Being kind to animals makes us smarter!

Last summer, some unexpected ant visitors in my house helped me change a habit that wasn’t serving me well. After dinner, I often felt too tired to wash the dishes piling up in the sink. I had my reasons: my sleep patterns were poor, and I would wake up tired every morning. After a long workday, I’d come home exhausted. By the time I’d finished cooking dinner, I just wanted to relax, maybe watch TV with my husband or read a book.

But then we noticed a long line of ants marching across our kitchen, gathering around food pieces left on the counter. In the past, we would have sprayed them, but I had learned my lesson about being compassionate toward animals, so using spray was out of the question.

Instead, I decided to experiment. Without harming a single ant, I simply removed the food source. In just 5 to 15 minutes, the ants were gone. This happened a few times, and every time I removed the food, the ants would disappear. I realized how misguided it was to kill ants when they would simply go away if there was no food for them.

This experience taught me the importance of staying organized and clean. We humans aren’t always gentle with animals, and when they intrude into our spaces, our first instinct is often to kill them. But that’s an old way of thinking. Being kind to animals makes us smarter, more creative, and unique, pushing us to find new solutions rather than doing what everyone else does.