My fervent hope is that through the small talent I have with the power of the written word, I can help eyes to open and hearts to burn with a desire to help change, and one day eliminate this animal holocaust we humans have created.
Female
57 years old
JACKSONVILLE, Florida
United States
Bruce, a sweet and gentle soul whose only crime is LOOKING like a pit bull. For that, he has been imprisoned in a kennel hell for almost 2 years, only allowed to see his family twice, and sentenced to death!!! Thousands of people from around the world are fighting to save him. Please click on the picture above and it will take you to Maria Daines' web site with Bruce's story, and links for where you can take action. Please, help to be his voice and save this precious life!
Shepp, left for over a month at the end of a chain at an abandoned house, to die a slow and painful death. Click on the picture below to read about this horrible case.
A very moving video. It puts a human perspective on how stray dogs are treated. While made in Turkey, where strays are terribly treated, the message is universal.
Click on any of the headlines below to get more information about the cases.
One of the most poignant videos I've seen. It says it all about our abused animals and those waiting in hope in shelters.
Madeleine Pickens is trying to save the wild mustangs. Please watch her video and then visit her web site to see the wonderful ranch she is planning for them. Take action to help her plan come to fruition! The link is included in the banner below the video. She is fighting for the wild horses and also to completely stop the slaughter of American horses.
Click on the link below to see the counter, which details how many horses have been brutally slaughtered this year. We must do whatever we can to get the Horse Slaughter Prevention Act passed, in order to stop their export to Mexico and Canada for slaughter! View the page at this link and then contact your government representatives to urge them to support this! The horses need our voice, and they need it NOW before any more precious souls upon whose ancestors' backs our country was built have to endure this torture and agony.
An extremely poignant video from GeHof on YouTube, which depicts what our precious horses must endure during their journey to slaughter. Those who are pro-slaughter argue that something must be done with the unwanted horses. My answer is, stop the out-of-control breeding for one . If you own a horse, then be responsible. If you can't take care of it anymore, find it a home, call a rescue and if all else fails, pay a vet to humanely euthanize it. Sadly, it's all about money. These people want to squeeze every dime from their horses, rather than truly love them enough to make certain their lives don't end in some horrible truck on the way to slaughter, or dying a terrifying and agonizing death in Mexico or Canada. We must stop the slaughter of our horses once and for all! Do whatever you can to stop it. Call or write your government representatives. Inundate them with calls and letters and make your voice heard! These precious beings desperately need us to be their voice!
This movie below, Earthlings, is one that everyone should see. If it was up to me, it would be required viewing for all high school students, to help them realize the importance of compassion for all living beings.
And PLEASE! While you can watch the movie below for free, please visit the Official EARTHLINGS web site by clicking on the banner below and give back to help support the cause. This is one CD you will want to own and is a MUST SEE for EVERY ONE ON THE PLANET. I can't stress this enough. (Click on the pause key for my music player so that you can watch the movie without the music interfering with the sound.)
The proof that one person CAN make a difference. Eddie Lama filmed the award-winning documentary, The Witness, wherein he tells his story of how the love of a kitten turned his heart and helped him become an activist for the anti-fur movement. See the reactions from people on the street who see his van as he drives through the streets, showing the horrors of what the precious animals endure just in the name of human vanity.
Watch the trailer for his documentary, then click on the link below it to visit the web site and order a copy of this incredible documentary.
Just to see one tiny part of the slaughter of precious animals for fur, please watch the PETA undercover investigation done in both China and France, at the rabbit fur farms. Rabbits scream as they are being slaughtered and many are still alive and fully aware of what is being done to them as their throats are slit and their skin ripped off.
Click on this banner and send as many letters as you can to the designers who use fur, until they are all fur free. If we all join our voices together, we CAN make a difference!
Maria Daines and Paul Killington have just released their new CD Rescue Me. This is an amazing CD, which because of their ongoing generosity will benefit small not-for-profit shelters around the globe. Maria and Paul will send their CDs to these small shelters at no cost, so they can be sold by the shelters, with the profits able to be used for food, veterinary care, blankets or other necessities by the shelters. If you are a small not-for-profit shelter, please visit one of Maria's pages listed and request the CDs. In this world where almost everyone wants to know "what's in it for me", Maria and Paul continue to live by the creed, "what else can we do to help?" Their generosity simply knows no bounds, and this beautiful and moving CD for shelter dogs everywhere is just more proof, not only of their amazing talent, but also of their undying devotion to being the voice for the precious voiceless animals everywhere.
