Once upon a time we lived in harmony with nature and it’s animals.  We were as much part of the food chain as the animals were. We ate them and they ate us. It was an era of seeking prey for food in order to survive.  As we developed weapons we gained the advantage and our population grew more than the animals.  We became top of the food chain, not because it was our “God” given right, but because of weapons. On our own, without weapons, many more humanoids would have been eaten by our natural predators.

Now who are our predators?  Except for the rare attack by a beast or a virus, our predation is within our own species.  In fact, of all the beasts capable of killing, humans are the most violent, vicious, calculating and pervasive. We kill the most variety of other species and don’t just kill to survive.  A small percentage hunt for the kill or raise animals to feed their family.  The routine killing of billions of animals a year is industrialized with absolutely no thought to the morality of taking a life. This greed based, abusive killing is justified on many levels, depending on who’s talking.  The list is exhausting even as excuses go. …

Ancestral people believed that killing resulted in eating along with a sacredness attached to absorbing the animal’s powers.   This sharing of flesh and blood was a profound building of mutual energy and a community of humans and animals living equally upon the planet. Each had a significant, respectful role in one anothers life. Then animals were killed because they were a key member of their community and culture. It was considered an honor if a human was killed by a bear for example because it meant the bear respected and wanted to join energies with that human.

But that was once upon a time thousands of years ago before humans decided to reign supremely over all beasts and nature.   It didn’t take much persuading from religious pulpits to convince most humans to put themselves on a pedestal above all else that exists because greed and the pursuit of power are among the human’s fatal flaws.  Human beings abandoned community and living in harmony with animals in exchange for increasing dominion and the pursuit of ultimate power.

With such an attitude is it a wonder that industrialized agriculture took over the world and animals began to be bred and harvested like grain?

The King James version of the Bible is where many people turn to justify their attitudes because it says the lord gave man dominion over all the firmament and the beasts therein.  However – this is taken out of context and syntax from the original Hebrew creation translation that said God looked around and saw that all he made was good, so he made “man” to take care of it all – He commanded man to be good stewards of nature.      It makes no sense to me that anyone in their right mind, God or not, would give full dominion to the likes of humans who throughout their creation or incarnations ( whatever you believe it to be) are always desirous of more of everything, including power.

Now as I see it, we as a species have taken upon ourselves the burden of bad karma we have inflicted upon animals.  The pain, suffering, lack of respect our species has  inflicted upon them along with our refusal to acknowledge their feelings has resulted in a human race brimming with anger, fear, malice, confusion, disease and  hearts weighted with an armor of excuses that our consciousness is in conflict with.  With the exception of a  relatively small population of pampered pets in relation to the billions of animals who are treated insufferably,  this is the dark ages for animals.  Do we expect our civilization to move forward along this path of  disabling disgrace?

This film, Wild Horses In Winds of Change is my second documentary made with the intention to raise a consciousness of compassion for animals. http://wildhorsesinwindsofchange.com  

Although I am a vegetarian, Heart & Soil ( my first documentary ) does include animal husbandry done by local farmers who care that their animals have a happy healthy life and painless death.  I went with the stories that unfolded, accepting  that people make a choice to eat meat or not and many will always choose to eat it.   However, in the film I highlight the ethically responsible side of animal husbandry so more people will chose that path and consequently more animals will be spared the hell of industrialized animal production and slaughter.

Wild Horses In Winds of Change began as a simple story about an adopted mustang but…. once I felt the energy of the mustangs, in captivity and at round ups, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep until I did something significant to raise public awareness.  Now I have joined the ranks of many other advocates whose lives are profoundly changed by this crisis for the horses.  Although the focus of the film is about the wild horses of America, the message is really about raising human consciousness to embrace all animals as equals and use our human advantage to serve not destroy.  www.heartandsoilfilm.com , http://wildhorsesinwindsofchange.com/purchase/

American Coalition for the Protection of Animals, animal adocacy, Animal Defense Fund, Animal rescues, animal rights, Animal's Angels, animals and humans in history, animals as teachers, best friends, elephant journal, Oranic food, we love animals