Caution -- Graphic Content

This is supposed to be a gardening-related blog, showing only the beauty and bounty of nature and spirit of lives, with seeds maturing into seedlings and fruit/vegetable bearing plants. However, I have to break away from garden-blogging and write about the movie Earthling because otherwise I was going to hold myself a criminal. How can I enjoy gardening and nature if I ignored the suffering and abuse of animals - mammals and birds - who are an integral part of nature. 

EARTHLINGS is a feature length documentary about humanity’s absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called “non-human providers. The movie shows how animals have their tails, claws, beaks cut-off without any anesthesia or pain-killers; castration are done, again, without any anesthesia or pain-killers; farm and animals clubbed to death; animals tortured for scientific experiments. But, the most horrible was animals skinned alive (yes, alive without any anesthesia or pain-killer) for their furs - oh the expression in the eyes of those animals!!  - dear God, how can we be so cruel and horrible??????

Leo Tolstoy wrote that there will be battlefields as long as there are slaughterhouses. Why battlefields? There will be rapists, murderers, serial-killers, psychopaths as long as there are these industrial-styles, for-profit slaughterhouses who have no regard for animals, human-health, environment or nature; the behavior of the workers of the slaughterhouses, caught in camera, with their cursing and swearing and abusing of animals prove that. 

Please watch the following movie no matter how much sick you might feel to your stomach. As an human-animal, we need to learn and watch how we treat our other fellow animals, and then make conscious decision and choice. No one is telling us  to become vegan or vegetarian, but at least we can and should make all the effort to buy only those animal meat and products where the animals did not suffer and did not die horrible deaths. If one is true to her/his conscience, believes that s/he is just an inhabitant of this universe -- sharing all the goodies and bounties and comforts that the universe provides to her/him, believes in climate, environment, nature and universe, then this is a must watch film. We can never make the earth get rid off all her problems unless we learn to respect nature and animals. The whole movie can be watched here: http://www.trueactivist.com/earthlings/

In case anything thinks that Earthling is a movie full of lies and made by some vegans, then here was this recent news article (with videos and pictures to prove the truth) about "Nine arrested for animal cruelty at Wyoming pig farm where workers were caught on video brutally punching sows and flipping piglets in the air":  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2253325/Nine-arrested-animal-cruelty-Wyoming-pig-farm-workers-caught-video-brutally-punching-sows-flipping-piglets-air.html

So, I hope 2013 bring changes which will prevent animal abuse, raise awareness among us about such animal abuse and instill among us love and respect for animals. May 2013 bring improvement of conditions in the lives of farm-animals, ban on animal-furs and stop on cruel scientific experiments on them. 

I don't know what type of butterfly this was, but I found her/him in our greenhouse in July. S/he was taking shelter there from the heavy rainfall outside.