Harmful Addictions 

Why are animals important? Feeling of self worth and ambition

“The police simply don’t want to open another front of work and create a precedent for investigating and prosecuting crimes related to animals.” The Philanthropist correspondent talked to volunteer Inna Sergienko about how animal rights activists work in St. Petersburg.

No matter what they say, the public consciousness still turns out to be capable of positive changes. And therefore it is logical that, following a more attentive attitude towards socially excluded people or people simply in need of help, we gradually begin to think about “our smaller brothers”. The emergence of various volunteer organizations and groups involved in helping animals in the 2000s became a noticeable phenomenon in the social life of Russia. First of all, this is due to the fact that the life of animals (both street and domestic) in a metropolis creates problems for which there is no ready-made legislative solution yet, and those who are not indifferent to the fate of animals have to act independently.

Among other animal protection volunteer organizations in St. Petersburg in 2009, the Saved Life group was created, the founder of which was the animal rights activist Lyubov Sharganova. The group actively declared itself in 2009–2011: its volunteers helped animals, organized rallies, pickets and other public events designed to draw attention to the serious and painful problems of urban animals, and draw the attention of society to the fact that our legislation in this regard is still very imperfect. In 2012, Saved Life ceased to exist - many volunteers retired for one reason or another, there were only a few active participants in the group, and it became possible to solve some large-scale tasks, as well as engage in systematic animal protection activities, as a group. impossible. But some still continue to work in this direction to the best of their ability. I'm talking to Inna Sergienko, one of the active participants in Saved Life:

Why is it so difficult to apply the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on cruelty to animals?

Because, for example, Article 245 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is formulated rather vaguely. For example, it says that criminal punishment follows the cruelty to an animal "in the presence of minors." Or if cruelty to animals was carried out by "sadistic methods", "for selfish purposes", "out of hooligan motives", and these concepts are not specified. It is quite difficult to prove all these circumstances under the existing conditions of legal proceedings, but sometimes it is still possible.

St. Petersburg also has a regional law No. 7127 of October 12, 2010 “On administrative liability for cruelty to animals located on the territory of St. Petersburg”, according to which violators face a fine: individuals - up to 5 thousand rubles, officials - up to 10 thousand rubles , legal - up to 50 thousand. Whenever we succeed in getting a case filed for violating this law and punishing the culprit, we consider it our great victory.

But even when the article could be applied, the police are reluctant to act, because, according to the police themselves, their superiors do not encourage all these "cases about animals." Some policemen sympathize with us, but they can do little. There is an order from above - not to give a special course to these cases, that is, statements about such cases are accepted, but, as a rule, they get off with replies. The policemen complain: “The authorities tell us: ‘We don’t need this’.” Why? We can only guess. First, situations of cruelty to animals are not really such serious crimes as killing a person, for example, or robbery. “Well, they don’t rob or kill anyone ...” - representatives of the police or administration often tell animal rights activists, implying that nothing particularly terrible is happening. It is clear that protecting the safety and interests of people is a priority, but this does not mean that the already existing law should not work, and animals should remain defenseless, especially if, according to existing legislation, they are already objects of human rights protection. Secondly, I personally think that the police simply do not want to open another front of work and create a precedent for investigating and prosecuting crimes related to animals. You start one thing, you have to start another, and then, you see, the next one ... Why strain and do something when you can do nothing? I already have a whole bunch of replies from the police sent in response to my statements at home. These responses say that either no violations were found, or someone was given a warning, and sometimes these replies are clearly copied from some previous responses to some other applicants, and so on.

Well, I think the main factor is that our state, in principle, is not humanistically oriented - it does not want to protect even socially vulnerable groups of its citizens, treat children, integrate disabled people, and so on. And the animals - all the more he does not want to protect. Therefore, one of the goals of animal rights activists is to humanize the attitude of the whole society towards animals.

What was the first thing your group did?

Mostly problems of cats and dogs, ordinary city animals. There are other animal protection organizations that are engaged in various areas - for example, targeted assistance to wild animals, exotic animals, birds. For example, the VITA center specializes in fighting for changes in the legal and legislative sphere, for the adoption of more humane laws and changing public opinion, there are groups that pay more attention to environmental issues, or separate groups that help, for example, dogs of specific breeds, such as " Staff Team”, “Help for Dachshunds”, “Chow Chow Relief Fund” and the like.

Many mistakenly believe that animal rights activists are in favor of stray cats and dogs breeding uncontrollably, flooding the whole city and biting passers-by. But this is not so: we are against the cruel killing of animals, against keeping them in bad conditions. At the same time, we are all for reducing the number of homeless animals. For example, stray dogs are unnecessary and dangerous in a metropolis. But cats living on the streets are still needed, however, in small numbers. This is due to the peculiarities of urban ecology: if cats disappear, then mice will come. As, for example, it happened in 2012, when in the area of ​​Komendantsky Prospekt they began to actively fight ownerless cats, and then mice were found in apartments even on the upper floors of new buildings. But mice are carriers of dangerous infections. And they leave, even feeling the smell of a cat. Therefore, the city needs a certain population of cats. To regulate the number of cats, they need to be sterilized, which our group periodically did.

- What is it like?

