Category: News

Sister Perla grazing in the yard

I am not an animal-rights activist.

You will not see pictures of me racing along in a PETA motorboat trying to stop Japanese whalers. I do not keep cans of red spray paint in my garage in the event that fur-wearing models happen into the Shire. I have never freed any zoo-bound animals, nor have I broken into a laboratory to sabotage the schemes of those curiously-amoral souls who are able to experiment on animals.

I am not unaware of the suffering that abounds on this dirty little planet. The sheer magnitude of it is too overwhelming for words, but I feel it keenly ~ and have since I was a small child. All told, I tend toward the sappy side of consideration for animals and people. I just try to be a practical sap.

Huh?

In my own little life, being a practical sap means participating in the food circle in the most respectable way possible, while remaining intolerant to suffering. While I respect the choices of others to become warriors for a cause, to rationalize things away or to lie awake at night in agony over all the world’s injustice, it is more in keeping with my own way of thinking to support the ideas I believe in, rather than fight against the ones I do not agree with (and to subsequently give more energy to the undesirable).

One simple example that is near and dear to my heart: the egg.

This is a huge, modern world of quarter million-chicken farms where battery hens live out their lives under artificial lights, crowded against their neighbors and suffering in a wide variety of ways.

This photo is not calculated to push your buttons: it’s simply part of a Purdue University educational presentation on chicken farming.

I won’t expand this into a melodrama, but as reasonably-educated consumers we know this situation when we go to the store to buy those generic white eggs. It is uncomfortable for some of us to think about, but what can we do? I see five basic choices.

LOOK AWAY
1) We can ignore the issue of suffering and buy the eggs. We do not have to see the hens, so we can rationalize away any unpleasantness. This choice is easy.

FIGHT
2) We can join the fight against battery hens ~ join up with other groups to petition, boycott, change laws, break chickens free ~ the list goes on.

MOVE ENERGY IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION
3) We can remove eggs from our diet and select other foods to replace them ~ perhaps even becoming vegan.
4) We can vote with our dollars, buying only local cage-free or free-range chicken eggs.
5) We can keep our own chickens and enjoy the benefits of participating in the food circle each and every day.

As you know if you read this blog, I chose #5 for my own personal experience. In this wide world with its potential for cruelty and suffering, my own tiny oasis looks like this:

Fat hens in the yard

From the tens of millions of battery hens, there are four hens here who run through the grass chasing bugs, spend sunny afternoons dust bathing, and enjoy fresh, tasty food. What difference could this possibly make?

I imagine it makes a world of difference to my hens.

When I bring my lovely colored eggs to my neighbors, or to the office, I would like to think I am spreading awareness of where our food comes from. I do not know what other effects this tiny movement of positive energy might have, but I am privileged to be its steward. As I do not “recruit” or ask for actions from others, I do not consider myself an activist. I simply live my choices, and sometimes I share those choices with others who are interested. There are many other ways I can incorporate beneficial actions into my life, and through the busy days and deadlines I continue to slowly inch forward in my own journey toward that elusive Middle Way ~ my ‘practical sap’ approach to living.

Baby Mija

We have a very cool, interesting and eclectic readership here. I am interested to hear your thoughts and ideas some of the little ways we can make positive changes in our lives that might benefit others. What’s working for you? What crashed and burned? Are you a warrior-activist? A practical sap?

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