Dear Fuzzfans,
For years you have known me as the singer for the Fuzztones and not much else. When I am not playing music or involved in some other project relating to art or the band, I am very involved in the animal rights movement and have been for many years. As most of you might already suspect, I do not like to preach lifestyle choices to anyone. I respect people's right to choose how they live. Unfortunately, sometimes people choose a lifestyle that can be responsible (directly or inadvertently) for horrible cruelty to animals. Most of us like (and often LOVE) animals, yet really give no thought whatsoever to how the meat on our plates got there or what happens to an abandoned pet that has outgrown it's cuteness appeal.
There's a saying: "If slaughterhouses had windows, we'd all be vegetarians." If you could see some of the atrocities I have seen, both in person and through footage of slaughterhouses, animal experimentation labs, etc., you would never again see animals the same way. Please consider vegetarianism as a lifestyle and preferably veganism (no animal product or by-products) if you can. Their death is horrible and no laws can protect them. The suffering throughout their lives is even worse. At some point each of us must decide how much we are willing to be part of that suffering and death.
All of the new Fuzztones are animal lovers and that is very important to me. I have six cats, all were rescues, and each would be guaranteed certain death if I had not adopted them (in fact, they adopted ME!). All the Fuzztones love and share their homes with pets. I have tortoise and all of us have cats. The photos on this site are only a few of the rescues I've done in the last 6 years. It can be extremely hard and depressing work but I have been lucky enough to place almost all my rescues in great, pre-screened homes. The joy derived from saving an animal's life is even more rewarding, for me, than the best Fuzztones' gig.
Please consider this: As humans, we search constantly for unconditional love. Each of us would love to find someone who would love us whether we were fat, bald, ugly, smelly, depressed, broke, even homeless. As hard as we try, or as much as we fantasize, the fact is that your MOTHER is probably the only human you will ever meet to fill that bill! Yet the irony here is that ALL the homeless and abandoned dogs and cats in your local shelter's death row are literally DYING to give YOU that very same unconditional love.
For the ones who can't speak for themselves,
Rudi
RESCUES
