(NaturalNews) "Vengeance is mine," sayeth the captive beast. "A Siberian tiger at the San Francisco Zoo leaps a 12-foot high wall and mauls three visitors who had been tormenting her, killing one. A circus elephant tramples and gores a sadistic trainer, who had repeatedly fed her lit cigarettes. A pair of orangutans at the San Diego Zoo steals a crowbar and screwdriver and break-out of their enclosure. An orca at Sea World snatches his trainer into the pool and holds her underwater until she drowns. What's going on here? Are these mere accidents or simply cases of animals acting on instinct?" -- excerpt from Jason Hribal's Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden History of Animal Resistance
Independent action is what ultimately took place among those frustrated animals that had enough of the supremacist humans in charge of them. If there has ever been a question about animals having a consciousness, memories, desires, or even a soul, these actions would answer yes to all of them.
Consciousness is defined as a sense of one's personal or collective identity, including attitudes, beliefs and sensitivities. The difference between humans and animals is what we focus on and how we perceive the world. We both have the ability to express and receive emotions such as love and anger, and we both have a will to live.
On Sept. 7, 2007, Maxine the cow, who was tagged for slaughter, escaped a slaughter house in New York by literally running for her life. She was found on a highway in Queens and eventually sent to live in a farm sanctuary for the rest of her days. Her story captivated vegetarians and meat eaters alike.
In the streets of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, another calf ran for his life after escaping from his owner who was going to take him to a slaughterhouse, causing a police chase. Animal Control seized and handed the calf over to Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, where he was given a name -- "Herbie."
Both are now truly "Happy Cows."
A person's reaction toward an animal tends to change when they see that the animal takes action for itself by separating itself from the rest of the herd, signaling that there is indeed a wild spirit wishing to experience its own freedom and live in peace on a planet that is rightfully theirs as well. Animals are as intellectual and emotional in their own way as any human.
I highly recommend the book, Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden History of Animal Resistance by Jason Hribal. It is one the most provocative books on animal rights available today.
"Hribal argues persuasively that these escapes and attacks are deliberate, that the animals are acting with intent, that they are asserting their own desires for freedom." - Counterpunch Books