Animals

by unsure 43 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Amelia Ashton

  I rescue and breed hedgehogs. Every hedgehog that I breed or rescue I view as my responsibility for the rest of their life even after they go to their new homes. In fact new owners have to sign a contract that if for any reason they are no longer able to keep their hedgehog it has to come back to me. They cannot pass it on to someone else. I will and have persued people who have tried to break that contract and I get the hedgehog back.

  How can an all powerful God who created us watch while we suffer and do nothing especially innocent babies and children? No argument I had with anyone would stop me protecting my hedgehogs. I expect the very least of God and he has failed big time.
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  smiddy3

  I have just looked at the difference between hedgehogs ,porcupines and echidnas ,and was somewhat surprised I thought they would have all been of the same family.But no.

  You have a story to tell there AA and if you dont mind I would like to here it if and when you have time.

  Take care. maybe others would too ,it sounds interesting.

  We have Echidna`s in our area of S.E. Gippsland Vic.Australia.
• 

  Amelia Ashton

  They are amazing creatures. Here are some fun facts:
  There are five genera of hedgehogs:

  Erinaceus

  Paraechinus

  Mesechinus

  Atelerix

  Hemiechinus

  and a total of 17 species found across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia but they are absent from North and South America, Australia and South East Asia.
  
  The most common pet hedgehog in the UK is the African Pygmy Hedgehog which is what mine are.

  This blew my mind when I discovered it.

  The lesser hedgehog tenrec is an example of convergent evolution, a process by which animals that are not related, independently evolve to have similar traits to one another from having to adapt to similar environments

  Lesser hedgehog tenrecs come from Madagascar and as there were never any hedgehogs there so there was space for an animal that ate the same diet of insects and other invertebrates that the hedgehog does. It protects itself from predators the same way too by rolling up into a ball with it's quills sticking outward but unlike hedgehogs, lesser hedgehog tenrecs are semi-arboreal, meaning that they like to climb, and in captivity they need branches to keep properly active. Their claws are hooked to help grip and hold on, rather than straight like the hedgehogs and...they are actually more closely related to elephants than other hedgehogs!
• 

  knowsnothing1

  smiddy3, yes, atonement of sins requires a sacrifice. Besides, most of the meat was eaten anyways.

  Adam and Eve chose to sin. Do perfect beings have free will?
• 

  Diogenesister

  Amelia My husband says they have hedge hogs in New Zealand, do you know if they were introduced? Im going to guess yes?
• 

  Amelia Ashton

  

  Young hedgehog found on the track outside the pest exclusion fence of the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary

  Google threw up this.

  European hedgehogs were brought to New Zealand by European colonists in the 1870s to remind them of their homeland. They have now spread throughout the country, being absent only in inhospitable environments. The general public has a benign attitude to them but conservationists and regional councils regard these animals as pests as they prey on some native animals and compete with them for food.

  They are considered an "invasive" species the same as they are in Canary Islands where I used to live
• 

  unsure

  Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts, pictures and experiences with your beautiful animals.

  I always say that many of the animals that share our lives with have purer "souls" then we do.

  "God cursed the Earth because of sin. We and all creation get to see a world without God's good and full stewardship.

  Why did God have to curse the earth for such a long time and with such unimaginable horrors? Do human parents curse their children when they do something wrong? No, they reprimand them, but NOTHING like God has "cursed" humans with. Playing Devil's Advocate...if God had to curse the earth, why not just curse humans for their "sin" and not animals that had nothing to do with it. Surely God could have designed a better "curse".

  "You agree with what exactly? Let me ask you this…how is it that you even have the concept of love? Where did you (humans) get it? How is it that you even care or not about animals suffering?"

  One of the places I learned "love" from was from my parents and the love they have and continue to show me. This love is tangible, provable...I cannot say the same about "God".
  
  
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  johnamos

  If that is your answer then it is clear that you did not comprehend the question. That being the case, it is no wonder as to why you ask what you have.

  I ask you where HUMANS get the concept of love from, this would include asking where your parents get it from.
  
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  sparky1

  "I ask you where HUMANS get the concept of love from," - johnamos Probably from the same 'source' as they got the concept of hate, greed, lust, guilt, shame, fear, prejudice and on and on. Humans are a complicated species that think, emote, and react along a continuum of both 'good' and 'bad' moral and ethical choices. In other words, who the hell knows why we are the way we are.
  
• 

  unsure

  @johnamos

  The concept of love is an evolutionary mechanism to help preserve our species. "Love" is a name given to a biochemical reaction in the brain.

  So to answer your question; humans got the concept of love via the process of evolution.