I am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA (2007). Some may feel PETA is extreme, but I agree with their stand, we have no right to use and exploit animals in any way. There can be no middle ground. Meeting halfway may stop some exploitation, but it will only propagate more insidious forms of exploitation that will be more difficult to find, uproot and eradicate.

DVD available at amazon here.

Gibbon apes, wolves, termites, coyotes, barn owls, beavers, bald eagles, golden eagles, condors, swans, brolga cranes, French angel fish, sandhill cranes, pigeons, prions (a seabird), red-tailed hawks, anglerfish, ospreys, prairie voles (a rodent), and black vultures — these are a few of the creatures that mate for life.

Of course, it depends on what you mean by "mate for life." These creatures do mate for life in the social sense of living together in pairs but they rarely stay strictly faithful. About 90% of the 9,700 bird species pair, mate, and raise chicks together — some returning together to the same nest site year after year. Males, however, often raise other males' offspring unknowingly. DNA testing reveals that the social-pair male did not father 10, 20, and sometimes 40% of the chicks.

Black vultures, though, discourage infidelity. All nearby vultures attack any vulture caught philandering.
Only about 3% of the 4,000 mammal species are monogamous (and Homo sapiens isn't one of them). Beavers, otters, bats, wolves, some foxes, a few hoofed animals, and some primates live together in social pairs but dally sexually much as birds do.

Wolves, for example, are generally monogamous but also breed polygamously if the male is unrelated to the female and prey is plentiful. Moreover, they sometimes have more than one mate in a lifetime, says Dan Stahler, biologist at the Yellowstone Gray Wolf Restoration Program run by the National Park Service. This happens "if one mate dies, gets kicked out of the pack, or is physically unable to breed due to injury, illness, etc."

From: http://www.wisegeek.com/do-animals-cry.htm

While animals do not cry in the way that humans do, they do produce tears. Since tear production, called lachrimation, is necessary for healthy eyes, most vertebrates are capable of producing tears.

Tears are produced in mammals by the lachrymal system, tissues which make water. In land mammals, tears evolved to replace the water bath that the eyes of aquatic animals and fish are constantly surrounded by. Tears serve to clean the cornea and keep it moist. When a speck of dirt, for example, is lodged in the eye, more tears are produced in order to wash away the irritant.

The fluid in tears is rich in nutrients and has anti-bacterial properties which help to fight infections. The salt in tears helps to create an osmotic balance within the eye.

In animals, it is virtually impossible to tell if their tears are the result of emotions or merely caused by eye irritation. Most scientists agree, however, that humans are the only animals who produce emotional tears.

While animals may not weep like humans, they do, however, emit cries which seem to indicate emotional distress. Baby animals of all kinds will vocalize when separated from their mothers. Baby elephants in particular produce a very sad, keening sound which sounds like weeping. Hunters and some wildlife experts have claimed that the sound of a bear cub cries, when separated from its mother is remarkably similar to the cries of a human baby. In these cases, the cries probably serve as a form of direct communication with the mother.

There are many cases of animals exhibiting grief at the death of their owners. The famous Greyfriars Bobby, a small dog whose owner passed away, kept constant watch over the grave until his own death fourteen years later. A statue and fountain were later erected in honor of the faithful terrier.

Ascribing "human" emotions to animals (anthropomorphism) is often derided but may have a factual basis. A poodle which has lost a canine companion may refuse to eat. Dolphins have been known to carry their dead babies with them for days. An elk may stand watch over the dead body of a calf until predators destroy it and geese mate for life. While it is virtually impossible for a human to know what animals are really thinking or feeling, these behaviors seem to indicate real emotions.

Elephants, which are sensitive and highly intelligent animals with an evolved social structure, have been observed "crying." Charles Darwin was told by the keepers of Indian elephants at the London zoo that the animals shed tears from sorrow.



"Down in the alley where the garbage grows, A flea jumped on an elephant's toes, The elephant cried with tears in his eyes, Why don't you pick on someone your size?" Unknown

I became an ovo-lacto vegetarian in the year 2000, after my first house dog died. Eight years later, the silent pleas of the chickens were finally impossible to shut out, and two weeks ago, I decided to stop eating eggs. I did not fully realise the extent of all the foods I can no longer eat, no cakes, no mayonnaise, but so far, it hasn't been tough. I fear I will lack vitamin B12, so I pop my vegan multi-vit or my vegetarian B-complex almost daily, but how I hate the taste of them, and how I hate popping pills. I hope I can keep it up.

But I feel good. Every time I make a decision towards veganism, from not eating bulls and cows, to the poor tied-up crabs and lobsters and live seafood, to pigs, to chickens, and now eggs, I feel happy. What about milk, you ask. I do my best not to take any, but sometimes, yeah, sometimes it sneaks in, in chocolate, ice-cream, coffee. Step by step, I will one day be completely vegan.

Some sites which at a brief glance seem useful and worth perusing:

http://rawveg.info/buddhistvegetarian.html

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/lifecherish.pdf free e-book

http://www.quangduc.com/English/vegetarian/04animal.html


"Other animals, which, on account of their interests having been neglected by the insensibility of the ancient jurists, stand degraded into the class of things.

The day has been, I grieve it to say in many places it is not yet past, in which the greater part of the species, under the denomination of slaves, have been treated ... upon the same footing as ... animals are still. The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny.

The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may one day come to be recognized that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.

What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month, old.

But suppose they were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?

Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being?... The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes... "

Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832)
Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

Dedicated to my beloved dogs. Words cannot express my grief and longing.

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From the soundtrack of Miss Potter

When You Taught Me How to Dance - Katie Melua

when you taught me how to dance
years ago, with misty eyes,
every step and silent glance,
every move, a sweet surprise.

someone must have taught you well,
to beguile and to entrance,
for that night you cast your spell,
and you taught me how to dance.

like reflections in a lake
i recall what went before.
as i give, i'll learn to take,
and will be alone no more
other lights may light my way
i may even find romance;
but i won't forget that night
when you taught me how to dance

cold winds blow,
but up on those hills
you'll find me
and i know you're walking right behind me,

when you taught me how to dance
years ago, with misty eyes,
every step and silent glance,
every move, a sweet surprise.
someone must have taught you well,
to beguile and to entrance,
for that night you cast your spell,
and you taught me how to dance.
and you taught me how to dance.