“Be Kind To Animals Week” begins the week of May 3rd. I am asking everyone who cares about animals to do one thing that week to make an animal’s life better. In today’s busy times, we often get so focused on our daily routines, or we get so absorbed by our worries about work, family, money, etc… that we forget that there are many animals that need help. Sometimes our help can be an act as simple as sending an e-mail or donating a few dollars to an animal related organization.
I recently received an envelope of information about the dog and cat meat trade in Korea. In Defense of Animals www.idausa.org is working on this horrific problem. They are asking for donations and for people to send an e-mail or a letter to the Korean Ambassador to the U.S. to ask for an amendment to the Animal Protection Law so that the dog and cat meat trade are made illegal, and therefore, will allow prosecution of offenders. I could not make a donation at this time, but I decided I had ten minutes to send an e-mail and write a letter.
I usually make a twice yearly donation to PETA www.peta.org. I really admire the hard work that this organization has done over the years. Since I became a member, I have learned so many things about all kinds of animal related issues, and I have become so inspired to make some changes in my life to reflect my admiration. I have spent the last year trying to stop using products tested on animals. This is a daunting task, but I have made some headway, and with all of PETA’S hard work, the list of companies that test on animals is growing smaller every year. I was also amazed to read PETA’S latest list of non profit organizations that still do test on animals for their research despite the fact that research on animals is all but obsolete with recent technological advances in this area. I vowed that I will not make any donations or participate in any of these organization’s activities until they stop testing and wrote letters to them to ask them to stop.
Because of my donations to some of these organizations, I receive a landslide of animal related information which can sometimes be really overwhelming especially with these challenging economic times here at home, but I resolved a long time ago that I always have time to read about the problem and I can certainly find the time to send that e-mail or letter to at least let people know that I care about this issue. Just think about how powerful our e-mails and letters are if even just a few hundred people participate.
I feel very strongly that we can all make a difference, one person at a time, if we just vow to take a few minutes to participate. Write that letter, send that e-mail, make that small donation, or even make that call to your local authorities to report suspected animal abuse. This is a huge problem that will not go away until all of us take just a little bit of responsibility and try to make a difference. Visit both of the websites listed for a wealth of information on these and many other animal related issues.
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