(^216) A Wiccan Bible
Finding Kin Familiars
Generally speaking, it is not fair to take an animal from the wild and bring it into
your home. There are exceptions, but with each comes tremendous responsibility. Re-
member that the Wiccan Rede specifically tells us that we should “fairly take and fairly
give.” I hope you will agree that deliberately kidnapping a critter and forcing it to live
by your side is far from fair. But what about injured wildlife? Certainly a warm and
loving home is superior to death in the wild.
Far be it for me to tell you that it is bad to assist an injured animal. One could not
count the number of animals I have brought into my home this way. If you don’t believe
me, ask my mother who probably cannot count the ones I brought into her home when
I was a child. But in making such a decision for a young critter, remember that if that
creature should imprint upon you or not learn that which its parents would teach it
about survival, there may be no way to return it to the wild.
Another way kin familiars come from the wild is by the actions of a just hunter.
Should you take a critter’s guardian before its young are able to fend for themselves,
the just hunter is charged with the life of those children. Rather than turning a blind
eye to the suffering and starvation that taking a guardian will cause to its young, a just
hunter will, at a very minimum, swiftly end the life of those children, find an appropri-
ate home for them, or adopt those children as one’s own and raise them in stay of the
life that one took. Incidentally, this has also been general policy of many tribal cultures
when dealing with matters of war. But the injured and parentless animals are the least
often source for familiars. The most common source is the pet store. While this might
seem like the kindest way to bring an animal into your life, it is only kind in the way
purchasing flesh from the grocery store is kind, that kindness being only the illusion of
kindness.
As with hunting, here is a place where I believe I feel very differently than many
folk. Where many folk see hunting as an unfair contest between man and beast, I see it
as vastly more fair than the meat industry that supplies most grocery stores. The differ-
ence is that when one takes the life of an animal, the hunter witnesses the action from
a viewpoint where one can decide if the action of taking that life was just. When one
purchases flesh from most grocery stores, one can never be sure if the taking of that life
was fair. At the risk of alienating the great majority of my readers, I urge you to at least
allow yourself to make an educated decision. Before again eating flesh, just watch a
video of the methods used to raise and kill the animals that feed the average grocery
store. Realize that in purchasing that product you are supporting those methods and
then ask yourself if doing so is living in accordance with the Wiccan Rede’s advice to
“fairly take and fairly give.” I am not telling you to boycott grocery stores, I am just
asking that your actions be taken mindfully.
When finding critters to become your familiar, I ask that you do the same. Discover
where the pet stores are acquiring those animals. Investigate the methods by which
those animals are bred and presented for sale. Are they conducting themselves as did
the slave merchants of old? There are exceptions, but chances are great that you will
discover treatment that is far beyond your definition of fair. Certainly, one can make
t WB Chap 12.p65 216 7/11/2003, 5:55 PM
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