Predatory Animals and Love

[Joseph123]

I know and understand that the true nature of human beings is love. I would have always made a similar statement about animals, given their propensity for love that is evident and because I have heard that love is their true condition, as well. Though, my conception has been troubled as I have begun to consider predatory animals. Any being killing another is certainly about the least loving act possible.

I would very much appreciate it if someone would weigh in on the matter. P.S. I would prefer if you not comment here if you are a person that does not believe that animals have souls.


Thanks

[Saggi]

Animals can't go to a butchers or supermarket for their dinner,,,

How they gonna eat?

They are wild animals,,,

Love and hugs

Jo

XxXx

[Joseph123]

Thanks, but I am approaching this from the perspective that we know that killing animals for meat is wrong.

[Tobi]

I don't know everything about this...
But I know how my dog was when she was alive here. She was capable of tremendous love and loyalty, also great gentleness and understanding. But she killed 2 pheasants and a number of rabbits in her life. They would run, she would chase, the intent was her wild instinct to find food and to hunt. As we live in countryside, and we walked free every day it was not always possible to stop her in time.
It used to upset me, but at the same time I honoured the creatures as best I could and cooked them for her food.

OK so I know she wasn't a wild animal. But she had wild instincts as well as domesticated ones.
Yet on the other hand, her capacity for deep love was great.

For wild creatures, who depend on meat for the main part of their diet, and whose digestive system isn't set up for a large percentage of plant based foods, the hunt and the kill is their food.
It would be for meat-eating humans too, except humans have become divorced from their responsibility. They buy a square-shaped package, a burger, or a frozen dinner in a store, and don't involve themselves with the reality of what they are eating. After all, some meat looks like popcorn or tiny little yellowish blocks (coated with herbs and breadcrumbs)! It doesn't even look like an animal that had to be hunted and killed.
Those humans who eat those things are also capable of love.

A father or mother may love their children and family members unconditionally, yet they eat sausages, or burgers, or chicken, or salmon......

It's my opinion that the Soul of an animal undergoes big changes after its passing to spirit. That is what I've experienced anyway. And many things that were done from survival instinct on the physical plane are no longer needed there, and are reviewed spiritually (as with humans) As a Spirit is a Spirit, no matter what form it took on the physical plane.
Then whenever the capacity for love is present, those things such as Love really come to the forefront of that spirit's awareness, and become magnified.

[running]

I love fishing. It enables me to feed myself and others. Hunting is the same way. I do it to feed myself and others. Everything has to eat. We just eat different things. Some of us eat flesh. Some of us eat plants. Some of us eat both. When I die I hope the earth, worms, and whatever else eats me. Its the last thing I have to give.

The thing I see as being without love is materialism. It destroys the earth, animals, and ourselves. Even a house destroys the habitat where animals and other creatures could be living. Of course we have to live somewhere but nothing like how we tbink we do. What happened to all the wolves, buffalo, and many other animals?Materialism has wiped them out almost entirely. It sickens me but that's the way it is. So I don't go around glooming about it. I do my best to not buy anything I don't need. I have my phone, truck, and a few bags of clothes. I have no choice about it really. Meditation has opened my heart and I can't live the way I used to.

That's my deal and I'm not trying to sell it to anyone. I'm just expressing my experience. And of course my experience with fishing and hunting for food.

I

Originally Posted by Tobi

I don't know everything about this...
But I know how my dog was when she was alive here. She was capable of tremendous love and loyalty, also great gentleness and understanding. But she killed 2 pheasants and a number of rabbits in her life. They would run, she would chase, the intent was her wild instinct to find food and to hunt. As we live in countryside, and we walked free every day it was not always possible to stop her in time.
It used to upset me, but at the same time I honoured the creatures as best I could and cooked them for her food.

I too had a dog who loved hunting so much. She would go so far as to kill skunks in our yard even when they sprayed in the face not once, twice, but 3 or 4 times. If that's not love, I don't what is

My thoughts are that for all animals love is just accepting all that is without judgment. That's not to say they don't suffer, but they are just don't make judgments about the rightness or wrongness of things the way we do.

[Eternal Paradox]

Originally Posted by Joseph123

Thanks, but I am approaching this from the perspective that we know that killing animals for meat is wrong.

There is nothing wrong with killing animals for meat if:

1) You hunt the animal yourself.

2) You do it in a way that minimizes suffering

3) You honor the spirit of that animal

4) You don't let parts of the animal go to waste


Also understand that some animals -require- meat in their diet and we as humans do not. Our meat intake should be minimal if at all. A lion that isn't hungry will pass up on an easy kill. A gazelle can be literally yards from a satiated lion and not feel danger. There is a certain understanding in nature that I don't believe exists in our society.

Also in my opinion we have bred tendencies such as hunting into our dogs. A wolf may enjoy hunting but it doesn't kill for fun either. Animals generally only kill for food or when they sense danger. Any other behavior IMO we have bred into them through generations of manipulation of natural traits.


Side Note: I don't identify with being vegetarian or vegan. I try not to eat meat but I do on occasion. I just try to have appreciation for the life of the animal I am consuming. I don't hunt my own food, which is somewhat hypocritical to what I said. I just want to make it clear I have nothing against people who consume meat -ESPECIALLY- if they hunt it themselves.

[WmBuzz71]

Leopard Kills Monkey and Discovers Baby! INCREDIBLE REACTION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8XrGf4pbmI

[psychoslice]

Animals are animals, they do what animals do, its simply nature, nothing to do with love, the conditions that you put onto the animals is your judgement of how you want nature to be, it just doesn't work that way.

[Touched]

If you believe in an objective morality that says killing for any reason is wrong, then you believe in a higher power, thus in a 'Creator' that set the universe in motion.

If a 'Creator' was responsible for the universe, then logically nothing could happen in the universe that (S)He does not allow. Killing happens all the time in the universe, therefor killing is allowed. The question becomes 'Why is killing allowed?'.

If a 'Creator' set the universe in motion, then why does it appear that life appeared spontaneously on the earth, to then evolve to it's present form? Why not just 'appear', as it looked to the Ancients, when they wrote the Christian (and many others) creation story of how life was created as it was (except notably the Hindus, who included evolution in their 'revealed' texts.).

Of course, if it appeared that life was spontaneous and self-sustaining, then there is no logical compulsion to believe in a 'Creator'. There is the Spiritual explanation of life, which is opening and transcending, and the physical explanation of life, which is secularly definitive.

The great gifts of human life are reflective awareness and Freedom, the freedom to make choices WITHOUT undue influence or pressure, merely our own awareness of what is right, and what is wrong.

The universe consistently rewards Awareness.