Indeed, the import of a truly abominable French product is enough to
make one sick at the very thought of the animal cruelty it entails. Who
hasn't read about geese having maze constantly crammed down their
throats so that, unable to digest it properly, the liver becomes
horribly distended and death ultimately comes as a merciful release?
Yes, many folk - knowing full well about this - prefer to ignore the
facts and assimilate the end product in to their own bodies. I ask: is
it any wonder that horribly painful diseases are rife? In a very real
sense: we are what we eat.
Then, looking down the menu for the main course I found no vegetarian
meal available. The nearest that one could consider was the fish course.
After acknowledging that Jesus ate fish; that we buy fish for our cats;
and that big fish eat little fish all day long, it might be rationalised
that for the big fish to end up eaten itself is perfectly just and no
more than one single taste of its own medicine! Nevertheless, unless the
fish have experienced a previous free-range kind of a life style one may
still feel apprehensive about condoning it. I know that several readers
feel this way. However, be that as it may, the salmon was not advertised
on its own. This main course on the menu stated that the salmon is to be
covered in delicious lobster sauce.
Well, I think we all know what that involves for lobsters! Whether
one justifies the eating of free range fish - or else opposes it while
hypocritically buying it for Pussy! - one must have great difficulty,
indeed, in commending the way that shellfish such as lobster arrives on
our plate. The fact is that the vast majority are slowly boiled alive
and, frequently, one can hear squeals as they seek to come out of the
lid before being thrust down again.
Well, would you or I like to put our retarded children or our
geriatric parents in to the hands of those who callously take pleasure
in such a job for a living? Of course not! We would no more wish to put
vulnerable and defenceless life in to their hands than we would in to
those who derive sick and sordid pleasure in the pursuit of blood
'sports' already touched on. I sensed the only part of the menu that
Doreen and I assessed as possible was in the sweet section of the menu.
But, even then, for one endeavouring to follow a Vegan life style, there
was much limitation. 1 sense what was mentioned last of all was about
the only thing acceptable to an awakened conscience. It was the ability
to procure a black coffee with an 'after eight mint"
We need, so urgently, to get the Christian message across; and it is
a message that includes the whole of Our Lord's creation. He knows every
animal: the sheep on a thousand hills. And as our Lord was concerned for
the souls of animals in Nineveh he is concerned about those within each
and every farm, field and wood within the UK. How we treat them is not
only a mirror of our own selves; to mistreat them is a violation against
God. In the eyes of many an animal I have beheld the love and radiance
of God, just as I also have in many a child or, indeed, an aged
pensioner who has weathered the storms while pressing forward to the
haven of heaven. There may well be the beauty of innocence in a young
face, but in an aged face I frequently behold, through the wrinkles, the
indelible marks of true Christian character!
Animal Padre's
