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Today I want to talk to you about karatedogs.

Five years ago I started practicing karate. Very soon I discovered it was one of the most difficult techniques I had ever practiced. The literal translation of Kara Te is Empty Hand. Our master at the local school of martial arts belongs to the Shito Ryu tradition. He constantly reminds us that traditional karate is not to be confused with sports like football, track and field or cycling. He likes to stress that karate is an art; a martila art. A student of traditional karate learns to use her/his body and mind as an artist. The masterpiece of this karate student is her/his life. If you are a football player, you very often have to retire as a pro, as soon as you reach 35 years of age. As a student in martial arts you can continue to practice until you die. If you are 8 or even 80 years old, you can without any problem start studying as a student of traditional karate.

Under the influence of westernized karate, many schools in the U.S. and in Europe have developed other trends than Shito Ryu  whereby competitions, championships and titles became important. As a martial art the traditional Shito Ryu karate has been developed by the people of the island of Okinawa. As soon as their island was conquered and occupied by Japan they were not allowed to carry or even own weapons. No wonder they invented ways of defending themselves with empty hands. As discovery by the occupational forces had to be avoided they kept these techniques secret until after World War II.

The basic rules of the traditional Shito Ryu karate are as follows.

- Whenever you can, avoid to be in a dangerous situation.

- If you are in a dangerous situation look for a possibility to avoid confrontation.

- Only if you are being attacked, you can defend yourself.

- When you defend yourself, do it in such a way that you do not needlessly harm your opponent.

- The best way to win a fight is not to fight.

A student of martial arts has to study the forms that are called kata’s. The student will start to understand the real meaning of a kata as soon as (s)he has repeated all its movements at least 10.000 times. It is important to know that a kata always begins with a defensive movement. It never starts with a punch. The punch always comes after you have defended yourself against an attack.

As a student of martial arts I start to see similarities between what I practice and the way dogs behave.

What I see is of course my own personal interpretation converted into my own personal opinion. In comparison to the average dog owner I do not deal with a few dogs in my life. Every week I am doing one-to-ones with several clients and every Sunday I have the privilege of walking with a large pack.

The more I observe dogs and the more I study traditional karate the more I am seeing dogs behaving like students of traditional karate.

Let’s make the comparison with the five basic above mentioned rules.

-Whenever they can, dogs will avoid a dangerous situation. Their ancestors do the same in the wild. Hunting or travelling wolves will notice they are approaching the territory of another pack.  Having sensed the presence of the other pack they will then avoid contact by leaving the area.

- On my walks in the wooded mountains I very often meet abandoned dogs. It goes without saying that I walk my dogs off leash. Whenever I see an abandoned dog (s)he will disappear as soon as I come too close. My dogs will not chase these semi-wild dogs and so they’ll avoid confrontation.

- When do dogs come too close to other dogs? Of course when they are on the leash. Thousands of dog owners have told me their dogs are aggressive. I tend to disagree. It is my opinion that these dogs on the leash are not aggressive but DEFENSIVE. According to me they will pull on the leash, bark, jump and lash out in order to make something clear to approaching dogs: do not come too close because my owner leaves me in charge of the situation. Many dog owners tell me that their dogs ATTACK other dogs. When I ask for details of the attack these owners have to admit their dogs did not bite the approaching dogs and that there were no injuries on both sides. I make the comparison with the FIGHTS I have with my fellow students. We are being trained to block, kick, punch and lash out without hurting each other. I am asking myself: Are we fighting like dogs or are dogs fighting like karate students?

- If a dog is off leash it has a free choice to take an adequate decision in every dangerous situation. (S)he can for instance freeze, fight or flee. If a dog is driven into a corner it will lash out, bite and possibly run off. Certainly when it is an anxious dog or a dog on a chain. As a professional doglistener I know that a dog will behave differently if an anxious, nervous, crying, shouting owner is present or not. You might have seen the episode wherein my famous colleague Cesar Milan deals with a so called aggressive dog. He was only willing to work with the dog on condition that the anxious owner left the room. The influence of the behaviour of the owner is of the utmost importance as far as the behaviour of her/his dog is concerned. Wolves will have skirmishes in a pack but they will avoid hurting each other. If they would not do that, the pack would soon not be able to hunt successfully as all its members would be wounded.

