A Humane Conversion

Last night I attended a second book signing for “The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals Our Call to Defend Them” http://www.humanesociety.org/about/events/the_bond/the_bond_book_tour.html by author and Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) http://www.humanesociety.org/  President, Wayne Pacelle, in New Haven CT, at the Yale book Store. The difference this time is that I brought along my good friend John (last name withheld), who by all accounts is an animal lover and compassionate human being, but he is not, or should I say ‘was not’ well informed on many aspects of the cruelty’s and inhumanities which are often inflicted upon animals by ‘we’ the collective human race.

Now as I said, at my previous attendance to one of Wayne’s book signings, I purchased my own copy of “The Bond”, had it personally autographed and even blogged about it when Wayne made an appearance in New Canaan, CT.

You can read my first blog about Wayne’s book signing at http://animalvocations.blogspot.com/2011/04/bond-that-should-be-there.html.

OK, back to last night. Knowing what to expect once we arrived, I was prepared for stories about factory farming, Canadian seal hunts, dog fighting, and a menagerie of other animal related cruelties which many Wayne has not only been witness to, but fights daily to end.  Listening to Mr. Pacelle conjured up visual images ‘not for the faint of heart’ and many other images which John had probably never heard in one collective conversation.

Truths about the inhumane use of animals for the sake of self-serving reasons filled the air for over an hour to an overcrowded, yet captivated room of interested and compassionate animal advocated which gathered all for one collective reason; recognition of our personal bond with animals and how to carry that message to others.

Now, at the time I was unaware that John was on information compassion overload and it wasn’t until our drive home that he disclosed to me a sadness which had swept over him while listening to Wayne’s book discussion and the audiences input to their own personal witnesses to animal neglect and animosity towards animals.

John confessed that he felt helpless to the suffering and was ashamed for food and clothing choices which admittedly have been driven by years of conditioned behaviors based on childhood and societal influences.

What to do with all of this information was now John’s newest obsession. He was emotionally exhausted and struggled with understanding how for the past twenty years I have subjected myself to such tragedies as a career choice. I told him that if it wasn’t for my training and certification as a Compassion Fatigue Educator http://www.figleyinstitute.coursehost.com/Engine/Academic/Tools/CoursePublicize.asp?pk=74746&LID=1&ky=d_BPDiQVRgHzDiPRUmf_DgHzrpTOtoHz , I too would not know what to do with all of my empathy. We also had an honest discussion about living within a vegetarian diet and cruelty free consumer choices which have been my common way of life for the past 17 years and how John himself could make a difference.

Knowing that he has to arrive at the conclusion which best suits for his level of compassion, I could not force my choices on him, but instead reminded him that ‘The Bond” was one which he was responsible to create for himself, while being accountable to the animals that are affected by those choices.

Later that night, John and I enjoyed a vegan dinner and dessert.

(Thank you Wayne, for carrying this important message to the people of New Haven, across the country and to my friend John).

-CherylAnn Fernandes

A child’s wish; for the animals

“Mommie, mommie’, I heard a small voice call out. There I was, standing in front of a dwarfed galvanized metal cage, no bigger than about 5 feet by 7 feet, and abjectly staring at its contents; watching an orange and white striped form of a once majestic and regal tiger, pacing to and fro.

I looked down and saw a child, whose stress filled mommy pleas made me wonder what exactly this little boy was thinking. At that moment, his little mitt grabbed a corner of his mother’s flower printed sundress.

‘What Chi Chu”, the voice of Southern dialect responded, as she mindlessly reached out to hold her sons hand. She too was mesmerized by the imprisoned circus victims. As she answered him, she quickly glanced down and gave a quick smile. “What?” she repeated.

We all stood there for a minute, me, waiting to hear what this small boy might say, while positioned in front of something he might never had seen before.

‘I wish they weren’t in cages”, this little maestro of compassion softly stated to his mother.

Ok, just about then, a few tears formed in my eyes. Now to be honest to my readers, it doesn’t take much to make me tear up. A wounded child, someone being bullied, a rape victim, an abused animal. Those are just my top four favorite tear jerker situations.

“Chi Chu”, I heard the 30 something year old, baby momma, reply to her son. ‘What do you mean, aren’t the tigers beautiful? Don’t you like them?” Ah, my queue to butt in.

‘I understand too”, I muttered to the little 6 (or maybe 7) year old child, who looked quite smart in his striped shirt and pint size baseball cap. “My heart hurts for them too”, I said.

His glance made me pause for a moment. He and I held eyes, like we spoke the same language, if even for a moment.

“What do you mean?” His mother asked me.

“Well, come on, look at them. They live their whole lives enslaved. Never knowing true freedom. Never nurturing their young. Never roaming the open lands. These circuses travel from town to town on highways and back roads, never allowing the animals to experience life as a free and wild creatures”. Is all I could say, though I certainly had more, if given the chance.

