• Lie on the grass and feel the earth. Really feel the grass and the earth’s support. This is our home! Let it hold you and feel connected to it. It will help you instinctively know how to care for it. • Set an intention of kindness and curiosity about other creatures. Practice humility - that means, in part, having an openness to another animals’ perspective. Another perspective can be really different from yours and yet still valid. Practice a willingness to help other creatures. • Focus on animal sounds around you. Spend the day really attending to all the bird songs that you hear. If you live in the city, you will be surprised by how many times you hear animals in a day if you listen. • Look into another creatures’ eyes, take them IN as beings with wants, needs, feelings, and intentions. If you can’t make eye contact, watch and consider them. What appears to be their interests, activities, feelings, concerns in their world and as conscious beings? BE CURIOUS. Feel into other creatures and their intentions. Open your mind and heart. If you can’t, ask yourself what is preventing you. Again, be curious. You will feel more connected and will start to take more caring actions, because to not do so will feel wrong. • Teach your children, anyone and everyone’s children to do the same. Don’t lecture. Share your interest in animals with the young. Help them “get” that animals are “people” too. Get creative in how to share your animal love. Have fun and help kids have fun getting to know an animal. Share especially with any young people who rarely (if ever) get to see wild creatures. For example, organize an urban class trip to a local CSR farm or local sanctuary! • Get to know a chicken, pig, cow, duck, goose, cow or other farm animal so you can really feel connected to their well-being. Do the same with common “research” and “tested” upon animals like a mouse, cat, dog, guinea pig, and many other creatures. • Do the same with a fish. Fish are very relational. Get to know one and you will see how much they communicate, remember, socialize, and have individual personalities (get to know two goldfish and see how different they can be). Fish are the only animals we eat in the U.S. who have no rights! Work to change this! • Spend time getting to really know a friend’s cat or dog. • If you pray, pray for all creatures on the planet and pray for hurt and suffering creatures as you move through your day and become aware of them (road kill, the abused animal you see on Animal Planet, the hen that laid your breakfast egg). Pray also for those who are cruel or indifferent to animals, that they may get help towards compassion. • When people argue or ridicule you, remain polite. It is rarely a good idea to be rude. Being a jerk does not help people to learn or think about anything you might be hoping to help them understand. Don’t lecture. Just remain clear about your beliefs and see if there is any way to invite them to be curious about why they feel so threatened by these opinions. Why it is that they need to be so disrespectful towards you and/or your ideas? Agree with them that it is hard to be open if it will involve having to change their ways. Do not stay in a useless conversation. It is not worth your energy.

• Go to caringconsumer.com (https://caringconsumer.com/)and learn of the many cruelty- free shopping choices you can make. • Do not engage in purchasing or admiring purchases of products that support animals as commercial goods for our use. Examples include fur, snakeskin, ivory, leather, tortoise shell, and exotic pets (wild animals captured and removed from their homes or bred in captivity in usually appalling conditions). ​ • Purchase only products that you know have not been tested on live animals. If in doubt-ask! There are many organizations you can check with. For example, PETA or Caring Consumer. Tell your local grocery store to stock animal friendly products and why it matters to you. • Take responsibility and learn about the lives of the animals you are eating or who provide your clothes or “testing” for your make up, or cleaning supplies. The Humane Society of the United States,(http://www.humanesociety.org/?referrer=https://www.google.com/) FACT (Food Animal Concerns Trust),(https://foodanimalconcernstrust.org/) PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals),(https://www.peta.org/) Farm Sanctuary,(https://www.farmsanctuary.org/) FARM (Farm Animal Rights Movement), M(http://www.farmusa.org/)ercy for Animals, a(https://www.mercyforanimals.org/)nd NAVS (The National Anti-Vivisection Society) a(https://www.navs.org/)re some of the places where you could start learning. This self-education is a courageous step, as it will cause you to face a lot and have some difficult feelings and conflicts. It will also help you to change your behavior and move toward bigger changes. Putting our behavior and money behind our beliefs is an important step to really changing the world: both ours, other animals, and the whole planet. Go to a slaughterhouse, a factory cow, sheep, pig, turkey, chicken “farm” and see what you are participating in with even “free range” and/or “organic” meat. • Shop in animal care responsible ways and encourage your local shops to provide such care items. • Do not buy products which conduct animal testing, and write to companies and ask them to stop their animal testing so you can buy their products. Tell them that you will not buy their products until they stop animal testing. The National Anti-Vivisection Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals h(https://www.peta.org/)ave a list of companies that do and don’t test on animals. (https://www.peta.org/) • As you do holiday or everyday shopping, make sure that everything you buy is cruelty-free. Show how important it is to support those businesses that refuse to profit from cruelty to animals. • ​Check that your health charity donations go to places and people who do not test on live animals. There are more modern and useful non-animal teaching and research methods now available. Two places you can go for more information are Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine a(http://www.pcrm.org/)nd American Anti-Vivisection Society.