For example, in St. Petersburg there is one clinic where cats live. The hospital administration treats cats loyally and even well, but, of course, does not want them to breed uncontrollably. And natural selection cannot cope with the regulation of the number of cats, and even the locals often throw them there. At some point, we entered into an informal agreement with the hospital administration: they allow cats to live on their territory, provide them with food and create conditions for wintering, and we control the number of the pride by spaying once or twice. We make arrangements in advance with a veterinarian who agrees to perform the surgery either free of charge or at a discounted price - in which case we collect money from anyone who wants to help, mainly through our social media groups. Then we arrive with special equipment - an automatic cage-trap, we catch their cats and wait for the doctor. And then, two or three days after the operation, we release our wards back.

Because of this automatic cat cage, we are sometimes mistaken for flayers. There have already been several cases when older women were ready to fight with us, protecting their street pets - we had to calm them down for a long time, only after a long conversation we managed to prove to them that, on the contrary, we want to help animals.

As for dogs, there are volunteer groups that are engaged in their sterilization - small ones are caught, adults are shot with sleeping pills, then they are sterilized.

This is how the problem of street animals at the city level can be solved. There should be a program in which the number of street animals in the city would be controlled in humane ways. You can go on trapping and sterilization raids once or twice a year. And now it turns out that volunteers like us are doing this for their money. In essence, we are doing what social services should be doing. Well, except that we still sometimes, if the animal is affectionate and reaches out to people, we take it for overexposure, treat it, accustom it to the tray and then attach it.

The key problem is that there is no coherent state program for organizing the life of street animals. A few years ago, a city program of dog neutering was launched in St. Petersburg, the essence of which was that dogs are caught, neutered, and then returned to their habitats. The implementation of this was entrusted to "Spetstrans". It was assumed that in the event of an excess of stray dogs, they would be humanely killed using modern drugs that make it possible to do this painlessly. Also, within the framework of this program, it was planned to build shelters for homeless animals. The program was criticized by many experts, including the fact that it did not reduce the likelihood of dogs attacking city residents. But what was expedient in this program was also not fulfilled. As a result, for some reason, there was no sterilization, no humane euthanasia, no shelters, but just a slaughter - dogs were slaughtered with shovels and iron rods in front of children and adults, as happened, for example, in Vsevolozhsk. Therefore, in 2011, a rally was held against this program, which brought together about 2,000 people. As an animal rights activist, I unequivocally advocate the mass sterilization of domestic and street animals, because otherwise, alas, there is an overabundance of this living biomass in the city - all animal shelters are overcrowded, it becomes more and more difficult to find new owners for a cat or dog.

- How does society perceive the function of animal rights activists?

I often have to engage in a kind of educational program. When our group was still active, people called me every now and then with complaints like: "My cat climbed a tree" or "The neighbor is torturing his dog." We had to explain that we are a volunteer organization, and not the police, the Ministry of Emergency Situations or the veterinary service, and tell them where to turn with what problem. Of course, as far as possible, they tried to help the animals on their own. For example, one elderly woman living in a hostel had a cat stuck in a garbage chute, and no services wanted to deal with this problem. So I got the cat.

There are some very wild cases. For example, once one animal rights activist received a call from one district administration and was told: “Here in Utkina backwater, some flayer hung a Rottweiler high on a tree, we can’t remove the corpse - we don’t have an aerial platform. Can't you take it off? And then women and children walk along the street nearby ... ”To which the animal rights activist replied:“ You know, in fact, I am a music teacher. And to her: “But you are engaged in animals, you are a volunteer!” And indeed, the Rottweiler was removed with her help - she found those people who could do it.

- Did you have any problems with municipal services of the city?

In 2011, for some reason, public utilities workers began a craze - to tightly wall up the basements of houses. Often in these cellars there were cats that could not get out and died a painful death without water and food. Sometimes domestic cats also found themselves in the basements. But public utilities, of course, did not agree to demolition of basements.

- And why did they wall it up?

As they themselves explain, basements are walled up so that homeless people or terrorists do not get there, that is, in order to avoid emergency situations. But, by the way, in some houses with gas heating, even ventilation ducts were bricked up, which is a violation of safety regulations. Then an order came out in the city that the hermetic walling up of basements was unacceptable. As far as I know, this was due to household gas explosions in the basements of residential buildings. True, these tragedies happened in other cities - in Biysk, in Gus-Khrustalny, Voronezh, but in St. Petersburg they began to be more attentive to the safety rules for operating gas equipment.

But it happened that the residents of the houses could not find a consensus with the public utilities. Then the tenants called us, we came and talked about cruelty to animals, about violation of the standards for maintaining the housing stock, and so on. Most often, representatives of the HOA and employees of public utilities went to meet us halfway. Then we agree on the installation of an automatic cat box in the basement - after all, you can’t catch cats in the basement with your bare hands. This operation may take several days. A volunteer should have a certain resource of time, because often you have to do something during working hours. For example, we had to visit many basements - on Komendantsky Prospekt, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Ladozhskaya metro station, on Rzhevka ... And now I know the cellars in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Lesnaya metro station like the back of my hand (smiles - I. L.). Of course, keeping the basements of residential buildings in order is only welcome, but animals should not die painful deaths because of this.

- Did your group break up because its members did not have enough time to volunteer?

Not really. One of the main reasons is emotional burnout. When you realize that you can achieve only "point" results, and there are more and more animals that you cannot help, the enthusiasm disappears, sometimes even despair sets in. The motto of any volunteer, in whatever field he works: "Drain the sea with a pipette." Sometimes the life circumstances of a volunteer change - the situation at work, health status, personal problems.

- Does someone who decides to take up animal protection need any special training?

