Blog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog
A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 

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When Religion Teams Up With the Devil – 31 July 2008
By Mary T. Hoffman

Every summer brings with it fairs – county fairs, youth fairs, et cetera; and this summer is no exception.

Unfortunately these events always feature whitewashed animal exploitation, and are promoted with photos of children with farmed animals. “Shows” include Poultry; Dogs; Beef; Frogs, Bugs, Animals; Alpacas; Goats; Rabbits; Animal Demonstrations; Pack Goat; Dog Agility; Sheep; Dairy; Sweet Lips the Cow; Goat Milking Contest; et cetera.

To produce milk, animals must be kept pregnant. And we all know how these mothers wail for their babies who are taken away. In this day and age, you would think that the Old MacDonald’s Farm myth would be dead and buried. Unfortunately, it has mushroomed into industrialized farming that is spreading its evil around the world – contaminating water, increasing methane and carbon dioxide, decimating fields and forests, and utilizing crops and grain for animal feed while the poor of the world go hungry.

Proud sponsors of these fairs, under a heading such as “Food & Fun,” include many businesses that you would expect to support such events. But why would Catholic Charities, the Community College, and the Mental Health Association involve themselves with such backward, empathy-destroying activities that merely perpetuate hardness of heart and create sociopaths? Surely, these organizations know better!

Perhaps they should review what Robert K. Ressler, who coined the term “serial killer,” had to say about children and animals, as well as what many other people have said. For example, Dr. Dian Fossey said, “The man [child] who kills the animals today is the man [child] who kills the people who get in his way tomorrow.”

Here is a poem that expresses what these activities do to Children:

4-H BOY
Author Anonymous

Dedicated to Jason, who at a very young age, in farm country and never having heard of vegetarianism, refused to ever eat meat again when he was told where it came from after losing his treasured calf to the slaughterhouse. This poem may be reprinted at any time by anyone, without permission.

4-H Boy, you look so all-American,
Come to the fair with your cow;
Why is there no joy in your eyes, 4-H Boy?
She's a sure bet for a ribbon, your cow,
So obviously well cared for.
I can see hours of brushing in the sheen of her coat,
Hours of laughter in the way she butts your backside,
Lifetimes of love in the way she looks at you.
Why do you cry, 4-H Boy, when no one's around
You're the pride of the family as you lead your beauty into the ring,
Uncles and grandfathers and strangers guffawing with pleasure at the small boy and his big cow;
Why is there no pleasure in it for you?
Why does your limp hand let the blue ribbon drag in the sawdust?

Friday night,
and the same ring transformed into auction floor.
Gone is the patient slow pace allotted for children.
Frenzy is everywhere:
In the auctioneer's babble,
In the voices of animals newly separated from their 4-H friends,
In the rough treatment shown them by auction-house crew,
In the eyes of eager money-changers;
In minutes they change months of mutual devotion into dollars and cents.
Why do you sit so unnoticed in the bleachers now, 4- H Boy,
Shrunken against your father's knee?
Why does your gentle cow look so wild-eyed and bewildered as she's prodded up the ramp to slaughterhouse-bound truck?
Where have you gone, 4-H Boy, while your father collects your money.
The stall is empty now where boy and cow lay exhausted, napping side by side in the heat.
Why do you go back there, 4-H Boy?
Why do you finger the straw where she last lay,
Alone in the dark, with only her scent left behind?

The author was a pre-vet student, but dropped out of school the week before having to watch the upperclassmen practice on living animals. Most of her poems are auto-biographical
Here are a few more reminders of the truth:

Matthew 18:5-7

5 "And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;

6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.

7 "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes! "

Isaiah 5:20

20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.

Ecclesiastes 9:3

3 Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives.

Matthew 7:13-14 (Jesus says)

13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.

14 "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it."

John 14:30 (Jesus says)

30 "I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world [the devil] is coming, and he has nothing in Me."

Genesis 1:29

29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you.

To learn more about the plight of farmed animals, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/index.html 

Go on to: The Mountains Stood in Haze – 1 August 2008
Return to: Transporting Food Animals – 30 July 2008
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