Thanks to Paul Richmond (Zest) from Keep the Green Alive for putting togther this snippet from the interview on BBC which Sue Marchant had with Maria and Paul, which showcases this incredible new CD. Thanks also to him and Keep the Green Alive for making it possible for this CD to have its first release. Please visit his YouTube website at http://www.youtube.com/user/KEEPTHEGREENALIVE to see the wonderful work he is doing to help our planet. He is truly inspiring.
Bonnie's Details
Status:
Married
Here for:
Networking, Friends
Hometown:
Griffin, Georgia
Ethnicity:
Other
Zodiac Sign:
Cancer
Children:
Proud parent
Education:
Some college
Occupation:
Medical Transcription
Bonnie Wishing for more time. Wishing to do the things I never will be able to now. Posted at 8:02 PM Oct 21 view more
This is a tribute I have written for Maria Daines. There is no question that she, along with her husband and guitarist and fellow music writer, Paul Killington, are the voice for the helpless and hopeless animals of our world through her incredible musical talent. Beyond that, Maria is an awesome human being and I am honored to be her friend. Please see my music player in the Music section of this page, and listen to some of her wonderful music. You'll hear for yourself just why I adore her.
The Kindred Soul
Our world is made better because of her grace.
Her words so powerful, so strong and true.
Her voice rings like angels' wings flying high on the clouds.
She asks nothing in return, gives all of herself for those
Who have no voice of their own.
She tells each story from her heart and with each haunting song
Come the tears for those whose lives have been lived and ended in pain.
She tells their stories lest no one ever forget;
Of those who might have passed into oblivion's night without her.
She takes the pain she feels from the stories of these precious ones
And turns them into beautiful music for our ears and souls to take in.
She feels their pain and takes her gift to give us all an understanding
Of what might be impossible for some to even begin to see.
She loves with her entire self those creatures who need us so.
The words flow from her mind, her heart, her soul
Until we all can hear that pain and feel their need.
Until we all can realize this horror we humans have created.
She is a kindred soul to the large and small,
All as one in her loving heart.
She lifts us up with her music, takes us down the roads trodden with pain
And the unspeakable suffering of even just the smallest of them.
Those who might never have known more than a few while alive
Are now known throughout the world because of her undying devotion.
Mercy, Biko, Triton,Regina.
Just a few of their names emblazoned into our hearts now forever.
Without her, would we ever have known them?
We all know the answer to that.
Their deaths would have been just another in a never-ending line
Of suffering, unspeakable cruelty, anguish, terror, fear and pain.
Alive she made them, even though their lives here were cut so short
Thanks to the cruel hands of "man".
Yet they achieve a sweet peace and immortality now, thanks to her.
She is an earthbound angel who has a special place already reserved
With her name and words from those whose tiny hearts she blessed,
Saying in their own ways the gratitude they feel for what she does
Each and every day for them and those like them.
She will cross the Rainbow Bridge one day with multitudes following close.
They are waiting for her, because it is she that gave them life
When life was being ripped and torn from them here on earth.
They will dance with glee when that day comes.
Until then, they are her guardians; the ones she saved with her song.
I am blessed to call her "friend".
I stand in awe of her words to me saying I was a kindred soul to her.
How blessed am I to have even heard her voice
Never mind feel that connection of friendship from so far away.
If I can make even a tiny difference, it is because of her.
Her music spoke to my soul and made me want to stand and help.
Like so many thousands of others just like me.
She has touched so many souls from one corner of the earth to the other.
She is the torch of change.
She is the voice of millions.
She is grace personified.
She is the guardian angel of the hopeless and the helpless.
She is the singer of songs that bring life to the lifeless.
She is the bearer of the words we all must hear.
She is the hope for all those who need her so.
She is Maria Daines.
Her light of love shines like a beacon for all of us to follow.
Thank you, my friends, for all that you do.
With all my love.
