Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Mother’s Day were happy for all
mothers: human mothers as well as other animal mothers? When you stop
to think about it, worldwide the number of mothers who are having a
Happy Mother’s Day today is really very small.
The chasm that separates the joyful celebration of motherhood in some
human families and the round the clock horror in concentration camps
where mothers are imprisoned in modern dairy farms, poultry farms, and
other factory farms is enormous and getting larger every day, as more
countries (China, for example) establish huge factory farms.
By using the description of a mother hen protecting her chicks, in
Luke 13:34-35, Jesus illustrates his yearning to save the city of
Jerusalem from internal violence:
34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and
stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children
together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you
would not have it!
35 “Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you,
you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He
who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”
~ New American Standard Bible
What a world of difference between Jesus’ description of a hen and
her brood and the live trashing of male chicks, the debeaking, the
ammonia stench, the crowded wire cages, the gloom and darkness, etc. –
all the atrocities that are routine in large egg and poultry production
operations!
(Note: In case you’re wondering why I write “humans” and “other”
animals: humans are not minerals or vegetables – they are
animals.)
See also:
http://all-creatures.org/anex/chicken.html
http://all-creatures.org/anex/index.html
