BILLIONS OF ANIMALS KILLED EVERY YEAR - FOR YOU!!!

Fish and chips or Sole Meuniere tastes delicious. However, please remember every time you eat a fish, a beautiful living being has died (often in terrible pain or distress gasping for air) for your taste buds. Most of us have eaten fish or have done done so in our lives - but please let's now begin to think seriously about this situation.

Some countries I could name enjoy eating Dogs....

Whenever I walk in any city centre in the world, restaurants of all nationalities, fast food chains (McDonalds, KFC, Burger King etc), diners, Coffee Shops, cafeterias, and street food venders abound in their thousands. Multiply that by thousands of cities and large towns and you begin to get some idea of the levels of food consumption – and that is before you even begin to look at what is eaten in the homes of the more than 7 BILLION people who inhabit this wonderful planet of ours – and the birth rate is rising!

Lamb medium rare please!!! How can you eat this adorable creature. Imagine it having its throat cut for you.

Supermarkets and shops of all shapes and sizes offer us an incredible variety of food that ranges from all kinds of meat: beef, lamb, pork/ham, chicken, turkey to exotic meals of ostrich, crocodile, buffalo locusts, snake – you name it? And that is just meat – what about fish – the fish markets abound with fish and seafood of every conceivable species – I could go on and on but you get the picture.

Chickens like these are killed by the billion to feed the cash tills of Kentucky Fried Chicken and other similar organisations. Maybe they are not as cuddly as a lovely sheep, but don't they deserve a life too?

The truth is that statistics show that we (humans) slaughter more than 150 billion animals each year and that doesn’t include what we vacuum up from the seas!

Pretty staggering statistics aren’t they?

Someone wrote to me saying "surely we can't kill 150 billion animals a year" - well thats the figure that is being quoted from research - but suppose its 100 billion - does this make it better?

Every time you go get a burger, hot dog, eat fish fingers, bite that chicken sandwich, you are eating a piece of an animal that has died for you and your taste buds. No one denies that this food can and does taste delicious BUT isn’t it about time we stopped and took stock of what is happening in our own backyards. The slaughter houses work 24 hours around the clock to feed the global hunger machine so that we can gorge on the flesh of some poor creature that cannot speak or defend itself and that waits trembling in line to get an electric shock in its head or a bullet in its brain – or gasps for air as it thrashes around in nets as the fish are taken out of the sea and their natural habitat. If its Halal or Kosher the poor animal gets its throat cut and the blood drained - for what? 

Cows have families too - they love their calves just as you love your children - but your children don't get their throats cut for food do they?

Elephants get killed for their ivory tusks; Rhinoceros hunted nearly to extinction for their horns to satisfy far-eastern cravings for so called cures and aphrodisiac’s that don’t work – how many mink and sable get skinned alive to satisfy the fashion industry – its enough to make anyone with a heart cry in despair.

WHAT ARE WE DOING?

For goodness sake can’t we see the suffering we are causing?

This terrible suffering can only be described as GENOCIDE inflicted on the animal population across the world.

WE must stop this – the human race is the greatest killer the world has every known and that is before we consider how we kill one another in wars and incidents that horrify us every day as we look at CNN or the BBC News broadcasts. We are good at killing aren’t we?

Hunters who proudly show off the Moose, Elk, Stag, Fox, Rabbit, Hare, Pheasant, Partridge or whatever poor creature has been shot, trapped, skewered and killed. Any idiot can shoot an animal with a high-powered rifle or shotgun. You don’t have to be a genius to point a rifle - any fool can do it – but what about the consequences?

Peking Duck or Crispy Duck sure is tasty - no question - BUT - one of these little fellows - maybe a bit older - gets killed to ratify our food cravings.