(http://www.aavs.org/) • Do not buy stuff with down filling. Nowadays, down comes with immense suffering for the geese or other birds. Buy warm, cruelty-free, synthetic clothes! • Elana, in a children's group at a community center studying animal rights, found a great resource on how to make vegan household products.(http://www.cleaningservicenewyorkcity.com/vegan-cleaning-and-makeup.html)(http://www.cleaningservicenewyorkcity.com/vegan-cleaning-and-makeup.html) • In food shopping, know your labels. The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) has a great website for this(https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/change)

• Spay and neuter your pets; pay for a neighbor’s dog or a feral cat to also be spayed. • Adopt an older pet (from a shelter or rescue organization). They are usually well-trained and desperately need loving homes. • Birds as pets are only to be chosen after very careful education about the species and whether you can responsibly provide a happy home and a long term plan for your pet’s care. If you really believe that you understand the social needs, noise, and longevity of these species, then please adopt one of the many discarded of these precious animals. Do not support their illegal poaching or poor breeding facilities. There are birds in need of adoption. Go to “Project Perry” or Google the issue and learn more about all this before taking action. • Donate time to a local shelter. • Take care of your pets and teach them to be good with people. A mean and scary dog gives other dogs a bad name and is not fair to anyone. Teach your dog to be good to mail delivery people and help other people to get a good sense of animals from your pet. This is the same for all pets and animals under your care. If you care for a grumpy or ornery animal, make sure that it is protected from interacting with people who may irritate it and cause it to hurt others. • Do not walk your dog where it says “No Dogs.” There are habitat and other wildlife to consider and there is reason a sign reads “No Dogs.” • Approach all animals with care and respect. If an animal is startled or scared, it may react fiercely, and then in our world the animal is blamed and may suffer in some way by the human counter-response. People do stupid and disrespectful things to animals all the time. When the animal responds in a normal way to such behavior, it is often the animal who is then punished. Don’t pet dogs who are leashed to a pole. The dog may not be friendly and may bite, and then the dog will be in trouble (maybe big trouble). Don’t leash an irritable dog to a pole, because people will pet him/her and then your dog will be in trouble. There are many situations of people upsetting, teasing, feeding, and engaging in even well-meaning interactions that disturb animals and then get them in trouble with people when they react. • Take your gently used towels and blankets to your local animal shelter to make sure that abandoned and lost animals have something soft and warm to curl up on. You could also mail them to another shelter, like The Ironwood Pig Foundation or The Center for Great Apes • ​Do NOT purchase or entrap (or contribute to the entrapment/enslavement animal market) any animal as a pet unless it is meant to be a pet. Frogs, turtles and other small amphibians and reptiles belong outside in the wild. If you like such creatures use your time and money to get to a local wild place and visit them where they live. If they live somewhere far away, like iguanas or parrots, support them to remain there with buying/renting videos about them and save up for a visit. • Really love and know your pets. Don’t have more pets than you can really care for. • Do NOT purchase or participate in the exotic animal trade. Animals like chimpanzees and other monkeys, tigers and other large cats and all wild animals belong in the wild and are terribly unhappy far from their homes. They also do not do well as adult pets and are discarded and end up at canned hunts or being in rescue facilities that can ill afford to have more residents. If you can afford such pets then you can probably afford to visit them in their natural homes, thus supporting their wild lands to stay wild. You could also give volunteer time to rescue facilities for these poor creatures. See Born Free and many U.S. animal rescue sites (Google any “exotic” animal and you will find places that depend on donations from us to rescue the thousands of these wrongly adopted and then discarded creatures). • Do not shop at pet shops that sell live animals. Animals either do not belong in homes as pets (from frogs to tigers) or can be found at a local animal shelter. The puppy mill industry is deeply disturbing (see the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ website or the Humane Society of the United States’ website for more information). There are an enormous number of shelters dedicated to caring for exotic animals who have outgrown their thoughtless owners and are now incapable of living in the wild. Go to the Born Free/Animal Protection Institute for more information. Tell your local pet store to stop supporting the live animal trade. • There are only a few domestic species of animals that enjoy living with kind humans. All the other species enjoy living in their own homes and if we care for them we should work very hard to protect their habitats rather than bring them to suffer in ours! • Best Friends has many resources on keeping pets safe including hazardous home cleaning supplies, food safety, holiday care (think Fourth of July fireworks) and more.​

