Lesson 9: It's their Christmas too.

Christmas is a time for joy and love, gifts and candy. But who could imagine how many homeless animals are caged in shelters, or on the streets, cold, sick and hungry in the snow on that amazing day?
Lesson 9: It's their Christmas too.

I only ask for one favor. Maybe, we should give to the animals too. If we can't save an animal from a shelter, we can certainly give a gift to them. a small toy. Just to play with and speak their feelings to if they can't go home. A little treat just to munch on and fill a little cat up with a warm and happy feeling until someone picks her up. Maybe, something as little and sweet as that could make a difference in that animal's life.

And if you can, adopt a life for Christmas. Who needs trinkets and toys when you can save the life?

Lesson 8: Love to the unloved

I know multiple individuals, animals or children in school, who probably need more sympathy than most people think.
Lesson 8: Love to the unloved

All homeless animals and people need love, but today I will focus on a few kids, who most people think need no love at all. A few kids from my school, my grade, my class.
Abigail is a girl in my class who no one particularly likes. I don't truly mind her, aside from the fact that she is close-minded and doesn't think love is important. One discussion I overheard that really tugged at my heart was a "pretend" friend of hers who was talking how mean or strange Abby was. I heard that on FaceBook, Abby posted a "sad face" picture with a heading "Cried myself to sleep." Her friend said  that this was too much information, but wouldn't she have a reason for posting it? Maybe she wanted sympathy? Why did she cry herself to sleep?

I know two nice, funny girls named Carie and Shelby. What do they have in common? They both lost one of their parents.

I think that losing a loved one is one of the worst things that can happen to someone, and both of them grew up without one parent? Before Thanksgiving break, our Science teacher had us say what we were thankful for in life. Me, Shelby and Carie were the last three to go. Shelby said she was thankful for her mom, who had cared for her all her life while she didn't have a dad. I and Carie stared to tear up. Then carie, crying talked about how she was grateful for her dad, who had taken care of Carie and her sister when her mom committed sucide. Then, I, bawling, told how I was thankful for my parents who wholeheartedly supported my decisions. All the other girls came over to hug us, and then everyone was really crying. I give some extra care to both of them now.

At the beginning of the year, a girl named Angel asked to be friends. I said yes, and she would take me to her table and I would just sit there, sort of realizing the type of friends she had- the snottier, more inappropriate types. I never really hung out that much, and went back to my old friends. later, I heard about how she was manipulating people and being mean, but then I heard the reason why. She had been yelled at at her home, and her parents never really cared.

If we could just understand these people more, the world might be a better place.

Lesson 7: Establish Justice

Tailing on rumors, we have inaccurate and common stereotypes of not only animals, but races of humans as well. These are considerably well accepted, and the stereotype rarely stops because of larger individuals taking advantage of these misfortunes.
Lesson 7: Establish justice.

Ask someone what they think about a cow. Conforming to modern society, they will normally say MILK. This is an injustice to cows who are crippled and abused for the milk industry. Cows are not made for milk, they are made for being cows. Cows are actually very sweet, docile, and beautiful animals. Or pigs, who are actually friendly, neat, and intelligent, but commonly misguided as dirty, dumb and mean. Lastly, I personally know someone who has been discriminated for talking Russian in a store. This is injustice in a nation where there should be justice for all, regardless of race, gender or, ideally, species.
Injustice for another species is injustice for all.

Lesson 6: Killing is not the answer.

That's all I hear today. A bear was killed because he wandered into his old home: Now overrun with humans. Twelve foxes died for one ugly fur coat. A snake or cow was bashed and beaten so he could be turned into a purse or car seat.  Wolves, who are "killing off" all the deer are being shot from helicopters.
Why are animals being killed for another animals personal needs?
I don't know why we call ourselves civilized. We wear other animals to look good, we slaughter animals, for fun, we steal another species milk, we horribly abuse animals for our entertainment, and we   lie, cheat, steal and murder.
The point is, killing seems to be a common thing today. Killing is NOT the answer. If only more people understood this!

"Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar. "
Unknown
"The time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as they look on the murder of men."
Leonardo Da Vinci

Lesson 5: Ignorance is not bliss.

All the past lessons have somewhat explained our nations denial and ignorance.
Lesson 5: Ignorance is NOT bliss. 
At least not for the animals.
A lot of people sit around and relax, eating veal or steak without considering how or where his meal was killed. And if we do consider it, we may hope it was done fast and easy. Why? We have been trained to not think about this. Most people know very little about animal abuse, puppy mills, factory farms, fur, or leather. And the farm folk of today will do anything to conceal the truth.
As I said in lesson three, teaching children the truth will benefit the adults of tomorrow. But, every year, millions of kids are handed sugar-coated pictures of the truth. They are coloring books, distributed by the National Dairy Council, showing pictures of happy young cows innocently grazing in a field. All the animals are happy and healthy. And that myth will be embedded in children's heads their whole lives - unless they are taught otherwise.
And what does ignorance do to the animals? Humans will slaughter animals more and more because the majority of us don't know what happens behind slaughterhouse walls.

Lesson 4: Trust no one.

The title says it all. Trust no one.
You can't trust a meat company that says their chickens come from Old McDonald's Farm, because in most cases, they come from dirty, dangerous factory farms. And you REALLY can't trust the National Dairy Council or USDA. Not even the Cancer Funds. The Dairy Council will tell you that milk is a  healthful food, made for human consumption. They don't tell you that milk increases cancer or heart attack risk... and they don't mention it is from a caged, abused mother cow who had almost eighteen baby cows taken from her in her lifetime. The Cancer and Heart Disease funds deny that a simple change in diet will save your life. The USDA pressures their staff to lie about meat, and they purposely change test results to save the big-time 'farmers' jobs. You may have never heard of casein because the dairy industry covers up the truth so well.
You see, it is all a race for money. Money money money. USDA denies a vegan diet because its bad for business. Trust no one, trust yourself.

Lesson 3: Children

I'm a kid who cares about the future of other kids. Not an everyday sight. But everyone must understand that what our generation knows affects the future.
This lesson: Children.
What we want is a cruelty-free world. An animal-friendly world. But from what I see, we would need a major breakthrough in the next year or such.
When a girl sees a spider, they yell "KILL IT!" When a boy sees a dead possum, they poke and prod it.   Why? Because of our strange society. A lot of kids are taught that hunting is fun or fur is fashionable. Too many violent video games. Too many cruel fashion products. The adults are responsible for their kids growing up nice.
I have a story that sums up all of this. When I lived in Northglenn, I lived in a pretty mean neighborhood. The adults where ok, but the kids where patrolling the streets and flinging plastic all over. One day, I was walking my dog and I came across a group of girls messing with a large crawdad. I asked them what they were doing and they said they were taking the crawdad home to dissect. I told them every reason why they should not hurt the crawdad. I tried to move the crawdad. When I was trying to move him, they oldest girl, she, stepped on him! I heard a crack and his guts came gushing out! This girl was ROTTEN! TERRIBLE! SICK!  Then she picked him up by his legs and walked home, dropping the crawdad all the way. The stupid little monster didn't even consider how he felt!
It doesn't end. The girls with her were 9 and 6!
Parents. Teach your kids to be compassionate.