Reinstate the ban on Foie Gras

Why is this on a blog about goats?  Because once you are part of the herd, you are always part of the herd.  Geese and Ducks are part of our herd.  They share the same causes we share.  They share the desire with all animals for freedom for those that are oppressed, tortured, suffering and needing to be rescued.   Not all animals share horrible predicaments, but they do share the desire for all of their families, cousins, brothers and sisters, friends, neighbors and fellow compatriots to have a good life.  So, on this blog, if there is need for the goat’s brethren to improve their lot, then it will be written here for others to add light to their cause.  

Please join me in this energy intensive to help the geese and ducks on the planet. In California, on Friday, February 6, 2015, the attorney general Kamala Harris is appealing the federal judge’s decision to overturn the ban on foie gras.  But, this is just one case, and only concerns the ban in California.  There are countless animals that have a horrid fate.  Foie Gras is goose or liver pate that involves force feeding the birds many times a day so that their liver gets to be ten times the size it normally would be.  From the stress, they pluck out their own feathers.  When their livers burst they kill them to create foie gras, liver pate.  Many consider this a delicacy and love it even though they know it involves cruelty.  But, all animals that people eat or use for clothing or entertainment, or for scientific experiments, etc. succumb to horrible fates at the hands of humans.  Face it, most humans don’t even care about themselves let alone innocent animals.  However, those of us on this planet now that have chosen to be here for the purpose of elevating it, have a huge responsibility.  We need to help change the predicament of these animals that beg for a better fate, but need our voice.

This is an energy intensive that will benefit all animals that need our help now.  Please allow yourself to participate if you can gather up intense energy and share this experience as a group.  Try to collect as much intense energy as you can for this intensive.  If you need help to engage your feelings, look at the photos above.  

Close your eyes.  Take a number of deep breaths.  Begin to access a deeper part of yourself that has no boundaries, but is lucid.  Go directly to the core of your being.  Feel the love of the animals.  See them all in your mind’s eye.  Apologize to them if you need to.  If you have eaten them in the past, if you have used them for clothing or accessories, if you have visited zoos or circuses or other entertainment establishments and have supported their enslavement to humans, if you have used products that involve horrible scientific experiments on them, etc., apologize to them.  If you were ever mean or cruel to an animal, either directly or indirectly, allowing someone else to do the dirty work for you, apologize to them now.  Tell them that you have seen what you have done and are ready to change it all now.  Go deeper still to your feelings and to the truth about your own life.  Go to the place where you have been living a lie, a place where you are in denial about your life.  Feel the reality of what you have hidden about your own life.  Focus acutely on the areas of your life that beckon you to change.  Feel deeply the areas in your life where you feel caged, where you feel unfree or oppressed or suppressed.  Perhaps you feel agony in some area.  Feel that.  Feel that deeply and intensely.  Now it is time for you to change. It is time for you to get free in your own life, for you to make changes.  So, too, see this happening in the animal world.  What has been hidden inside of you that creates miserable pain is reflected on the outside when you see the truth about what happens to animals.  You cannot change the outside world unless you participate and change your own life as well.  We are all part of the same whole.  Free yourself as you desire freedom for the animals as well.  See it as one continuum, one world seeking change to an uplifted, improved version.  You must be the change you want to see in the world, as Gandhi said.  

Free yourself and see the animals free as well.  Take care of yourself deeply and see the animals being taken care of.   See, for example, the cows of this world out of the slaughterhouses and living in lovely sanctuaries with beautiful and spacious land.  See them happy, see yourself happy.  Change your world, change their world.  Get free yourself as you do whatever you can to help them get free as well.   We are all in this together.  Let go of your denials about your own life and set yourself free.  Then, when you make your efforts for the animals, they will be affective.  You will have faced your own dungeons and so will understand what animals feel and will deepen your commitment to create change in their lives because you will have done so in your own life.   They are part of you.  Get free alongside the animals.  We all do this together to create a world that is harmonious and beautiful, full of enriched lives that share with each other the benefits of what it is to really love.   

Should Goats Be Kept with Horses?

Many people think that goats are great for horses.  In fact, I have heard that horse owners use goats to calm horses.  In my very first blog entree, I mentioned that I don't believe that animals should be used for anything besides giving and receiving love and healing.  I don't believe in getting an animal for the use of another. If it is for possible friendship, then that could be mutually beneficial.  However, let us examine this further....

There is no one size fits all with anything when it comes to animals.   It is a good lesson to not believe what other people tell you, even if many people believe the same thing.  Our own personal experiences can tell us something totally different than what the masses believe.  

Rocky and Sunshine are both wethers.   This means they are male castrated goats.  If there is a health issue concerning a goat, the first thing a good vet asks is about their diet.  They want you to tell them everything they are eating.  Many horses eat alfalfa in pellet form and/or grass/hay form.  Wethers can get bladder stones and die from too much alfalfa.   Some people will tell you otherwise.  They will tell you there goats eat alfalfa with no problem. Many blogs will say the same thing.  Here is the same lesson about not believing what others say unless you really check the source.  I have asked a number of good vets and they all say the same thing about alfalfa.  I have also talked to a vet that treated goats that people killed for meat who didn't know about alfalfa and wethers. Obviously, this type of vet may not have experience with goats that are going to be living that long anyway. Be careful.   I have asked university professors who teach about goats, they also do not recommend alfalfa for wethers.  Make sure you do your research from top notch sources.  The World Wide Web is full of contradictions when it comes to goats.  

Try keeping a goat away from a horses' food.  Lots of luck.  They are foodies.  There are other ingredients that are also not good for a goat.  A goat doesn't need oil, vinegar, horse minerals, and grain.  Grain can also cause bladder stones in wethers.  Some horses get this in their feed during certain parts of the week or day.  So, obviously you can understand the hazards of having these two different types of animals together.

Another important factor is that some horses are unpredictable.  They are also very big.  They can get a horse fly on them and run around like a mad person.   Or, some can just be moody.  Sunshine is small; he can easily go into a horse's pen.  As a foodie, he is only concerned about what he can find to nibble on.   I have seen him get chased out by a huge horse that had been calm just the moment before.  The little goat came running out of the stall, but might go back in another day, not remembering the horse's unpredictability.  

Sometimes, goats are not safe for some horses.  I have heard about someone putting barbie doll heads on the ends of a goat's horns in case they have reason to butt a horse.  I have also heard of tennis balls with a hole cut out also for this purpose.  My goats only butt if it is really necessary, but I have heard of other goats that butt if a horse gets too close to them, especially if the goat is busy eating.  It is important to understand these possibilities before just blindly believing what others tell you.

I am sure some people have had really good experiences with their goat and horse living together, but it is not a one-size-fits-all concept.   It depends on the horse, the goat, the feed, the size of the stall, whether they share the same space or not, etc.

The main lesson here is to really do your research before you just believe something.  Reading a number of blogs does not mean you are researching important information.  It just means you are gathering stories from different people's experiences.  Talking to a number of good vets as well as information put out by university professors is a trustworthy source. But, make sure those vets and professors are from modern times.   New scientific information comes out that is totally opposite from facts that were believed many years ago.  I have also used information from different goat associations, but I still had to check those sources.

In short, do your homework and know what you are getting into.  There are different types of goats that might respond differently to horses, and vice versa.   You might be wondering why the goats I care for are around horses.  It is because they were rescued by an organization that rescues horses.  It is my goal to buy goat zoned property so that these goats can live in an environment that is completely designed for goats only.