Never Say Never: Fighting to make those rainbows real
Animal Rights/Vegan Activist Strategies Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM lauren Ornelas, Food Empowerment Project
October 2021

I see Bunito's beautiful white fur and try not to think of how people kill his kind for fur, but how much I love petting him. I look at his ruby eyes and try not to think about animal testing; instead, I dim the light to not hurt them. And I look at his absolute joy when he binkies (hops into the air) with pure happiness. I realize that it is okay to allow rays of sunlight into these very dark days we live in and to be sure to grasp those rays and bask in them. And always, always fight to make those rainbows real.

 

In 2009, I lost one of my greatest loves, my cat Malcolm, who I found when moving out of my college dorm—he was so young when I found him that he had not even opened his eyes. He died from kidney failure a couple of weeks before his 16th birthday. Due to the intense pain I felt after losing him, I decided to not have another companion animal, but when I got together with my partner, Mark Hawthorne, he had a bunny named Sophie. I wrote about this in a previous blog.

After we lost Sophie, we decided that we were done—again. The pain of losing a companion animal was extremely difficult. And as many of you can probably relate to, it isn’t something that many employers or family members can completely understand. Perhaps you have heard remarks such as, they’re “just a cat.” And few jobs give you paid time off for mourning the loss of a non-human animal.

We lived without companion animals for many years, but luckily had friends with bunnies where Mark was able to get his bunny love satisfied. And where we’ve lived, we have often had cats in the neighborhood who would come over to visit and sometimes even spend the night.

We recently moved back to downtown San José, CA, and live in an area where we can walk through the residential neighborhoods. On one of our walks in June, we spotted two bunnies near a street; they were clearly not wild rabbits—the female was white with grey spots and the male was white with pink eyes. They were near an intersection and were filthy. They looked young—five or six months old.

As Mark is a bunny lover (and just published a book about rabbits! The Way of the Rabbit), he jumped into action and went to get boxes and a towel so we could rescue them. It took some time, but we eventually were able to corner them underneath a dirty outdoor stairwell that was covered in cigarette butts. These two were very bonded; in fact, even during the rescue the white bunny put his body in front of his mate to prevent me from reaching her—I couldn’t even see her! Once we were back in our apartment, he would hop in front of her in order to put his body between her and us.

All of the local rabbit rescues were filled, so we decided to foster them. More than likely, these two bunnies (and why the rescues were filled) were dumped “Easter bunnies.” Unfortunately, their cuteness can also be to their detriment as many people buy them as gifts for Easter but don’t really think of them as living, breathing animals and instead see them as toys.

Sadly, we lost the white-and-grey spotted rabbit due to a complication during her spay surgery, which was devastating.

We struggled about what to do with the male bunny because we did not want to go through the pain of losing another companion animal and making unbearable decisions. And at the same time, our hearts broke at the thought of all he had been through: being dumped, the stress of the rescue, and losing his beloved companion; he even exhibited signs of trauma from his previous “home,” such as going into hiding if we moved too fast. And truth be told, I had completely and utterly fallen in love with him.

Putting aside our own fears about getting attached and losing him, we adopted him. His name is Bunito Juárez Hawthornelas and is named after the first Indigenous president of Mexico, Benito Juárez.

And he has changed our lives dramatically. He is a young bunny, so we keep joking we are too old for his antics. He is what I call “full of beans”: he lets you know when he wants you to pet him and when he is over it … with just a nudge of his nose. He is super sassy and likes to sit on the couch after we go to bed.

Though as I laugh at his binkies and love his zoomies around the house, my mind does go to the fact that rabbits are killed for food and used in experiments (of course they are also used for fur, hunting, etc.), and I have noticed his demeanor changes when I have such thoughts. He distances himself from me. And I realize he can probably sense my visual brain and my sadness.

During this time, Food Empowerment Project (F.E.P.) was also in the midst of our work for our Fight for the Ocean Week (fightfortheocean.com), and as part of that we had a book club reading Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals.

It is a powerful, beautiful book written by a Black feminist that gives you a completely different perspective of marine mammals—one where we are allowed to learn about them and to love them. We are allowed to connect their lives with ours, with colonization and the challenges of discovery. The things you learn about these animals are breathtaking.

One of the questions presented by one of our board members (who ran the book club) was: “What was your takeaway?” I spoke up and said something to the effect that I learned more about animals that I already had some knowledge of, and now I have to worry more about them, which is painful.

The more we learn about any injustice and what the victims go through, the more we should be shaken to our core. But I am starting to realize that while we are working to fight against injustices, we need to find some joy in our world. In fact, it is something that I am learning from a number of Black-led organizations that are showing Black Joy—not just trauma but joy.

In the work we do, fighting for justice for both human and non-human animals, we can be surrounded by trauma, anguish, and pain, and as someone who dedicated my entire life to fighting injustices, I think that I spend a lot of time thinking of that in order to create ways to stop it.

Though lately, as my brain has been processing the outrage regarding how to end the hate and injustice and how to improve the lives of those who are the most vulnerable, I also see Bunito. He has his own projects, activities, naughtiness, and ways to express happiness and trust, and instead of getting upset with myself for being preoccupied with work while I appreciate his wonderful traits, I have just allowed myself to watch and not feel guilty.

I think what Bunito has taught me is that joy is okay. And I don’t mean laughing, as I do that often, but I mean the ability to put aside the suffering in the world just to appreciate, well, genuine happiness. That isn’t a word I use often as it is personally hard for me to use it when there is so much suffering in the world.

I see his beautiful white fur and try not to think of how people kill his kind for fur, but how much I love petting him. I look at his ruby eyes and try not to think about animal testing; instead, I dim the light to not hurt them. And I look at his absolute joy when he binkies (hops into the air) with pure happiness.

I realize that it is okay to allow rays of sunlight into these very dark days we live in and to be sure to grasp those rays and bask in them. And always, always fight to make those rainbows real.

This is going to be a process, and I am sure there will be times when I forget, but I hope to feel and share more joy in this world. And if you, like me, have been fighting the good fight for so many decades, I hope you will try it too.

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