Equine lovers

Equine Love <3

"I read that G-d made man, and he made horses and all the other beasts, and as soon as He had made them he made a day of rest...He must have known what was good for them, and I am sure it is good for me (Sewell, 149)."


"My master knew very little about horses, but he treated me well, and I should have had a good and easy place but for circumstances of which he was ignorant (Sewell, 121)."The master-horse relationships that Black Beauty had and encountered were varied, especially between the ignorant master and the knowledgeable one. For example, one non ignorant man says, "Every man's right and every beast's right (Sewell, 152)." By saying this he is leveling the playing field. There is not such a hierarchy between non-ignorant gentlemen and their horses, "but it seems to me that the innocent always suffer (Sewell, 181)." Jerry, one of Black Beauty's masters says this to the governor after one of his other horses, Captain, was hurt by a drunk driver. It seems that the masters who understood their horses always made insightful comments and were depicted deeply and fully whereas the cruel and ignorant masters were depicted as evil and one dimensional. I thought this to be very interesting that these were Black Beauty's observations, and how within the touch of a hand he could tell the type of person that might be. Black Beauty was very grateful for gentlemen because, as Jerry said,"if a thing is right it can be done, and if it is wrong it can be done without (Sewell, 153)."

Ignorance and Apathy go hand in hand

Black Beauty blog

The edition I had as a child

Initially, I thought I had remembered reading this story and remembered it as a really happy fairy-tale... Now, reading it again, it is actually quite sad. It makes me feel guilty for how we have trained our pet dogs in the past. Not that we were cruel to them, but we (as a family) had a pretty short temper towards our loving pets. I forgot the great deal of loss they suffered and were still suffering, from the loss of their family to the loss of their liberty. Like Black Beauty said, "What more could I want? Why, Liberty! (Sewell, 24)." I didn't think to give the puppy the same amount of patience and respect that I would to a person suffering such great losses. I reacted differently to the animals actions, I simply did not understand. I thought that obedience was sort of innately ingrained in domesticated animals, and that if they acted up they were doing so out of a sense of defiance not out of self defense or fear.
Never thinking to blame myself for confusing my pet, always faulting the animal, "[I] did not wish to be too hard, and I am glad [to] see it was only ignorance (Sewell, 75)."

 We never physically abused our dogs, and never will, but I am sure they were quite confused with some of the odd methods we were taught by a dog trainer, and especially by our inconsistency. Also, as odd as this sounds, it often slipped my mind that the dog was still an animal, and a young one at that, so clearly it would have animalistic tendencies (that we, in fact, have as well). Just as explained in Black Beauty, there is a sort of discrepancy of understanding between some masters and their animals, "Spirited horses, when not exercised, are often called skittish, when it is only play; and some grooms will punish them (Sewell, 25)." Just like those horses, we often misread or misunderstand the intent of the animals compared to our preconceived notions.

Chicks, Pussies, and Bitches

 When did it become socially acceptable to refer to women as animalistic? When did female dogs begin to describe mean girls? What made chicks suddenly refer to 'hot babes'? When did bunnies lose their innocence to Playboy? When did a kitten turn into a part of the female anatomy? It appears that women and animals are inextricably linked, so it only makes sense that women are more involved in animal liberation. We have explored many different kinds of oppression, between species, amongst species, and such, but we have not explored the gender difference as much. Luke, in Gender and the Exploitation of Animals, explores this comparison more thoroughly. The oppressed have a tendency to stick together and help each other out of sympathy or "the natural empathetic barrier between species (Luke, 181)." Women, being the more innately caring half of the male-female dichotomy, are more likely to sympathize as are their matriarchal tendency. Historically, women are the ones mainly helping other groups who are oppressed participating in many different liberation movements.

 

The sympathetic connection between species can also be viewed as "the crossing of borders between [human] and animal (Derrida, 209)." Women are exploited just as animals are; often objectified for their sexuality. There is a negative correlation between boys who abuse their animals turning into men abusing their spouses. Many ad campaigns, like PETA's, use women as an animal representative, as a fellow earthling, illustrating a hope to end exploitation of animals. Women are characteristically, and realistically often more caring to animals and more devoted to their cause...so then why is a dog still known as a "man's best friend?"

Lesson Plan

1st: Quiz

2nd: Meditation HERE

3rd: Lesson plan (below)

I. What is Racism?

II. Racism and Speciesism

         -Dolphin asked: What is the difference?

-Whitney: Can it be a choice? Being devoted to helping oppressed people, Does that automatically make her prioritize people over animals? Does it need to be both? Or is it acceptable to devote time to one group over the other?

-Nate: “Speciesism is far more harmful because it can be applied across a range of organisms,”

-Meg: “But why are these comparisons important and what could be the problem with the comparisons?” Racism and Speciesism permanently intertwined.

