10 September 2016

Cruelty to Animals



The recent incident of a housewife in Bangalore who flung some stray puppies to their death shook me. A few days later, there were reports of a management graduate in Chennai who threw a dog from the terrace. Then, watched a Facebook video of the plight of Jersey calves in dairy farms across the U.K. where around 90,000 male dairy calves are shot every year within days of their birth because they have no value in the dairy industry! This kind of inconsiderate treatment of life makes me wonder if we are human at all. How cruel are we!  

If I try hard enough, I might still understand cruelty for survival. But cruelty for an insane sense of pleasure or out of lack of sensitivity to another living being or plain greed - that is something I can't grasp. When animals are overworked, brutally experimented on where they sometimes lose their eyesight or life itself, beaten black and blue because you are incapable of venting out your frustration on anyone else and you find a mute animal and you go mad on him, I have found these behaviours extremely hard to come to terms with.

Apparently, there is a term for the pleasure derived from cruelty to animals. It is Zoosadism. Ernest Borneman coined the term. It is a sign of sociopathic tendencies. Various studies have proven that if people like or are ready to cause harm to animals, they are equally likely to do so to humans as well. People diagnosed with certain psychopathologies, including antisocial behavior, have had a history of torturing pets and small animals. A study of psychiatric patients found that all of them had notably high levels of aggression toward people. And they had a history of repeatedly torturing dogs and cats.  Cruelty to animals commonly appears in the records of rapists and murderers. One extremely disgusting Zoosadist was Richard Chase, an American serial killer who killed 6 people in a single month. He would remove the guts from animals. He would them consume it raw or mix the organs with Coca-Cola in a blender and drink the brew. He believed that by eating the creatures he could stop his heart from shrinking. 

Insects are not spared either. Have we all not seen the child who pulls off a fly's wings? As a child, I remember neighborhood boys trapping butterflies in glass bottles and watching them die out of suffocation. Just because they have no human language we kill or maim innocent animals. They depend on us for food, for survival. They do have a speech pattern and language of their own. It’s a pity we humans don’t comprehend what they speak. Surely, we can’t let the poor souls suffer! Starvation, death, maiming of limbs – the things we humans do to animals without the slightest guilt whatsoever just because the animals cannot speak human language! Will we ever grow up to show compassion to another soul? It is sad, really. 

These things will not end unless we raise kids who are actively and consistently discouraged from harming another life, no matter how small the animal. There should be no hiding behind the excuse that “oh it was just for some childish fun.” Raising kids who have had at least one animal as a pet, whom they fed or took care of, will also help in stirring their empathy. Greater social awareness against animal abuse and stricter implementation of laws and punishments are needed too. But most important of all, we need to value all life forms, to be grateful to the diversity that God has created, to appreciate and know that every life is worthy; no one is above another, no one deserves pain. Can we all, as parents, make a difference and raise kids who learn to be thankful for God’s creations? Everything else is just noise. Ultimately, what a parent teaches a child is what stands the test of time. Empathy is a treasured emotion and the lack of it shows in every sphere of our lives. Look at the mess we have made of Mother Earth! Reckless humans! 

32 comments:

  1. I agree with you 100%. Cruelty to animals is deplorable. This must be stopped. At the same time, we must do something to stop the menace of stray dogs in the streets. I mean in a humane way. Last year we stayed in Chennai for 6 months. After 10 pm in the night, in the posh Adyar area, every street has 50 stray dogs roaming freely. I don't now where they go during day time. People are afraid to walk in the streets.

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  2. Thank you for writing about this issue. Being an animal lover, every word in this article resonates with me. Seeing an animal in distress, devastates me.

    Whenever I come across pictures of animals being abused or when I read about them, it disturbs me for days. Human beings are the cruellest form of living beings. :(

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    1. we are, aren't we!

      and you...i totally adore you for that...i still remember the kitten adopted by you...

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  3. I think that people who harm animals will also harm other human beings at some point. It is important to sensitise people, right from when they are kids, so that there can be some change. I know a few organizations that are working towards this cause. Maybe we can also help them as far as possible. This blog post is a good example.

    Destination Infinity

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    1. thank heavens for such organizations! they sure do a great job

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  4. Sujatha, through this post you have touched a chord with me, one of sanity and sensitivity that I vociferously fight for during most part of my day. Pelting at innocent strays (who do no dare to harm a fly even) have been shouted down time and again and I swear at these heartless and cruel most beings on Earth!

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    1. i know! i have seen that too...pelting stones at sleeping dogs or throwing something at cats...we are heartless, really

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  5. Agree. This has something to do with upbringing also. Throwing puppies from a terrace is such a highly intense mental disorder.

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  6. There are some who keep pets (mainly dogs) just as a status symbol. The costlier or higher the pedigree, so much the better for them (so they think.
    The key lies in raising kids who are actively and consistently discouraged from harming another life.

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  7. Agree with you Sujatha,we have become insensitive to others' pain.

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  8. I am totally against keeping pets too.

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  9. Any cruelty to any living being is despicable and more so to voiceless docile animals.As you rightly said the values of compassion and empathy should be inculcated at homes by parents and by example.They should not join with their children laughing at a donkey running haphazardly scared at the bursting crackers tied to its tail during Diwali..
    Deterrent punishment to sadistic offenders should be quick and certain.

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    1. Yes, deterrent punishment needs to be implemented to stop.this menace

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  10. I totally agree..I have seen some children throwing little cats and laughing or pelting stones to a frog...always wondered what type of adult they will be, but then when people can kill for eating then also they cant say they are kind to animals...the first step toward kindness would be to to stop eating animals.

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    1. True....Pelting stones is the commonest way kids trouble animals

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  11. A very heartfelt post Sujatha.... Some people just fail to realize that animals share the space on earth with us and have an equal right too.... I recently came across a program on TV where people hunted for some poor creature and then cooked it for dinner.... Not because they lived on Sahara or the poles.... Just purely for fun.... I can't understand what fun is there in chasing after a diminutive creature while it's fleeing for life, kill it for pleasure with weapons it has no chance of defending itself against and then eat it!

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    1. correct, We have to realize that we must share space with them. And we have failed at that

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  12. Sad that species other than humans come true harms way:(

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  13. A very well written post, sadly many such posts would be needed to put sense in people who do such heinous things

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  14. I love animals and it breaks my heart to see people treating them cruelly. I wish there were means to sensitize people and stop them from doing such heinous acts.

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    1. Seriously I too wish there were more.effective ways of.sensitizing people

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  15. True what you say.. I love animals and I do feel no one has the right to kill another living being.. It is a sad world..

    and as the picture says ..

    If a lion-tiger kills a man they are labelled Man-eater .. why are human not labels Animal-eaters ..


    Bikram's

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