- In the walking pack I can see every Sunday how dogs treat a newcomer. Using their body language they will test the new dog and make it clear where their and her/his positions are in the pack. Talking (without words) with their tails, ears, eyes, noses, hairs and paws they will avoid fights. Certainly when there are enough stable dogs and stable owners in the pack whose strong energy will create good vibes. This morning we had more than 30 dogs in the walking pack. A lady joined us for the first time and she was afraid to let her young dog run off leash. I talked to her and she was brave enough to take off the extended lead she was using for her dog. At the end of the two hour walk she was very glad to have taken my advice.

Yes, I really do think that dogs are superior students in traditional karate.

One day I want to be as good as a dog.

Kindest regards from Brunothedoglistener.

Stable dogs have stable owners.

Unstable dogs have unstable owners.

Stable dogs are happy dogs.

Happy dogs have happy owners.

www.brunodogs.com

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Over the years I have been helping thousands of dogs and their owners. But arriving at the home of this client I must say I had never seen a dog in such a bad physical condition.

In one of my following letters I will explain.

–
Kindest regards from Brunothedoglistener.
Well-educated dogs are obedient dogs.
Obedient dogs are happy dogs.
Happy dogs have happy owners.
www.brunodogs.com
00 34 690 19 29 76

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Today I want to write about FEAR.

For the major part of my life I did not grasp the importance of fear in my life and in our society.

When it became clear to me what kind of grip fear had on me, I realized it were dogs who had opened my eyes and my heart.

Over the last 17 years I have been helping dog loving people in their (inharmonious) relationships with their pets. Thousands of times I have heard dog owners say things like : I am(was) afraid that…, or,  I am(was) worried that….

For many years I did not pay attention to the specific significance of these expressions. In the English language, almost any sentence can begin with: I am afraid that….

Living in London in the eighties I even thought that the use of the expression I am afraid that… gave the person speaking a sophisticated, cute, elegant or even high bow and stylish air. But, although I started using it myself I never got the knack of it.

Having started my work as a dog listener I paid more and more attention to my clients who were (and are using) the expression I am afraid that…

I paid more attention because in many cases I could see the reality of the fear in their eyes, their faces, their body language and in their behaviour with dogs. I did not see persons wanting to give themselves a sophisticated air. I saw persons who were (are) really suffering.

Must I now explain to you that dogs can read and feel this fear in their owners too?

No, of course not.

You must know that dogs can read, feel and notice it much clearer and faster than I do.

Dogs know very clearly that fear creates a weak energy.

Why?

Because dogs are born hunters.

Hunters have to chase and kill a prey before they can eat it.

Do you think that a prey running for its life is full of fear or not?

Of course it is and the members of a pack of canines chasing a fearful prey are delighted by the prospect of turning that prey into a meal.

Let’s leave the pack eat their prey and return to human beings and what fear means to us.

Since I got involved with the ManKindProject I became conscious of the role fear played in my life. Personally I was especially plagued by fear of failure, fear of poverty and fear of not being good enough. When I started accepting these feelings of fear, it began to loose its grip on my behaviour. The result was that I was not ruled anymore by fear on an unconscious level. I could accept fear as a positive force within my life.

I discovered that feeling fear is positive but that ALWAYS feeling fear is debilitating. I will give you a few examples.

If I am afraid that driving past a red traffic light can cause an accident, then what I am feeling is good fear.

If I am afraid that confronting a hungry lioness in the bush represents real danger for me, it will make me stay away from such a confrontation. That is good fear.

If my being afraid of falling of a cliff prevents me from doing silly things in the mountains, that good feeling of fear will save my life.

Instead of continuing to give more similar examples I am assuming that you understand what I mean. You do understand it? I mean that fear is in many ways a very good safeguard of my life.

But if I ALWAYS feel fear when approaching a red traffic light, if I ALWAYS think of hungry lionesses, even when I am in my living room, if I ALWAYS see myself walking on the edge of cliffs, then this feeling of fear is putting me constantly under stress. This stress is turning my muscles into stiff and painful shields against…yes against what? Mostly against feelings of  fear for situations that never happen but only exist in my mind; In my imagination. In our Western society the feelings of stress are so strong in many people that our bodies loose all the essential minerals ( the building blocks of our bodies) resulting in a very weak immune system. As soon as our immune system is weak we cannot protect ourselves against infections, starting from a simple cold to very serious diseases. This is not happening in our imagination. This is real.

Well, are you thinking: What is happening now? Why is this man who calls himself a doglistener writing about fear?