-L. Panther: Racism and Speciesism are indistinguishable from one another

-Miles: “I think there are objective differences in the mental abilities of humans and other animals which can justify different standards of treatment (unlike the rationale behind racism).” Are the readings relevant to current society?

III. Were the slaves treated like cattle or are the cattle treated like slaves?

-Laurel: “Why should it be immediately insulting to be compared to an animal?

-Mariah: Agrees with above (anecdote), how we can change the stereotype and view it as special and not odd…

-Chris: 2 kinds of suffering (emotional and physical), how do the masters get power? How do they keep it?

IV. Ways to change this/ fix it and why people don’t want to?

-Nate proposed: If everyone would spend one day with an animal that sympathy would be contagious. Is sympathy contagious?

-Also, What do we owe our totem animals in return for what they have done for us?

-Meg: Insight into oppression and how to combat it

-Dana: Will we ever win the battle for animal rights? What are the necessary steps to abolish the murder, consumption and abuse of animals? How is the struggle for animal rights similar to the struggle to end human slavery? Will animals ever be given the chance to be respected as individuals? (How do we know when we have accomplished this task?) What will change people’s minds?

         -Brianne: The current situation cannot continue, but how can it be fixed?

-Sarah W: “Why didn’t more people raise questions about slavery? Didn’t they know it was inherently wrong? She pinpoints the problem as a lack of education, and increased education will reduce the lack of empathy.

-Mariah: Idea of self-empowerment, sticks and stones… Solution to the problemà positive and effective communication, breaking the silence.

V. Racism and correlation to plant and/or meat eaters

VI. Pets

-Eric: focus on dogs, disagreed with Speigel because “not all owners are bad owners just like not all parents are bad parents. She leaves out the possibility of positive reinforcement. We created them so it is our job to take care of them, it would be cruel to release them in the wild to defend themselves.

In Class:

Problems in current society:

Ways to fix it:

Why some don’t want to:

The chicken or the egg

Who came first? The chicken? The egg? The same question can be asked of slavery, were "the slaves treated like cattle (Speigel, 159)," or are the cattle treated like slaves? Before this class, I would not have spent a minute to think about this question. I had become hardened to the abuse of animals because I saw it so often and it was easier to stifle my feelings against it. "I had forgotten the depth of feeling one could see in [animal's] eyes (Walker, 169)."

Throughout this class, the readings, and Earthlings, the same ideas keep resurfacing when I digest these texts and ideas. People allow bad things to happen for two reasons, one: they are too cowardice to actually feel something in response to bad things happening around them, or two: they do so in fear because they would rather oppression continue as long as it does not happen to them. The second option is illustrated by a quote from an ex-ranch hand, in a personal interview with Speigel in A Deathly Comparison, "Sure, we used to throw 'em on the ground and cut their balls off with a pen-knife... And that's not all; at the same time we'd brand 'em and cut off their horns. And you know what? It didnt bther me... I never felt anything for them (Speigel, 149)." Initially, I rebuked the comparison between the Jews in the Holocaust and the treatment of animals today because, as a Jew, I "fe[lt] that it [was] insulting to compare the suffering of non-human animals to that of humans (Speigel, 148)," but looking back now, as G.B. Heron, my mind has somewhat shifted. 

We can help one another, all earthlings alike.

My new distinction is not between human animals and non-human animals, but rather the oppressors and the oppressed because "pain is pain, whether it be inflicted on man or beast (Dr. Humphrey Primatt, 1776)." I accept some of the disturbing similarities between that of the human and non-human experience such as their shared experience of pain, loss of family, loss of personal choice, constant fear, terrible living conditions, oppression, and "inability to establish personal security or safety (Speigel, 153)." Their is no loyalty of the slave master to the slave for their long hours and service to them. They get no rewards. But there is a way to fix this, to spread information and force people to face such things they try to avoid...to see things feelingly.

Reading The Dreaded Comparison by Marjorie Spiegel, made me feel helpless then frustrated then inquisitive then doubtful then a bit hopeful. I found hope in the chance we have to use "our [newly] heightened consciousness (Speigel, 147)." With this, we "shall know the truth and the truth shall make us free (UT Tower)." Speigel also mentions steps we, as a society and as individuals, must take in order to fix the tyranny. For example, "Advances towards releasing animals from our domination and control of their lives will also serve to lessen the oppression of blacks and others who suffer under the weight of someone else's power (Speigel, 151)."

