So I thought I would inform everyone what has been going on in my, the Pet Psychic’s, life these last few weeks.
I got attacked by a facebook friend. She accused me of making up my communication with a spotted leopard. She asked, “What wild animal in captivity does not want to be back in the wild?” To my delight, many of my facebook friends swooped in to my defense. I of course, did not make up the communication but it got me thinking. Is there a wild animal in captivity that does not long to be in the wild? Siegfried and Roy’s tigers look pretty happy and perhaps there is a lazy lion out there that does not want to hunt for his/her food or perhaps a dolphin that feels more connected to the pool and its trainers than the raw nature of the ocean. Hum…if anyone knows such an animal I would be more than happy to talk to him/her for free. I am curious. Of course I do have my views about keeping wild animals in captivity, but I am also THEIR VOICE and it is my mission to leave my judgment aside and relay the truth of what they are thinking. They are individuals just like we humans are. Their views on captivity could be very different.
A few weeks ago, on a radio show, I heard an insurance gentlemen saying that he insures exotic animals. One of the things he does is go with them while they travel. He was proud to state that exotic animals in captivity are great for education and study. (I could sometimes go along with that.) He talked about whales being packed in ice as they flew from Iceland to Florida. (Trapped in the wild and sent to SeaWorld perhaps?) H also mentioned that he just flew 100 sea lions across the world. He claimed the organization was so humane that they made sure fresh water blew in the sea lions eyes during the 10-hour flight. This insured that their eyes wouldn’t dry out. The radio host remarked, “You are so interesting. You have join us again…Tell the listeners your website?” Am I the only one that thinks, “This is insane! Maybe this is not ok! Maybe these animals are suffering during travel! This feels wrong!”?
This morning I met a man in Starbucks who said, “I used to work at a factory farm in Missouri. We had over 4,000 chickens in little cages.” It could have been 40,000? I don’t recall. “In the winter over a 100 chickens would die each night. It’s normal to have that many chickens die. The eagles would wait outside the factory each morning and the workers would throw the dead chickens up to them.” Oh my! Could you imagine that sight? None of that seemed ok to me (Dead chickens, feeding wild animals) Am I the only one that is confused? I can’t even imagine telling my friend Melissa, AKA THE CHICKEN LADAY, this story. She spends hours tube feeding sick chickens each day. If 100 chickens are dying how many chickens are sick? You may be eating them and their eggs! Oh my gosh! Free Range Everybody! Free Range!
I have not been one to push my views. But I can’t help myself.
What do you all think?
FROM FACEBOOK
Carla J H. I had a friend that raised chickens for Tysons,about 30 some years ago-and it was 4,000 per building! The heat was almost unbearable, along with the ammonia stench. I remember there were many dead-and they said it was an acceptable loss,that they expected it. It just seemed so unnatural.
June 24 at 10:25am ·
Hartley P. Now we look back at how the slavers said deaths on the Middle Passage were “acceptable loss” and wonder why people didn’t think this was somehow wrong.
June 24 at 12:13pm ·
Rachel G. terrible!
June 24 at 3:10pm ·
Rocco H. Awful…not fair 🙁
Friday at 9:22am ·
Tucker Gelles While it is true that the treatment of these dear chickens is intolerable and outrageous, it is at least serving the circle of life that the eagles benefit from this inhumane situation.
Saturday at 9:49am ·
Carla J H. But you do have to wonder one thing-in how these chickens live and die; are they carrying any diseases (or the antibiotics) that may eventually affect the eagles? I really hope not.
Saturday at 9:58am ·
To beleive that exotic animals are happy living with humans is impossible for me. Loss of habitat has forced us humans to create a false honesty that they are better off. We, on the other hand are the ones that created the problem by destroying their habitat. The concept of learning about “wild animals” through the exhibition is, in my belief, a false premise.
I’m afraid it is all about the money – as long as people can make money with animals this will continue.
Remember Planet of the Apes?
I have had people insult me too, I have been told that I can’t talk to animals, that the animals don’t talk back, etc. Like you Laura, I put my judgement aside. I have talked to several wild animals that are in cages and horses that are kept in box stalls, they are not happy animals. There are people out there that just don’t understand the animals view. If it feels wrong, it is wrong!
