Birds are one of the most abused species one on this planet. Billions of chicken, geese, pheasants, turkeys, ducks, emus, ostriches, pigeons, grouse, quails, doves, woodcocks, songbirds, and others are slaughtered every year to embellish our dinner plates. Cruelly raised, transported and killed, these birds are treated in most inhumane ways imaginable. In the last decade, several hundred million birds have been culled in the name of containing avian flu. Killing has become a fashion, the trendiest thing to do to impress the western consumer that the meat exported to them is safe. Such killing by burying them alive or by burning, strangulating or suffocating them has no scientific basis. In most cases inoculation can suffice. But in today’s global economy, public relation concerns sideline scientific facts. Only man could justify such insanity and call it ‘economics’.

So do these birds have any feelings at all?

Lets have a look at a true story by Jan Fredericks.“After hearing accounts of how “stupid” turkeys can be, a lady and herhusband were surprised to see two wild turkeys walk out onto a busy two lane country road and spread out their wings. One turkey faced oncoming traffic in one direction, the other faced oncoming traffic in the other direction. Confused drivers came to a halt. Everyone waited to see what would happen. Suddenly out of the trees came a whole family – mom, and six or seven baby turkeys.

The turkey family paraded across the highway in single file. When they had all reached the other side, the two “traffic guard” turkeys lowered their wings and followed them into the brush. Traffic resumed.

”Hundreds of millions of turkeys are slaughtered every year to ‘givethanks’. Yes, God needs to be thanked profusely for creating ‘man’, themost cruel, heartless and insensitive creature ever.

This turkey story is not an isolated or freak incident. Any one who deals with pets or deals with animals in any way can see that they feel just like we do.

We can present another similar experience by Frank L. Hoffman to reinforce our contention here. Frank writes, “Several weeks ago, while I was in Streetsboro, Ohio, an associate of mine was driving us to the job site of an assisted living facility which was still under construction. It’s located near the Frost Road exit of Interstate 480. On the west side of the exit is a lake which has a populationof Canadian Geese. And like so many of us humans, a Canada Goose seems to think that the grass is greener on the other side of the road, for several families of them were grazing in the grassy area between the Interstate and the local road that separated them from the lake.”

“By the time we arrived on the scene, these families had decided to return to the lake. They were all gathered together on the east side of the Hudson Aurora Road waiting for an opportunity to cross over to the lakeside. During a short lull in the early morning traffic, just as we were arriving, a father stepped out onto the road and walked to the center with his wings spread out like a school crossing guard. We stopped, as did the car heading in the opposite direction. When this Canada Goose was convinced that it was safe for his family to cross the road, he signaled to his wife, while at the same time he dropped his wings and stood with his head held high. Mom started to cross the road with her children close behind, or at least most of them.“

“During this time Dad kept alternately looking at us and the driver of the other car to make sure that we weren’t going to move until his family was safely across the road. He didn’t look at the cars. Instead, he looked us squarely in the eyes, knowing that we would signal our intentions before our cars ever started to move. Once Mom and most of the kids were safely on the other side, Dad left his sentinel position and hurried his straggling kids safely across the road.” (By: Frank L. Hoffman – 2 July 2000)

Unlike 50% of us humans, Canadian Geese mate for life. We have a lot to learn from these geese on how to raise and protect families, even though we consider ourselves to be a “higher” life form.