I am a 56-year-old wife, mother, grandmother and passenger-seat biker on our Harley with my husband. I have gotten a late start, but am determined to dedicate what is left of my life to trying to open people's eyes to the horrors of the animal holocaust that we humans have created. With knowledge, can come change. We must stand strong and fight this battle together. These precious voiceless beings are depending on us. We are their only hope, and we must not take that responsibility lightly.
We must teach compassion wherever we can. While the limitations of my body won't allow me to physically get out and fight, I will try to use my gift of words as my swords, to try to make people see, hear and feel the needs of these incredible animals whose care was entrusted to us, and whose trust "man" has so disgustingly violated time and time again. We are the warriors, each with our own weapons, and together we will make an unstoppable army of change. Find your foothold wherever it may lie, dig in, and do whatever you can to help the seeds of change to take root and flourish.
Bless you all for anything and everything that you do every day.
Bonnie
Here are just some of the things we are fighting:
1. Animal cruelty.
Song "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton.
2. Animal testing/vivisection.
Video compiled by Androclestipster, an incredibly compassionate animal advocate.
Song "Stop That It Hurts" by Maria Daines.
3. Dog fighting.
Song "I Don't Wanna Fight No More" by Maria Daines.
4. Factory farming.
By Farm Sanctuary.
5. Overcrowded shelters full of wonderful animals whose only crime is needing a home and wanting to be loved, and give undying devotion and love in return, but who are killed every day by the thousands.
6. The brutal fur trade.
Where Do We Start?
The task so daunting.
Where do we start?
Every second of every hour of every day
They die in terror and agony.
Some part of the livestock "food chain".
Some for their coats.
Some for the "delicacy" of their meat.
Some for "sport".
Some for the satisfaction of a sickness that defies explanation.
Some people react with no reaction.
"Better not to know."
Some react with knowledge, but wear blinders.
"What I don't know won't hurt me."
Some react with disgust, but beyond that - just empty words.
Some react with horror and it's just too painful to see.
Some react with outrage and soul-wrenching pain and say
We must do something to stop this!
And then the inevitable....
Where do we start?
There are the shelters and rescues that never have enough room
Who face day in and day out the need to choose
Who lives another day to hope,
Who dies because hope is now lost,
Or are run by the very evildoers we need to fight;
Monsters dressed as doers of good.
There are the poor ones who live in the streets.
Fighting for the tiny scrap.
Terrified to trust.
Always on alert.
Targets of the most brutal of abuse, torture, death.
There are ones born and seconds later ripped from their loving mothers
Tied in crates to make pale flesh.
The mothers impregnated over and over until the body breaks down;
For the milk intended for that precious torn-away baby
That billions of humans consume.
There are those whose lives are spent never stretching legs,
Never being able to turn around,
Chewing at bars and hoping to find a way out.
There are those who live having tubes rammed into their throats
To make their livers sick.
So some even sicker "humans" can have the "delicacy".
There are those who are crammed in wire boxes,
Plucking out feathers, breaking legs,
Hearing only the constant noise.
No soft nest to lay their eggs.
There are those skinned alive for their fur or hides
So someone can drape it over their body
And feel as if they are something above everyone else,
At the cost of so many beautiful lives.
There are those stolen from their homes,
Or bred on farms whose only aim
Is to provide the labs with those creatures they can control
So they are able to do nightmarish experiments,
These current day Mengele types.
Our animal holocaust, growing every day.
There are those who are bred to run;
Dogs and horses from fine lineage on paper,
Culled out to keep the fastest ones.
The others expendable.
Easily hacked up and thrown away.
Shot, starved, mutilated, hung.
The mighty beasts upon whose backs so many countries were built;
Bred for light and fast.
Fragile legs that shatter and it's over in an instant.
All the while the other offspring or too-soon-spent
Loaded onto trailers out back of the stables bound for Canada or Mexico.
Or others of so many types, sent from one continent to another.
Thousands of miles over days;
No food, no rest – only fear, hunger, thirst, pain.
To be sent off overseas to satisfy the palates
Of the ones who don't want to see what they are causing.
There are the ones in homes that were supposed to grow trust and love,
But instead are a pulsing business grown on forcing
A gentle giant to lust for the blood of another.
Which they do because they want so much to please;
Any scrap of kindness gobbled up.
And they do what they are told they should....
To the death.
I see this.
I feel this.
I want to run from this.
I know it is not in me to run.