• ​Eat less meat or no meat or no animal products at all (become a vegan). Links to help you think about these steps: Home - Vegan Outreach, A Healthy Living Guide to Vegan Recipes, and 25 Tips for Vegetarian Newbies - Be More with Less. • Purchasing and eating organic products is great for small creatures such as voles, worms, snails, and insects, as well as larger creatures such as birds, rabbits, and humans who harvest and handle the crops. Organic is wonderful all the way up the food chain, for the planet, and for you. Organic is good for our world community. There is an important caveat to "organic" labels, however, when it comes to diary, eggs, meat, and clothing. "Organic" does not necessarily reflect that the lives of the animals involved are at all humane and civilized. For example, "organic" eggs can be produced by hens living in the most appalling conditions and having horrific lives (and are naturally omnivorous and would not choose to be eating a diet of only organic grains). Organic meat can come from some terribly treated animals. Using organic products is a terrific thing to do AND it is also important to look into the lives of the mammals and birds involved. Do not assume "organic" is humane. Please use organizations such as American Humane Association to learn about how to find humanely raised animals and resulting products. There are other organizations on our "Take Action" page that can also help with this issue. • Try not eating meat unless you have seen where it has lived, how it has lived, and how it has died. In this way you can support true humane farming. Try this one animal at a time. If you feel like eating the meat of the animal from a factory farm, think of the animal. Think of its eyes. Think of the reality of its life... a “concentration camp” from birth to death. This is a feeling, thinking, sentient being, just like you. Get conscious about your actions and food choices step by step. Remember to educate yourself about protein. Vegans or vegetarians are great grassroots animal care educators as they can teach people a lot, gently and politely, just by explaining their actions when people ask. It is a healthy choice for you as well (for example, read The Food Revolution by Tom Robbins). ​ • There is a new UN report, just published, that clearly promotes a change to veganism. Here is just one quote: "Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth, increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products" (UNEP 2009). • Buy your meat (and vegetables) from Community Supported Agricultural (CSA) farms. These are small farms or groups of farms which care for their animals and vegetables much better than agro-businesses. The animals are treated humanely and you can actually see them and how they are cared for, while supporting small businesses. There are many reasons for supporting the return to such farming-environmental and human health reasons as well as for humanity towards animals. • Encourage your family, friends, and neighbors, as well as local restaurants to also support CSA farms. • Know where your meat comes from especially when eating out. For example, many fast food places are using or considering using cloned meat (horrible suffering for the cloned creatures-go learn about it and take action), or get their cow meat from the most cruel, cheap, and horrible stockyards where the animals have had unspeakably awful lives, or get their chickens from extraordinarily cruel conditions. If you want to eat meat do your best to find it responsibly, and tell the places you decide not to patronize what they need to do to get your business. • Try not eating dairy from cows and other animals who can’t move or be out in grassy fields. Know your cheese and milk provider’s lives and only support products that are produced by happy healthy cows. Do this for 3 months (the cows have to live terribly for their whole lives) and see if you can live with the alternatives you will have found. Soy cheeses and delicious milk and ice cream alternatives are ever improving and increasing the demand will continue that trend. • On an individual level, try not to make animal welfare a bipartisan issue. Support fellow animal lovers with what they can and are doing, even if how they are voting does not appear to help animals in the bigger picture. Animals need all the help they can get, so meet people where they are at and then see if your thinking can help them become more mindful by power of example and conversation. OTHER RESOURCES • Here is an article on resources if you are a vegan or vegetarian. • If you would like help shifting to a vegan or vegetarian diet, here is a good resource.

