In response to my last article, Why Animals May Not Speak Up About Abuse, a reader asked: What do you do when you suspect abuse or the animal tells you he's being abused? I know many of us would want to rescue the animal but we can't do that always and it could make things worse for the animal. What is the best thing to do that would be in the best interest of the animal without insulting the owner or becoming angry? Elaine Winter, MSW, LCSW
Generally, people who call for animal communication consultations are willing to go the extra mile for their animal friends. They want to understand them and help to fulfill their needs better and are sincere animal lovers, not abusers.
However, human clients may have relationships with animals that have abusive elements because that’s how they were trained to treat animals and they don’t know a better way.
When they get to understand animals’ viewpoints during animal communication consultations, they often have their eyes opened to whole new and caring ways to treat, train, or live with their animal companions.
Code of Ethics The Code of Ethics found on my website and copied for reference below, speaks to the attitudes and approaches that are in the best interests of both human and non-human clients and can bring about the most balanced, harmonious results.
We honor those that come to us for help, not judging, condemning, or invalidating them for their mistakes or misunderstanding but honoring their desire for change and harmony. During consultations, animals have the opportunity to speak up about poor treatment and get that addressed with their person. Your job as an animal communicator is to stay in touch with the feelings and ideas of clients, both human and non-human, and allow the most compassionate, harmonious outcome to surface from the dialogue. It is not ethical for you to impose your ideas about what you consider acceptable behavior onto human or non-human.
Getting Across with Compassion Among the many in-person consultations I’ve done with people and their horses was a high level dressage rider and trainer who asked me to help clear up some difficulties she was having with her horses.
Dressage involves a horse and rider moving together with synchronized steps and rhythms like dancing that requires extensive training for both horse and rider to achieve excellence. One of her horses responded well to her training and she did not have much to ask about him. Her other horse was her challenge. He rebelled against her methods and she wanted to know why and what she could do about it.
When I spoke to Ligere, he showed me how his neck hurt with the rigid way his rider held him back with her reins and the uncomfortable bit in his mouth. He felt too constrained and not able to move well. He felt if he was given more freedom to move naturally, he could do the dressage/dance movements with ease, grace, and joy.
His presence and his vision of himself showed me his dignity, awareness, beauty and greatness as a being and his desired excellence as a dressage horse. He felt his person was not seeing his true self nor working with him as he really was. He visualized being both a Native American rider and horse in union with each other. He conveyed how they blended power in lightness and appreciation of space and free movement together.
The person’s approach to her horses was crisp and disciplined, firmly founded in a popular training method derived from training military horses. She was in command and it was the horse’s job to obediently follow her lead. This could be regarded as domineering or even abusive, but it was a very accepted training approach.
How did I communicate what her horse felt? I stayed in touch with both her and her horse’s viewpoints and feelings as I answered.
We honor those that come to us for help, not judging, condemning, or invalidating them for their mistakes or misunderstanding but honoring their desire for change and harmony. I described to her the majesty of her horse’s perspective as he had shown me. I explained how the ability he conveyed to me revealed a potential to be an incredible high level dressage horse like none she had ever ridden if she gave him more room to work in partnership with her. As I spoke, Ligere communicated his feelings even more expansively, passionately, and clearly to get across to her how he wanted to create something beautiful with his talent.
This was not what the person expected and was contrary to the dressage training model that she had absorbed. Yet, I could also feel her shifting as she took in my words and looked at her noble horse differently.
She had called me because she wanted something to change in their relationship. I could feel her worldview cracking open with her horse’s communication vividly expressed to her. New possibilities were surfacing. She needed time to look it all over.
Ligere felt heard and respected in a new way by his person. I had no judgment about what his person should or would do with the communication. I did feel the potential of her experiencing a mental and spiritual shift that would positively influence her own equine relationships and many others she trained.
I had been asked to help and had done my part.
Improvement Cannot Be Forced If you come upon ill-treatment of animals in your work as an animal communicator, you cannot just go in and do what you want based on your own agenda or ideas. We are not here to force others to “improve” in line with our own mindset. You need to have permission and willingness of both people and their animal friends to assist through telepathic communication.
We go only where we are asked to help, so that others are receptive and we truly can help. We respect the feelings and ideas of others and work for interspecies understanding, not pitting one side against another but walking with compassion for all. We acknowledge the things that we cannot change and continue where our work can be most effective. In our profession, gentle, compassionate education that includes the perspectives of the animals and all involved goes a long way to improving non-optimum situations.
People have different ideas of what actions are abusive. Some people think that riding horses itself is abusive; others think that having dogs on a leash is wrong, or simply having any animal in a domestic relationship should not be. What if a person has not taken their animal to the veterinarian when you think they should have, or you find out that people are treating animals in a dominating or forceful way?
Coming in with judgments about people’s actions is a setup for conflict. If you label what the person does as abuse and become angry, you have lost your chance to facilitate true understanding and to improve the situation according to what works for the animals involved, including human guardians.
We know that to keep this work as pure and harmonious as possible requires that we continually grow spiritually. We realize that telepathic communication can be clouded or overlaid by our own unfulfilled emotions, critical judgments, or lack of love for self and others.
We cultivate knowledge and understanding of the dynamics of human, non-human, and interspecies behavior and relationships, to increase the good results of our work. We get whatever education and/or personal help we need to do our work effectively, with compassion, respect, joy, and harmony.
Code of Ethics for Interspecies Telepathic Communicators Formulated in 1990 by Penelope Smith
Our motivation is compassion for all beings and a desire to help all species understand each other better, particularly to help restore the lost human ability to freely and directly communicate with other species.
We honor those that come to us for help, not judging, condemning, or invalidating them for their mistakes or misunderstanding but honoring their desire for change and harmony.
We know that to keep this work as pure and harmonious as possible requires that we continually grow spiritually. We realize that telepathic communication can be clouded or overlaid by our own unfulfilled emotions, critical judgments, or lack of love for self and others. We walk in humility, willing to recognize and clear up our own errors in understanding others’ communication (human and non-human alike).
We cultivate knowledge and understanding of the dynamics of human, non-human, and interspecies behavior and relationships, to increase the good results of our work. We get whatever education and/or personal help we need to do our work effectively, with compassion, respect, joy, and harmony.
We seek to draw out the best in everyone and increase understanding toward mutual resolution of problems. We go only where we are asked to help, so that others are receptive and we truly can help. We respect the feelings and ideas of others and work for interspecies understanding, not pitting one side against another but walking with compassion for all. We acknowledge the things that we cannot change and continue where our work can be most effective.
We respect the privacy of people and animal companions we work with, and honor their desire for confidentiality.
While doing our best to help, we allow others their own dignity and help them to help their animal companions. We cultivate understanding and ability in others, rather than dependence on our ability. We offer people ways to be involved in understanding and growth with their fellow beings of other species.
We acknowledge our limitations, seeking help from other professionals as needed. It is not our job to name and treat diseases, and we refer people to veterinarians for diagnosis of physical illness. We may relay animals’ ideas, feelings, pains, symptoms, as they describe them or as we feel or perceive them, and this may be helpful to veterinary health professionals. We may also assist through handling of stresses, counseling, and other gentle healing methods. We let clients decide for themselves how to work with healing their animal companions’ distress, disease, or injury, given all the information available.
The goal of any consultation, lecture, workshop, or interspecies experience is more communication, balance, compassion, understanding, and communion among all beings. We follow our heart, honoring the spirit and life of all beings as One.
