On a highway in Beijing, a truck is stopped in a line of vehicles waiting to go through a toll booth. It carries a load of hundreds of dogs, crammed into little steel cages. Shivering, panting, fighting, biting, they bark and cry out in pain and terror. A bystander who spotted the animals put out a call on a microblogging site and begged fellow animal lovers to come and help. His pleas were quickly answered and approximately 200 people showed up and blockaded the truck for the next 15 hours imploring and cajoling the driver to release the dogs to the crowd. Finally he agreed to sell them to the people who were gathered there, $17,000.00 exchanged hands, much of it provided by an animal welfare association. and now instead of being brutally slaughtered, these helpless animals are residing in several rescue shelters and veterinarian hospitals where many were taken for treatment of the various wounds and illnesses that they were found to be suffering from.
And this year, Prime Minister Putin moved to ban the hunting of any polar bears in Russia despite an agreement with the US that would have allowed the killing of 29 bears in each of the two countries. This in addition to Russia's ban on hunting seal pups under a year old, which was described by Yury Trutnyev, the Russian Minister of Natural Resources as "a bloody hunt, from now on banned in our country, as in most developed countries".
The significance of these stories is that for decades, the Chinese government has discouraged any pet ownership and the result is that the people have for the most part never learned to appreciate the relationship that we take for granted with our pets. Instead they have and still do subject them to the most hideous abuses as they were and are 'prepared' for eating. But the past few years has seen changes there and with that change has come a softening of the peoples hearts and this event demonstrates the new attitude towards animals. As for the head of the former Soviet Union, the 'Russian bear', banning the killing of that beautiful white symbol of a shared Arctic North, again a decision that seems out of keeping with historic behavior and a presupposed image.
I was thinking about things like that the other day, and other 'improvements' came to mind. Things that we did to one another and our planet home.....children sent up chimneys with a rope tied around their waste and a broom in one hand, sewage dumped out into the streets or the river, mass extermination of a species was given little or no thought, open dumping of pollutants. But look around at the changes, the little signs that are beginning to appear that seem to be saying something's coming, adjustments have begun. We have laws that are intended to protect kids from (ab)use, and we've finally begun to talk about the environment and how we must have a care. And people who dump toxic garbage now act in violation of laws and do so in the dark of night, and we at least have a list of animals whose very existence is threatened and there are even changes in the attitudes of people, as to how much abuse is acceptable for animals. To that end there are scientists who are working on producing 'meat' in test tubes according to the following: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-11/test-tube-meat-no-longer-science-fiction-dutch-researchers-say.html And this to protect the planet and also because of growing animal welfare concerns. And the number of vegetarians and vegans coninue to grow and products geared to that group are appearing on retailers shelves. Hmm, is that a sign that this little group has arrived?
From another perspective, the political one, you only have to look to Egypt for an example of massive change. That those people, using largely peaceful protest, brought down a 30 year dictator and using social media to spread the call! My gosh, that's gotta mean something! And Wikileaks and
Openleaks becoming watchdogs for honesty at all levels of our 'official society' gives me hope that enough light will over time be shed on secrets and dark goings-on, that people may be redirected towards a more respectful way of dealing with all the things that make up this reality and all it's aspects and us and our lives..... "Can't we all just get along?"
Sure there is tons of bad too and sometimes it's overwhelming and the wave of misery that tosses and churns around the world seems about to wash us all off the edge of the earth into the abyss, but there is good too, and changes and light is beginning to peak in here and there and its only by focusing on those pin pricks of light that I can see where my next step should be. When I turn my gaze on those dark images and issues, I find myself drawn into that suffering and my grief adds to that sorrow and it becomes bigger.....so I don't look at it, not directly. I know that it's there, and when an opportunity to offer aid presents itself, I do, but then I turn away. That's not to say that it hasn't been hard. By nature I'm a 'wallower in grief',