Until we humans realise that to kill any person, animal, fish or any sentient being is a terrible crime and one that will have a terrifying effect on your karma and life to come. Do you really believe that there is no comeback – “we reap what we sow” and until we all realize that stamping on ants or swatting flies no matter how irritating is wrong. We’ve all done it – swatted a mosquito or maybe you’ve hunted or fished and thought nothing of it. But the horrible truth is that we have to stop killing and we have to stop it NOW.

I’ve heard people say “animals are there to be killed and eaten” WRONG TOTALLY WRONG – all creatures make up the eco system that makes this world the amazing and wonderful place that we all live in. Humans don’t need all this animal food – its been proven time and again that the waves of cancers and many illnesses are caused by what we eat – of course there are other factors – stress, life style, pollution, genetic illnesses but there is no question that what we eat is largely what we are and what we become.

Yes, some countries eat horses - they do.....

Many of you will not believe in reincarnation – you will have been brought up to believe in the superiority of the human race over animals – maybe you believe that you are more important that other humans because they have different beliefs, different religions, come from a different tribe or nationality – WRONG AGAIN – we are all interconnected – think about it – if you don’t have the trees and forests we won’t be able to breathe – that’s pretty basic enough isn’t it? Bees & Birds pollinate – the cycle of birth, life and death is all around us - facing us every day. Without the sun and moon and rain we wouldn’t have the trees, crops and plantation that provide us with incredible food and everything from fuel to paper – you name it?

Everything you can think of is interconnected – there is no real entity that stands on its own – how long would you last if you couldn’t breathe? How would you build your homes without wood and all the bricks, stone, sand, cement, glass you need – how do you get bricks, sand, cement etc? How do you get the wheat, noodles and rice you eat – how do you get the heat and light you need – the point I am making is that we all contribute to one another – we all need one another and the eco system that exists on this planet. If we continue to murder hundreds of billions of animals and fish as well as killing one another every year – as well as systematically destroying the environment – there won’t be a human race much longer!

Shouldn't this lovely goat have a life too?

The idiocy of the human race that thinks it is so clever is slowly but surely destroying its own eco survival system – of course there are many wonders and fantastic things that the human race has positively contributed to our world such as medical advances – the stamping out diseases such as smallpox, the bubonic plague, polio and so forth but they are still all lurking there ready to strike – and with super viruses multiplying and threatening all of us we must take a long hard look at who we are and what we must do.

I have written many times in my Blogs about how everyone suffers and that happiness can be achieved. This is a mantra that I will come back to time and again – simply because WE CAN ACHIEVE HAPPINESS and WE CAN STOP SUFFERING.

Regular readers of my Blogs will forgive me for stating again the basic human mantra

LOVE, KINDNESS, CARING, CONSIDERATION, COMPASSION, HEALING are the only things that matter and bring HAPPINESS

IGNORANCE, DESIRE, EGO, JEALOUSY, HATRED, KILLING, INDOCTRINATION ('my beliefs are right, everyone else is wrong'), GREED, POWER - cause SUFFERING - they are all intertwined and show that people have lost the ability to THINK CLEARLY and OBJECTIVELY but above all else to be in control of their MIND

Think about it - MIND IS EVERYTHING it dictates who you are - what you do - what you say and how you act.

Most people let their MIND CONTROL THEM - instead of you controlling your mind. The first thing we can do is to STOP KILLING and realize that we cannot achieve happiness for ourselves and families if some of this so called happiness is based upon the killing of billions of animals.

You may not want to become a vegetarian – OK that’s your choice  - but please think long and hard next time you want to order that rare Filet Mignon Steak or Chicken Vindaloo – remember a cow or chicken has died to get you that steak or curry – a living, loving creature that hasn’t hurt a fly has been killed so that you can wallow in some momentary pleasurable pursuit. 

When you enjoy Lobster Thermidor remember that a Lobster has been thrown into a pan of boiling water to die a horrible death by any standards so that you can mindlessly enjoy your dinner. Remember the Sea Bass or Sole you so enjoy was gasping for air and dying horribly in the fisherman’s net – you don’t care? Well you should because if reincarnation is real – you may come back as a cow or fish – We are all part of the cyclical cycle of life and ultimate suffering that we all experience – Why? Because we are born, we grow old, get sick and we die.

When we die many of you may believe that we go to sleep and that is it – but what IF there is a life after death? Doesn’t it make sense to try and live a good life? Christians believe that they will meet their God and maker and be judged by the way they have lived – Muslims believe they will face Allah on their judgment day – what will God or Allah say if you have killed people or hunted animals? What will God say to a suicide bomber – “Oh well done, you’ve just killed 40 school children and mothers” – do they really believe they will go to heaven? IT’S IMPOSSIBLE.

We all create our own hell in this life by our own actions - We can only begin to find true happiness in our lives if we begin to cultivate kindness – caring – compassion and love for not only ourselves, our immediate families but for all humans and creatures – only when we stop to think carefully what we are doing and saying will we begin to appreciate that compassion, kind and loving thoughts bring compassionate, kind and loving actions and reactions – it is this that brings you happiness and everyone you come into contact with.

Your mind is what you are  – we are what we think - and when we begin to seriously realize this everything slowly but surely changes for the good.

When we stop to think about the pain, suffering and misery we are causing to 150 billion animals every year just to satisfy our lust for tasty food we are beginning the process of improving and making positive changes to our life and the happiness it can bring.

HOWEVER, TO START WITH - WE MUST STOP THIS HORRIFIC KILLING AND GENOCIDE OF ANIMALS

Some horrifying statistics:

When we talk about 150 Billion animals slaughtered each year these numbers do NOT even include the many millions of animals killed each year in vivisection laboratories. They do NOT include the millions of dogs and cats killed in animal shelters every year. They do NOT include the animals that died while held captive in the animal-slavery enterprises of circuses, rodeos, zoos, and marine parks. They do NOT include the animals killed while pressed into such blood sports as Bullfighting, Cockfighting, Dog-fighting, and Bear-baiting, nor do they include horses and greyhounds who were exterminated after they were no longer deemed suitable for racing.

The USA (2011 statistics)

10,153 million (nearly 10.2 billion) land animals were raised and killed for food in the United States in 2010, according to data extrapolated from U.S. Department of Agriculture reports. This is a 1.7% rise from the 2009 totals, larger than the 0.9% increase in US population, meaning that animals killed per-capita increased slightly.

The Breakdown:

Of the 10,153 million land animals killed, 9,210 million (91%) were chickens raised for meat, 464 million (4.5%) were chickens raised for eggs, 276 million (2.5%) were turkeys, and the remaining 202 million (2%) were cows, pigs, other mammals, and ducks and geese.

In addition to the 9,278 million animals who were slaughtered, the total figure includes the 875 million animals, or 8.6%, who died lingering deaths from disease, injury, starvation, suffocation, maceration, or other atrocities of animal farming and transport. It should be noted that the U.S. is a net exporter of both live animals and processed meat, so the number of animals actually consumed in the U.S. was less than the number killed.

The 10,153 million animals raised and killed for food in the U.S. in 2009 accounted for 98% of all land animals abused and killed in the U.S. An estimated additional 200 million land animals were killed in biomedical experiments, by hunters, by furriers, in pounds, or as “pests".

2011 Projections, Industry Speculations and Aquatic Animal Estimates:

Based on January-August 2011 USDA slaughter numbers, it is projected that the number of land animals killed in 2011 will increase an additional 1% from 2010 numbers, rising to approximately 10,266 million animals. Fortunately, due to increased feed prices and sinking domestic demand, Bloomberg.com is speculating that there may be a 5% drop in animals raised for food in 2012!

While the number of aquatic animals killed each year is not reported, meticulous calculations by researcher Noam Mohr estimate the number of finfishes killed each year for US consumption to be 13,027 million, and the number of shellfishes to be 40,455 million, resulting in a combined 53,481 million (over 53 billion) aquatic animals who died for American consumption in 2010.

