This site is about being pet free and giving a voice to people who choose not to keep pets and/ or don't agree with having pets in public places.

In my case, I do like animals but I'm allergic to them. I don't want animals in the stores I would like to shop in. Service animals are necessary - pets are not.

I don't like animals kept in cages, especially in small urban places. Farm animals are fattened up for eating so why do people let pets get fat?

I don't like exotic pets or interbreeding of species which does not save species just mutates them and makes them unsavable.

I don't like hunting animals for sport, though I understand the need to cull animals due to the fact the natural predators have long been killed off to make way for shopping malls, condominiums, etc.

Being pet free has very little to do with being child free. I don't view animals (pets) as children. Animals should include ourselves, we are not so far above the food chain as some of us like to think.  I will never be a parent to a pet, an animal of a different species. A pet, once fully grown, is an adult animal and should be given enough respect not to be treated as an infant.

I will write more later. Just setting this site up today.

It's a shame people think of sharks as such dangerous killers when in fact, humans are responsible for far more human and shark deaths than sharks. That's something for you to think about next time you go swimming.

Hey, so I'm Zack. Here's the pictures you were looking for. The last one is a picture of the setup I have going for them. The lamp I was told would keep them warm, and I have a warm water bottle in there beside them. At night I turn the lamp off, and put a blanket over the cage so that they stay warm but it's dark. I have them in my room, so nobody bothers them. Also, I heard you tell my mom not to give them water, but I've been giving them a little bit out of a straw 3 times a day. They seem to like it ok, as they are drinking it up.

I don't have the photos I originally posted with this. But, Zack found baby birds and tried to look after them. He really hoped they would live and was sad when they did not. I was sad more for him. I think the birds were all pigeons, something bigger, not songbirds.

Let's play word association.

Magick?...

Life's energy. Sparkle. Power. Fantasy. The art of the wise. A gift from the angels. The air I breathe. Acts of will. Directed Energy. Something science can't explain. Medicine. Science of the mind. Nature and the elements.

How do you label magic/k? What does it mean for you? Could you put it all into a haiku? Just curious.

Originally posted to 'BackWash: Where the Wild Things Are' newsletter, April, 3, 2003.

I've strongly felt that the Wiccan Rede defines the rules. With a few simple words, everything important is said. I've never thought it was open to many shades of grey, but people tend to find what they look for when they want to bend the rules. Sometimes the rules have been bent like cooked spaghetti. As soon as you have to ask "what does harm mean" you're drifting into grey. Harm is harm.

Of course, I have encountered my own shade of grey when it comes to killing bugs. Not that I use magick to kill bugs, but if you are a true Witch you shouldn't be causing harm, right? Bug killing is pretty harmful to the bugs. But, I finally decided if the bugs invade my space they must die for it. However, I will not kill them outside, that's their space. Grey, but it works. Not quite what the black and white Rede would agree with but I can live with that bit of grey.

Anyway, this week this quote in a quiz was interesting and has given me something to think about.

"Nature is neither black nor white. Nature is. As am I." From the Paradox Discovered website.

It makes sense and yet... The philosophy of the Rede also makes sense, a lot of sense. The idea of karma (and reincarnation in a sense) has always seemed based on the Rede. If you bring harm to others you will see it come back to you, eventually. I don't see the Rede as a threat though. It wasn't created to be the Pagan version of hell. Still, it's very black and white.

Nature is made of colours, more than just grey for sure. Nature is also hard and based on survival as much as it is on life and nurturing. Should the Rede be more flexible? Can it afford to be flexible? How far can it bend before it becomes irrelevant? Or has it always been irrelevant? After all, being Pagan is about nature, not human history. The Rede however, is man made, not something taken from nature.

Very interesting, something you could debate and philosophize about for a very long time.

Originally posted to 'BackWash: Where the Wild Things Are' newsletter, March, 16, 2003.