Our Ffriend in South Africa, Les Mitchell, offers this message:

There is a tradition that on Christmas Eve the animals are able to speak. In case they do not speak this year – and who could blame them? –  perhaps we can send a message to them.

A message to our non human comrades:

To those whose lives are ceaseless labour ,
To those who carry others upon their backs,
To those who have had their babies taken away,
To babies who have been torn from their mothers,
To those who stifle in the holds of ships,
To those crammed into the backs of trucks,
To those crushed in railway cars,
To those ceaselessly hunted,
To those dying in gin traps,
To those held in cages and tortured in laboratories,
To those whose ancestral land has been stolen and whose children go hungry,
To those whose water has been polluted,
To those starving and left in the cold,
To those held in cages and pens who will never see the light of day or feel the grass,
To those beaten and neglected,
To those poisoned and burnt in their homes,
To those made to perform for entertainment,
To those whose skin is torn off for others to wear,
To those whose lives and purposes are not their own,
To all those who suffer from our oppression.

We do not forget you,
We stand with you.
And we will not be idle.
Your freedom is our freedom and your peace is our peace.
We cannot be free until you are free.

Images on this post: Sheep, courtesy of Gordon Yapp, Member of Clun Valley Meeting.

Hens, courtesy of Ute Langenkamp.