Well, as long as I was under the unconscious spell of my fearful feelings I was always negating I had these feelings. So, I can accept it when fearful and stressful persons are saying that they are not afraid and not stressed. Yes, I can accept that although I do not believe it.

Our dogs accept it too.

They look at their owner, see the fear and feel the weak energy. In addition to that they have to endure the spoiling behaviour of many owners and their conclusion is:

I CANNOT RESPECT THIS PERSON NOR CAN I ACCEPT HER/HIM AS MY LEADER.

It reminds me of my point regarding dog training classes.

If a person full of unconscious fear and stress takes her/his dog to dog training classes, the result will in many cases be nothing, nada, niente, rien du tout, nichts, niks.

Because dog training classes do not tend to deal with human stress. In many case they even produce more stress for the persons and the dogs involved. Because the person is feeling the fear of failure, the fear of not being good enough and the dog is not accepting the leadership of her/his weak owner.

On the other hand if I create a stress-free opportunity, like in my walking group, people and dogs will FEEL the difference.

The first time when a member of my walking group told me that walking her dog with me was some kind of therapy for her, I was amazed.

Today I am still pleasantly surprised when people tell me similar things. Since that first time many more walkers have told me how they got rid of their fears while walking in my Sunday morning dog walking group. They are not afraid anymore their dog will run off, being bitten or bite other dogs and/or persons. Some even come to grips with traumas that have been haunting them for decades. Like the lady who told me this: As a young girl I have been bitten by a big dog. For the major part of my life I felt terrorized by every big dog that came close to me. Here I am walking with you amidst more than thirty dogs without a leash and I feel fine. If someone would have told me that a few months ago I would have laughed and said that I would never do such a thing. Thank you so much for your walks.

My answer was: Thank you very much for being so open and honest to me but I say thank you to the dogs. They are my teachers. They helped me getting to grips with my own fears.

Do you want to tell me something about your fears?

Write to me on brunosdogs@gmail.com.

I will be delighted to read your message.

Kindest regards from Brunothedoglistener.

Well-educated dogs are stable dogs.

Stable dogs have stable owners.

www.brunodogs.com

00 34 690 19 29 76

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Shortly after I arrived in Spain I met a man called Juan. He came to see me because he wanted to train his dog. It turned out he did not need me at all. Soon we became friends and Juan taught me some very important lessons. What struck me when we first met was the way he saluted me. He used to put his right hand on his heart while bowing slightly forward with a broad smile on his face. No one else in the village did that.

It took a while before I could understand him because my knowledge of the language of Cervantes was still very basic in the early days. After a few months he invited to come along to his chabola. Not wanting to admit I did not know what a chabola was, I got in his old Skoda pick-up truck {called a bakkie in South Africa} and off we went for a long trip. After many turns over small roads the track got smaller and smaller until it almost became invisible.

Close to a deep gulley Juan stopped the truck, got out and walked away. Following him what struck me was the stillness of the place. I was surrounded by rugged mountain peaks, saw huge boulders at the bottom of the gulley and a few stark bushes trying to grow in the hard and dusty soil. Juan gestured me to come closer to what was obviously his chabola. It was the back part of a lorry pushed against the rocky face of the gulley.

Here my friend was living, without the use of tap water, bathroom, kitchen or electricity. However he proudly showed me a small plot where long-stemmed plants were growing. Don’ you recognize it, he asked. I didn’t. He smiled at me and said he used it for porros. It took a while before I understood it was his personal stock of marihuana.

This lovable man had come to see me because he wanted to train his dog. What could I possibly teach him?

His request seemed strange because according to me he did not need me at all. The way he lived with his dog enabled him to do what no member of my dog training centre could do with her/his dog. Not one pupil could walk her/his dog off-leash although they were constantly yelling HEEL. But whenever I met Juan in the village his dog was always staying close to him although the animal never wore a leash. When Juan went for a drink in a bar, his dog would simply wait outside. When he was doing the odd job for a client, his dog would wait in the back of the old truck. Juan Domingo never had to say, let alone yell, anything at his dog. Man and dog fully understood each other without the use of words. They were a team, just like the members of a canine pack in the wild are a team. Juan’s dog was for me the clearest example of a very happy dog.