OMG, yes free range please!!! Just drive through Arkansas past all the Tyson chicken “factories”… they stink miles away. Have you seen the U tube video of the chicks being crushed in a meat grinder for dog food, etc> . Don’t watch it, I still can not get it out of my head a year later. Yes, I admit, I am a bird person. Would love to hear more about how exotic animals feel about living with us people!
HI! My backyard chicken, Deirdre, has a huge personality!
She asks for food and responds when we talk to her. She comes when we call her, and she generously lays an egg a day for our breakfast!
She is very intelligent and funny and I cannot imagine killing her and eating her! There are folks that can, and do. In the world of me, I think we should go back to the old ways. If you want to eat meat, you raise it and kill it yourself! Those inclined to do so will, and those who are in the middle of the road will suddenly find themselves vegans! Not everyone is meant to be a vegan, but I believe we consume WAY too much meat in this society.
As to the wild animal issue. I believe many creatures are more highly spiritually evolved than we are. Their purposes, like ours, have intent. Whether they rise to the call they are given or not, the call comes none-the-less. In a perfect world, yes, the wild should remain that way, but alas, we humans are too easily bored to let things alone. We must conquer and control instead of manage and husband. One day we will learn, and I pray it is mother nature’s kindness that does the teaching.
I think that these stories show how profoundly humans have lost touch with their sense of humanity. I do recall hearing a so called “christian” that animals were placed on this earth to be used by man, the beginning of this statement, (left out by this person) pointed out that man was put here to take care of animals. We owe our animal family and friends much, human animals must learn from them and take the road back to humanity. It is our responsibility to take care of the environmental messes we have made and to assure that those affected, all living beings are respected and restored.
Sad to say but “free range poultry” only need to be allowed to roam out of their cages 5 minutes a day! That is the law.
Laura – Sorry someone on Facebook attacked you 🙁 “Don’t shoot the messenger!” is what I say. You aren’t responsible for what the animals tell you!
Yes, it does seem odd to us that a wild animal in captivity may say they are happy, but ultimately, that doesn’t change the fact that the animal is being held “captive”! To borrow from the dreaded comparison… who knows, maybe a few human slaves in the slavery era may have said they were happy and treated well, perhaps because they really were, or perhaps because that’s all they’d ever known (so what would they compare it to?). So while that’s certainly better than them saying they are miserable or mistreated, it still doesn’t make slavery right by any stretch. The mere act of using another living, sentient being for one’s own pleasure or profit seems inexcusable, oppressive, and unethical – even if the enslaved being seems okay to be in that position. That’s why, no matter what the animals in those situations say about how happy they are, I still find it horrible to have them in captivity – whether it be animals used in tv/film, for riding, in zoos, etc. I can ONLY see captivity justified in cases such as those involving already-domesticated cats, dogs, rabbits, where we are trying to undo a horrible catastrophe that we, humans, have brought onto them (overpopulation and being killed). In all other cases, I would argue that it is better to live as a free individual than as a content, or even loved, slave.
And Terry Thompson is completely right about the myth of free-range. It’s still horrible for those poor birds. That’s one of the reasons I went vegan four years ago!
I have, for the last year, helped collect eggs at a free range farm and to be honest I would rather have to fight off 5 or 6 others in a cage than 1200 as they come into the shed to feed. A large number of the girls simply cannot run the gauntlet to get out of the shed they are picked on and attacked. The sick or weak are attacked mercilessly and many are eaten alive. Free range is just 2 words and it does NOT mean happy hens!
I have a “wild horse” here, he was mustered from the wild 2 yrs ago now, happy if you’d like to ask him if he’d like to be back in the wild!
Although Mustangs were once in history domesticated animals, I think that through the generations of feral living could be considered wild today. Anyway, I had this same question about him when I asked an animal communicator to talk with him. He said that he is happier in domestication because he used to spend a lot of energy finding food, safety, and fighting within the herd dynamic. He said he didn’t have to worry about anything now that he’s in peoples’ care and appreciates that. Food for thought.