And I think to myself....
Where do we start?
The answer is simple really.
We start wherever we can gain a foothold.
Whether it be music that reaches both the mind and the soul;
Sprung from the hearts and talents of those who truly care.
Or the rescuers whose life's work is to try to save
As many as can be saved with whatever they have to save them.
Or the ones who take the pictures that can blister the eyes
Of those who have never looked.
Or the ones in power who have not been tainted yet,
Who will fight where it has to be fought so that people sometimes pay
For the horrors they commit.
Or the ones who make the choice to eat a compassionate diet.
Personal, individual choices that still hugely impact
The bottom line of numbers of those for whom we are too late,
But for whose offspring we might not be.
Or those like me,
Whose bodies won't allow the physical battle,
But whose mind can somehow spin thoughts into written words
For others to take in and ponder,
And sometimes say, "That's how I feel!"
Creating a tiny bond.
We were made for this.
All the guardians of the precious, voiceless ones.
Armed with a sparkling prism of ways....
To start.
With every small victory that I find - I cheer, regroup, and get ready....
For the next round.
Until then I know tomorrow brings
Another wretched list of the daily results of the holocaust.
I will see the visions in my mind, which shrieks at me to stop looking,
But knows I can't stop.
The visions of their complete helplessness, their inability to even try to fight back....
Or even know if they should try.
I will hear the screams as they ring in my head
Echoing so loudly as if I am right there.
The witness of their confusion, terror, burning desire to live,
As their blood drains their life away.
We will look into the eyes of our own beloved animal companions
And see there reflected back their total immeasurable intelligence, love and devotion;
Their only desire to be everything they think we want them to be,
And know that to some they would be seen only as a pelt, dinner, or an object to inflict pain upon just for a momentary thrill.
And we will hug them close and let them know
We are fighting the good fight.
We are trying.
We are looking for that foothold.
We are making noise.
We are being heard more every day.
(Blogs don't normally get read very often, so I thought I would post some varying thoughts that I've put to paper, which will change hopefully every week, to talk about the things on my mind regarding this war that we're fighting for the precious animals. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope that perhaps I can bring enlightenment, encouragement or even just things to think about. (Prior postings will be moved to my blog when I add something new, so they will still be available to read.)
Madeleine Pickens Wild Horse Sanctuary (A place for their freedom and where they can truly live in peace.)
In the daily struggles to help the animals, there are some, like me, who work at two jobs, 16 hours a day just to try to keep from losing my home. We long to be able to make a real difference for the animals whose lives humans seem to have devalued to the point that they are merely commodities or just "things". Lacking the social and political influence and lacking the financial resources, we do what we can within our own means to fight every day
to make changes for these precious beings.
There is the tiny handful of those who do have the means to truly be heard where it counts, and an even smaller number who actually use it. Madeleine Pickens is one such person. She has done so much for the animals, from being there when Katrina struck to help the animals
abandoned and left to die in the wake of that dreadful storm, to her latest valliant attempts to save the wild mustangs. When we heard about her plan for their alvation, we all let out a collective shout of joy, because we know that she of all people CAN make a
difference, she CAN be heard, and she DOES have the resources to make it happen.
I stand in awe of this incredible lady. Her battle for these wonderful horses has taken on a life of its own, and she is fighting daily at the higest levels of government to make it happen for them. Her dream of a ranch where they can run free, where families can gather to come and actually see them in their natural environment is absolutely amazing.
This poem is for the mustangs, who are languishing in tiny corrals, barely able to move, who have waited over 3 years for someone to save them and set them free.
Bless you all.
Bonnie
Set Me Free
I was born under a clear night sky.
Under stars and a moon so bright.
My mother, kind and gentle
She loved me so and kept things right.
We all ran free through all the lands
Valleys low, and mountains high.
We grazed and danced through creekbeds
And we watched the eagles fly.
My family and friends always with me
We stuck together, never strayed.
Maybe things would have been different
If perhaps we'd never stayed
In that land where we felt safety
And security and peace abounded
Until one day from the sky
A monster with metal wings from the mountains rounded.
I was born to run the open land
My life worth so much more
Than mere existence in some holding pen
Or a pool of blood on the slaughter house floor.
The noise was deafening as it flew
It roared at lightning speed.