It is necessary to arm yourself with common sense, observe safety precautions and master some specific skills. For example, one must understand that a cat is, first of all, a predator, albeit a small one. It is not recommended to touch a street cat and even someone else's domestic cat with bare hands - only in bite-proof mittens. And it is very difficult to keep a cat in such mittens, because it is a dexterous animal with a slippery skin. Therefore, most often we use an automatic cat cage. A volunteer working with animals should always have some kind of disinfectant with them. And if the wound is deep, then you need to urgently go to the emergency room. Once, already being an experienced animal rights activist, I grossly violated safety precautions - I took a three-month-old kitten by the scruff with my bare hands. I thought he was small, and it's not scary. He twisted and managed to bite my finger, bit the joint of my thumb, after which I got an anaerobic infection, I had to spend a lot of money and effort to restore the functionality of this finger and hand.

It happens that cruelty to animals is not obvious to ordinary citizens. For example, when animals are used for begging by the so-called boxers: people are asking for money allegedly for the maintenance of animal shelters, and next to them these same animals - dogs, cats - are sitting in boxes ...

- "Korobochnik" is a sore subject. In 2009-2010, Saved Life focused its main efforts on somehow interfering with their business. We managed to achieve something only because at that time we had a lot of volunteers, and we sent appeals to all possible authorities. We wrote to the president, to the State Duma, to the governor of the city, to district administrations, to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to the prosecutor's office. As a result, the "box makers" curtailed their activities for some time. With the help of animals, they collected money allegedly for the maintenance of shelters for these same animals. But in fact, this is a very cruel business: animals are kept in some basement, in a garage, sometimes in an apartment in very bad conditions, when they are no longer needed, they are simply left to die without water and food, or cruelly killed, for example, slaughtered sticks. Sometimes they close the living together with the dead in boxes ... In general, this is monstrous. It happened that we simply took the animals away from the "boxers".

- Did the police or you ever manage to get to the organizers of this criminal business?

Some time ago, a criminal case was initiated against one of these organizers - he was accused of fraud, and he received a term of four years. By the way, he was also involved in the organization of "photo-animation". In general, it's not a secret for us that both "box makers", and "photo flayers", and beggars with children are one business. But as regards the aforementioned criminal process, this is still a rare case.

"Korobochniks" now became much less. But there is another topic - the photo business with animals. Here we observe the cruel treatment of animals that are on the street for 8-10 hours, are under the influence of drugs. The latter can already be seen at least by how apathetic and unnatural animals behave. Often such animals are sick, infected, and small children are photographed with them. It is enough for an animal to scratch a person to infect. In response to activists' questions, pet owners often act aggressively, threaten, and even start fights.

What can an ordinary citizen do if he realizes that his neighbor is cruel to animals?

Contact the police. The police are obliged to accept this statement. But in each specific situation it is necessary to understand separately. Just recently, I filed a police report against a man who kept a cat in a cramped enclosed space - he didn’t let him out of the toilet for days. I was pleased that the application was accepted immediately. It used to happen that they didn’t take it so easily, they said: “Woman, it’s better to go home to cook soup.” With young female volunteers, the policemen began to flirt, saying something like: “Drop these cats, marry me.” And now they accepted it quickly - perhaps something is changing for the better. True, we wrote that we demand the removal of this cat from the owner and transfer to us, and we undertake to provide documents on the proper maintenance of the animal.

- If you seek the removal of an animal, what happens to it then?

We take him to the so-called overexposure. That is, we keep them in our own apartments, although some have specially equipped premises for this: garages, sheds, balconies, private houses. If necessary, we take the animal to the veterinary clinic. Some veterinary clinics offer significant discounts to zoo volunteers, for which we are sincerely grateful to them, some organizations, for example, the Baltic Animal Care Foundation, helped us to purchase medicines at reduced prices, and so on. Then we adapt these animals to domestic conditions, accustom them to a tray, to communicate with a person, observe the behavioral features, and then, with all our might, we look for new owners. A whole table is constantly spinning in my head, in which acquaintances are divided into those who are subject to and are not subject to “kosting” (smiles - I. L.). When we find those who want to take the animal, we give it to new hands only by agreement - if only this person is one of our close friends whom we already know well and whom we trust. According to this agreement, the owner undertakes to comply with the proper conditions for keeping the animal and allow volunteers to control it in this regard. After all, there were even several cases when we later found out that animals were taken from us for experiments. And the police helped us seize these animals - in this case, the contract signed by the owner turned out to be a means of moral influence on him.

The time will come when humanity will be humane to every creature that breathes.
Jeremy Bentham, 1781

Animals are part of natural law, they have their rights because they are intelligent.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1754

Discriminating living beings solely for the benefit of their own species is a form of prejudice.
Peter Singer

It is strange that we have so little relationship with nature, with insects, with a jumping frog and an owl hooting in the middle of the hills and calling for its friend. It seems that we never feel sympathy for all living beings on earth. If we had a close relationship with nature, we would never kill an animal for food, we would never harm an animal...
Juddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986)

The racist destroys the principle of equality by giving more weight to the interests of his race. An opponent of gender equality violates the principle of equality by giving preference to the interests of his gender. Similarly, one who discriminates on the basis of species allows the interests of his species to be placed above the interests of other species (non-humans). But in all cases the principle is the same.
Peter Singer

If we allow that we have the right to inflict suffering unnecessarily, then the very foundation of human society will be destroyed.
John Galsworthy (1867 - 1933)

Animal life has its own purpose and is not a means to meet human needs.
Dr. Michael W. Fox

A person whose religion teaches respect for all forms of life can hardly be converted to a faith that does not consider life other than human life inviolable.

