Tonight I am writing about the issue that I have worked on for years – the severe violence and mistreatment of deer. Why are the deer blamed for being over populated? Isn’t it humans that are over running the planet and causing most of the environmental crisis that we face? Why is it ok that people take over the meadows and forests, and then push out wildlif?. And then when deer show up in their yard – they want them killed! I am afraid that we are becoming .a very materialistic – techno enthusiastic species that is tragically losing our ability to truly understand nature. Nature is not something to kill in order to control to human’s satisfaction. Every time I see a wild animal killed on the road I take a moment to remember that that animal’s life held meaning. So the next time someone complains about the deer – stop and ask them about all the things humans do to make deer and other wild animals miserable. Maybe it is time to do something to honor the deer.

Tonight I want to discuss the importance of slowing down for wildlife, and of course people, when driving. It seems we live in a time when people are super aggressive and oblivious when driving. Animals hit and killed on the road are not just a normal casualty of our driving. The carnage we leave on the roads is ignorant and unacceptable. So often people tell me that there is nothing they can do to avoid wildlife. That is definitely NOT true. The first thing you have to do is make a top priority of staying alert, especially at night driving through wooded areas. Make it a priority to drive with the attitude of saving a life. Often I see families of raccoons that have all been hit when traveling together. And far too often I have seen injured deer dragging themselves off the road. We have to change our attitudes and hearts about wildife road fatalities and make a much stronger effort to make the road a safe place for people as well as animals. I don’t know how or why it became an acceptable part of driving that we ignore the needs and rights of other species that need to cross the road. We also could do a lot better by building more under passes that provide safe passage for animals. What suggestions do you have for creating a more humane world?

Opening the Heart

Through
The Sacred Path of Animals & Nature

 “Mystical Animals of Ancient Oak” Workshop

Presented By Cynthia Fain

Author of Mystical Animals of Ancient Oak

http://www.MysticalAnimalsofAncientOak.com

Saturday September 22nd, 2018

2pm -6pm

Sugar Loaf Unitarian Church

Class is held in the Meadow Room

16913 Germantown Road Germantown, MD 20874

Pre Registration is Required

Call – 301-807-7384

Email – CynthiaAFain@aol.com

Sliding Scale Fee – $25.00 – $35.00

Class Description –

• An exploration of the healing powers of animals and nature. How nature helps us emotionally heal.
• Powers of Observation of nature and how they are being lost in the era of technology.
• Building a non- violent and compassionate world for wildlife.
• Nature Walk and capturing nature spirits on camera.
• Animals as unexpected teachers – Wally Magician
• Closing Circle

It never ceases to amaze me how many barbaric practices are committed on factory farms. We have male baby chickens that are being ground up alive. Baby pigs have their heads smashed against pavement to kill them. Calves are kept in solitary confinement and taken away from their mother’s shortly after birth. Mother pigs live in tiny prisons called gestation crates. Pigs are boiled alive before being slaughtered. Poultry are also boiled alive and have their throats slit while fully conscious.

If these realities horrify you = they should! I encourage everyone to take a deep look at what is on their plate and to do some research into what goes on before you eat it. When I was a child I never wanted to eat meat. Now I know why.

We need to out law all these factory farming practices. What kind of species are we if we can sit back and let this go on?

What are your thoughts on these common factory farming practices? How can we stop this? I became vegetarian in the early 1980’s after learning about these things.

Starting in the 1990’s – intense anger and calls for killing deer echoed throughout the Washington, DC suburbs. I never understood all the anger and harshness towards the deer – for all they suffer at our hands – we should be apologizing to them. As forests and meadows were replaced with housing developments and strip malls, deer and other wildlife had their habitats destroyed and replaced with pavement and houses.

People no longer saw the sacredness in the deer – now all they could do is rage at them for eating in their gardens. Well their gardens are planted where there was once free roaming land and wildlife corridors. Deer and other animals were forced to live among suburban houses and busy roads.

I hear spirit telling me that we hold no accountability for how we drive and leave animals to suffer and die on our roads. How did we come up with this idea that we can just speed along, hit animals and leave them to die…as though they are a piece of trash? This is one of the most over looked tragedies of our modern world. The way we are so apathetic to the remains of animals hit on the roads is way to de-sensitized.

I say this all the time – but simply SLOWING down and making a point to avoid hitting wildlife is the key to this. Killing massive amounts of deer in order to control their populations is not the key to stopping deer – auto collisions. Quite the opposite is true. We need to drive with responsibility and accountability – by slowing down and making it a priority to avoid hitting wildlife. We live in the era of technology and distractions.

Whenever I hear people complaining about deer in their neighborhood – I am quick to remind them that the deer have something to teach them.

I believe that one of the most important things that we can do to create a greener more humane world is to develop land and build in far more harmony with the earth and wildlife. Over the last several decades the emphasis has been on high density development and developers and city planners rarely leave any green space and forest for deer and many other species of wildlife.

In the area I grew up in, Montgomery County Maryland, I have seen forests, meadows and green spaces be systematically paved over for houses, shopping centers and highways. The deer and other creatures were driven to try and live in fragmented habitat that leaves them among the suburban houses. Then the intolerant people who now live in fancy houses on the animals habitat complain and often have no compassion or insight into the fact that they are living where the animals once roamed and fed.

The amount of ignorance about nature and wildlife is growing as people live with nothing but electronics, apps, I-Phones and Plasma TV’s. What do they know about the creatures and what the creatures are trying to show them? I have seen the violence and anger at the deer escalate to intense degrees. And mass killing of deer is used as a failed attempt at restoring our forests and green spaces.

At all levels of government we need to have some type of governing laws that say “let’s keep half this area in a natural state – and leave forest and green areas for the wildlife”. But that rarely happens and the imbalance that grow as the result of this type of “let’s shove as much development as we can into this space” leaves little to the imagination and leaves the animals with severely fragmented habitat – if any habitat.

In the next post – we will look at more ways we can save green space for people and wildlife.