... and animals as an extension of us . 

I had only last week been doing some work with a course that I had been gifted by a friend and colleague who has something deep inside of her like I do to support this world through its profound transformation and the humans that walk within its infrastructure. This was a gift that has taken me deep into some pieces that I was not expecting, it has struck several chords, it has resonated and aligned with much I have been teaching over the years... but the flavor and the grace it has been delivered to me has been touching. This work is with ancestral medicine and has been focused on our connection with the earth .. and combined with another of my favorite subjects; human emotions. I listened to the lecture in a depth I recognise when all the speakers says rings true and I can feel It in every cell of my body. I can literally feel in my hands the moral, the story, the state, the emotions, and this was no different as he spoke on the nature of sorrow and how it is vitally important that we go there, that we feel It, that we move it through us individually and so collectively. He was talking about this in the framework of animals, their extinction their abuse in our collective. Working and weaving so that we could feel that animals were not just part of nature, not just part of the ecology, but that the ecology and the animals were indeed an extension of ourselves. I had many tears because I have always felt this,  I have always felt so connected to the whole animal world. I have chosen not to eat meat as a teenager, as an adult, I just feel that animals are an extension, are part of us , are the very living breathing reflection of how we treat ourselves and I often wondered, why ethically it has always been ok to eat the flesh of animal but not each other. Who made that rule and when? It has always bothered me.

It brought a deep welling to my eyes as he described the decimation of the animal kingdom, the loss of species, and the ultimate impending loss of our own species if we go on to treat the planet as we do. I felt the suicidal undertone of our own collective and its unconscious behavior in ultimately destroying ourselves and the extinction of our animal world as a direct result of that. 

I felt how we could grieve the loss of our own pets, yet not grieve the death of a species or other animals .. he provoked this question in us.  In my own psyche came an image of the dogs of china that I had seen on Facebook and quickly scrolled past as not to be devasted by the image. But that image did come back and I shed tears for those animals as the teacher's delicate voice ushered me to allow the sorrow to be felt, to move it through the collective, ultimately to ‘doula’ the sorrow. It was heart opening and I felt deeply moved, allowing lots of suppressed sorrow that I had held back in previous years as being yielded with the projections of being ‘too sensitive to animals’.  I spat that out of my consciousness there and then, I got rid of that projection on me. 

Little did I know a week later I would be holidaying only to find this lesson come into my consciousness through the window of a shop that to my horror, harbored the most horrific case of pet shop animal suffering I have ever experienced. There that lesson was .. staring me right in my eyes and I was overcome with INTENSE ANGER. Anger is the surface, the bottle top I like to call it of the deeper emotions that sit underneath it waiting to be revealed by the movement of anger, but I was In no rush to suppress that anger. I know my anger, I know my anger holds my hell fire of passion and life force, of shakti, of my dark feminine, and of many complexes within me that reek with the power to make change. I looked into the infected of eyes of several rabbits whose eyes would not open from the pus of neglect. I held my jaw tight for the guinea pig whose skin was so irritated that he clawed at himself until he drew blood and then rage came over me like the black mother herself as my eyes set up the puppy whose confined space had only an empty bowl and his own dried up feces. It was late Sunday afternoon, 24 hours had passed until anyone had been at the shop and all these animals spoke to me through their eyes ‘help me.   People walked by, disgusted, and shaking their heads… but they passed by. They didn’t connect. 

I wandered the streets looking for help, in my rage, no police on a Sunday in France, you have to find the ‘municipal Police’ who patrol the streets and it took what felt like a decade. In the meantime I had left a message on the pet shop's voice mail , asking him why he had left the animals for so long, sharing with him their condition and the fact they had no water or food. I called and left a message on the nearest animal rescue center. I When we finally caught up with the police they said they were aware and that they could not do anything about it as he wasn’t breaking any law. They would however call him to go the shop to water and feed the animals as that was not acceptable. I went home heavy-hearted, I went home feeling the impending sorrow but still it was mixed with so much anger. I wanted to do more, I wanted to get those animals out of their hell. The man from the shop called me, told me I had no business to complain that this was ‘how it was in France’ I kept my anger contained, I told him I had called the police and that I would do everything I could to stop him trading in animals and he asked me to come and meet me in the shop .. he wanted to fight me. I wanted to fight him .. I wanted to tear him apart verbally make him see how barbaric he was , I wanted him to see the abuse of those animals that he was serving. I knew he didn’t care, I knew no matter what I said that all he cared about was the money that would trade hands.    I knew I was wasting my breath, but I let him know that I was not just going to walk past that window and do nothing.

I went to bed and sobbed my heart out for those animals, I allowed it fully, seeking the words that the lecture had given me ‘ feeling the sorrow fully, is part of the work we can do , to move the sorrow from the collective’ and so it finally came and it came and came.  I woke up still feeling heavy-hearted. What was I to do?  buy the dog so that he could get a free life?  only to have the pet shop owner replace him for another and so feed his demand for this barbaric trade of his.  I wanted to break into that shop and free them all …  I had written to every authority I could until finally the pet rescue got back and asked me to file a complaint with an authority which would help their case to try prevent this man from selling animals.  I did what I could , still feeling helpless about the cruelty. I felt my inner child all day , the times I had witnessed animal cruelty, boys blowing up frogs, shooting cats, throwing stones at pigeons, men hitting dogs, drowning kittens, throwing unwanted baby animals in plastic bags and in canals… they all flashed before me and my heart was breaking into the sorrows I had suppressed as ‘ a child too sensitive to animals’.   I felt the collective of animals in me, part of me .. abused,unloved , disrespected, unconnected to , unloved, invalid … canceled out. 

If you see cruelty do you walk by? How do you avoid it? If you have been touched by this ? what can you do? I am suggesting if you wish to support the animals I have mentioned then you could email the office below, with the message I have typed. 

The animal services asked that we write to the DDP des bouches du Rhone to denounce the store, which would help in their efforts to stop his animal trade.

Email: ddpp@bouches-du-rhone.gouv.fr

Cher Madame/Monsieur,

Je vous écris au sujet des conditions horribles dans lesquelles sont gardés les animaux d'AQUATITI du 21 Rue Gambetta, 13200 Arles. Ils sont laissés de longues heures et dans des conditions indignes sans nourriture ni eau. Les lapins ont des infections aux yeux et avec leurs voies respiratoires, les rongeurs montrent tous des signes d'affections cutanées non traitées. C'est tellement troublant de voir de petits chiots endormis sous les lumières des magasins dans de très petits espaces sans nourriture ni eau. En tant que visiteurs en France, nous avons été horrifiés par le traitement dont nous avons été témoins. Cela a vraiment eu un impact sur nos vacances et la façon dont nous voyons la France et comment elle permet un tel traitement à ses animaux.

Nous espérons que cet e-mail pourra obliger le propriétaire à rechercher des soins vétérinaires pour les animaux malades et à considérer la façon dont il traite les animaux ou encore mieux ne pas être autorisé à les vendre.

Cordialement.

( your name here) 

When you next choose to turn away can you face those feelings and like me release that sorrow from you and the collective?

May our hearts be softened by the connection to all living beings and the emotions that rise when we meet that we would rather not see, or hear.

Love Collette

#danielfoor #ancestralmedicine #animalworld