In Personal and Global Terms:

Per-person, an average American meat-eater is responsible for the suffering and death of 28 land animals and an estimated 175 aquatic animals per year, totaling over 15,000 individual animals over a 75 year lifespan.

Globally, the number of land animals killed each year for food has exceeded 65 billion, according to conservative U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization figures. Aquatic estimates are unavailable.

To conclude:

We have to begin the process of educating our children and grand children about the horrors of the slaughterhouses and what we are all doing to support the terrifying deaths of these animals and sea creatures that are murdered (yes murdered) each and every day of the year.

We truly don’t need to eat such quantities of meat and fish – the human body is better off without most of this – Happiness can never be brought about at the expense of another creatures or human life – killing is a terrible sin and if we accept the principle of “cause and effect” killing any creature large or small will have a devastating effect on your life – either now or in the future.

We have to see that by changing the way we think and act we can bring great happiness to ourselves and everyone we meet – this can have a wonderful knock on effect because you will influence others to carefully think about their lives and what they are doing and eating. A caring smile or kind thought can have an incredible effect on someone and if we start to think about those billions of poor animals that are slaughtered every year we will have begun a process that will have a profound effect on your life and those around you – as well as saving the lives and suffering of countless animals that have no say about their lives.

LOVE & COMPASSION BRING HAPPINESS

KILLING, HATRED & IGNORANCE BRINGS SUFFERING AND MISERY

Please join me and pray each evening before you go to sleep – that all creatures large and small may be safe and not killed  - and to pray for all those people and animals that have died and suffered this day.

Thank you for reading

Peter

KYLIE MINOGUE IN MOSCOW ON CHRISTMAS DAY! ITS TRUE!

                        KYLIE MINOGUE IN MOSCOW ON CHRISTMAS DAY - ITS TRUE!

Watching Kylie the other day on the popular BBC Graham Norton Chat show I was so pleased that Kylie is still at the top of her game and as popular as ever. I had the privilege of working with Kylie and her team a few years ago and I have to say she was an absolute delight in every way. Highly professional, but such an adorable person too. Her team were also a joy to work with - a very enjoyable and rewarding experience - but on Christmas Day?

IT'S TRUE - I wrote this blog awhile back, but I was asked recently by a colleague - "Have you ever worked with Kylie"? I am often asked this question, and the answer is YES - and for those that haven't read of this exhilarating experience - please read on:

One of our team at that time Victoria Druyan came to me with a truly unique challenge - could we book Kylie Minogue for a private event for a major oil company in Moscow, Russia at a theatre next to the Red Square, opposite the Kremlin on Christmas Day!

I can't remember exactly how long we had to put this together, but it was literally only a few days! Not an easy task by any means -  When Victoria and I began to discuss this we thought it would be impossible - fortunately, I had a good relationship with Kylie's agent at that time Dave Chumbley (who very sadly passed away awhile ago) and the call was made.

Much to our amazement and relief Kylie, wasn't going to be in Australia, where she usually went to be with her family (Kylie was in Paris) and was interested, providing the fees and arrangements could be made in time. Well, as you can imagine to put all this together in days and with the Christmas holidays approaching fast this was going to be the challenge to end all challenges.

Hiring a private jet to bring the Kylie's team, dancers, technical crew from London and to pick up Kylie in Paris was just the beginning and not that easy for Christmas Day! Getting the Russian oil company to agree the contract, terms and conditions and fee transfers in time was only a part of this mountain to climb. Negotiations and contracts were put together with formidable speed - funds transferred amazingly quickly from Russia - incredibly this was going to happen!