A year later I got a phone call from a German person asking for help with a problem dog. Arriving for my appointment I found an estate surrounded by a very long and high wall. At the massive wooden gate, I rang the intercom and announced Bruno der Hundeman. The gate opened purring like a contented cat and I drove my small van inside. At my right hand side was a vast and immaculate lawn surrounded by flower beds and palm trees. At the end of the drive-way I stopped in front of a huge and magnificent mansion. A maid came down the steps and said her master would soon be there.

I did not have to wait long before an impeccably dressed gentleman welcomed me with an extended hand. Over the following weeks I got to know him quite well, along with his wife and his young, gorgeous Saint Bernard dog. The huge dog was not a problem dog at all. He was simply bored stiff. Yes, theoretically he could run over an endless and immaculate lawn, but he was alone and did not do it. Yes, he was living in a fabulous mansion, but no other dog was ever playing with him. Yes, his owners were wealthy but were not interested in walking him. Yes, his owners were dressed in tailor made clothes but they did not want to throw a ball for their dog.

In other words, the dog was not only bored but unhappy. For weeks on end I visited the mansion and for each visit I brought along my own dogs. That was the best remedy for the ‘problem’ dog. As soon as my pack jumped out of my van they did not have any problem running, sniffing, peeing and pooing. Each time I was picking up their droppings the lord of the manor would say I did not have to do it. The gardeners would clean it up, he said.

At the end of each session I was invited inside the mansion for a chat. I very much liked the delicious cups of coffee, served in a set of famous German porcelain, accompanied by heavenly home made cookies. One day my client asked me if I would like to see his hobby. Could I say NO?

He took me to the back part of his mansion. In a garage that was tidier than my study has ever been, he proudly showed me an old Bentley cabriolet. I said hhmm and hhmm but did not have the courage to tell him his dog did not give a damn about the Bentley.

One rainy day I arrived at the huge wooden gate for another session, rang the intercom and…… the gate did not move. I called my client on my mobile but nobody answered. After a while I left. Later I was told how the business empire of my clients had suddenly gone to the…dogs.

Anyway you must have grasped the point I am making. Haven’t you? Juan did not have a mansion. He lived in a chabola and his dog was a very happy dog.

The young Saint Bernard was living in a beautiful mansion, but he was a very lonely, bored and unhappy dog.

See what I mean when I say how dogs are my teachers?

Kindest regards from Brunothedoglistener
Well-educated dogs are obedient dogs.
Obedient dogs are stable dogs.
Stable dogs have stable owners.
www.brunodogs.com

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Maybe you know already that I like walking with my dogs. Sometimes I wonder: Who doesn’t? But then I think of the millions of dogs that live their lives behind closed doors, gates and fences. For me to walk with my dogs in the beautiful valleys of the Spanish hills is god’s gift. Having done it for many years I discovered that the best walk is for me the walk in complete silence.

What happens during a walk in complete silence is that my dogs are paying attention to me. Preferably I have them in front of me because that allows me to check where they are and what they do. But if one of them stays behind I walk on without saying anything. Of course, I can only do that when I am walking in areas where there is no traffic at all.

During the walk my dogs are paying attention to me and I am paying attention to them simply by looking at each other. They know when I stand still, go left, go right , walk on or walk back. This way of walking is a clear copy of what a pack of canines do on their walks, which are course not ‘walks’ but hunting expeditions. Do you think the members of a pack of wolves are chattering away when they are chasing a deer? The answer is obvious.

As my dogs are my teachers, my walking experience with them gave me an idea for a Sunday morning walk with the members of the local chapter of the University of the Third Age. Before we start I welcome the newcomers and repeat that each member of the group is responsible for her/his dog. Meaning that whenever there is the need {car, cyclists, joggers, etc…} each member of the group calls her/his dog to come close and wait for the release signal.

This time I added something. I asked the group for help with an experiment. My suggestion was that we would walk as a group without uttering a word during five minutes. Off we went. Most of the members stayed quiet but a few could not even keep their mouths shut for that short period.

After five minutes I stopped the group, jumped on a rock and commented on what we had done. According to me we never before had, as a group of human beings, been as close to our dogs as today. During these five minutes we had really been hunting like a natural pack that communicates through body language.

The most exhilarating part of my experience was that a few members had also noticed something. They had noticed that their dogs were paying more attention to them. That was great. For once we had not walked as a noisy, chattering group that is not paying attention to anything else but the sound of their voices.

You can call a silent walk with your dogs a spiritual experience, as it not only allows us to fully enjoy the natural environment, but also to listen to our own soul. A noisy, chattering group on the other hand is a perfect reflection of our society.

