Passion comes from the driving force of experiences, education, feelings, gut instinct, and emotion.
What fuels your passion is pretty much a standard thing across the human race. But what you are passionate about varies greatly.
What are you most passionate about? What one thing can make you shake all over when you fight for it and talk about it, what can make your chest feel like it is on fire when someone tries to go against it? What can make you feel like the world is in a wonderful spin when you have had a win?
For me it is animal welfare.
Why this? For other people passion could be in cooking, gardening, sewing, writing, making music, other charitable causes such a cancer research or mental illness awareness. Sure, many of these things are on my list of importance, but none will rock me to the absolute inner core like fighting for animal rights. To me it is a no-brainer. Animals are violated, used, abused, tortured, slaughtered, eaten, whipped, made to jump till they break their bones, manipulatively bred till their poor little bodies are so contorted they don't work properly, traded and sold, made to have babies and then steal them away from them for monetary and selfish gain, forced to live unnatural contained lives, turned into circus freak shows and stared at, taken from an ocean and put into tiny pools and made to jump and perform for a fish, they are tortured with hooks in their mouths for minutes to hours and ripped out of their serene ocean home, thrown onto a jetty to slowly asphyxiate, suffocated and poisoned with plastic particles and objects, hunted, made homeless by loggers and developers, forced to share a smaller and smaller and even smaller remaining natural world, hated for doing what for centuries has come naturally to them, killed for defending themselves, forced to fight for entertainment, made to race and mame themselves for betting monetary gain, left sick and injured to suffer in silence, made to carry excruciating heavy loads, mamed by surgeons who remove their tails & nails (actually it is their toes) & voice-boxes & scent-glands to design them as more suitable for an easy or pretty pet, forced to eat food that makes them sick (foie grais), have chemicals poured into their eyes in laboratories, thrown away when they are misunderstood, and last but by a long shot not least they are taken out of their natural habitat and then are culled for being survivors in their new one.
Need I go on? Get the picture?
We are the guardians of this planet. Not because we deserve it or because we are smarter than anything else on it, but because we can talk and write and build things. We are definitely not smarter because if we were we wouldn't be 'shitting in our own bed' by ruining this planet to the point where one day it will no longer be inhabitable by humans and we kill ourselves off. The only thing that has allowed humans to establish such dominance is our ability to change the environment to suit our needs, in effect stopping our ability as a species to adapt to natural planetary changes. So we have built cities, mined for resources, tapped for water, dozed the forests, and built pollution making machines to do our work for us so we can do all of this faster and faster. Anyways, I am going off on a tangent - stick to the topic Tam! So, we are 'king of the world' and all that is on it (apparently) and because of that all the living things are under our care.
As per human nature, some people use this power they have for good and some use it for bad. But it is not as black and white as that because what we think is 'good' and 'bad' will change from person to person according to what they have been raised to believe, what they have learnt over the years, and what they choose to believe and what they choose to ignore. When I do my Ballet class my teacher often talks about how when we do the same move a few times we commit it to our 'muscle memory', well I think with new pieces of information and ideas we sometimes need to hear it a few times in a few different ways and from different sources before our brain will commit it to the 'muscle memory' and they become part of normal life and accepted ideals.
I have been accused of putting animals before humans. This is not wrong. A human can defend themselves, animals need our help. This by a long shot does not mean I hate people nor does it mean I will not help people, on the contrary I have my first aid responder and mental illness first aid responder certificates and am always on the alert to help a fellow human being. But if I am up against a human aiming to hurt an animal or speaking about hurting an animal I have absolutely no hesitation in putting the protection of the animals first and foremost.
I used to be someone who bagged out vegetarians and vegans as 'fanatical lunatics' who do nothing to help their cause and who do more harm than good. I long ago jumped off that bandwagon and have nothing but upmost respect for them and their passion. Sure, some come across rather counterproductive, but they are human too and not always Emotionally Intelligent and educated in how to constructively put a point across, and are often at the end of their tether after prolonged attacks and taunts from social media and face to face. At the core of it is a decent person who doesn't want to harm animals. What is there to disrespect about that? Here is an interesting article from my favourite reading source The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/vegans-why-they-inspire-fear-and-loathing-among-meat-eaters-106015
And another by The Brag: https://thebrag.com/the-melbourne-vegan-protest-some-thoughts/?fbclid=IwAR2SalJa2sdBVyTuM_PFClHo7emrzhhXM6si-zfo7dssQzW523FYqK7oYrc
It is actually quite emotional just writing this blog, It makes me think of all the things I have seen over the years that fuel my passion. Having worked in an animal shelter, vet clinic, and volunteering in rescue, I have certainly had more than my fill of seeing animals in a terrible and painful way due to the hand of humans. A lot of things were so vile, so traumatic to me that I try desperately to push them to that dark hole in the brain that chews up memories and spits them out. But they don't go away, they just don't get thought about for a while. At any moment in time I can think of them and cry inside. This has set me off on many moths of depression out of the blue years after I ceased the work. Just a thought. I don't just think about the vision I actually feel the pain the animal is feeling. The prolonged suffering. Their eyes look up at you and beg for mercy, they look at you like 'how could you do this to me?' and you tell them back 'I didnt do this to you, but my species did, and I am so so sorry'. I have had to euthanise animal after animal after animal one after the other in a shelter euth room for no other reason than they had no homes to go to. I have had to make the decision in the infamous 'sort room' as to who to kill and who to save. Too many black cats out in the cages - sorry, those 8 black 6 week old kittens have to go to the euth room. That cat has blue eyes, it can be sold, that cat has green eyes, we have too many of those. That cat just sneezed, it could just have blanket fluff up its nose but we cant risk disease so out it goes. If this in your head doesn't fuel passion nothing will. Well, actually, it fueled PTSD Compassion Fatugue for a while, but that in turn fueled passion which inspired me to create Perth Veterinary Bill Asssitance Inc. which saved my life. It still does. Everyday! Keeping my focus fixated on doing good for animals is not my being generous, it is actually quite selfish because it is my survival. I am doing my penance for all the things Ive seen and done and I am giving back as it fends off the guilt.
