Protecting the Animals

Protecting the Animals

"Keep them from harm,
Keep them from jealousy,
Keep them from spell,
From North to South."
   ___ early Gaelic blessing (trans CM)


   The protection of domesticated animals was an important concern to our ancestors, who relied upon the strength and life-giving nurture of animals in the daily round. In our own time, the protection of animals takes on other connotations, involves other responsibilities.

    The ancient prayer above was uttered to protect beasts from straying, from theft, from natural dangers; it was never intended to protect them from imprisonment in factory-farms, from circumscribed lives of great misery, from transportation in long-distance trucks, or from fearful mass slaughter. The protection of domesticated animals today is something that everyone can be practically involved in by their choice of food, by their active campaigning, and by their boycotting of methods that are cruel and unnecessary.

   Regarding those animals that are used as guinea pigs in laboratory testing of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and diseases, we have less justification for their ill-treatment and more responsibility for their care. The torture of any living creature is abhorrent; one does not have to be a bleeding heart to witness the pain involved in this work. Finding other alternatives to the laboratory testing of animals will perhaps remove the onus of cruelty from their human kindred in the near future, but not until more humans use their voices to protect the animals who have no voice.

"Make your own prayer and blessing for animals and for those who are involved in their welfare."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]