In our society we are being bombarded with sounds and images. If you are 65 years old today, you have on average been sitting in front of a TV-screen during 15 years. If you are 18 years old today, you have on average been bombarded by 250.000 different TV-commercials. Is that brain-washing, yes or no?

In addition to TV, there are the noise and the images of the movies, the computer, the computer games, the mobile phones, the car radios and the walkman earpieces. We fill our minds with so many images and so much noise that we cannot listen to our souls anymore. No wonder there are millions of children suffering from what is called ADD or Attention Deficit Disorder.

Animals do not live like that. They do not know what ADD is. Neither do our dogs know what that is. They still know what it is to communicate in silence. When one of my dogs starts sniffing in a more intense way, the others come close because they know she has picked up a special scent. When one of them sprints away fast, the others know she has seen a rabbit and follow her.

Somewhere I have read the following:

Silence is the language of the universe. Everything else is a bad translation.

Isn’t that beautiful?

Just give it a try. If you have a dog, next time you walk with your pet, go to a quiet area and walk with her/him without saying anything. If you do not have a dog go for a silent walk on your own or with a friend. Listen to your own soul, listen to her/his soul and listen to the voice of the universe.

See what happens and then send me a message about it.

Good luck with your silent walk.

Kindest regards from Bruno Goffin

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Some time ago I was invited to a fund raising dinner of an association for the protection of animals. When the meal was served I saw that we were supposed to eat meat. I asked the people I was sharing a table with if the remains on our plates came from protected animals. Four pairs of eyes were staring at me. At first they did not fully understand what I meant. I told them that I stopped eating meat many decades ago out of respect for animals. Then my table companions explained to me that their association was busy helping abandoned dogs. Yes, but what about billions of animals that are being tortured in the meat industry?  I asked. That was something else, my table companions said.

This attitude is according to me a fair example of western schizophrenic way of thinking. On the one hand we demonstrate a bleeding heart for a few stray cats and dogs whereby being a member of an association that looks after some stray cats and dogs makes us feel good. On the other hand we close our eyes for the billions of animals that are being fed bad food mixed with hormones and antibiotics while suffering unnameable horrors before being turned into hamburgers and other delicacies.

Let me give you another example.

It happens often that members of my Sunday morning walking group bring along friends and neighbours. One Sunday I got to know a lady who walked with our group for the first time. Walking next to me she started telling me a story. It was the ‘sad’ story of  an abandoned dog. She had seen the dog in the area
where she lives and asked me what she could do about that dog.

I gave her an answer she might not have expected. Instead of commiserating with her I told her a story from the collection made by the Greek writer Aesop in the sixth century B.C. This story is not ‘sad’ and it goes like this:

A gaunt wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a house-dog who was passing by.
-Ah cousin, said the dog.  I knew how it would be. Your irregular life will soon be the ruin of you. Why do you not work steadily as I do, and get your food given regularly to you?
-I would have no objection, said the wolf, if I could only get a place.
-I will easily arrange that for you, said the dog. Come with me to my master and you shall share my work.
So the wolf and the dog went towards the town together. On the way there, the wolf noticed that the hair on a certain part of the dog’s neck was very much worn away, so he asked him how that had come about.
-Oh it is nothing, said the dog. That is only the place where the collar is put on at night to keep me chained up. It chafes a bit, but one soon gets used to it.
-Is that all? Said the wolf. Then goodbye to you, master dog. Better to starve free than be a fat slave.

We tend to think that a dog’s life is always better when {s}he is living in a human family. This might be the case if this human family offers the same stability a dog will find in a canine pack. But let’s make an effort and forget just for one minute our misplaced thoughts of our so-called intellectual superiority.

Let’s forget that we are destroying mother nature. Let’s forget that we have created a society of “Having” while dogs live in a society of “Being”. Let’s now think like a dog. Suppose the human family {s}he is living with is for him/her nothing but a very unstable pack. We know that is the case with millions of human families in the Western world. In that case wouldn’t the dog be happier if {s}he could live with other {abandoned} dogs in the wild?

There is no doubt in my mind that these dogs would very soon be living like stable members of a stable pack. Without any unstable, anxious, fearful, stressed and bleeding heart human beings nearby.

Don’t you think so?

