Compassion in Action

A week from today is Thanksgiving. This holiday and it’s traditions are mainly about food and one food in particular:

Turkey.

A turkey is, like a dog or cat, a sentient being with thoughts, feelings and desires.

But unlike our companion animals, a turkey goes through a tremendous amount of suffering to end up in the grocery store and consequently on the Thanksgiving table. Turkeys are neglected, mutilated, and die a horrible death all so they can be the centerpiece on tables, and as people gorge themselves on the carcass of a sentient being that endured a gruesome fate.

We can stop this tradition and the cruelty involved. There are other foods that can be sought for those who want to look at this time of giving thanks in a different, more compassionate way. A way without supporting cruelty, a way to celebrate giving thanks with an abundance of compassion.

Instead of eating a turkey this Thanksgiving, it is possible to start a new tradition:  Save a turkey. All traditional foods on the Thanksgiving table can be made animal product-free, cruelty-free with little effort.

If you are not vegan already, please think about the animal suffering that is involved during this holiday season and every day. The traditions of Thanksgiving is to be thankful for what we have, health, happiness, love and family. We should extend these privileges to all creatures that share this planet with us.

Blessings of the Animals: Celebrating Our Kinship with All Creation

 

This is a brand new book that came out yesterday! Included in Blessings of the Animals:

 

Find out how "swarm intelligence" is creating smarter phone systems inspired by the creativity and collective wisdom of the common ant.

Discover what happens when a visionary artist travels to Africa to bury the portraits of 23 primates who died in a Philadelphia zoo.

Ponder how cultures as diverse as the Cherokee, Chinese, Egyptians, and ancient Hindus identified the night's brightest star with a canine spirit guide.

Explore how meditation practice helps a Buddhist beekeeper fend off a disease that threatens most of the world's honeybees.

 

 

The Souls of Animals

 

In this revised edition of his celebrated book, The Souls of Animals, Unitarian Universalist minister Reverend Gary Kowalski discusses the big spiritual questions around our relationship with animals--whether they have souls, self-consciousness, awareness of death, and a capacity for recognizing beauty. Rev. Kowalski combines heartwarming stories with solid science to show that other creatures are not insensitive objects devoid of feeling and intellect but thinking, sentient beings with an inward, spiritual life.

 

 

The Souls of Animals presents insights into the emotional lives of animals, their creative abilities, their sense of play, their experience of love, and their awareness of death. As John Robbins states in the preface: this book is a resource that is about "learning to take our place with reverence and respect in the council of all beings."

Familiar Strangers

Familiar Strangers: The Church and the Vegetarian Movement in Britain (1809-2009) is a book about the history of the relationship between the Churches and organized vegetarianism in Britain over two centuries.

Within the name, Familiar Strangers, author John Gilheany captures the essence of the struggle that has existed between the church and the vegetarian movements for the past 2,000 years, and his study of the last 200 years in Britain highlights the continued struggle, as well as the advances that have occurred.

For far too many years the majority of churches and church leaders have turned a blind eye and heart toward the suffering of animals, and the health problems to human beings that an animal product based diet causes. In Familiar Strangers, John Gilheany brings to light the historical documentation and the need for all of us to become vegetarian/vegan, for it is God's heavenly will for our lives, and the best thing for the animals and the environment.

In Familiar Strangers, we also see how the animal rights movement was a natural progression of the vegetarian influence with it's concern for the suffering of animals.

In 1809, the origins of the vegetarian movement were set in place with the foundation of the Bible Christian Church of Salford. The radical sect, whose congregation included local Civic leaders and the first M.P. for Salford, Joseph Brotherton (1783 - 1857) was instrumental in the formation of the Vegetarian Society, in 1847. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the wider Food Reform movement had developed both secular and spiritual ideals which attracted a notable proportion of Christians.

Among the more prominent religious figures to have shared an association with Christian vegetarianism have been John and Charles Wesley; General William Booth, C.H Spurgeon, Leo Tolstoy, Lord Soper, and even Mahatma Gandhi.

The reluctance of the Vegetarian Society to adopt an overtly theological stance led to the formation of related but distinctly religious organizations. The Order of the Golden Age became particularly influential during the Edwardian period whilst operating from prestigious offices in London's Knightsbridge. The most remarkable achievement of the forgotten organization occurred in 1907, when their propaganda was met with a change in diet on the part of Pope Pius X.

The vegetarian movement entered into a decline after the Second World War from which it was unable to recover until the Counter Culture of the 1960s eventually gave rise to the modern animal rights movement.

Animals--God's Faithful Servants

Animals--God's Faithful Servants is written from a Christian perspective about the sacred relationship between God, man and animals. It deals with animal theology, pet loss euthanasia, dealing with grief, funeral services and includes biblical references to animals.

Pet Loss

 

The grief that follows the death of an animal companion  can be crippling emotionally, mentally, and even physically. This book can help anyone discover the many emotional reactions and responses to the loss of a pet, learn what happens at a pet cemetery burial, cremation, or home burial and help you to find out arrangements that are legally available.

Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics

 

This is a fabulous book on animals and spirituality, and it covers other topics relating to animals as well. Leading animal experts "consider how major religious traditions have incorporated animals into their belief systems, myths, rituals, and art...Their findings offer profound insights into humans' relationships with animals and a deeper understanding of the social and ecological web in which we all live....They explore issues such as animal consciousness, suffering, sacrifice, and stewardship in innovative methodological ways. They also address contemporary challenges relating to law, biotechnology, social justice, and the environment."

For more information on this book, check it out here:

A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics