|
 On
Saturday, September 2, 2006, Original Christians and
many animal friends from numerous animal rights
organizations from Germany and abroad came together in
Munich for a large international demonstration under the
title: Jesus lived for the people and for the animals.
Jesus died for the people – and also for the animals.”
 The
current event that led to this peace
demonstration was the brutal execution of the brown
bear, Bruno, which had been carried out some weeks
before on the instructions of the Bavarian State
administration.
Over 550 participants accepted the
invitation to join in this demonstration, coming from:
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Poland,
Slovenia and Croatia.
Those present represented the
following animal rights organizations:
Germany:
The Anti-Hunting Coalition
Animals Friends of Dachau
Animal Friends of Riemerling
A.K.T.E. – Animal Rights and
Ethics
Slovenia:
The Association for the Liberation
of Animals and Their Rights
Italy:
IOPA – The National Animal Rights
Organization
LAC – The Anti-Hunting Coalition
NO ALLA CACCIA – A vegetarian
organization for the abolition of hunting
Poland:
The Green Angels
Further associations, whose
representatives could not personally be present, showed
their solidarity and support of this demonstration
through the statements they sent in greeting:
Germany:
The Independent Animal Rights
Union
The Jewish Initiative for the
Protection of Animals
Activists for the Humane
Protection of Animals and Against Animal Experiments
 Switzerland:
Against Animal Manufacturing
Friends of Pigs
Central Coalition for the Protection of
Animals
Education, Humans, Animals and the
Environment
Poland:
VIVA! Foundation: The International
Vegetarian Organization
Green Angels: Foundation for an Ecological Movement
Participants met for the DEMO at Sendlinger-Tor-Platz
and began their march punctually at noon, marching by
the Viktualien Market towards Marienplatz where the
rally was held.
 A
large variety of posters and banners showed passers-by
what the demo was all about. In addition, three
loudspeakers repeatedly sounded out the call to help.
For example:
Jesus
lived for the people and for the animals. Jesus died for
the people – and also for the animals.
The sacrificial death of Bruno
reminds us of the billion-fold suffering of the animals.
Their suffering and torment
must come to an end! Therefore:
Help us stop the murder of
people!
Help us stop the war against
people!
Help us stop the wanton murder
of animals!
Help us stop the war in woods and fields, in the
slaughterhouses and laboratories!
Make peace with your
fellow man!
Make peace with the animals,
with nature and the earth!
And: Don’t eat the flesh of
your fellow creatures!
Join this demonstration march.
Come to the rally at 13:00 hours at the Marienplatz!
In another announcement, people
were called upon to not only denounce the death of the
brown bear Bruno, but they were reminded that Bruno is a
symbol of many animals:
“The brutal execution of bear
Bruno has brought Germany and Bavaria into disrepute
worldwide!
But Bruno is not an individual case. Let us remember
Bruno, the deer; Bruno, the wild pig; Bruno, the hare.
 Alone
in Germany, every year 5 million wild animals, 4 - 6.000
dogs, around 40.000 cats as well as 40 people fall
victim to the murderous instruments of the hunters. The
sacrificial death of Bruno reminds us of the suffering
and torment of these animals. Not to forget, are the
millions of animals in the prison-like barns and
slaughterhouses and the millions of animals in
experimental laboratories. Their suffering and torment
must come to an end!”
 During the march, animal friends
gave voice to the animals: In the name of the animals,
they described very concretely the suffering and torment
of many animals. At several points along the way,
another announcement condemned the war against people
and animals:
We condemn the war against human beings. But we also
condemn the war against animals, for the hunt and
slaughter of animals is also a form of war!
Leo Tolstoy said: As long as
there are slaughterhouses, there will also be
battlefields. Furthermore, Tolstoy said: It is only one
step from the murder of animals to the murder of humans!
If we take Tolstoy literally, it
is only a question of time before the next step is taken
… Let us listen to the word of God: You shall not kill!
It wasn’t only human voices that resounded throughout
the inner city of Munich, but from previous “Don’t Eat
Meat” demonstrations, the well-known animal cries of
animals as they were being slaughtered were heard, too,
in connection to the demand: “People, Don’t Eat Meat”,
“Down With the Animal Ghetto Wardens” and “Down With the
Slaughterhouses!”
 Interestingly
enough, it was precisely on this day that the topic of
“Rotten Meat” was being reported in the press and could
be heard all over Munich! In this way, many a meat-eater
was now confronted with the question whether the meat
that he had eaten just shortly before, wasn’t a piece of
carcass 4 years old.
 This offered the opportunity to
the demonstrators to draw attention to the fact that
when it’s about meat, never mind that it’s 4 days, 4
weeks or 4 years old, it is always about a piece of
carcass, and the safest way to protect yourself from
rotten meat is to avoid eating it. This is not only the
safest method for human beings, but above all for the
animals, who then don’t need to die, just because people
eat their flesh!
 Shortly
after 1:00 PM, the first of the demonstrators reach
Marienplatz. It took a few minutes until the
participants all arrived for the rally.
After greeting everyone, the
question which had been asked by many a passer-by was
answered: What does Jesus have to do with animal rights?
The Original Christians orient themselves to the
teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, who, for example, said:
What you do to the least of my own, you do to me.
And who are the least? Aren’t they particularly those
who have no voice and no rights in our society, the
animals?
 Universal Life is against every
form of killing, for no human being can give breath to a
living being – not to other human beings, nor to
animals. For this reason, no human being has the right
to take the breath from a living being.
If a person goes after the question of what Jesus has to
do with animal rights, it becomes interesting to hear
more about the animal rights thoughts from the Jewish
faith, because Jesus was a Jew.
 Thanks
to the words of greeting from the Jewish Initiative for
the Protection of Animals, demonstrators, passers-by and
tourists learned that the Jewish religious law forbids
hunting and that in the five books of Moses, hunting is
not ethically acceptable to the life of human beings.
 Why
so little is known about the love of Jesus for animals
in the Christian western world, although animal rights
is anchored in Judaism, became clear through the words
of greeting from the Activists for the Humane Protection
of Animals that showed that the Bible was first compiled
during the third century and that these texts were
changed by the so-called “correctors” in the church.
 Among
other things, they said: “Therefore, we cannot talk
about a fundamental expression of early Christian
thought in the work of the Bible. In this context, we
cannot forget the interpretations of the cardinals and
popes. It is these particular Biblical acrobats that
share the blame for the fact that the lives of millions
upon millions of animals were and are made a living
hell.”
 But
what is mostly known from apocryphal scripts about the
love of Jesus for the animals, demonstrators heard from
Dieter Potzel, a Protestant theologian who worked as a
pastor for many years before he left this institution.
(This information you can find under the booklet bearing
the title: The Hidden Love of Jesus for the Animals…)
 Journalist
and author, Matthias Holzbauer, spoke about the fact
that the first Christians were vegetarians and how many
great church fathers also defended a vegetarian way of
life. Soldiers and hunters could not join the early
Christian communities as long as they continued to
practice their chosen profession. Matthias Holzbauer
reported that the first heretics executed by the church
were typically vegetarian. But despite the attempts of
the Catholic Church to erase a vegetarian way
of life, the different early
Christian streams always managed to link up with a way
of life that was without eating meat.
Although Judaism and early Christianity rejected
hunting, hunters and the victims of their murderous lust
are, still today, blessed in Hubertus church masses. A
delegation of the Bavarian Hunting Coalition may even
sit in the first row to receive a papal blessing at an
audience in St. Peter’s Square in October.
Every now and then, the AJ-Gang, a young animal rights
band, came into action on the stage, with their songs
for the animals.
 The
following quote is attributed to Voltaire: “Hunting
is the surest method for killing off the feelings in
human beings for their fellow creatures.” But
luckily, only few people are hunters, so that many
people still have their compassion for animals intact.
This was expressed by the animal friends who stepped up
to the microphone on stage for the animals.
   
First, came “Bruno, the Bear” who
addressed the conscience of passers-by and pointed out
that every animal, actually, is a Bruno, and the
demonstrators called out “Stop killing animals!”
Then another animal friend express the view of wild
animals over their suffering and torment during hunting.
The next speaker raised his voice for the animals in the
factory farms, and a medical doctor spoke for the
animals that suffer so unspeakably in experimental
laboratories
 In
the further course of the rally a well-known animal
activist and journalist, Barbara Rütting spoke, saying,
among other things: “I am convinced that if Jesus
were living today, He would not be a member of the
established churches. Instead, He would be with us today
on this market place. He would open the doors of the
laboratories. He would stop the animal transports. And
he would try to stop this suffering of the animals.
And for this, they would mock
Him and lock Him up as the leader of a sect.”
Barbara Rütting also took a position in relation to
other topics, for example, the failure of the churches
to work for animal protection, even if individual
theologians do stand up for the animals. At the end of
her speech, she brought up the shooting of the bear,
Bruno, saying that from the very beginning, the
intention to shoot him had been planned and was the real
motivation for the hunters.
 Another
pause for the AJ Gang
Stephan Eck, from A.K.T.E., spoke
of the fact that Jesus of Nazareth called on the people
to love their neighbor as themselves, and that the
animals are also a part of this neighbor.
 Renata
Löffler from the Activists for the Humane Protection of
Animals described her fight for the animals that she had
tried to carry off in the church but which ended with
her leaving the church. For Renata Löffler, the bloody
tracks of the church’s past isn’t so important as the
lack of true love in the church today.
The
death of bear Bruno brought Germany into disrepute
worldwide, and the voices of animal friends were also
heard worldwide, who called for the abolition of hunting
or sent words of greeting to this demonstration.
From Italy and Poland we received messages of greeting
as well as from the Spanish, English and French speaking
worlds, expressing solidarity from animal friends
worldwide. The representative from Slovenia asked the
demonstrators to think of Slovenia, where hundreds of
bears are threatened with death.
   
 After
all the cruelty that was brought to light on this day,
so that people begin to change their way of thinking,
the animal friends in the Gabriele Foundation showed the
alternative: an Original Christian, peaceful treatment
of the creation of God.
During the rally, many
demonstrators and passers-by could try out a vegetarian
sandwich to check whether or not veggie-food doesn’t
taste better than rotten meat. And at the info-table
there was a lot of conversation …
A great day for animal rights and
for the vindication of the great bringer of peace, Jesus
of Nazareth, thus came to an end …
Statements of Support for Sep 2, 2006 Demonstration |