“I never thought about it like that” this now baffled, but inquisitive mother replied. ‘But, yes, now I see your point.” She concluded.

“Momma, I saw them at school, my teacher shown us pictures of tigers. She said they should live in faraway countries, where they can be free. She showed us pictures and told us about how tigers are so big and like to hunt to eat”. My newest little hero spoke with such knowledge and conviction, I just wanted to reach right down and hug him. But I didn’t, instead, I choked back tears.

At that moment I silently said a prayer, thanking the nameless/faceless New Haven City School teacher for introducing compassion to her students.

How can this little someday to be a man, have such an understanding of humanity, yet throngs of parents treat their kids to being witness of cruel and inhumane practices every time a circus rolls into town?

Can’t we get beyond the enslavement of wild animals for purely no other purpose than to entertain us? Can’t we visit sanctuaries, rescue centers or environments where wild and exotic animals can live a free and unobstructed life?

Can’t we listen to the wishes of a small yet enlightened soul of a boy and grant him that wish? Let us take the animals out of the cages.

Support the circus which only includes acts of human death defying feats, clowns who toss pies, tattooed women and fire eating men. Not the ones that enslave animals, possibly employ transient workers who aren’t trained or qualified to perform the work they are doing and let’s not go to a place where our children’s safety could be in danger.

The philosophy of old time circuses should not cloud the reality of dangerous conditions (Hartford Circus Fire), animal cruelty (USDA cited violations) and nameless other falsely memorialized attributes that circuses actually provided safe and humane entertainment, because it didn’t and they still don’t.

This blog is written to a boy I heard nicknamed Chi Chu, who wants animals to live and be free; I thank you for speaking out on behalf of animals.

Even if your voice was little, it meant more than you will ever know.

CherylAnn Fernandes

I recommend parents take their kids to this showing of a wild and free elephant lecture.

Here is the link:

http://www.beardsleyzoo.org/visitor-info/events.asp

What, the Price of Entertainment?

I often wonder what people consider to be entertainment. I realize that some like to attend loud, head banging, thump pounding, visceral engaging heavy metal concerts, while others prefer the soothing sounds of subdued hymnal rhythms, which delicately caress the ear and soul.

I know a guy who has jumped out of a perfectly good airplane 26 times. Yes, that’s right this guy has made the death defying plunge more times than I can count on my fingers and toes combined. I’d call him an adrenaline junkie.

Or, how about my gal pal Linda, who someday plans to hike the whole Appalachian Trail? She has quite a bit of it already covered. But when asked to partake in this version of outdoor entertainment, my response was “Don’t expect me to join you for any overnight camping trips. I much prefer my bed to be bug and wildlife free”.  She just laughed.

Seriously though, it is a wonderfully rewarding human opportunity which allows us to have a choice, an option to consider and then decide to or not to do that, whichever it is we want to do. It is the rational decision we humans have, to choose what we consider fun and how we want to spend our days and nights being entertained.

But here is where I implore readers to think before they decide to attend an event which exploits and abuses for the mere sake of degrading entertainment. I truly believe there is no definable reason that inhumanity should be allowed to visit our community or have a place to grand stand its definition of enjoyment, for the sake of mere existence.

What I mean by all of this is, what price, exactly; would you pay to be entertained? Does it matter that suffering ensues? Can you sit back, eat popcorn, cotton candy all the while laughing at clowns under a big top, while waiting for once wild, now captive, exotic animals which are being subjected to living in un-natural conditions, like metal barred, wood bottomed moveable prisons perched on top of heat scorched asphalt to be dragged out of these cages and show up on queue? Can you block out National Geographic images of African Serengeti Plains roaming elephants, nurturing their young while living long healthy existences in family pods of twenty or more and wait for Rosie the two ton elephant, wearing her bejeweled head gear and belly scarf to come barreling into center ring? (Oh and by the way, a typical female in the wild should weigh about four to five tons). Does it matter that tigers probably fear fire but are physically manipulated to endure daily encounters of it under a trainers whip, all the while balancing on a brightly painted wooden stool? 

Can you sit in an audience amongst other unassuming ticket holders and witness the occasional bull hook plunging into thick, yet sensitive skin of a terrified (or worse yet, drugged) exotic and once proud elephant? Can you? Doesn’t it matter that our young and impressionable children are misguided to believe that this is how animals should be treated and that they are are even encouraged to witness such tragedies? Shouldn’t we, the consumer and humanitarian make a better choice than to encourage years of volatility against nature and animal kind to occur?

I did make that decision, and I still do. I spend my money where animals can be honored, respected, understood, conserved and live a life as natural as possible without being neglected, abused, tortured or exploited. My personal story included a childhood dream to one day visit Africa. I wanted to witness the grandeur of Mother Nature’s finest creation; the wild as it was meant to be, and in its entire splendor. So as an adult I visited Kenya, and to my surprise, it wasn’t that expensive. I wanted it to happen; so I made it be.