Not to cause suffering to our smaller brothers is our first duty to them. But this alone is not enough. We have a higher mission to serve them whenever they need it.
Francis of Assisi, saint (1181-1226)

The righteous man takes care of his cattle, but the heart of the sinner does not know mercy.
Book of proverbs

I don't care about human religion, where the welfare of cats and dogs is not taken care of.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Philosophers have long asked themselves the question of what "good" and "moral duty" mean, how these two concepts are related to each other and to sensations of pain and pleasure. They also asked if man, who is part of nature, can accept these principles and make his choice. It is common knowledge that in the end, after much deliberation, they did not come to any single conclusion. But for us it doesn't matter. We are sure that, using common sense, you will agree with the statement that all people are moral beings, and together we will consider the facts and main points regarding the treatment of animals, and decide what should be done.
P. Corbett

It seems incredible to us that the ancient Greek philosophers indulged in such deep discussions about what is good and evil, but did not notice the immorality of human slavery. Perhaps, thousands of years from now, it will seem just as incredible that we do not see the immorality of human oppression of animals.
The Sunday Times newspaper (1965)

Vegetarianism, proclaimed in the most ancient times, lay under a bushel for a long time, but in our time it captures more and more people every year and hour, and soon the time will come when they will end at the same time: hunting, vivisection and, most importantly, killing for satisfaction. taste.

Man is superior to animals, not because he can torment them, but because he is able to pity them. And a man pities animals because he feels that the same thing lives in them that lives in him.

You can unlearn pity even for people, and you can unlearn pity even for insects. The more pity in a person, the better for his soul.

Drive away from yourself everything that prevents you from seeing your connection with all living things.
L. N. Tolstoy

Nature has endowed man with a high and beautiful gift of compassion, which extends to dumb animals. And there is no doubt that the most noble souls have the greatest gift of compassion, and people who are narrow-minded and narrow-minded consider that compassion is not the quality that they need to show to other living beings; but the great soul, the Crown of creation, always sympathizes.

Man must feel his closeness and his duty towards any form of life with which he comes into contact.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

There is no essential difference in mental capacity between man and the higher mammal.

The animals we have made our slaves we do not want to accept as equals.
Charles Darwin

Animals cannot speak their mind. It seems to us that we could be the ones who represent their interests.
River Phoenix

A person does not have those special connections with the outside world that would fundamentally distinguish him from animals: those components of the psyche that give him the right to be called a personality are also inherent in an animal.

All living beings seek happiness; so let your compassion extend to all.
"Mahavamsa"

In the last century, this would be called morality. Undoubtedly, every mind finds a morality to its liking, but I hope that here we put forward a morality as old as Holy Scripture: that we and animals are blood relatives. There is nothing in man that animals do not have, even to a small extent; and there is nothing in animals that he does not have in one way or another in common with man.
E. Seton-Thompson (biologist, writer)

Wild animals never kill for fun. Man is the only being for whom the torture and death of his fellows is entertainment in itself.
D. E. Froude (1818-1884)

Cruelty to animals is only the first experience for the same treatment of people.
J. Bernardin

If you see children torturing a kitten or a bird for their own fun, you stop them and teach them pity for living beings, while you yourself go hunting, shooting pigeons, racing, and sit down to dinner, for which several living beings are killed. Won't this screaming contradiction become obvious and stop people?
L. N. Tolstoy

When a person destroys one of the creations of mankind in vain, we call him a vandal. When he destroys one of the Creator's creations in vain, we call him an athlete.
D. V. Kratch (1893-1970)

He who harms animals out of a desire to please himself adds nothing to his happiness in this life and in the next: then, as he who does not harm animals; does not lock them up, does not kill them, but wishes good to all sentient beings, he experiences happiness all the time.
From the Indian Law of Manu

Examples of people condemned for enlightening the human race are almost as numerous in physics as in morality.

Hasn't nature placed all these springs of feeling in the animal so that it can feel? Doesn't it have nerves so that it can suffer?

What poverty of mind to say that animals are machines, devoid of understanding and feelings.
Voltaire

Man is capable of both great compassion and monstrous indifference. And it is in his full power to nurture the first in his heart and eradicate the second. There is nothing stronger than an act of a person at the behest of his conscience, which contributes to the manifestation of the conscience of all mankind.
Norman Cousins

Murderers...often begin by killing and torturing animals as children.
S. Kellert, A. Felthaus, psychologists

When it comes to fidelity, devotion, love, many bipedal animals are lower than a dog or, say, a horse. It would be wonderful for thousands of people if they could stand before the judge and say; "I loved as sincerely and lived as worthily as my dog." And yet we continue to call them "low animals"!
Henry Beecher (1813-1887)

The dog is a very unusual creature; she never pesters with questions about your mood, she is not interested in whether you are rich or poor, stupid or smart, sinner or saint. You are her friend. That's enough for her.
J. K. Jerome (1859-1927)

There will never be peace among people whose hearts seek pleasure in killing other living beings.
R. Carson (1907-1964)

Oh yes, without it! Great Morning Kill! All necks are twisted: all birds are dead! Once they could fly! Fly and swim! Fly and swim! And now everyone is dead and sold for next to nothing in the market!
M. Corelli (1855-1924)

A man is proud that he caught a poor hare, and another that he caught a small fish in a net, and someone - that he caught wild boars, and someone that he caught bears ... Aren't they robbers ?
M. Aurelius, Roman emperor and philosopher (121-180)

