humans and nonhumans, or yoga for chickens
In 2014 Scott Pruitt, controversial ex-head of the EPA in the US, challenged a Californian law that required chickens to be kept in cages big enough for them to extend their wings. "It's almost like having a cage that's air-conditioned, and they can do yoga", he said.
The opposite point to Pruitt's is expressed in Sy Montgomery's book Soul of an Octopus. For Montgomery, and others, animals are individuals. Like humans, they have an inborn temperament, a way of seeing the world that interacts with the environment, and that shapes personality.
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| Pied Currajong in the garden |
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| It won't be the same if you need a sugar fix when you want to interact with spiders |
Scott Pruitt is a slimy idiot of mammoth proportions.
ReplyDeleteThat is possibly an understatement!
DeleteWere you marching?
ReplyDeleteMy mother was against battery chickens way back when I was still at school.
Scott Pruitt and the actions he took as head of the US EPA were disgusting. I wish I could say that things are better since he "resigned" but I can't as his successor is equally deplorable, as is the rhetoric that spews from the mouth of the occupant of our White House. I'm hoping that 2020 will mark the return of common sense and principles among the US electorate. I also hope that karma is real and that the members of our current federal administration feel its full force and effect.
ReplyDeleteYes, Kris, it's a challenge I think, how to direct our anger. We are having Federal elections in a few weeks and I am working with an organization called Get Up. I feel good being an activist with them. They are not party based but issues based. We try to connect with voters so we may be able to influence them, helping them realize that the present lot have not been listening to voters or meeting their needs, and encouraging them to punish them with their vote.
DeleteThe least we can do is respect other life forms and treat them with kindness and appreciation for the gifts that they are to our human existence. A human who is indifferent, or worse destructive, to other creatures is a very sad excuse for a human being. Even more respect should go to life forms that provide our sustenance and help us survive.
ReplyDeleteHi Beth, It is very beautiful and exciting to learn to relate to all life forms. This morning there was a demonstration by vegans and they held up the traffic at the busiest intersection in the city. They succeeded in getting a conversation going in the media.
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