Animal Rights

"We humans create vaccines to kill or prevent microbes, fungi, viruses and bacteria, reward some animals for our company, pamper other animals until we kill them to eat. As the dominant species, we are a long way in determining how should we use or abuse our power over other living beings."

Rubén Rivero Capriles (Caracas, Venezuela)

"Homeopathy has been around since before pathogens were identified and cured many cases of all kinds of diseases. Remedies are only "proven" on health humans as testing on anything already compromised of health will skew results.

Research involves animals poorly bred, fed and housed. These creatures are already born deficient, further testing only tortures the poor beasts, so called results are tainted to produce the most dollars. Shame on humans.

I am all out of patience for humans crying about harsh penalties - we have left future generations a poisoned planet and huge dept load that amounts to slavery for our offspring.

I agree with Ruben, if we ever learn to govern ourselves, maybe we could do justice to other nations - and I don't mean the two legged kind."

Renate Andrasevits Reed (Los Angeles, United States)

"Researchers have a long history of objecting to limitations on which and how they may use living creatures to further their careers. They have sequentially protested that each and every limitation would stall scientific advance, be detrimental to humankind, and other alarmist arguments. These arguments mostly turned out not to hold water. It's never really been the advance of humanity at stake, but various personal interests (and lazinesses) of the researchers themselves. Much (not all) of the research they want animals for is trivial, aimed at publishing much so as not to perish, never mind how uninteresting and irrelevant the publications are for anything but the researcher's CV.

It has, at every turn, turned out that forced retreat / limitation on the use of animals led to finding other, often better, techniques and models for testing hypotheses."

Alexandra Semyonova (the Netherlands)

"I am honored to receive such great feedback from my humble, non expert views on the subject of animal life. As most humans increasingly live in urban areas depleted of wild forests and other animal species, utter ignorance of animal life increases and I foresee no philosophical remedy for our further detachment on this natural planet. It is significant that here on LinkedIn people who work in Information Technology, Human Resources and such have thousands of connections, while veterinarians and other humans who deal mostly with animals have very few connections. It makes me wonder if animal issues are relegated to a level of non importance by the rules of the fashionable industries."

Rubén Rivero Capriles (Caracas, Venezuela)

"This may open a can of worms but here I go. I believe one of the greatest human follies is our delusion of superiority to other beings. Many animals are being employed in healing work, especially for the psyche, as the critters are non-judgemental and have the capacity to love unconditionally.

Some of the work I do emcompasses Equine Guided Healing. My herd of 3 can reach places in peoples hearts that nothing else had. It is the most amazing thing to witness unfolding. Words are of no use. Energy speaks volumes in silence.

I believe the disconnect from nature you speak of was felt vehemently by nomads of old that tried fiercely to hold onto their way of life. Civilization brings a sort of selling out we are all dearly paying for - whether we want to admit it or not. No other being on this planet offers its offspring a poisoned future - only humans do this. Wake up folks.

Years ago a man named Pottenger did an experiment on cats. His lab cats were being bred weaker and weaker. He knew test results would be skewed by this fact. He started feed a raw diet, raw meat (as even the cooked produced weakeness) and raw milk. After several generations many chronic diseases disappeared in the cats. This should speak volumes to those who know how to listen.

The food source has been greatly adulterated by GMO's, pesticides, artificial fertilizers etc. We are seeing a host of digestive, behavorial and systemic illness in all beings. Their ability to bounce back depends on ancestral fortitude, as clean nutrition as possible and a healthy mindset (where the mind goes, the body follows).

We are seeing a violence in this planets natural rhythm. Many believe there is a direct correlation to human's indifference to the planet that sustains us all, our mindless, abusive and pillaging ways.

There are numbers growing taking this into account and becoming mindful of our ways. What I know for sure is nature has a way of rectifing imbalances. Most all creatures know when such events are to occur, most humans don't. We would do well to quiet our egos and listen to the other beings and their silent wisdom, rather than tainting their song with our arrogance."

Renate Andrasevits Reed (Los Angeles, United States)

Rivero & Cooper, Inc. September 18 thru October 1, 2011