... The art of fishing is the most cruel, cold-blooded, stupid occupation of all that claim the title of sport.
Byron (1788-1824)

Those joys that give a person a feeling of pity and compassion for animals will pay for him a hundredfold those pleasures that he will lose by refusing to hunt and eat meat.
L. N. Tolstoy

The meat industry is responsible for more deaths in America than all the wars of this century, all the natural disasters and all the traffic accidents combined. If you think that meat is real food for real people, I advise you to live really close to a real hospital.
Neil D. Barnard

Toward the end of their life (calf), when they are about three months old, they are unable to turn around; they are kept in boxes. They come to the slaughter almost as babies, they are very small. This is an ordeal even for an adult animal, and even more so for a baby, so this is almost the most cruel part of the whole procedure. Many slaughterhouse workers hate her. “It should be banned, this is a clear bloody murder,” they told me at the slaughterhouse during my last visit. It is too painful when a confused little calf, just torn from its mother, sucks the butcher's fingers in the hope of getting milk, but receives human "kindness". It is a ruthless, merciless and brutal procedure.
Alan Long, PhD

Vegetarianism is one of the few individual actions you can take that will have an immediate impact. This is the first step towards ending the daily cruelty faced by farm animals. This is the first step towards the self-healing of our planet. But this act has a wider meaning. It is a political act and a clear belief that it is possible to do things differently and live in a different world - a better world.
Juliet Gellatly

  • copying
  • Warm feelings
  • Loyalty
  • The cure for loneliness
  • Totems and talismans
  • Repetition of the path of mankind
  • Maternal instinct

Their popularity is off scale - today animals are even more famous on the net than world stars and politicians. Hundreds of sites are devoted to them, and the most unusual pets become famous and earn millions of dollars for their owners. Animals accompany us everywhere and become members of our family.

Why do we love animals? Why do furry and feathered pets take up so much space in our lives that we are willing to spend a lot of time and money on them? Physicians, sociologists and psychologists can answer these questions.

copying

The imitation of our behavior subconsciously makes us trust the creature and desire to be its friend. So, psychologists say that the best way to ingratiate yourself with a person is to copy his gestures.

In the same way, animals "rub" us into trust - getting into the human environment, they adopt our habits, manners and even character. No wonder they say that dogs always look like their owners. There are animals that have perfected copying. For example, parrots repeating words after us.

But animals also have natural habits that we tend to humanize. See how tenderly a mother-monkey cuddles her cub or how elephants solemnly gather near the body of a dead relative, sadly waving their ears and lowering their heads ...

Note that animals in the circus are also first taught to imitate humans. Dogs carry cats in carriages, bears ride bicycles, and horses dance with trainers. And even cartoon animals speak human language, wear clothes, live in houses and experience only the experiences that are characteristic of us.

The attraction of opposites

When choosing a pet, a person often looks for an animal that has opposite qualities of appearance or character. Sometimes the owner subconsciously finds an animal with those properties that he himself lacks. An impulsive and emotional person can opt for a cold-blooded python, and a closed and unsociable person will make friends with a cheerful, loving poodle.

Psychologists also believe that lonely people choose an animal in which they see the qualities of their potential partner - tenderness, devotion, strength or beauty.

Warm feelings

Animals help people fill the emotions they lack in communicating with people. The harsh world, where man is a wolf to man, tires you with the need to always be on your guard and protect your emotions from the invasion of aggressive personalities. Animals are more trusting, open and friendly than we are - that's why people love animals.

Such emotional attachment is more characteristic of city dwellers - they usually get animals simply so that they bring positive things to their owners and love them disinterestedly. The inhabitants of the villages treat domestic animals with a solid share of pragmatism - the chicken should lay eggs, the cat should catch mice, and the dog should guard the yard.

However, this does not mean that the owner of the rural farmstead does not have any feelings for his animals. He can love his chain dog and affectionately slap a meek cow on the side.

There are many stories when the military was dying of hunger, but could not kill their favorite horse, or members of polar expeditions shared the last fish with sled dogs. Thus, they proved that harsh men also have a feeling of love and care for those who know how to worship us so sincerely.

Loyalty

The greatest dream of every person is to be loved simply for what he is. But it happens so rarely… People are loved for their beauty, wealth, connections, status and so on. And each of us knows that, being in trouble, he can lose friends, family, a loved one.

But animals love us just like that - they don’t care how much money the owner has, how handsome, smart and noble he is. Dogs love even the owners who beat them, stray dogs faithfully look into the eyes of the homeless owner. They forgive all mistakes, never reproach for anything, demand nothing.

The pet is always glad to see his owner, and if necessary, he will give his life for him.

Animals can be trusted, they will not turn away if you get sick or lose property. Therefore, they evoke in us a feeling of love and gratitude - in a world where there is so much betrayal, they remain reliable pillars of loyalty and devotion.

The cure for loneliness

Not all people have a family - sadly, but loneliness lives in many apartments and houses. So they get a pet, so that there is someone to return to, so that someone is waiting for them. For such lonely people, the animal replaces the family and children, helping to realize one of the most important needs - to care for and patronize someone weak and defenseless.

The more a person suffers from loneliness, the more likely he is to bring home an ordinary outbred ragamuffin, finding him on the street.

Totems and talismans

Long ago, people worshiped animals, seeing in them the embodiment of divine powers. There were clan totems, whose representatives could not be killed, because the patron could be offended and bring down punishment on the tribe.

