Terrible Paradoxes
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM Justin Van Kleeck, Microsanctuary Resource Center
April 2020

I’m grateful to have known so many truly remarkable individuals, while grieving the many we’ve lost as well. I wish others could see how much of a travesty is our “normal” system of things. And that it would change.

Justin Van Kleeck
Justin and Leland...

One of the most terrible paradoxes of this rescue and sanctuary work is realizing that the sanctuary residents—or, more properly, our family members—have come to us only because of some trauma. Many of them have been removed from their friends and abandoned in strange, unsafe places, with no one they recognize, no familiarity, no one to snuggle up with in the dark of night. Leland here is one of so many living with us now—an amazingly friendly rooster whom I had to push out of a tree and catch in the darkness. Many others have come after being attacked by a predator, or after watching their friends be killed. Every individual here has a story of loss, of separation, of trauma.

And yet these are the “lucky” ones.

I hate that we know these wondrous beings only because they were “lucky” enough to come here. I hate that their “luck” is actually a history of horror—of pain, of sorrow, of broken bonds, all these experiences that only become known to humans because we have the ability to tell them.

How many aren’t so lucky? Why must horror and violence be the ticket to a life of love, respect, safety, friendship, and family? Is that really how we want our world to operate?

Our sanctuary is so small in comparison to the larger world of animal agriculture. Yet in six years, we’ve helped hundreds and hundreds of individuals find safety. Hundreds and hundreds of stories of trauma, all beginning with some act of human greed.

I have a very bad habit, which I struggle desperately with... I think about Leland or one of the other residents, and what brought them here, and how unique and lively they are...and I then realize that every single animal who has been bred and used and killed for human desires through millenia of this nonsense is equally as unique, and lively, and worthy of respect.

But why didn’t they all get to experience this? Why on Earth does any of this still seem like a good idea to humans?

There’s not much comfort here, really, but there’s coping. I’m grateful to have known so many truly remarkable individuals, while grieving the many we’ve lost as well.

I wish others could see how much of a travesty is our “normal” system of things. And that it would change.


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