A Spiritually Enlightening Online Magazine. September's Theme: "Freedom"
Volume 7 Issue 6 ISSN# 1708-3265

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Illuminations Aleesha Stephenson About the Cover Gary Haggquist True Freedom Julie Hoyle The Colour Red Alegria Imperial It is Good to Feel Good Dj Brown I Am What I Am Until I Am A More Enhanced I Am Rev. Cheryl Jewett Where is Freedom? David Reber Freedom Child Martine Mathewson Cruise Ship Waste Standards David Suzuki PhD Pet-sense Jean Hofve DVM Life in the Raw Nicola Watt Po and the Stones Phil Kotofskie Walk Your Talk Aleesha Stephenson Wiccan Voices Crystal Blanton, HPs Let's Talk Tarot Marcia McCord Lifetalks Dawn Baumann Brunke Meditate a Moment Featuring: Aleesha Stephenson Cards & Curios Tarot Deck Reviews: with Dan Pelletier Archived Reviews All of T.S.M.'s Reviews

Pet-sense Freedom by Jean Hofve, DVM Freedom means different things to different people. But what does it mean to animals? I suspect that the answer is equally individual! To wild animals, freedom obviously means that they are not fenced or caged. But it also means that they are free to struggle for survival: finding enough food to eat while not becoming another animal's meal (because predators are free to hunt); keeping diseases and parasites at manageable levels (because bacteria, viruses, and parasites are free to find new hosts); and reproducing (because others of their species are free to compete for these privileges). Boy, freedom sounds tough! What about domestic animals? Many animal welfare and animal rights groups maintain that animals destined for the human food chain are most definitely not free. There is an ongoing fight to restore at least a few minimal freedoms to those animals. Noted author and bioethicist Dr. Michael W. Fox suggests that there are four "pillars" for the humane treatment of animals: right breeding, right nutrition, right respect and understanding, and right environment. Might these also be described as the freedoms to which these animals are entitled? If so, then the vast majority of poultry and livestock, at least in "civilized" countries, are being denied these basic rights. Sadly, one of the least free domestic animals is the horse. This beautiful animal, designed by nature to run free across vast expanses of prairie, nowadays is most likely to spend its time in a stall, run, pen, or, at best, a fenced pasture. The more valuable and highly trained the horse, the less freedom it's likely to have. And then there are our pets. Despite claims to the contrary, I know of only one animal rights group (PETA) that believes that keeping pets is an infringement of those pets' freedom. In fact, pets enjoy many freedoms that other animals, both wild and tame, do not. Pets are (for the most part) free from the struggle for food; free from parasites and infectious diseases; and free from reproductive challenges. On the other hand, pets are not typically free from boundaries, whether walls or fences; and they definitely are not free to express all their natural behaviours. We humans actually take some pretty radical steps to eliminate or suppress many of these behaviours; for instance, by spaying and neutering pet dogs and cats (and occasionally other species). Most of us would agree that we train our pets, keep them confined or leashed, and sterilize them for their own good, so they can enjoy the other benefits of living with humans. That's true, but it certainly isn't natural. Some humans even go to cruel extremes to inhibit our pets' natural expression, by devocalizing dogs and declawing cats. Perhaps the key to freedom for animals is whether they "miss" freedoms that they may have never experienced. We can gaze up at the clouds or across the horizon and think, "What if?" We can imagine other realities. We don't really know if animals have the same capacity to imagine a different future. But they certainly can remember the past, even if they don't dwell on it as we often do. And they know when they cannot fulfill their instincts and engage in natural behaviours… roaming, grazing, scratching, rooting, foraging, stretching, running, flying… Dr. Jean Hofve recently retired from holistic veterinary practice, but still writes and consults on holistic health and nutrition. She recently co-authored "The Complete Guide to Holistic Cat Care" with nutritionist Dr. Celeste Yarnall. She is a Medicine Woman of the Mountain Wind Lodge Nemenhah Band and Native American Traditional Organization (Oklevueha Native American Church of Sanpete). She founded SpiritEssence in 1995, which remains the only line of essence formulas for animals created by a veterinarian. For more information on pet health, nutrition, and behaviour, please visit the free article library at www.littlebigcat.com.

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