Today, echoes of a reverent attitude towards representatives of the fauna can be found in animal mascots and signs about pets. Tricolor cats bring good luck, and black ones drive away evil spirits - many still believe in this. People still tend to endow animals with magical qualities, which is why they try to settle them at home. After all, everyone is pleased when a piece of a miracle lives nearby.

Repetition of the path of mankind

There is a theory according to which each person repeats the path of development of civilization with his life. Therefore, in childhood, we so want to get a dog or a cat, because the domestication of animals is one of the early stages in the formation of people.

Maternal instinct

One of the most stable images fixed in our memory is the image of a child who is the same in the collective consciousness of all generations of people. According to one version, we are so touched by animals because many of them have the proportions of children. What animals evoke the most warm feelings in us? Bear cubs, raccoons, cats, koalas ... It is their forms that are closest to the structure of the child's body: a large head, small paws.

When looking at such an animal, the parental instinct immediately wakes up in us - the cutie wants to be fed, warmed, stroked. By the way, the activation of the maternal instinct increases efficiency and attentiveness. Therefore, we can say that animals inspire us to labor and life exploits.

Feeling of self worth and ambition

In their devoted and blind love, animals are defenseless before us, they are completely dependent on our will and decisions. They are never growing children.

By the way, psychologists have noticed that children who grew up next to pets are much more curious, friendlier and more open to everything new. In addition, they rarely turn out to be selfish. A small child communicates with an animal on an equal footing, while an adult person is a higher and more complex being for him.

Animals are able to experience most of the feelings inherent in man - love, jealousy, resentment. Therefore, they are for us something like truncated copies of a person.

There are owners whom the awareness of power over the animal makes more significant in their own eyes. The life of a dog depends on the owner: on whether he feeds her, whether he takes her to the veterinarian in case of illness.

Moreover, a pet can be taught to carry out commands - then broad prospects open up for satisfying the unrealized ambitions of the great commander.

The doctor who is always with you

Doctors and psychologists have long discovered the relationship between the presence of a pet in the house and the health of its owners. Where animals live, more comfortable energy. They help normalize blood pressure, cheer up and literally treat their owners.

Cats have been the most successful in this matter - they themselves climb onto a sore spot and warm it, setting up the owner's energy field with their purring in the right way.

People who have dumb pets at home are less stressed, more cheerful, optimistic, healthy and athletic. We can say that animals bring harmony, joy and a positive outlook on life into our lives. And how not to love them after that?

P.S. About how to choose a pet, psychologist's advice.

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We offer you a selection of statuses, aphorisms and quotes about animals. Philosophical sayings will help you rethink your attitude to nature, and funny phrases about pets will cheer you up.

Animals are an integral part of nature. Some of them represent the world of wildlife, others feel like the owners of human homes.

Is it possible not to love animals? After all, they amaze us with their devotion and ingenuity. Unlike people, pets do not betray. They patiently listen to their masters and keep their secrets. Someone gets a pet in order not to feel lonely, someone to discipline themselves, someone so that their children do not get bored. And someone, maybe, was just walking down the street, saw a fluffy lump and took him to himself. Not many people can take such a step. Most still prefer to have purebred cats and dogs, royal pigs or fish. In fact, the breed of your pet is not important, if you sincerely love him, he will definitely reciprocate.

Most often, cats, dogs, fish, parrots and turtles are brought up in city apartments. The most loyal of them are dogs, the most affectionate - cats. A pet is not only fun, but also care and responsibility. Animals discipline their owners. They often act as an alarm clock, and they are not very interested in the fact that you need to wake up at 7, and not at 5 in the morning!

The only disadvantage of a KITTEN is that sooner or later it turns into a CAT.

Children have this disadvantage

How much more beautiful life would be if we were all the way our dogs see us.

If every person had a pet, society would be more responsible and kinder.

Whoever says you can't buy happiness has never bought a puppy.

Or a kitten...)

If dogs spoke, people would lose their last friends.

We are friends with animals because we do not hear from them the truth about ourselves ...

Honey, let's get a kitten!
- No, you know I'm allergic to animal fur.
- It's strange, is there an allergy to a cat, but not to a mink coat? ...

You don’t need to feed the fur coat and you don’t need to clean up after it either ...)

The only member of my family who has a personal fitness trainer is my dog!

Practice and don't be jealous!

Good thing my cat can't talk - she knows too much!

Pets are like a diary: they know everything, but they won't tell anyone)

The guinea pig is a unique animal. It has nothing to do with the sea or pigs.

People also have nothing to do with deer, but some walk with horns ...)

Can pets be thrown away? If you got a cat, a dog, no matter who, they become a member of the family! It's the same as throwing your child out on the street!

Having an animal at home is taking responsibility for its life.

A dog only brings pain when it dies.

The death of a pet is equivalent to the departure of any of the family members ...

Judging by the nature of the cat, Ozverin and Tsarapun are added to Whiskas' food.

It would be better if Antibloch was added there)

About man and animals

Only someone who had never been a beast himself could come up with signs forbidding them to be fed.

If people were allowed to feed animals at the zoo, can you imagine what they would bring them? Chips, popcorn, cotton candy...)))

My wife loves animals.
- And my vegetarian.

Mine loves to take care of them, but not to eat ...)

They say that a dog is a man's best friend. I hope this huge rottweiler without a muzzle runs to see how I'm doing...

In the meantime, look for a tree and climb it...)

Do you know how nice it is to wake up not because the silence is piercingly blown up by the alarm clock, inflating your nerves from the very morning, but because the cat purrs in your ear, sings its cat song ...

