The Animal Kingdom
Animals come in all kinds of packages. Large, small, furry, scaly, land-dwelling, sea-dwelling, social, solitary, higher intelligence, lower intelligence, aggressive natured, and gentle natured. They come in all shapes and sizes, colors and characteristics and are found all around the world close to and far from civilization. When one thinks about it, many of those differences and similarities can be found in humans too. We all differ in many ways as well.

What is surprising about animals that we don't often realize is how some animals social manners, ways of raising their young and forming relationships with others of their species reflects human social bonds and relationships. They feel physical pain as we do and can feel sorrow and excitement.

Compassion is a gift that allows us to see beyond the surface. It gives us power to do the most difficult things, confront the challenges often diverted and to journey into uncharted territory where we struggle to create change and make a difference for even one creature in need. It is the power that fuels us to make a difference and without it there might not be sanctuaries, rescues, shelters or salvation for those in need.

"Name any animal and our silly prejudices fade in the face of their feats: Male emperor penguins go without food for up to 145 days while guarding their eggs in the frozen tundra. Fruit-eating bats act as midwives for bats who run into difficulty giving birth and have been known to bring food to ailing group members. Some birds, like Indigo buntings, guide their flight by learning the constellations; other birds fix their position by the height of the sun and, if blown off course by the wind, reset their path by the phases of the moon and the rising and setting of the stars. Turtles "read" the Earth’s magnetic field in order to navigate thousands of miles across vast , open oceans. Elephants mourn their relatives by cradling the bones of the dead animal in their trunks and rocking back and forth with them. Seals can absorb their own fetuses to prevent overpopulation during a time when food is scarce. Octopuses collect pretty objects and use them to decorate the walls of their subterranean caves. Chimpanzees seek out and use medicinal wild plants with antibiotic properties. Birds make clay by mixing water and mud to harden nests or as casts for broken limbs. A type of Antarctic fish can feed under the ice because they have the highest known level of serum antifreeze in their blood; salmon know the taste of their ancestral rivers; whales sing their histories down through the generations; dolphins can "see" through the human body. Ants form living bridges to get their fellows across streams, And there are dogs who can warn of impending seizures and detect cancerous tumors in their human companions...

Ironically, animals are kind to us. Pigs have pulled children from ponds; canaries have flown into rooms where their guardians were sleeping, frantically warning them of fire; beavers have kept lost trekkers alive in the freezing forest by pressing their warm bodies against the hikers; dolphins have kept sailors afloat in shark-infested waters; and Binti Jua, a mother gorilla, and Jambo, a giant, silverback male, both won international admiration when they guarded and protected children who, in separate incidents, fell into concrete enclosures at a zoo. Fearing the worse, keepers ran to get tranquilizer guns with which to subdue the apes, but the apes recognized that these children needed their help and simply offered it...

Of course, dogs and cats, the animals we interact with perhaps more than any others, have saved our skins from everything from frozen lakes to armed attackers. They look after their own kind too. Cat, dog and mouse mothers will suffer burned faces and paws, crawling back into buildings to rescue their young. Take Sheba, the mother Rottweiler in Florida who watched helplessly from her chain as her owner dug a two-foot-deep hole in the backyard, dropped her live puppies into a paper bag, and buried them. Neighbors reported that they heard the heartbroken dog howl mournfully and strain at her chain all that day and night. Almost twenty-four hours later, Sheba managed to snap her chain, break free, and dig the pups out of their grave. Some survived, and the owner was charged with animal abuse.

Why is it then that some people still refuse to attribute feelings to animals? How can love, loneliness, grief, joy, jealousy or the desire to cling to life be thought of as singularly human traits?"

Ingrid Newkirk (from You Can Save The Animals)