BE KIND TO ANIMALS!
I'm looking forward to attending this critical gathering focused on what we can do in our local communities about Climate Change. First, I will give the Opening Prayer. Then, after sister Rebecca Tobias provides the Keynote after the film, I will have a few minutes to speak about the suffering of our Animal relatives, a heartfelt subject of my beloved wife Suthida, my son, and myself.
With all the development in White Rock and South Surrey, our animal relatives suffer from hunger and displacement. Our animal relatives share all our physical senses, suffer physical pain and hunger, and love their families as we do.
The birds, raccoons, and other animal relatives are starving, but our city bylaws forbid feeding animals. So there must be a way to teach our children and grandchildren to be kind to our animal relatives, set up small animal sanctuaries on city land, and everyone shares a little food, especially during Winter.
We have always taught our son Tiger to be kind to animals. As a result, he has a very kind and compassionate heart for all life, even for flies, spiders, and ants.
Seeing the seagulls, crows, and other birds sitting around the Semiahmoo Mall and the fast food restaurants waiting for someone to drop a piece of food is pitiful. When we first came to White Rock, the Mall was not full of Seagulls and crows because they had food in their natural habitat near the ocean.
We always try to bring little food with us when Suthida or together, we go to the Mall. We also have raccoon relatives who come for a snack in the evening on our back porch. Suthida's duck relatives come for visits and bit to eat at the front of our house, despite the bylaws.
As we live on unsurrendered and unceded land of the Semiahmoo First Nation, of the Salish Nation, I know that our Indigenous elders and peoples were always kind to our animal relatives and prayerfully only utilized what was needed.
My beloved wife, son Tiger, and I fully believe and do our best to practice this spiritual and physical truth:
"It is not only their fellow human beings that the beloved of God must treat with mercy and compassion. Instead, they must show forth the utmost loving-kindness to every living creature. For in all physical respects, and where the animal spirit is concerned, the same feelings are shared by animals and humans.
However, our Human Family has not grasped this truth and believes that physical sensations are confined to humans; therefore, we are unjust and cruel to animals.
Train your children to be infinitely tender and loving to animals from their earliest days. If an animal is sick, let the children try to heal it. If it is hungry, let them feed it. If thirsty, let them quench their thirst. If weary, let them see that it rests."
Abdul-Baha