Week 10- Tony Tran
The one place I can see benefits being added into spirit realm into my animal science studies is its loose connection to animal welfare. Animal welfare has been disconnected between animal species. We put a cat and dog’s value as much as being a human. However, lower in the spectrum are production animals. But I’d say the worst are lab animals. This is associated with spirituality because there is a spiritual disconnect between animals with different purposes in their lives. We see the spirituality of our pets; therefore, many of us treat them better. For production animals, it varies. Not all normal or free-range animals are treated bad nor the best. Depending on the owner and his staff, they can treat them with the respect that they are due because they are giving us substance and other things. Last of all are the lab animals. Although some lab animals finish their research duration and can be adopted, I am talking about the ones that are being researched on until they cannot or must be euthanized for analysis. It is something I feel that citizens are not informed of and condemn it; however, they do not see the necessity of it or purpose of it. Therefore, we do not respect the spirit of those animals that die by the dozens in the pursuit of knowledge. Every animal that comes onto this Earth has a life and some of them are in the hands of humans. It is up to us to acknowledge them while they are on this world and be given the same respect as we would to our departed human counterparts. The challenge is to formulate such a class that acknowledges the spirituality of animals probably within the realm of animal welfare such that students actually care about it. Good strategies would be experiencing such an experience. For me, we had a lab in our Animal Reproduction class which required us to castrate mice. Particularly in our section, two of our mice didn’t go through the procedure successfully. That was a case that I felt a spiritual connection that broke when those animals died for the knowledge and experience that we gained from it. Therefore, real observable or feel-able experiences are a good way of achieving spirituality within animal sciences (just like learning via going outside into nature/real world vs in lecture).
Question: Although a trivial question, I would wonder how a sample population (such as college students of UC Davis) would feel about the cows or animals that are in UC Davis. Do they think that these animals have a spirit within them? Do they acknowledge these animals in a respectful manner? I’m not talking about just touching them, but feeling for them and connecting with the animal. I see too many of them take photos like a tourist photo but think of them only as a novel object.
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