The Mary T. and
Frank L. Hoffman
Family Foundation
and

All-Creatures.Org

Letters and Responses

Letter from Sonja Concerning Animal Cruelty - 2 Aug 2005

This [is] all well and good, and we all acknowledge this will never stop, as human cruelty is a bottomless pit! But where is the line, do we draw the line at a mouse dying slowly in a mouse trap which is cruel, or do we put up with the bubonic plague? This has many depths. I don't eat a lot of meat, but alas admit when I purchase meat I cannot afford.. farm eggs or farm chickens, so Yes I am guilty. Yes we must stop what we can, put in regulations on meat animals to have a quick death, (I hear our local chicken farm BLESS'S chickens before they are killed to make them "KOSHER", WHAT IS THE LINE WE DRAW?. Do we let feral cats kill our native wildlife? Isn't that cruel? Maybe some big rich think tanks with the money to DO something can devise a plan to desex and feed all these feral cats for their natural lives? Maybe some of these rich people can go around and pay vets to desex all the mongrels?? (I am not being nasty in this term) dogs that people allow to breed and breed because ! they can not afford the HUGE vet bills to desex???

I am an animal lover, all my pets are desexed and treated as family to me, but I am also realistic!!!

If there is a complete solution, count me in. But by not eating meat and killing feral animals the problem just changes into another, with disease, native wildlife? What is a total solution??????

Sonja

Reply from Frank and Mary Hoffman

Dear Sonja:

We agree that the subject of animal and human suffering is a perplexing question, but there really is no place to "draw the line". All suffering should end.

So, since none of us can end all suffering on our won, we need to do whatever we can do to end as much suffering as we can as individuals, and to do whatever we can to encourage others to do the same.

Our plates are an important place to start. We live in the country and have had a lot of critters enter our home, but we have always trapped them alive and taken them back outside unharmed. What animals do to one another, we have to leave in the hands of God until He ushers in His peaceable kingdom. We also work with people who feed feral cat colonies and trap, spay/neuter, and release them, this, and having the general population educated about spaying and neutering their own companion animals has greatly controlled the population.

There is no line to draw in our efforts to end cruelty and suffering. We each need to take additional steps every day to find ways to make this a kinder and more gentle world for the whole of creation (humans, animals, and the environment).

In the Love of the Lord,

Frank and Mary

We welcome your comments


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