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CHRISTMAS QUOTE

by Guila Manchester


 

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This was sent over the Bouvier e-mail list by rescue buddy Margo Illing of http://ontariobouvrescue.net. It's about all the animals who need and deserve our compassion and help. An implicit plea to celebrate Christmas by saving a life. If you celebrate Hannukkah, perhaps you might consider saving eight lives. Give life back to an animal. To me it's a bit reminisent of Willam Blake saying "A dog starved at his master's gate predicts the ruin of the state" or Gandhi saying that a country's greatness could be measured by how it treats its animals.
 
        

CHRISTMAS QUOTE

by Guila Manchester , © 2002

The lighted window shows the room
so warm and softly glowing,
The tree so tall with twinkling lights
And all the presents showing.
While just outside a starving cat
Stands shivering in the cold,
And down the street a stray dog limps,
So tired and sick and old.

The baby monkey in the lab
Lets out a cry of fear.
The thing he thought was mother
Shot out quills when he drew near.
The car speeds by, the puppy cries
And drags her broken leg.
The beaver in the leghold trap
Lifts pain-filled eyes that beg.

How can we speak of peace on earth
And know these things are so,
And say they don't concern us
And we ought to let them go?
How can we think we have the right
To torture needlessly,
When all the time we know so well
It shouldn't have to be.

Come join with us at Christmas time
And pledge ourselves anew.
They need our help so badly,
There's so much that we can do.
Don't turn your back upon their pain
Because it's hard to see.
They have no other place to turn,
They've only you and me.


 

 

footnote :

The lines about the baby monkey almost certainly refer to Harlow's experiments with Rhesus monkey babies given choice of a barb wire wrapped dummy that holds a milk bottle versus a warm fuzzy wrapped dummy.

Leghold traps are illegal in some areas but still used in others

The other instances of animal suffering are all too common and too ordinary events.



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site author Pam Green copyright 2003
created 2002 revised 9/27/2020
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