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The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation

This section is an acknowledgement of the people who are an active part of the Mission and Purpose of our Foundation, and who wish to be included in this section.

If you would like to be included in this section, please submit a photo and comments about yourself and your activities.

Beryl Furman - Kauniainen, Finland

Beryl FurmanI am an artist and an animal activist from Finland.

I found the enormously vast information bank in www.all-creatures.org when I was looking for photos about chicken slaughter for one of my exhibitions. I thought that so much important work had been done for helping poor animals by creating these web sites, that I felt I had to thank the people who did it. So I came to know Frank Hoffman and found closeness to his thinking in many ways. That is why I want to support his and Mary Hoffman's most important work with my own presence.

I have always been hyper sensitive for animals. If I see them suffer, I cannot sleep for many nights. Even to see a film where a pig is sitting inside iron barns in a space exactly its own size gives me nightmares for a long time. I used to cry a lot because of the animals’ miserable fate. I do not even wish to travel anymore, since nowhere else are animals kept as good as here in Finland, and even here there’s so much mistreatment.

We belong to a mass murdering, mass torturing, cruel and selfish species, who have got fine brains and a big heart, but most people do not bother to use them for any other good, than that which helps themselves. We are the only species that takes, but give nothing in return. Many people condemn me for saying these truths aloud, but if you think of animals, you can see the truth. Through looking at the way animals have and continue to be treated, we learn about our human species. We clearly see that all animals suffer. Even most dogs suffer, suffer, suffer…as we all know. Yet most people do nothing. They close their eyes, ears and mouths.  This must end, and I feel called to take a stand against this hardness of heart and indifference to the suffering of animals.

My hobbies are (with which I spend time every day) :

Tai-tshi
Jazz music (especially John Zorn, whom you probably know)
Classical music Literature
Traveling used to be my regular activity, together with my children.

I've also spent two months in New York in the beginning of the 80's, before I had my children, in two separate periods. I was like a fish in a pond, sleeping almost not at all, because all that I loved was so richly to be found there. All, except emptiness and quietness, and that I do find here, in Finland.

See:
Some of Beryl's Artwork.
Every Cage is Too Small for Birds

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