many moves. They’re larger in diameter so they have a long resonating hum, which I love. Listening to them during our breezy, rainy day was like a mini vacation.
If we were having coffee…. And, if we were being completely honest, I would tell you that one of the main things on my mind these days is human and animal conflicts and how painfully and ruthlessly they are dealt with. I think it’s important for us to talk about these uncomfortable issues. If we don’t talk about them, how can we possibly resolve them?
Humans don’t typically share well. We have no greater right to be here than any other sentient being. We just think we do. And because we think we have greater right to the land and resources, our treatment of wildlife is…quite frankly, despicable!
A month or so ago I wrote about the horse round ups out west. I asked you to please call your legislators and tell them to vote against wild horse and the burro round ups. https://americanwildhorsecampaign.org/media/leading-wild-horse-group-challenges-bureau-land-managements-mojave-desert-wild-burro
I read an expose about the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and their wild horse adoption program. Basically… People were supposedly adopting these wild horses and they were getting $1000 per horse after one year. Many families were adopting up to 20 wild horses. Once they received their thousand dollars per horse, they dumped the horses at auctions knowing that they would probably be bought for slaughter and transported Canada or Mexico. You can read about it here:https://knpr.org/knpr/2021-06/lawmakers-advocates-push-end-blm-wild-horse-adoption-incentives
Then, 2 weeks ago, I learned that our home away from home is doing another goose round up. They wait until July when the geese are molting and can’t fly. The geese are rounded up and put in cages that don’t allow them to stand up and they’re taken to slaughter. The man in charge tells me the meat is given to the food pantries. I’ve witnessed the round ups. It’s heartbreaking! And all because people are annoyed by the geese and their poop….
I’m even concerned about our neighborhood raccoon family- a mama and 4 babies. I’m trying to make sure they’re not killed just because they exist in a residential neighborhood.
Please consider getting involved and being a voice for the voiceless. Humans continue to devour land and then complain about the animals. Where can they go when we keep developing their natural habitat?Please…Speak up against animal cruelty that stems from human greed. We have to learn to live cooperatively with nature!
Some good advocacy groups are:
The American Wild Horse Campaign
https://americanwildhorsecampaign.org/
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicinehttps://www.pcrm.org/ethical-science/animals-in-medical-research
The Sheldrick Foundation https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/
Defenders of Wildlife https://dfnd.us/3bRym41
I’m glad you’re here 💜
The weekend coffee share is hosted by Natalie the Explorer https://natalietheexplorer.home.blog/2021/06/25/big-house-canoe-and-corktown-common/
And you can see more coffee shares https://fresh.inlinkz.com/party/9e41843fdce44bf99cf7dcf1bc0a57cc
With Angels and Elephants 
Hi Dinah. This is a hard topic. In the history or the earth, this battle has been almost always present. I understand and sympathize but as I sit here thinking about it, the dynamic is wider than human versus animals. It’s always living things against living things. If one family of critters is not hunting and eating another, they are contending for domain, driving each other out so there are enough resources for them. The notion of evasive species is real, so where does it become wrong for one species to act in their own interest when those acts compromise the interests of another?
Humans are, by far, the most successful and adaptable species so I think it’s wise to act like in wisdom and compassion for others, including animals, and not causing needless suffering.
For example. We own a cabin, just a cabin with many others on a tract of land in Sonoma County and we have an ongoing problem with mountain lions.
These creatures are large enough to kill a person and even carry off a child, but our government has made it illegal to defend our land from them. So far, no one has been injured but only because the mountain lion population is so small and they tend to avoid humans.
But many of us think it is only a matter of time before one lion is hungry enough and one child is alone just long enough to be carried off or injured.
At that time there will be a battle and the lion is going to lose either by officials capturing or killing it or some resident killing it quietly and hiding the evidence but the child will still be injured or dead and folks will be locked in a battle of what we should have done to protect our children.
I don’t have a good answer for all of this and your points are well taken. I think they need to be considered in the wider context because there never will be a state where all of us co-exist in peace. Like many species, we eat meat and we defend our families from threats including other species who also eat meat. Horses don’t represent such a threat, but they consume resources that impact others interests. Your item about the government paying adopters is classic government idiocy – of course people are going to act to qualify for the almost free money and then dump the otherwise unwanted animals in the easiest way possible. This idea is nothing more than government funded short term horse day care.I for one don’t want my tax dollars wasted like this.
I’ve heard some argue that part of the solution is to somehow make it economically attractive to keep and maintain these animals rather than let them roam wild. That might work for some horses but who is ever going to want to try and maintain a pack of wolves?
Some of these battles can’t be resolved and the only answer that makes sense is to fight and win some of them or bear the risk of injury and death to ourselves.
Thanks for bringing this up for thought. Now I wish I could see an answer, but I don’t.
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Hello my friend!
Thank you for stopping by. And thank you for your very thoughtful dialogue. I appreciate it! And I agree that it is a very complicated issue… I don’t have the answers. But I feel that some of the way we handle these things is quite ruthless. The geese round up was painful to watch. Now in July they’re going to be doing wild horse round ups. They will be chasing them with helicopters until they are exhausted and then rounding them up. Family groups will be separated… Spirits will be broken! All because the horses compete for the resources that the cattle ranchers want… We should be able to do better. I’m not saying I have the answers. But without dialogue… and awareness… We won’t ever get to better. And the status quo disgusts me! So I keep talking about it hoping that at some point, and in someway, we will figure these things out.
I appreciate your thoughtfulness!
Hoping you have a wonderful week!
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Dinah, That’s a nice picture of the deer and rabbit in one photo. Thank you for linking with #weekendcoffeeshare
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Thanks Natalie 🌺😎🌺
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Wow, I didn’t know that about the wild horse adoptions. So sad. It is sad that we cannot find a way to co-exist with wildlife in a healthy way.
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Yes, it’s sad. We have to be aware and do better! Thanks so much for visiting 💜
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