May all beings be happy and free

Just a very few of my most memorable friends, that have brought me comfort, joy, love, companionship, laughter and tears this year.

What a blessing animals are to humanity. All creatures, all beings.

All animals deserve to be happy & free. No matter their size or purpose.

No animal deserves to be intentionally killed, eaten, used for work or food, used to make clothes, ridden for our pleasure, tied up all day, befriended as family for a short time and then eaten or sold to be eaten.

No animal deserves to be dying alone with a terminal illness on the beach while DJs & partygoers are raving all night right next to them, blissfully unaware of the simultaneous reality going on in front of them.

Since when did our world become so self-centered and all about our own temporary pleasure?

And who are we to judge one animal against another?

If you can eat a cow or a pig or a chicken, then why not a dog or a cat too? At least China doesn't discriminate. They just eat everything.

But seriously, what's the difference? Just because some animals have been domesticated?

Did the animals give you permission to stick a bar in their mouth & yank it while riding on their back with a belt tight on their stomach and being kicked to move? Would you enjoy that?

Did the animals sign up to carry 100+ litres of plastic water bottles up the mountain because tourists can't carry their own water?

It's much easier to not think about these things when it's all about our own pleasure or when the suffering is not in our face.

It's much more hidden in the West, but in India, the great teacher, it's in your face on a daily basis. So you are forced to witness the harsh truths of reality.

It doesn't matter where it's happening, the fact that it's happening at all should make you feel something.

We are all interconnected, interdependent.

If you harm any other sentient being, you are also harming yourself.

As technology & globalization continues to rise, we have alternative options & greater solutions.

But before there's true global change, the change first must start in each and every one of us.

And it starts with AWARENESS.

#peta