And the refrain of the song sounds like this: feed me, feed me ...)

Do you know why the oceans and seas are salty? The ocean is salty from the tears of sharks who just want to cuddle, but no one understands them!!

Say also that they just flirt with people, and do not attack them ...)

The Beast knows who he is and accepts it. A person may know who he is, but he questions everything. He dreams. He hopes. Is changing. Grows.

Animals always have specific goals. Man would do well to learn from animals...

In fact, at the zoo, children get their first lesson in cruelty. Take a closer look at how the ponies look there, especially those that ride children. Tormented, old, sick, unfed. Because no healthy horse or pony would allow a child to be put on it. And it is necessary to instill disgust for the circus from the earliest years. The circus teaches children to have fun, looking at the suffering of other living beings. I don't want my son to go to shows whose numbers are built on the humiliation and mockery of other creatures. When our children become adults, there will be a different world around, better and more humane, and you can’t drag old cruel fun into it. (A. Nevzorov)

And we have the opposite: cruelty turns into a spectacle and brings pleasure to everyone.

Animals know much more than humans. Dogs can sense an earthquake in advance. Birds fly halfway across the globe to find their nest. If people listened to animals more often, they wouldn't make so many mistakes. (Helen Brown)

People think they are smarter... naive.

But the fact of the matter is that for centuries man has been lifted above the animals and carried up not by a stick, but by music: the irresistibility of unarmed truth, the attractiveness of its example. (Boris Pasternak)

If animals could turn on music, they would listen to it too.

Quotes and aphorisms

Lion is the king of the animals. Until the lioness woke up.

The male leads everything until the female arrives.

A house without a cat is not a house, but some kind of doghouse!

And the house where there is a cat, a dog, a turtle and a parrot is like a zoo ...)

To understand whether animals have a soul, you must have a soul yourself. (Albert Schweitzer)

Animals feel and experience no less than humans.

Animals are very sweet friends: they don't ask questions or criticize. (George Eliot)

And instead of advice, they ask for food)

He who feeds a hungry animal feeds his own soul. (Charlie Chaplin)

To feed a homeless animal is to show everyone that you are capable of goodness.

Having got a dog, you will guard it, and it will walk you.

Walking a dog, a person first of all goes for a walk.

Chickens under one roof live in peace and harmony, and two roosters can never get along in one chicken coop - such is their nature.

And they say that female friendship does not exist ...)

The mouse is an animal whose path is littered with swooning women.

Mice, though small, but the cry through them comes out big.

Without a cat there is no home, without a dog there is no yard.

My dog ​​spent four days at the vet, they billed us $4,000, and still no one knew what was wrong with her. I met a friend and she said to me, "So take her to a canine psychic." "What? I was surprised. “Do we have a canine psychic in town?” I'm not kidding?" The next day we went to see him. He looked at me for a while, then at my husband, then at our dog, and then finally said, “Well, she is sick because she was upset and because of this she ate too much corn on the cob. And she’s upset because you and your husband quarreled over your mother.” We really had a fight over a trip to my mother-in-law.

It was a moment of insight. I studied business administration in college, I worked in the corporate world from 9 to 5, worked my way through the ranks, and I did pretty well, but at that moment I realized: I don’t want to do this anymore. I realized what my purpose was and what I had to do.

And you immediately quit?

No. That would be great, but no, because I was getting an MBA salary. Instead, I opened an additional business that I only did on evenings and weekends. Everything was going well, but as I meditated, I kept getting the messages: "It's time Daniel, your business is able to prosper and you can leave the corporate world," and people around me said the same thing. Then we bought a new house, and the day before I was made redundant. I took it as a sign and said to myself, “Okay, now is the moment. New home, new life, I'm not going back to the corporate world, I'm going to make my business my full-time job."

How did you realize that you could teach other people in this profession?

I was working with one owner and his animal, and the revelation came to me: “Hey, you could do it yourself,” and the man said: “Yes, this is my dream!” And around the same time, several people asked, "Can you teach me this?"
At first, I started teaching people one-on-one, over the phone. Then I began to conduct live classes in classes with a large number of people. It's so cool to see people look around and say, “I did it! And you did it! Now I teach hundreds of people a year, but that will change when I open my own animal communication school at the end of the year. These will be live webinars.

Where do you start teaching this wisdom?

There are two main points. First, if you're thinking about trying to communicate with animals right now, would you be a little scared?

Yes, it will. But I really love dogs, so I think it will be exciting.

Well, that's what happens when people love animals and want to try it. But then they think, “Can I? I really want to succeed. But am I capable? Everyone experiences these emotions. Therefore, the first lessons are devoted to how to cope with all these fears, how to deal with them in order to be, as I call it, in the “zone”. When you are in the "zone", you can communicate with animals. This is the first part.

The second part is teaching people exactly how animals will communicate with them, because there are several different ways that animals communicate intuitive information to you. Most people are used to watching TV and they think, “The animal must be going to send a picture into my head,” and they waste time waiting, but there are actually many ways that information can come to you.

Yes, it can come in the form of a picture, but it can also come through words, but these are usually short phrases like “beloved boy”, “big ball” or “always cold”. People can feel the feelings that the animal broadcasts to them, and if it is nervous, then during the communication session they say: “Oh, I'm so nervous,” but in fact it is the animal who is nervous. I get a lot of information without seeing, feeling or hearing - I just suddenly learn something from an animal, and that's it. It's hard enough trying to do these things and going beyond when you don't have any real facts and not based on what you feel, think or hear but just know. It scares.