That, is how I believe elephants, lions and other exotic animals should spend their time on this planet. Not crammed in overheated box cars, eating unnatural diets, cowering in fear of what happens next, while lurching along train tracks from one nameless town to another, only to be pushed, prodded and exploited all in the name of entertainment for yet another apathetic crowd of circus goers.

I do believe in my heart of hearts, that human beings, when given the option to make the right choices, do. They decide to treat others and those they are in governance of fairly and humanely and won’t be participants in inhumanity. Nor will they witness it. That, I hope is you too.

I ask that when the inhumane related circus comes to town, you won’t be there, in audience, participating in obvious miscalculations of pleasure. But instead you will be out, enjoying your time off from work, with your children, amongst your friends and in some other non-exploitive manner, like an acrobatic non-animal circus.

That, I do believe is a fair price to pay for entertainment.

(As a side note, the Cole Bros Circus is scheduled to be arriving at the Westfield CT Post Mall on Sunday June 12^th 2011 with two shows per day on Monday June 13^th through Wednesday June 15^th.

This particular circus has had multiple years of USDA violations therefore rendering them to travel under a variety of different USDA exhibitors’ licenses, employs animal workers who have a series of violations pertaining to animal cruelty statutes or have enlisted undertrained and unlicensed animal handlers and have too numerous to list occasions where animals have escaped, caused bodily harm or injury to spectators or other persons in the public who are unrelated to the show itself and who just simply should not be allowed to dupe the system.

  

JUST SAY NO to the circus! Call Westfield CT Post Mall GM Jim Ralston ( 203.878.6837 ) and politely ask him to cancel this ghoulish event.

If the public is concerned enough not to have such a traveling display of indecency enter the City of Milford, I hope you will let your voice and wallet speak on behalf of banning this type of abnormality in our City limits. Don’t attend the show and ask your elected officials to ban this type of inhumanity from ever occurring in Milford again). For additional information of inhumane circus related information:

 http://www.helpelephants.com/circuses.html

http://www.peta.org/tv/videos/animals-in-entertainment/87260245001.aspx

http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/tags/cole+bros+circus/default.aspx

CherylAnn

Heroic War Dogs- Archive Article from 2003/Leisure Life

The following article was written over 8 years ago. Since then many things have changed to include more of our war dog heroes that have been honored by the military agency for which they have served and allowing some to return home to retire and live civilian lives. Also, not included in this article are the countless numbers of stray dogs who have befriended and even saved many of our military personnel while on deployment. Some of these dogs have also returned to the States, to a heroes welcome!
I would love to hear personal stories from military personnel or their families who might have some experiences with militray dogs or strays who they befriended.

In honor of Memorial Day here is an archived article to remember those who have no voice, the hero dogs of wars gone by.

Heroic War Dogs

War is upon us, gaping through our windows, blaring on our radios and illuminated over our TV screens. We watch as our patriotic American troops fight to protect our Country. As a caretaker of animals it is only natural for my mind to wander to the animals that have also been deployed to serve our United States. Will these loyal creatures be honored for the duties that they provide, or will they be a mere commodity in this confusing struggle?

So what of our proud and gallant wartime service dogs, those many thousands of canine companions that have given their lives to protect our troops and ultimately our freedom?  These animals have extreme dedication to their masters and are specially trained human shields as well as very dangerous weapons, who also feel pain, joy and love.

They have been sent out to do a job, and could quite possibly lose their lives performing such a duty. Man’s best friend is truly that, in a time of war.

Military working dogs of all breeds and sizes have been deployed to assist all branches of the military since World War I. The most popular of the breeds seemed to be the German Shepard and the Doberman Pincher, followed by the Labrador retriever.

In World War II the first official account of America’s First War dog hero, Stubby, were kept. He was a Bull Terrier and served over eighteen months and in over seventeen battles on the Western Front. He originally hailed from New Haven CT and was even honored by President Woodrow Wilson upon his return from the War.

Dogs were tattooed, or “branded” in the left ear for easy identification. Their duties ranged from Scout Dogs, which were the eyes and ears of the unit, Combat Trackers, picking up scents and locating missing soldiers, Sentry Teams, walking the periphery of the camp and as Guards and Mine/Booby/ Tunnel Dogs, detecting these potential causality-seeking devices.

It is no wonder that there is a profound bond between human and animal during times of combat when these War Dogs helped prevent over ten thousand American causalities.

Records do not depict the countless canines used in all of our past military encounters but rough statistics kept during the Vietnam War show that a list of over 4,900 dogs went to combat from 1964 to 1975. Of those loyal best friends, only 204 actually exited Vietnam to return to the United States. Though none went to civilian life. The remainder of them were either euthanized, left on the streets somewhere in the Pacific or turned over to the South Vietnamese Army. The horror of knowing that mans truest and most loyal companion served his Country only to be classified as military equipment and declared “surplus armaments” is mortifiably a tragedy. These true canine Hero’s had no voice and their cries went unheard.

