my heart.
"You may have seen this famous photo showing a firefighter giving water to "Sam" the koala as she holds his hand. The firefighter found Sam walking painfully on scorched paws along the smoldering forest floor. Sam was rushed to the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter, a group IFAW is supporting with an emergency grant."
Read more here and here
Many things will not touch us nor bother us too much, if we have not been physically involved - when we have not been up close, right in the midst of things. For this Australian bushfire emergency, we will never sense nor fully comprehend the need cos we are not right there, walking on the scorched plains, smelling the charred bodies and trees, hearing the pain of the burnt animals...it is so easy to flick a piece of news aside cos of geographical dilution of empathy.
It's understandable.
Many stray feeders and caregivers on the streets would identify with being labelled 'fanatics' at one point in time or another. Maybe being labelled as 'playing god'. Why not let nature takes its course, maybe?
I guess you have to be there, physically, involving your time, your hands, your energy, your emotions - to understand the psyche of each person now involved in animal welfare in one area or another.
For Sam the koala above, and for many strays on the Singapore streets or injured wildlife somewhere out there, you would have to there with them, even if only to see them in their actual habitats for just one time -- to fully understand and accept the realities of such situations. Cos in the comfort and urban distractions of an everyday life, it is just too easy to offer our opinions or flick an issue aside. And Sam would just be relegated to yet another colour pictorial on the great wide web.
Only in this case - Sam is so very much a living, breathing, sentient being - with many more of her kind out there now, right in minute, suffering the consequences of the bushfires.
If you have a heart for animal welfare, don't just talk about it. Get involved. Start somewhere. Cos the distance is great when you simply read of issues on print or web. And thus the heart can be detached. And hands inactive. But make some time to really get close, get into it, to see, hear, smell, touch. Then you would begin to know the answers to the many 'whys' in your mind. And your heart may bring you to places you may never have imagined.
Many things will not touch us nor bother us too much, if we have not been physically involved - when we have not been up close, right in the midst of things. For this Australian bushfire emergency, we will never sense nor fully comprehend the need cos we are not right there, walking on the scorched plains, smelling the charred bodies and trees, hearing the pain of the burnt animals...it is so easy to flick a piece of news aside cos of geographical dilution of empathy.
It's understandable.
Many stray feeders and caregivers on the streets would identify with being labelled 'fanatics' at one point in time or another. Maybe being labelled as 'playing god'. Why not let nature takes its course, maybe?
I guess you have to be there, physically, involving your time, your hands, your energy, your emotions - to understand the psyche of each person now involved in animal welfare in one area or another.
For Sam the koala above, and for many strays on the Singapore streets or injured wildlife somewhere out there, you would have to there with them, even if only to see them in their actual habitats for just one time -- to fully understand and accept the realities of such situations. Cos in the comfort and urban distractions of an everyday life, it is just too easy to offer our opinions or flick an issue aside. And Sam would just be relegated to yet another colour pictorial on the great wide web.
Only in this case - Sam is so very much a living, breathing, sentient being - with many more of her kind out there now, right in minute, suffering the consequences of the bushfires.
If you have a heart for animal welfare, don't just talk about it. Get involved. Start somewhere. Cos the distance is great when you simply read of issues on print or web. And thus the heart can be detached. And hands inactive. But make some time to really get close, get into it, to see, hear, smell, touch. Then you would begin to know the answers to the many 'whys' in your mind. And your heart may bring you to places you may never have imagined.
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