I have just finished reading a wonderful book which I believe may have a great impact on how the world in general looks on those others who share our planet. Too long we have been influenced by the thinking of people like Descartes who said animals were mere automatons without feeling and Pavlov with his famous conditioning experiment on dogs. How and why did they have so much influence? Because they were men of education and science.

For generations far more people have been saying the opposite; that other living creatures were no different from us. They had feelings, intelligence, emotions. For the most part these writers were not taken seriously, other than by those who knew they were right because they too had first hand experience of other beings who were capable of feeling love, often to a depth that put us to shame.

Those of us who wrote about meaningful communication with between humans and other species were put in the same box as those who claimed to have spoken to, or been abducted by, aliens from another planet.

Stacey O’Brien in her wonderful book WESLEY THE OWL has changed that with her account of her 19 year relationship with a Barn Owl she adopted at a few days old and lived in a close relationship until his death because she is a trained biologist

Stacey believes that we are on the cusp of a new understanding of animal communication and the depth of their emotions and that in decades to come we will see this time as one in which we emerged from the dark ages of misunderstanding. She cites Jane Goodall as one of the leaders in this new enlightenment who in her work with Chimps showed them to be thinking, feeling individual personalities.

As more and more people accept that animals are, indeed, just like us so there is a groundswell of movement among thinking and caring people that “Shelters” for homeless animals that kill so many inmates cannot be right or ethical nor worthy of the name shelter.

I have to admit that I had not thought very much about this until my wonderful Mr. Mistoffelees told me that he knew he was to be killed and I later found out that he was absolutely correct. It was the realization that this sensitive and intelligent cat knew this (as no doubt do all the other inmates of such places) that pushed me into writing THE POWER OF THE CAT. Stoffy’s ‘crime’ was that he had reached the age of 5 months without anyone offering him a home. He has changed my thinking completely. I am now totally opposed to the idea that killing is the way to deal with surplus (to our mind) dogs and cats. Where ‘No Kill’ policies have been introduced the result has been a reduction in the number of strays not an explosion in numbers.

We can all do our bit, speak up against this wholesale murder of sensitive sentient beings, do not buy puppies or kittens in pet shops or off the Internet, Consider opening your home to a mature or even elderly dog or cat (or other animal in need) and above all follow Stacey O’Brien’s example and accept that it is a commitment for the life of that animal.