• Urge your workplace, school, or children’s school to provide nondairy (soy, almond, or rice milk) alternatives as well as vegetarian alternatives, thus supporting other sources of food than probably non-humanely farmed meat, cheese, milk, and eggs. • Donate time, money, and useful items to a favorite animal cause. This could be a local shelter, a National Park such as Yellowstone or National Wildlife Foundation, an international cause such as The International Fund for Animals or Animals AsiaFoundation. Pick an animal and raise money for a group that is working to protect it. Have a bake sale, book sale, yard sale, auction for Siberian tigers, ocelots, sharks, gorillas, whales, sea turtles, grizzly bears, frogs. Be imaginative. Have fun. Raise the awareness in your community and meet people! ​​ • Contact your local medical school and politely ask them to replace, refine, and terminate their use of live animals in their programs. • Report animal abuse of any kind to your local police, local SPCA, PETA, or any number of local or national organizations. This includes issues with local domestic pets and the treatment of animals at the zoo, circus, farms, and wildlife. Do not be afraid to make your concerns public. 39. If someone is being cruel to an animal only intervene directly if it feels safe to do so. Research is clear that people who abuse animals are often not good to other people either. Only intervene directly if it seems like a case of ignorance, not intentional malevolence. There is no point in you getting hurt as well. (Always follow up later by contacting your local authorities about cruelty to animals.) • Andrea, in an after school program working to help animals, found this website with great ideas for alternatives to animal testing: "Information and Resources on Alternatives to Animal Testing".(http://www.fragrancex.com/Fragrance-Information/information-resources-on-alternatives-to-animal-testing.html) • VOTE! Find out how political candidates in all levels of government stand on animal welfare and environmental issues and vote for the best ones. Encourage all your friends to do the same. • Write letters, e-mails, make telephone calls, or (best) speak in person to your elected officials, company owners, and editors of your local paper about an animal or environmental issue. Write to places such as McDonalds about not serving cloned meat, Alaska or St Kitts heads of tourism about wolf or whale treatment, or opening a Greyhound track...every person to write a letter to can make a difference. Try to do one a month. Or one a week! ​ • Take organized action. There are a lot of options for this on websites listed on our “Take Action” page. Or you can start your own cause to help a creature. Causes can range from outlawing shark fin or fois gras in your town/county, improving anti-cruelty laws for pets or food animals, helping protect local species, stopping the local pet shop from a number of bad practices...so many options...look around and see what needs doing and take some time to do it • Take political and social action by using the web addresses on the “Take Action” page to communicate with your elected officials, people in government offices (e.g. the department of agriculture or the interior), and specific companies about matters of concern for animals. Such as national park rules, protection of endangered species, or anti-cruelty laws. There are many organizations listed on our “Take Action” page involved in many areas of animal and environmental concerns. Their websites have great petitions, letters, people to call, and other suggestions, many of them involving very little effort. • If you live in countries where there a few animal protections use the Internet to link up with organizations which can help support you to help animals. These organizations can also use your support to make changes. It is easier to do bigger changes as part of a group. • Follow your local government's budget discussions to make sure that funds for animals are not cut from the budget. If need be, lobby council members, write letters to the editor, and speak out for the animals in your community. • Urge Congress to outlaw “Class B Dealers” who sell shelter animals to research. On a state level extra action is needed in Minnesota, Oklahoma, or Utah. • Try to get your town to build some highway underpasses for animals to use. This will be safer for people, too. Learn about the animal underpass projects (there is one in Concord, Massachusetts). Lobby for one in your town. • Tell your Congressional representatives in Washington that you do not want them to ignore animals. Yes, we have many problems to solve, but that is no excuse for letting animals suffer. Remind your representatives that these are your hard-earned tax dollars that they are spending and that cruelty to animals is an issue that a majority of voters care about. • On an individual level, try not to make animal welfare a bipartisan issue. Support fellow animal lovers with what they can and are doing, even if how they are voting does not appear to help animals in the bigger picture. Animals need all the help they can get, so meet people where they are at and then see if your thinking can help them become more mindful by power of example and conversation.