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Last time I was writing about fish for us all and the devastating effect of our lifestyle on animal life in our oceans. Elspeth in South Africa did send me the following message:

Bruno,
Here in South Africa the Sea Fisheries Institute have a telephone number that you text/send an sms on your mobile/cell phone (depending on whether you’re talking American or British English!) with the name
of the fish you’re considering buying or eating in a restaurant.

You then get a message back which tells you whether the fish is coded red: overfished and endangered, do not buy/eat, orange: diminished stocks, consider not buying/eating, green: abundant supplies, ok to buy/eat.

It’s a really useful service, virtually everyone I know – but then most of my friends are greenies – uses it.

Our local fishmonger rolls his eyes when he sees us hauling out our cell phones and tapping fish names into it!

Yours,

Elspeth

In the mean time I found additional information about fish farms in the science supplement of NRC Handelsblad.

In 1970 only 6 % of all the fish we were eating came from fish farms. In 2006 this percentage had risen to 50 % or a total quantity of 60.000.000 tons of fish. Demand for this kind of fish is rising faster than the demand for any other kind of food because of increasing world population and decreasing fish stocks in our seas. I have seen cheap Pangasius from Vietnam on the menu of French and Spanish restaurants. The way Pangasius is being farmed in Vietnam leads to the devastation of the environment around the breeding ponds in only 10 years.

But this is only one example. Today 99 % of all fish farms in the world are polluting river deltas, coral riffs and mangroves. Fish in fish farms not only have to eat food mixed with antibiotics but they are also clearly showing stress. Because they are living under stressful circumstances they get ill more often and grow slower than wild fish.

On his website dr Mercola is asking us to stop eating fish because we are running a serious risk of mercury poising.

Looking at what Elspeth wrote me I’d like to know Gino if a similar warning system exists in your country.

Thanks for dropping me a line.

Kindest regards from Brunothedoglistener

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Why ask ourselves if there is fish for all? With my wife Béatrice and our two Labradors I live in the Spanish province of Alicante. I presume that many people would not like the old and small house we rent in the mountains. But for us it is a superb heaven on the margin of the forest. We overlook the valley and are being offered some of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. Most of our neighbours are sheep, goats, wild boar, rabbits and the occasional fox. They are definitely less noisy than trucks, motorcycles and cars.

Our Spanish friend Benjamin is an organic farmer in Benissa. In his tiny shop we buy bread, marmalade, fruit and vegetables. For things like Kefir and cheese we have to go to a supermarket. The other day I accompanied my wife Béatrice and had a look at the fish counter of the supermarket. It turned out to be a mind blowing experience.

What I saw made me take the notebook I always carry in my pocket and I started writing. Why? Because of the information I found on the price tags. That day there were 51 price tags for 51 different kinds of fish. The list of the countries of origin of that fish is similar to a trip around the world. It started in Holland, going over to Senegal, Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Canada, United States, South-Africa, Namibia, Vietnam, Greece, Morocco, Norway, India, France, Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, China and stopping in Scotland. Do not think that all the fish had been caught in the oceans of our planet. The provenance of trout, dorada, salmon, and shrimps were fish farms in Spain, Turkey, Norway and Ecuador.

For several years I have known that the fishermen in the coastal towns of the Spanish Costas are out of work. In the past I knew the names of the fish we were eating. Today we are being offered fish with totally different names.

Why?

Because the sea, called ‘Mare Nostrum’ by the Romans, that sea that has been the cradle of our Western culture, well that sea is now empty. Over the last 50 to 60 years Europe has reached an incredible ‘high standard of living’ and maybe we consider it to be given to us as some sort of a divine right. We have developed a way of living and eating that has become insane. Today we are eating the last surviving stocks of fish in the world, joined by the United States and Japan.

The indigenous fishermen in Senegal, South-Africa, Namibia, Vietnam, Morocco, India, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru see how their stocks of fish are quickly disappearing. Many cannot feed their families anymore. Looking at the fish counter of a supermarket in a small Spanish town, I felt suddenly ashamed. Was I going to buy the fish that has been for many centuries the staple food of poor fishermen all over the world? Many decades ago I stopped eating meat. I did not want to be part of a vicious, cruel and unhealthy system whereby billions of animals are tortured and degraded before being turned into hamburgers and sausages. Was it bad for my health? Not at all. Today I am 66 years old and still cycling, walking and practicing karate and kobudo.

That day in the supermarket I decided to stop eating fish. And you know what? I am beginning to understand why a village elder in Somalia calls the pirates in his country ‘heroes’.

Enjoy your meal.

Brunothedoglistener

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