Furthermore if we accept the "philosophy of universal respect for others' lives, treating anyone--human or non-human-- in a cruel manner beings to be unthinkable (Speigel, 151)." Another mention of hopeful change is illustrated in the section about animal testing, "Many firms have again begun manufacturing products from natural, nontoxic ingredients, and do not test their products on animals (Speigel, 160)." Also, we could prevent much animal testing by lawfully instilling a "mandatory or established system for sharing protocols or experiment results, [in order to prevent] vast duplication of [similar] research (Speigel, 162)."

Great Blue Heron

Lake Conroe

After meditating and listening to the sounds four times, I finally got the same power animal twice. Thus, I decided that it was a sign that I did find my totem animal. My fascination with flying and swimming has always characterized my daydreams, and when playing the game “would you rather” I could never decide whether I would want to be a bird or a fish. In this case, it is a way to sort of beat the system. I grew up seeing the Great blue herons in lake Conroe. My grandparents had a house on the lake and we used to wake up early to watch them hunt. When I think of them it warms my heart with childhood memories. After doing further research on the Great Blue Heron, I realized that it suits me even better than I had originally thought!

The Great Blue Heron has the best of both worlds, the sky and the sea. They can explore depths as well as heights. They are great opportunists, feeding on a wide range of small mammals, amphibians, and reptiles when possible, but their normal diet consists of small fish. Individuals usually forage while standing in water, but will also feed in fields or drop from the air, or a perch, into water. As large wading birds, Great Blue Herons are able to feed in deeper waters, and thus are able to harvest from niche areas not open to most other heron species. They have a great sense of site fidelity as they are inclined to renest in the same area year after year. They also upgrade and reuse old nests, constantly bettering their environment. 

"Animal totems, like the tiger, come from the Other Side
to protect us while we are away from Home"-Sylvia Browne

I feel that animal and human spirits intertwine as we are all earthlings. Maybe we were an animal in our past life or maybe we might be in the future. "Power animals, rather than being associated with a family or a group, are specific and personal for each individual (Farmer, 397)." I feel like I have a special affinity to the Great Blue Heron, as I feel connected to birds. I don't really know what it is that I find so fascinating, maybe something about the way they glide, maybe something about their freedom. The Heron is to me as the Tower is to Bill Moyers, they both act as constants, never changing in an ever-changing world. "And for [Moyers] to return from the atmosphere of a vagrant sojourner, which is what journalism is, you go from place to place, restless, homeless, this is the earth to which [he] always returns." 

Black Elk Speaks

"Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking". 

Black Elk 

Before reading this, I had not heard about the story of Black Elk, or very much about Native Americans in general. My basic understanding was that the white people came and bullied the Natives, taking advantage of their generosity and kindness. In school, rarely are we presented with stories from the other point of view. We have been taught at a young age that Columbus was a great man and extraordinary explorer, but the details of how he actually treated the Native Americans remains purposely shadowed.

Black Elk’s story consists of three parts: part autobiography, part spiritual revelation, and part tribal history. He emphasizes that his own life story is also the story of his tribe indicating the communal nature of the Native American experience.  Black Elk thinks of himself almost entirely in the context of his tribe or band, and he embodies the values of his people. Seeing himself as an instrument of a higher power, Black Elk emphasizes that the power of the vision manifested itself through him since, "no good thing can be done by any man alone (Neihardt, 359)."Black Elk's narrative continues to recount the increasing dislocation of the Sioux as the U.S. Government annexed more and more Indian territory and established Indian agencies and reservations. At the same time, Black Elk's vision perplexes him because circumstances do not seem to allow him to fulfill it.

Peace Pipe (one of the gifts from the 6 grandfathers)

Black Elk views the world's interconnectedness as natural and obvious. He doesn't put anything on a pedestal over other things simply because of species. "Is not the sky a father and the earth a mother, and are not all living things with feet or wings or roots their children (Reinhardt, 359)?" To him, one earthling's life is just as crucial as another's. He shares his vision with his fellow earthlings, taking it upon himself to embrace the power put upon him. "From them you shall have power...from them who have awakened all the beings of the earth with roots and legs and wings (Reinhard, 364)." Black Elk was given a cup of water to make live the greening day, a bow and arrow to destroy, a sacred peace pipe, and a sacred stick, and the nation's hoop.

Totem Animals

His relationship to Homo-Sapiens, bison, horses, and birds are all very important and varied. He seems closest spiritually to horses, bison, and geese, but the eagle eventually resonates the most. The spotted eagle became his totem animal, renaming him "Eagle Wing Stretches (Reinhardt, 363)." Historically, Native Americans are nomadic, following the herds of bison to survive. Thus, bison is crucial for their lifestyle, in terms of food, clothing, and symbolically as well. "I know now what this meant, that the bison were the gift of a good spirit and were our strength, but we should lose them, and from the same good spirit we must find another strength (Reinhardt, 386)."

I can't wait to meditate to find my totem animal! I took some random online quizzes... I doubt their accuracy.