• If you are having trouble with wildlife on/with your property do not just contact a wildlife removal company, even if they claim to be “humane” and claim that they will relocate the animal(s). You can find guidance on choosing a service here or GeesePeace. Both of these groups will have thoughtful ideas for wildlife conflict resolution that will respect all parties involved. • Go to organizations like African Wildlife Association or Saving Species and investigate many options for donation, volunteering, travel, land purchases, and other ways these sort of organization are working around the world with local people to help save wildlife habitats and prevent extinction of endangered species. • Make a specific species your cause. Learn about and then advocate for it in any number of ways. Lemurs, cheetahs, abuse and slaughter of U.S. wild horses, the list is endless. Choose a species and advocate for it in your way. • Donate time to a local wildlife sanctuary. • DO NOT FEED WILD ANIMALS! This is not caring of an animal. Our food makes them sick (this includes bread for ducks). Our food is mostly not great for us and it is really bad for other animals. Larger animals become dependent in a way that does not serve them. They habituate (are smart and pursue an easy meal, in their minds) and they can often get aggressive and then become dangerous and eventually need to be killed by local authorities. This has been terrible for the bear, and now coyote populations in some of our National Parks, like Yellowstone. Feeding wild animals is not really a special way to get to connect with them. A more real connection involves staying still and seeing if an animal will notice you and keep doing what it is doing. • Don’t allow (trophy) hunting or trapping on your property. And be active in your community for stronger laws against poaching and captive hunting. • ​Support local nature centers, wildlife sanctuaries and other such endeavors. There are many ways to support these places: bring children and friends there, call and ask them what they may need, donate money and time, let others know how great these places are.

• Share your love of an animal, animals, wildlife, or just the outdoors, with young people. They may be your relatives, friends, or local community children or inner city children. It will all make a difference. • Give gifts of magazine subscriptions (e.g. National Geographic, Ranger Rick, Smithsonian, Audubon...), DVDs, and books about animals. This will raise people’s awareness of and care for animals and supports these animal productions which in turn supports animals... this is great for kids, from individuals to local schools and other communities, especially where children may not get access to wild animals. • Read and watch media on animals. This will educate you and support the media that is supporting animals. Let institutions like National Geographic, Smithsonian, BBC, and PBS know that you appreciate their efforts to raise people’s awareness about endangered species and the impact of global warming. Media gets a lot of pressure not to tell people the true and whole story and we need to support them when they make an effort to be honest and responsible. Let any media group spending money and time bringing us information on animals know that you appreciate their shows. • Teach kids (and adults) that it is not okay, EVER, to be mean to animals. There is never an excuse to pinch, poke, hit, scare, tease, or hurt another animal. Be really clear with children about this, just as you would be clear that it is not okay to hurt another person. Teach kids to have empathy (“how would you feel if...?”) and to be very gentle. Teach kids to love animals • Read Ingrid Newkirk’s book The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights. This book has many practical and compassionate ideas for speaking out for animals. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is an organization that has used radical (to some) measures to draw attention to the suffering of animals. Though I do not necessarily condone all their past actions, I do respect them immensely for using many clever, surprising, and successful tactics to get the plight of animals heard. All causes need outlier groups to get mainstream attention and to really focus on a core of the problem. Groups like PETA, FARM (Farm Animal Rights Movement), and Sea Shepherd have been extremely helpful to animals. They can continue to be some of the most influential of activist organizations for animal rights. They take on tremendously powerful industries and use brilliant tactics to get animal rights pushed forward. For the right people these groups may be a good fit for your activist talents. ​ • Find out how your legislators voted on animal protection issues. The Humane Society Legislative Fund (HSLF) has a “Humane Scorecard.” You can get one at on their website. • Check that your health charity donations go to places and people who do not test on live animals. There are more modern and useful non-animal teaching and research methods now available. Two places you can go for more information are Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and American Anti-Vivisection Society.