One can only hope that today, as our Country engages once again in combat that we honor and respect our Nation’s War Dogs and not leave them behind, let them suffer or pass them by as our Forgotten Heroes.

 CherylAnn

A new shelter location deployment

This morning me and my makeshift posse’ of ten headed outa Memphis north on the highway, letting our GPS guide us to a small town in Missouri, where there we were to find our way to the next shelter that we were reassigned to.

It was a two hour drive and our two car caravan left around 8am. Warm sun and receding flood tides met us along Interstate 55. We saw complete farms filled with river water, power lines sunken mid-way in murky brown-ness and evacuated homes; this was the scenery that became a visual for much of our ride.

Conversation in the Ford F250 Super Duty pick up truck strayed from general joking to more somber topics like the sadness many of us felt for the struggles that the locals must be suffering through.

Before we knew it, we had arrived. How our GPS was able to find the tiny little dirt road leading to our destination of a fairground now turned into an emergency shelter was nothing short of a miracle.

We were given our walking papers from our Incident Commander and told to report two miles down, where the majority of the animals were. Our current location was set up for cats and a few horses. It was amazingly well organized and not in need of us. They told us the dogs, about 60 plus and down from a few hundred were the neediest of new staffing.

Phasing workers in and out with weekly rotations seems to be a pretty stringent procedure. It keeps the emotional risks of compassion fatigue down and allows for fresh workers to replace the tired and worn out crew.

Once we made our way to our next destination we had a briefing and were assigned our duties for the remainder of the week. We are the lucky crew, it seems the overall combined shelter numbers have dwindled from about 500 animals to just fewer than 150. Most have been reclaimed by their once displaced owners after they were able to get back into their previously water ransacked homes.

So there we went, back to hard, but rewarding work, cleaning, walking, feeding and generally adoring the critters we are lucky enough to have in our temporary charge.

I won’t bore you with the evening debrief, or how I found my way to a fabulous Mexican restaurant to plop my worn out body down in to write this blog, or how my one Sangria and vegetarian dinner helped me unwind from the day’s events.

More to come tomorrow, if I am not to ‘pooped’; and yes, the pun was intended.

G’nite ya’all!   (said in a Southern drawl)

CherylAnn

Another day of deployment

May 16, 2011

After yesterday’s 12 plus hour work day and a night out enjoy some local Memphis Blues Music, the 6:15 am wake-up call came way to early this morning.

At least we are in a hotel, and not sleeping in tents, as I had originally expected. I really didn’t know what to expect when I had gotten the original email, asking for trained volunteers to help the ASPCA with the shelter operations they had set up down in Memphis.

My early morning rise included meeting other rescue volunteers along with ASPCA staff, American Humane Association employees and volunteers and then to make the 5 minute ride to the temporary animal shelter.

A local business was generous enough to donate the use of their large warehouse where the building was set up in sections; quarantine, general population, behavior challenged, cats, kittens, maternity ward, veterinary area, staff lounge and of course the command center.

There is use of a back parking lot, which allows the animals to get outside for walks and sunshine, which comes in handy while cleaning the cages.

I was assigned to the general population room with over 60 dogs, though I understand there was over 125, or maybe more, when the shelter was first set up.

Some animals are there only because their pet parents have been staying in Red Cross shelters or temporary housing which doesn’t allow pets. Daily, owners have been coming to reclaim their pets. It is nice to see the reunions happening; it boosts the spirits of the shelter workers.

The quarantine area was another story. I don’t know many of the details, but I understand there was a horder case uncovered during the floods and most of that area is dedicated to medical cases from the hoarder case. Only specified workers are allowed to enter/exit that area.

This afternoon when there were a few minutes of down time, I took advantage of it and cuddled with a litter of kittens. I was even able to get a dose or two of puppy breath, which put a smile on my face.

At the mid day briefing, myself and the CT crew was asked to relocate to a shelter in Missouri, where there has been another temporary shelter set up. I understand this one includes farm animals, and chickens, along with companion animals. Again, I don’t know many of the details, but will know more as we deploy in the morning.

Every night we end with a debriefing, and dinner. Then the night is our own and the animals get to rest.

There have been some awesome folks here, and I am honored to work with such an amazing group of welfare advocates from all over the United States. Safety for the animals and workers, behavior evaluations and enrichment, cleanliness, balance between work and down time, food, food and more yummy food, socializing and an overall comradery has been outstanding and I am honored to work with such an incredible crew.   

OK, time for some rest, tomorrow we travel two hours just to dive right into another temporary shelter.

CherylAnn