From a mailing from In Defense of Animals:

“Being an animal guardian defines the compassionate connection between animals and humans, counteracting the throw-away mindset that society has towards animals.”

– Randy Grim, President, Stray Rescue of St. Louis

Orange Animal Guardian Ribbons

Click on the URL’s to read about it:

Rational Animal’s Press Release

Oklahoma Alliance for Animals’ Animal Guardian Campaign

“Advocate Guardianship by wearing the beautiful orange ribbon with a black paw especially made for Oklahoma Alliance for Animals.”
Click on the picture, then “page down” to the very bottom of the page (past the T-shirts), to order a Guardian Ribbon pin:

By ordering a pin through the Oklahoma Alliance for Animals instead of general awareness sites, in addition to differentiating one orange cause from another with the paw print, the proceeds will go to an animal friendly organization, instead of risking a cut going to support animal research!

Start your own Animal Guardianship campaign. Here’s more information from Rational Animals’ site:

Free Downloadable color 8 1/2″ X 11″ poster (.pdf file) and bookmark

Order ribbon kits

More background info from www.animalguardianribbon.org

---

Orange ribbons are also for animal shelters. They chose orange, because:
“Orange is for people who have a family member in prison, and animals in shelters are in prison. They live behind the bars of cages, and most of them are on death row.
Orange is also an alarming color. Millions of animals are killed every year in this country just because no one wants them. That’s an alarming statistic.”

---

Also, see ‘Orange Ribbon Campaign to raise Animal Protection Awareness. Wear Orange!’ for pictures of my ribbons, and my recommendations for making enough to share with shelter volunteers and others.

---

Today’s post bumped ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’, says God. Boycott fur. (And also, boycott Canadian seafood until they stop their brutal bloodbath of 350,000 or so defenseless seals.)

I really like this hymn, which we sang at church today in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday. Sing along — loudly:

Lift Every Voice and Sing

Lift every voice and sing
till earth and heaven ring,
ring with the harmonies of liberty.
Let our rejoicing rise
high as the listening skies;
let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us;
sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
facing the rising sun
of our new day begun,
let us march on, till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
bitter the chastening rod,
felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
yet, with a steady beat,
have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our parents sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears have been watered;
we have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past,
till now we stand at last
where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
thou who hast by thy might led us into the light;
keep us for ever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee;
lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee;
shadowed beneath thy hand
may we for ever stand,
true to our God, true to our native land.

Words: James Weldon Johnson, 1899

Here’s a cool-sounding midi.

But the words are a little different.

---

(Today’s blurb bumped ‘Eco Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters’; and the Collect for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and also a link to the Church Times article about a cancelled pig roast from the home page.

January 7, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

<snip>

http://enaw.org/orangeribbon.htm

Episcopal Network for Animal Welfare announces the Orange Ribbon Campaign 2006

ROUND LAKE, IL — Members of the Episcopal Network for Animal Welfare (ENAW) will wear orange ribbons beginning this month, and beyond, as an initiative to raise awareness of the needs of animals.

Orange is the color of protection, and of non-violence and peace. Orange vests and helmets protect workers and hunters. Orange school buses protect the children. Orange is alsoworn by Buddhist monks to symbolize their vow of harmlessness (ahimsa).

ENAW’s Orange Ribbon Campaign invites people to stand in solidarity with “the least of these,” to call for an end to violence against all God’s creatures in the striving after God’s Peaceable Kingdom on earth.

The Episcopal Network for Animal Welfare invites and encourages all who work in vocations of animal protection and advocacy, rehabilitation or healthcare, rescuers, shelter and sanctuary volunteers, and all who are concerned about any form of animal abuse, neglect or abandonment, to wear orange ribbons this month, and throughout the year, as an outward and visible sign of their vocation, as a symbol of common ground, and to raise public awareness.

The Mission of the Episcopal Network for Animal Welfare is to create an inclusive and mutually-supportive venue for Episcopal animal advocates with a variety of interests and gifts; and to offer our presence, passion, enthusiasm and resources to help equip the churches to give meaningful voice to every creature under Heaven, especially where neglect, cruelty, degradation and commercial exploitation are concerned.

###

The following items are sold by various companies. Currently, proceeds do not benefit ENAW, but wearing and advertising the ENAW logo benefits us and the animals.
(Especially when people ask about it!) Click on the pictures to order.

Car Magnet
(If you belong to a different animal advocacy group, you can change the text on this car magnet ribbon to correspond to your group. As mentioned in the Press Release, we want anyone who has an affinity for any type of animal protection to participate in the Orange Ribbon Campaign.)

Car Decal

Click on this picture to visit ENAW’s CafePress.com store, which features apparel, mugs, bags, hats, paper goods, and much more.

Click here to read about The Orange Ribbon Campaign 2006.

Here are some I made:

(As an explanation why I made my first batch two-toned, someone mentioned that purple was the color for animal abuse awareness among other things. So I wanted to incorporate both, covering “abuse” over with “protection”.)

My suggestion for anyone who would like a ribbon would buy a roll of bright orange satin ribbon — preferably “hunter’s orange”, and a spool of matching thread, and make enough extras to give to friends, family and volunteers of local shelters or animal protection groups. A typical 18′ spool of ribbon ($1.89 at Joann Fabrics) will make 72 3″ ribbons, or about 25 ribbons the size of the one pictured above. Where I live, Joann Fabrics sells another brand of ribbon (really thin) on spools of 10 yards for only 50 cents! I’ve experimented with the thin ribbon to make “ribbon necklaces”. Also, my original ribbons were stitched with orange thread. But it is a lot quicker, and would work just as well to use a drop of tacky glue to hold them together.

Let’s spread the word!

(If interested in how to obtain an ENAW silver lapel pin, click on the pin photo above. I’ll include a ribbon with a pin for the first 200 donations of $15.00. Proceeds will be used to defray the cost of the exhibit booth at General Convention next June.)