*For the record, I am SO delighted to say that the shelter I used to work at and experienced all these tough day to day work decisions at no longer operates that way. It has since had a wonderful new CEO and management overhaul and things are so much more efficient and I am so pleased to report that nowadays hardly any animals at all are euthanised. This is why to this day I still support them and volunteer for them. I believe in the people who work there and all they aim for. Unfortunately I was a part of a deep dark history which is now a shady past. But if PVBA exists because of that, it is a good thing.
Am I fanatic? I have been put into that category. Yes, I have been called Crazy. I joke all the time about being the 'crazy cat lady', although I actually don't like that label and find it offensive but when people find it amusing and throw it at you enough you get the mentality of 'if you cant beat them, join them' so it is easier to just use it on myself and laugh when it comes your way so you don't then have to answer to the label of 'oversensitive' and 'precious'. I own 4 cats. I don't own any other animals. I would love loads of other pets - dogs, guinea pigs, ferrets, chickens, snakes etc, but with my extremely hectic lifestyle I am hardly every home and when I am I am busy doing things. For that reason I respect all the pets I don't have enough to not get them, because if I am going to own an animal I will commit 100% to giving it all it needs to have an enriched, healthy, happy, fulfilled life. I would love a dog, but it would spend most of its days home alone and miserable. So I own cats because they are delightfully independent and fit in beautifully with my lifestyle. Does that make me a crazy cat lady? Well I know lots of people with many dogs and no other animal - you don't see anyone calling them 'crazy dog ladies'. And why isn't there a 'crazy cat man' or 'crazy dog man' label - because HEAVEN FORBID A WOMAN CHOOSE A PET OVER A PARTNER! The cat lady label is especially for the baron, fruitless, pointless single ladies. This label is derived from the concept that being a single lady, and loving a feline (the animal everyone loves to hate) is crazy. Oh my god, don't get me started! I digress again. That is a topic for another day. Grrrrrr.
I am often met with the question: "So cats are killing off our natural wildlife, you don't want them culled, are you choosing them over the continuation of our natural fauna?" No, I am not choosing. I could never choose - I had enough of that in my past and I am fucking done with choosing. I am just going to keep my focus on the fact that humans created this problem, humans commonly resort to speciesism, and it is so sad that in the end animals pay the ultimate price for a human created problem. Killing is NEVER the answer. I don't know what is, but I don't support the cull of any animals. If they are flourishing in an environment that we put them in, and survival of the fittest is changing the ecosystem. then shame on our wrongdoings. What they are doing is no different to our building cities over what used to be lush natural bushlands and forests. Actually, what they are doing has WAY less impact. Humans like to shift the focus of blame when they know they are doing something wrong.
With all the wonderful things the internet and social media give us (I run my whole charity through it), the bad side is that we see the dark side of people. The hunting photos, the fishing photos, the horse racing and greyhound racing, rodeos, the breeders, the breed shows, those who purchase from those people, those who bet on those activities, those who pay to get into aquatic shows and those 'delightful rays of sunshine' who love to tell you openly "I hate cats". I like to keep something I learned from the bible in mind through all this (all those years of catholic schooling came in useful for something, despite their inability to keep me brainwashed and as a member of their congregations lols), Jesus once was asked why he preached to the thieves, the taxmen, the unclean, the pagans, the wanton women, and he replied that there is no point preaching to the converted, he wanted to get his word out to those who needed him most - those who hadn't heard the word of god. I like that I now have so many platforms to share my learnings and experiences. This blog, facebook groups and pages. They are all places where someone who might not have ever thought about animal welfare, and who actually harm animals in their ignorance, are exposed and vulnerable to my teachings and that of the rest of the world who know what I know. Over time, after hearing it enough, that muscle memory theory kicks in ;) Unfortunately sometimes before you can get your smart bit of information out some smartarse has replied in abusive defence and the comment stream becomes an outright shit-fight. Sometimes you have to pick your battles.
Next time you see people are passionate about animal welfare and wonder why they are so damn persistent and so damn 'in your face' and really bloody annoying and abrasive at times, please remember some of the experiences I have shared with you. Those people have likely had to look in the eyes of an animal that is in extreme pain and say "sorry for what my species has done to you".
Once you have looked into those eyes, there is no going back. You have no choice to become part of the solution, the growing revolution of kindness.
Dedications:
This blog is dedicated to so many people who work tirelessly and selflessly to help animals.
The awesome Perth Vet Bill Assistance crew: calling out Tracey W, Jasmine Y, Tammy D, and Chloe P who have stood tirelessly by me since the early days. My new team members who are helping us move mountains - Emma K, Brooke W, Michelle K, Sarah W, Maria P, Teale H, and Vynka A.
My shelter experience buddies: Roz R, Katy J, Shirley P, Del Z, Freedom B, Trish H, Jasmine Y, and countless other kindred spirits. My wildlife warrior: Emma McClerie the reptile relocator and an angel to all the beautiful Aussie wildlife.
Someone I have HUGE respect for is Yvette Harper in SCAN, one of a kind - unfortunately! (we need more of her) Sue Hedley who founded SAFE Karratha, what an amazing lady.
Edith B, Kylie S, Jenny G, Cathy and her fundraising cat pods, all valuable Western Australian unsung heroes. My hero - Lisa Baker MLA. I know there are so many others, please dont be upset if I have not mentioned you, but you all so amazing things. Keep on keeping on. xxx
