Beth A. Nigro is an author with a Master's degree from Fordham University. She is a steadfast advocate for the humane treatment of all animals.
Your recent work, A Call from Within, is about Deborah, an activist who cares for animals and advocates for their humane treatment and wellness. What inspired you to write this novel?
I created within me a feeling, an ability, that allowed me to write about all the issues concerning all animals, with the hope that people learn from my many pages what is really going on. Most people don't seem to know about the pain and suffering that's happening all over the world.
The cover of your book is beautiful, and the wolf is an elegant touch.
Yes, it would be immediately obvious that I love dogs, and I try to include the latest uncovering of the wolf as ancestor to all dogs, going back, some say, about 20,000, to, I read yesterday, that the number goes further back even to 130,000 years ago that we humans had direct contact with wolves, and have domesticated these wolves and bred all different breeds, though time, mostly in the last few hundred years.
How do you feel about the treatment of animals in the 21st century? And what recommendations do you have for a better future for animals?
OK, animals suffer pain, only one example I speak of here, and people today, professionals even, deny that animals do suffer pain, as we do also feel pain. So, some people don't know that animals, like us and other animals, have pain receptors that obviously gives us direction to the obvious fact of pain unacknowledged even today. But that is changing. These issues I speak of I've learned from books, and it spreads the word. Also, it is clear that animals can think and have fears, and so on.
What advice would you give to people looking to adopt a pet from a shelter?
OK, its easy. Buying animals is not allowing diversity to effect a more healthy existence for dogs, as is true for humans! Right, we are told that people shouldn't Inter-breed for various health reasons, though many animals do sometimes interbreed (and there's probably a reason they do so). So adopting is significant to underscore the love we can have, no matter what breed they are and what their mix is. They are the most beautiful souls. And there are so many lonely dogs, for instance, that are waiting for us right now. All you have to do is make sure they are safe from other animals in the house, that they should get along well.
Do you have a personal inspiring story of animal kindness to share?
I have said in my book that there's a "crisis of cruelty" going on. Kindness is clue that things are changing for them, and that animals can find peace. I've seen videos here and there, where animals are in danger and people help them. I learned about a man at a zoo I think, who saw a chimpanzee near drowning, and against all the people saying he would not put himself in danger, he jumped in and saved her life. It brings tears!
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