We ran and dodged and tried our best
From this monster to be freed.
But the whoops and hollers never ended
As we galloped fast and light.
But they were faster than we could ever be
This monster brought such fright.
So many of us lost that day
As the monster flew low and fast
Somewhere in my heart I knew
Everything I'd ever known was past.
I was born to run the open land
My life worth so much more
Than mere existence in some holding pen
Or a pool of blood on the slaughter house floor.
We did everything we could not to go
But the monster was too strong.
My mother, heavy with another foal
Was too weak to run that long.
I'd seen others go before her
Stumbling, tripping, falling as we ran.
I saw her slam into the pole
Of the holding pen made by "man".
She cried out in pain and agony
As her body hit the ground.
It was the last I saw of her
She was never again to be found.
I was born to run the open land
My life worth so much more
Than mere existence in some holding pen
Or a pool of blood on the slaughterhouse floor.
Now we stand and suffer every day.
In these pens so very small.
We wait for some salvation
For a guardian angel to hear our call.
We remember where we came from.
Our ancestors' stories had been told
By our families who remembered
How we helped build the America of old.
Will no one come and rescue us?
Is this to be our fate?
Won't someone come and set us free
Before it's all too late?
I was born to run the open land
My life worth so much more
Than mere existence in some holding pen
Or a pool of blood on the slaughter house floor.
Doesn't anyone out there remember
How we helped this great country grow?
How we moved the wagons and supplies
Through the sun, rain, sleet and snow?
How we carried all the people, ran like lightning for the mail.
How we got everyone from place to place
Our strong hearts could never fail.
Yet here we stand in holding pens.
Forlorn, forgotten, and so alone.
Won't someone come and save us
And give us open land that we can call home?
Please...SET ME FREE to run the open land.
My life is worth so much more.
Than mere existence in some holding pen
Or a pool of blood on the slaughterhouse floor.
Copyright material
Bonnie Snider 06/11/2009
Click on the banner below to visit Madeleine Pickens' web site and read about her plan for the sanctuary. Then do whatever you can to help her make this wonderful dream become a reality for these precious animals. America was built on the backs of these wonderful horses, and we owe to them to give them a peaceful and free existence for the rest of their lives.
After a failed attempt at a restraining order to stop it, as of 09/03/09 the BLM is beginning the horrible "gathering" (translated terror by helicopter roundup) of the famous Cloud's herd. Days-old foals will be forced to try to keep up with their mothers as they flee in terror, only to end up in tiny pens, IF they live to get there. Please visit The Cloud Foundation at http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/ and please keep calling the numbers given in the following video. Please be their voice. Help to save Cloud's herd.
Rescuer At The Rainbow Bridge
Unlike most days at Rainbow Bridge, this day dawned cold and gray, damp as a swamp and as dismal as could be imagined. All of the recent arrivals had no idea what to think, as they had never experienced a day like this before. But the animals who had been waiting for their beloved people knew exactly what was going on and started to gather at the pathway leading to The Bridge to watch.
It wasn't long before an elderly animal came into view, head hung low and tail dragging. The other animals, the ones who had been there for a while, knew what his story was right away, for they had seen this happen far too often.
He approached slowly, obviously in great emotional pain, but with no sign of injury or illness. Unlike all of the other animals waiting at The Bridge, this animal had not been restored to youth and made healthy and vigorous again. As he walked toward The Bridge, he watched all of the other animals watching him. He knew he was out of place here and the sooner he could cross over, the happier he would be.
But, alas, as he approached The Bridge, his way was barred, he would not be able to pass. Only those animals who were with their people could pass over Rainbow Bridge.
With no place else to turn to, the elderly animal turned towards the fields before The Bridge and saw a group of other animals like himself, also elderly and infirm. They weren't playing, but rather simply lying on the green grass, forlornly staring out at the pathway leading to The Bridge. And so, he took his place among them, watching the pathway and waiting.
One of the newest arrivals at The Bridge didn't understand what he had just witnessed and asked one of the animals that had been there for a while to explain it to him.
You see, that poor animal was a rescue. He was turned in to rescue just as you see him now, an older animal with his fur graying and his eyes clouding. He never made it out of rescue and passed on with only the love of his rescuer to comfort him as he left his earthly existence. Because he had no family to give his love to, he has no one to escort him across The Bridge.