BE KIND! Every act of kindness to another creature is precious. When you do do anything, watch anything, participate in anything, think about the animals. How are they impacted? Is it right and good? What can you do, no matter how small, to make a difference? Every choice is one for or against animal respect and care. REDUCE, RECYCLE, REUSE "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or go without!" • Do not waste. Do not throw out anything until you must. Because everything we throw out goes into our oceans, air, or land and usually hurts the planet. Save and re-use! Really think about your choices of purchase and disposal and try to reduce your mess. You are being respectful to all life when you do this. • Recycle and be conscious about the use of plastic bags, plastic anything, baby diapers, Styrofoam, balloons, and other environmentally ruinous products which are also a serious hazard for wildlife. • Don’t use balloons, don’t use plastic wrap (use re-usable containers). We need to stop just consuming-using and throwing out. • Do not overuse resources, especially water. • Do not use plastic bags, carry your own bags and cups (or re-use brand plastic cups like Starbucks), reduce your water use, bicycle....do whatever you can to conserve resources that our planet animals need to survive or need us to give up so they can survive. • Carry your own bags and use as little plastic as possible. • Re-use all plastic bags. In fact use as little plastic anything as possible and re-use it as much as you can. Don’t use balloons at all and if you must, please make sure that they stay in the house. Plastic bags and balloons get swallowed by many creatures (seals, birds, sea turtles, whales) and are fatal. Plastic is also an unnatural substance that ends up polluting the world for decades. • Consider very carefully before deciding to give birth to another human child. There are too many people on the planet and we are using everything up. We have to manage our reproduction. Be a conscious part of this management in any way that is appropriate for you. Other Resources 21 Ways to Use Less Plastic, How to Be a More Responsible and Eco-Friendly Traveler PROTECT ANIMALS • Investigate your vitamins, herbal products, and supplements for animal ingredients. Chinese herbs can often have ingredients such as shark fin, pangolin scales, bear gall bladder bile. Be clear with your practitioner that you are deeply opposed to use of animal products in herbal supplements. The illegal hunting and poaching of rare and endangered animals is one major concern and another is that all animals raised for use in such products are having a very awful life. For some examples of this please go to Animals Asia. Unfortunately, in many cultures there are few or no laws protecting animals and their treatment in commercial enterprises. It cannot be “good karma” to use health products made from such suffering. Tell your acupuncturist! • Ask that donations to animal causes be made in your name as holiday gifts in lieu of presents. • Help your friends, colleagues, and neighbors be healthier, spend less, and save animals by throwing a vegan dinner party or potluck. Make your favorite dishes, and send your guests home with the recipes. • Don’t support circuses that use animal acts or attend any other events where live animals are on display. If you are unclear about the cruelty behind these acts, please use the Internet to educate yourself. There are a number of solid organizations that have reliable information about these practices. PETA and In Defense of Animals are two of them. • Do not wear fake (“faux”) fur. Besides the obvious point of not wanting to glorify animal fur as clothing (as animals raised and slaughtered for their fur live appalling lives and die horrible deaths in dreadful places all over the world), there is a loophole in our laws about fur labeling and almost ALL fake fur is actually made from real animal (dog) fur in other countries. These dogs, most commonly raccoon dogs raised and killed by the millions in China, are frequently skinned alive. Please see the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) for further details. To buy products that come from completely fur-free retailers please check here. Faux (often used as trim) fur is made from real animal suffering. 66. Send old fur and fur-fringed clothes for use at wildlife rehabilitation organizations (e.g. The Ironwood Pig Sanctuary or Chimp Haven). • Choose an appropriate organization and “adopt” an animal (e.g. sea turtle, wolf, chimpanzee) for a child as a gift. Then they can follow its progress through the year, or simply learn about it and rescue efforts for it and its species or fellow sufferers. I have found that the more I work for the welfare and respect of my fellow animals, the more ways I see that so much is connected. Human population control, efforts to control global warming, efforts to control the clarity of our water and many more endeavors are all connected to helping animals and saving our home and theirs. Choosing to ride my bike, to not buy water in plastic bottles but replace my safe cup from the tap (better regulated anyway), not to buy down products but go synthetic (I was horrified to learn about the suffering behind down products) all affect animal suffering and/or ultimate survival. So I try to do more and more of the best that I can. I also know that I cannot do “everything” and do not expect that of myself or others. We do what we can, one step at a time. I always try to support others to do whatever they can at the this moment. I find that I am always learning new things about my ingrained and unconscious behavior if I stay in respectful conversation with people. I imagine that they do the same. And I always speak for the animals’ perspective.