We were also very fortunate that Paul Godfrey was available to come with us - Paul a fluent Russian Speaker, a leading show production expert and one hell of a nice guy, said he would come - Paul works with the Bolshoi Ballet and Opera as well as with the Mariinsky Ballet and Opera plus many other leading artists and special events including  Nelson Mandela's release concert at Wembley Stadium and the Royal Opera at the opening of the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus.

The stage was set, but could we get there? The weather was deteriorating by the hour - the airports were beginning to close down due to snow conditions and we had to get that plane in the air - I don't remember exactly now which airport closed - I believe it was Stanstead Airport but Luton Airport (or the other way around) was still open. Our team had gone ahead and were already in Moscow, which was also very cold and snow driven, but unlike the UK airports, the Russians always seem to keep their airports open throughout the worse snow storms.

With the weather getting worse and the window to get the private jet off the ground closing by the minute the team took off - as you can imagine to the huge relief to all of us in Moscow.

Everything was ready in Moscow - the hotel rooms booked, the theatre prepared - I remember with great amusement seeing the Russian stage crew sitting around back stage being hugely surprised and galvanised when Paul Godfrey spoke to them in fluent Russian - that shook them up a bit!

One interesting aspect was that we had to bring the Christmas Turkeys with us from London so that we could have a proper Christmas lunch at the Kempinski Hotel in Moscow for Kylie, her team and all of us - it was a joyous occasion and great fun. But that is jumping ahead - we were waiting at Sheremetyevo International Airport and were deeply relieved when the flight landed safely having picked up Kylie herself in Paris.     Limousines at the airport whisked Kylie and the team to the Kempinski Hotel where the rooms were waiting.

Back at the theatre there was an artistic situation arising because the oil company (NAFTA OIL) had also booked another girl artist Gerry Halliwell to perform and was taking up a lot of rehearsal time - we had a very tight and strict schedule to put everything together for Kylie at the theatre and rehearsal time was short - so with Kylie getting ready to be brought over the the theatre we had to get Gerry's rehearsal finished and off stage - not an easy task!!

As I mentioned earlier the theatre was just off Red Square (Krasnaya Ploshchad) in the centre of Moscow.  Red Square was looking sparkling covered in a coat of pristine white snow - The Kremlin walls can be daunting to look at with centuries of history emanating over the square - from Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov, all the subsequent Tsars to Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Andropov, Brezhnev and Gorbachev - its hard not to be massively impressed by the grandeur and history that this place inspires - anyone with a passion for history can only want to gaze in awe at the East walls of the Kremlin, Lenin's tomb and of course the exotic and quite marvellous St Basil's Catherdral (built in 1561). Anyhow back to the show...

I have to say that Kylie was an absolute joy to work with as were her team - they were the nicest group of people, I think we had worked with in this concert and event industry - obviously deeply devoted to Kylie and fully understandable, because Kylie was truly lovely and so easy to work with.

The show went brilliantly with Kylie putting on a great performance with her dancers - the client was thrilled and to all of us involved, a huge sigh of relief that it had all gone so well. The Chairman of the Oil Company gave Kylie an enormous bunch of flowers after the show - I think the massive bouquet of flowers was taller than Kylie!

With Kylie and team speeding back to the airport and the private jet warmed up and ready to speed back to Paris and London it was another job well done.

Victoria Druyan went on to form her own successful event company - Paul Godfrey works today with both the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres and other major artists - we continued to work with a host of international artists from Beyonce, Shakira, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart, Mika, Bon Jovi, REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ricky Martin, Phil Collins, Jose Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti, IL Divo to musicals such as Cats, West Side Story, Zorro, Disney's High School Musical, and Stomp to name a few.

Happy memories of a wonderful snowy Christmas day in Moscow - watching Kylie last year on the BBC programme "The Voice" and seeing her bubbly, fun and inspiring self again last week - I would like to say what a privilege it was to work with her. Kylie is a real gem and all of us involved wish Kylie all the love and best wishes for her health, success and happiness.

Thanks for reading
Cheers
Peter