Why, we’ve often asked ourselves—and you may have as well—would an animal need to be blessed? They have bonded with us, worked for us, and always offered us unconditional love. They look at us adoringly with glowing eyes and kiss us with slobbery and raspy tongues or nibbly beaks, no matter what we look or smell like in the morning. Aren’t they blessed already?

Not at all, considering what blessed really means, says Rev. Marguerite D. Lovett, the about-to-retire minister of Long Beach’s Unitarian Universalist Church and passionate animal advocate. “Animals are, generally speaking, not blessed,” Rev. Lovett says. “All you need to do is travel through shelters and see how people have treated them. They’re 100 percent emotion—forgiving, loving, fellow creatures. Horses, for example, have worked for us for eons, and look how they’re treated.”

There were no horses at the Unitarian Universalist Church’s July 12 “Celebrating the Animal Companions in Our Lives,” although they would surely have been welcomed in some manner, but there were many dogs, three cats and a froggie ready to receive what Rev. Lovett conceives of as a symbol of the joy of sharing the universe with us. Lovett was assisted by officiants Pamela Wood Browne and Mary Goff. Goff will be remembered to the boomer generation as Mouseketeer Mary Espinosa, who looked like and still looks like your best friend next door. Goff now extends her love of animals from oversized mice out to all creatures on the planet.

Rev. Lovett is now retiring and will bear the title Reverend Emeritus, but she won’t be idle, by any means. She will be teaching and officiating at other ceremonies and will definitely be spreading her message of blessing to many other parts. She’ll be missed at the UU.




Protest Against Inhumane Treatment of Animals in S. Korea
July 14 is the annual International Day of Action for Dogs and Cats in Korea, organized by IDAUSA. The event protests the use of dogs and cats for food in South Korea and the torture to ready them for slaughter. Dogs are strung up by the legs, beaten, and electrocuted in order to increase adrenalin, which allegedly makes them tender and enhances the virility of men who eat them (takes a real man, doesn’t it?). Cats are used to make “cat juice,” which some Koreans believe cures rheumatism, and are either thrown into bags and pounded against the floor until they die or are boiled alive. (Graphic photos are posted on the IDA Web site, but don’t go there unless you can handle them.) IDA literature says that some of the dogs are wild, but some have been stolen from homes. Cats are considered pests and simply picked up. A law against this practice was passed in 1991 in South Korea but isn’t enforced, according to IDAUSA’s Web site and other sources.

The protest was led by Robyn Hicks and assisted by animal rights advocates Samantha Steinel and Nicoal Sheen. Hicks organized Animal Protection Long Beach nearly a year ago. The group’s mission is to educate people in Long Beach about animal issues, welfare and care, and to motivate them to write letters and take further action.

“L.A. has its own groups, and Long Beach is a big enough city to sustain one,” Hicks said. The organization has not yet established a Web site but can be contacted at animalprotectionlb@gmail.com. Sheen has organized Cease Animal Torture on the CSULB campus; her MySpace page is myspace.com/ceaseanimaltorture.

The event is marked by national protests against the inhumane practices and the lack of government enforcement of laws, much as is done here, and is not targeting Korean nationals or American-born people of Korean heritage. Hicks notes that Korean-Americans and Koreans living in the United States have expressed approval of the protests; there is, in fact, an organization in Korea with the mission of promoting enforcement of the legislation and abolishment of the practice of torturing animals. The organization, Korea Animal Rights Advocates (KARA), is headed by Dr. Soonrye Yim, a media professor in S. Korea. No such legislation or rights group exists in China or North Korea.

Here in the United States, people do eat meat as a matter of course, but humane legislation was passed last year regarding humane treatment of animals bred for slaughter. And, let’s face it, many nations as well as our own think of cats and dogs as friends, and our hearts naturally go out to them. The thought of torturing our companions is unbearable to many of us; to an increasing number of us, so is the idea of eating any animal at all. What’s more intelligent than a pig, or gentler than a lamb?

“Every country has an issue,” Hicks said. “Spain and Mexico have the bulls, Canadians have the seals, the French eat horses.”

Visit IDAUSA’s and KARA’s Web sites (see above) to support enforcing legislation against this inhumane practice.


Off Leash
Celebrity makeup artist David West helps his pug, 4-year-old Miss Lucy, accustom herself to the Second Street paparazzi. West says that Miss Lucy will be appearing in a couple of studio releases.

Events
July 30, Friends of Long Beach Animals 20th Anniversary Celebration
Friends of Long Beach Animals (FOLBA) celebrates 20 years of helping animals and their humans in the local community. Join them for their yearly membership meeting and celebration. Refreshments, social hour and voting, followed by the presentation of the Impact Award from the city prosecutor’s office. 6:30 p.m., Signal Hill Community Center, 1780 E. Hill St. Signal Hill.
friendsoflongbeachanimals.org

Aug. 1, Hearts for Hounds Yard Sale
Please help this wonderful animal rescue group continue to rescue homeless animals. If you have any items to donate, call (310) 863-7972 or (714) 705-5407. Event takes place at 5613 Hersholt Ave., Lakewood. Please donate your items before July 25.

Ongoing—Pet Literacy at ACS
Pet Literacy is a City of Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS) program at the P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village. The program promotes humane treatment, socialization of animals, creating a connection between animals and humans, and literacy through reading aloud to the animals. Wednesdays–Sundays, 2–3 p.m., 7700 East Spring St.
longbeach.gov/acs

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