Thank you for the inspiration, Sascha! I think you can also take action by simply talking to people. A few weeks ago, I was on my way home and was walking past a house I've come to recognize. A sweet little fluffy white dog lives in the house, and I often see the dog running around the yard with its people.
For the first time, I saw a kid in the yard with the dog (usually I see the dog with adults, I'm assuming they're the kid's parents). The kid was holding a massive stick, it looked like a fallen tree branch, and was pretending to hit the dog by swinging the branch like a golf club near the dog. He wasn't actually hitting the dog, but I could tell the dog was scared because he was barking, and I've never seen that dog bark before. So I stopped and told the kid not to do that because he's scaring the dog. I could tell the kid started to feel embarrassment, maybe shame, and he apologized to me and stopped. I've also been challenging my mother's views on animal treatment, as someone from a culture/generation that tends to see animals as lesser than for the simple reasons that humans are "top of the food chain", and I can tell it also makes her feel uncomfortable, but that it's making her think about things she'd never considered in the past.
So great that you spoke out. It will have taught the child some lessons about having respect for animals. As for the conversations with your mother, amazing work - after so many years, I still struggle with having these conversations with people close to me. Maybe this is one of the reasons I feel compelled to surround myself with people whose beliefs closely match mine. I feel so much more comfortable speaking about my views with strangers (or IN FRONT of strangers - even better) than my inner circle.
I totally get that! I'm usually not a very confrontational person, and I especially like to avoid drama with family, but something compelled me to speak out. It started quite organically with my mom. I told her that I don't like leaving my dog at home alone for too long for the simple reason that I don't want her to wait too long to go to the bathroom. My mom said, "why does it matter? They can hold it." I said, "just because they can, doesn't mean they should. Would you want to wait 6+ hours to go to the bathroom?" Then it went from there. I could tell she had never considered putting animals and humans on the same level, but at the end of the day we're all animals with the same basic needs.
Thank you for the inspiration, Sascha! I think you can also take action by simply talking to people. A few weeks ago, I was on my way home and was walking past a house I've come to recognize. A sweet little fluffy white dog lives in the house, and I often see the dog running around the yard with its people.
For the first time, I saw a kid in the yard with the dog (usually I see the dog with adults, I'm assuming they're the kid's parents). The kid was holding a massive stick, it looked like a fallen tree branch, and was pretending to hit the dog by swinging the branch like a golf club near the dog. He wasn't actually hitting the dog, but I could tell the dog was scared because he was barking, and I've never seen that dog bark before. So I stopped and told the kid not to do that because he's scaring the dog. I could tell the kid started to feel embarrassment, maybe shame, and he apologized to me and stopped. I've also been challenging my mother's views on animal treatment, as someone from a culture/generation that tends to see animals as lesser than for the simple reasons that humans are "top of the food chain", and I can tell it also makes her feel uncomfortable, but that it's making her think about things she'd never considered in the past.
So great that you spoke out. It will have taught the child some lessons about having respect for animals. As for the conversations with your mother, amazing work - after so many years, I still struggle with having these conversations with people close to me. Maybe this is one of the reasons I feel compelled to surround myself with people whose beliefs closely match mine. I feel so much more comfortable speaking about my views with strangers (or IN FRONT of strangers - even better) than my inner circle.
I totally get that! I'm usually not a very confrontational person, and I especially like to avoid drama with family, but something compelled me to speak out. It started quite organically with my mom. I told her that I don't like leaving my dog at home alone for too long for the simple reason that I don't want her to wait too long to go to the bathroom. My mom said, "why does it matter? They can hold it." I said, "just because they can, doesn't mean they should. Would you want to wait 6+ hours to go to the bathroom?" Then it went from there. I could tell she had never considered putting animals and humans on the same level, but at the end of the day we're all animals with the same basic needs.