Be Kind to Animals - Always

This week is Be Kind to Animals Week. I just read a lovely - and very inspirational - story about Yvonne Wall (right), who runs a horse sanctuary in California called Forever Free Horse Rescue (check out their wonderful website if you get a chance). The story (click here to read it) talks about Yvonne's tireless efforts to help abused, abandoned and neglected horses. She gives them a loving home where they feel both safe and wanted, and where they form bonds with each other and with compassionate people.

These stories are so important because we're inundated, day in and day out, with tragic stories about the harsh and violent treatment of animals in factory farms, slaughterhouses, laboratories, fur manufacturing facilities, hunting grounds and countless other places where harm and death run rampant. It is so important for us to remind ourselves that there are also good people in this world trying to make a difference. People like Yvonne Wall, who gives and gives and gives of herself. Her reward, as she tells it in the wonderful video that goes with the story, is to make a difference in the lives of these beautiful beings. 

People like Yvonne deserve our thanks and inspire us to do more. Those of us who are passionate about animal rights hold out hope that one day, this is what all interaction between human and animals will look like.