Do dogs and cats communicate differently?

No. The difference is based on their personality. You can get a reclusive cat or a reclusive dog, and when you try to communicate with them, they will behave in the same way. And if you have an excitable dog, then most likely, when you try to communicate with him, he will say: “Hi! I love you! I love you!"

Have you noticed that some animals are more intelligent than others?

No. This is the key point of my work. What I have learned is that at the deepest level, animals know everything and I know I will look crazy if I say this, but my dog ​​is aware of my financial situation; my dog ​​knows when my son is going to school; my dog ​​knows everything about me. It can be a dog, a cat, a mouse, a hamster, but if this animal gets in touch with me, then it knows everything about me, it just prefers not to go to this level.

Animals work with humans to teach us unconditional love; their natural state is acceptance of love, pure energy. It is human nature to distrust, we do not trust ourselves, we do not feel safe. When you intuitively talk to an animal at the deepest level, there is no difference in intelligence. In fact, many of them seem to be much smarter than most of us.

Do you need the person this animal is connected to in order to successfully communicate with the latter?

No, nothing. You can communicate with animals in shelters and with wild animals, and they do not necessarily have people who are somehow connected with them. It just so happens that the owners bring the animals to me. But I discovered that an animal can help a person. I love communicating with people and animals because healing happens during the session.

I'm not sure I understand. Can you provide an example?

A woman brought me her dog, Jesus, who was urinating in pots of kitchen plants in the most inappropriate way. I said, "Jesus and I should solve this problem together." So I first connected with this woman, then with Jesus and asked him: “What's the matter? Don't you know where the yard is? He replies, "I know where the yard is, Daniel." I asked him to tell me what was going on and he told me that he peed on the plants every time there was a physical assault in the kitchen. I wasn't prepared enough to talk about it with a woman who didn't tell me she was being physically abused. It's very difficult to bring this up to someone who was expecting me to just say, "You know, he's got a bladder infection, take him to the vet," and instead say, "It turns out you're being beaten and he's worried about -for this, and it pours out into such forms.

I had to build my business in such a way that people understand that when they come to me, I will not just sort out their dog's problems, because that's not the point; it's about the relationship between man and animal, so their deeply intimate things can come up.

What problems do people most often come to you for help with?

Their animal is sick and they don't know what to do. Behavioral problems - for example, the dog barks all the time or tears out its fur. Sometimes people come just like this: "I love him so much and I want to make sure he knows about it." The funny thing is that I get in touch with an animal, and it tells me: “Yes, I know, I know. She tells me this every minute.”


How much do you think it matters how long a cat or dog lives with a given owner? For example, my mother got a puppy a month ago. And she…

Out of my mind from happiness?

Yes, but a little disappointed. He is terribly restless, and I tell her: “Wait, you have only had him for a month. He needs to get used to it."

I don't think it will get better or worse over time. The difficulty stems from the fact that the animal adopts something from the human. So the puppy's anxiety in this case reflects your mom's anxiety. Is she an impressionable person? And not the calmest?

Yes…

So this puppy will work with her on it. So what if your mom doesn't start to deal with her anxiety on her own - and you know she's anxious most of the time and has a hard time calming down? - then the puppy will remain so until your mother begins to solve her problem. You can take the puppy to a trainer and he will calm the animal, but the puppy will still work at this level with your mom to help her, so the only solution to the problem is for your mom to deal with her anxiety and inability to enjoy her own life.

Wow. That's why I wanted her to get a dog! What about those times when people come to you because they saved an animal and don't know anything about it?

If that's all they want, then I usually say we shouldn't have a session. Animals want to live in the present and don't want to talk about what happened to them in the past. I can say that of the animals I talk to, only one in a hundred will go into detail about what happened to them in the past. So it's really a small percentage. Most often, the dog will make it clear: “Yes, something happened, but it doesn’t matter, now I want to talk about my human daddy, because he is acting funny ...” Do you understand what I mean? They change the subject and move on to something that seems more interesting or relevant to them.

What do you do when naysayers say, "She made it all up" or "It can't be"?

I sometimes see comments like this on my Facebook page, but I've never been worried about it. I don't take this to heart. There are people who absolutely do not like what I do, because it scares them or they think that I am a terrible person, and I take it easy. If I spend time running and trying to prove something to them, it will mean that I don't really believe in what I'm doing.

Does it happen that people who found out about you come up and ask you to have a quick talk with their pet?

I often had to deal with this, but I had to set clear boundaries. If I'm at the gym, I can't sit on mats and talk about your dog. Some people think that I’m such a radish, since I don’t want to talk about it after hours, but you won’t go to the doctor if you meet him in the grocery store with the question: “Doctor, don’t you quickly look at what I have here - just a rash or cancer?

One more question. One of my colleagues is dying to know: can animals sense the presence of ghosts?

I don't believe in ghosts, but I do believe that our souls and energies roam everywhere. An animal from our world, of course, can communicate with an animal or a person who is on the other side. You know those moments when a cat suddenly stares into space and seems to be a little hello? Most of the time this is because they are making a connection, talking, looking at someone otherworldly or spirit.

But dogs don't do that.

Do. And how. Let's say you have two dogs. If one went to the other world, the dogs still keep in touch with each other, so the dog that stayed may begin to do the same as the dog that was gone. This is because the dog that is gone seems to be teasing her: “Hey, go under the stairs like I used to do.” This sometimes terrifies people, but they still communicate, and the dog that is gone wants you to know that.