The first animal thought about this for a minute and then asked, "So what will happen now?" As he was about to receive his answer, the clouds suddenly parted and the gloom lifted. Approaching The Bridge could be seen a single person and among the older animals, a whole group was suddenly bathed in a golden light and they were all young and healthy again, just as they were in the prime of life.
"Watch, and see" said the second animal. A second group of animals from those waiting came to the pathway and bowed low as the person neared. At each bowed head, the person offered a pat on the head or a scratch behind the ears. The newly restored animals fell into line and followed her towards The Bridge. They all crossed The Bridge together.
"What happened?"
"That was a rescuer." The animals you saw bowing in respect were those who found new homes because of her work. They will cross when their new families arrive. Those you saw restored were those who never found homes. When a rescuer arrives, they are allowed to perform one, final act of rescue. They are allowed to escort those poor animals that they couldn't place on earth, across The Rainbow Bridge.
Anthony Marr will lead a FUNERAL MOTORCADE FOR THE DEER in Kansas City on Dec. 9, Wednesday, at the Shawnee Mission Park - "Death Park" - where 313 deer have been slaughtered in November, and another 70-90 are slated to be killed by bow-hunters as of Dec. 9.
Bear in mind that the non-lethal wounding rate by arrow is close to 50%, meaning: to kill 90, they have to shoot 180. And this is in spite of the Immuno-Contraceptive (IC) technology for deer having already been approved for field implementation by both the FDA and the EPA, plus Anthony's own humane, effective and economical IC-delivery invention known as the Auto Deer Assembler (DAA).
Jason Miller, on left in the following video (Part 1 of 7), one of the hot activists and revolutionary thinkers of our time (www.ThomasPaynesCorner.org), will be the organizer and host of the event.
Since I posted my Japan pieces, my Space has come under intense scrutiny from diverse sources in Japan. Latest is a series of 30 hits over the last 48 hours, from a source, would you believe, right within the grounds of the Japanese Imperial Palace!
Now that I have inadvertently captured His Majesty's attention, I may as well take this opportunity to open to him my heart and mind, and thereby to the whole people of Japan. This what I have to say:
It exterminated 85% of all species on Earth in the End-Permian Mass Extinction 251 million years ago, and can do it again, right now. The much milder Cretaceous Crisis was the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Global warming is real and unfolding. The deniers are either blind or lying.
On September 14, 2007, Wisconsin activst Amy Burns sent out a circular urging her readers to go to the Baltimore Sun to join in what is destined to be one of its hottest forums ever, a war of minds over the "sport" of hunting, with emphasis on bow-hunting. While her readers began pondering, comments from the pro-hunting side came in hard and fast. "America's most-hated Anti" Anthony Marr jumped in head first, and so did leading anti-huntresses Tierra and Mamasita. Amazingly, the battle is still raging as we speak, more than two years later in November 23, 2009! The total number of comments so far has exceeded 93,000, and growing. This is a phenomenon, and destined to be a classic, not to be missed if you care about animals at all.
Calcutta sounds like a fable in a song, but in reality, it is where John, my colleague and successor, was murdered. He was on the job for only three days when he got his throat slashed. As an undercover investigator targeting the illegal wildlife trade, especially in tiger parts, his real name was unknown, even to me, nor mine to him. We were just John and James to each other. All I know is that he was Chinese American, while his predecessor James - real name Anthony Marr - is Chinese Canadian, and how sincere he was in helping to save the Bengal tiger from being poached out of existence, while its habitat continues to dwindle due to human pressure...
Can you help to have world leaders view 2 VEGGIE video messages in Copenhagen?
Winning films will screen in selected cinemas in the United Kingdom AND three finalists will also be chosen to screen at the Copenhagen Climate Conference.
Halloween aside, we do have a barbarian at the gate, a demon lurking in the ground, frozen there for eons, now being thawed and released into the living world, where it will roast life alive. If you want to really scare yourself silly, watch this 50 minute video in one go. Turn off the light, and the phone..
Hope you have a GREAT Halloween. I used Isabella, a hearing service Chihuahua, that I had the pleasure of photographing the beginning of the summer. This pic of her didn't make it into her portfolio...but I thought her expression for this Halloween tag was priceless!
