Disclaimer: I am not an animal person. I’ve never had pets. I am just about cordial with the pets of others. I write this because despite this fact, I am deeply disturbed by the recent incidents of animal cruelty that have come to light. And I strongly advocate action on these perpetrators.
Dear Animal Haters,
There are generally two kinds of people in this world. The ones who are animal lovers through and through. And the ones who are almost indifferent to them. It’s the rare third like you who are a nuisance to society. For you not just hate on defenseless animals, you also make them suffer for no apparent reason. I don’t associate myself with the first kind.
However, I understand that not being fond of animals does not grant me any authority to be rude to them, ill-treat them or, worse still, kill them.
I have friends and relatives who treat their pets as family. I have seen the bond. I’ve felt the love from the sidelines. I might personally choose to stay away from that form of love for whatever reason, but I know that the bond is special. There has to be a reason.
But the fact that you can’t fathom that love does not justify throwing a dog off a terrace…
Shooting & burning them alive…
Or stabbing them to death…
The thing to be understood here is that the disturbing idea of inflicting pain upon defenseless creatures does not come from your disliking of animals. It comes from your shallow belief that animals are beneath you. Agreed, you and you alone have got the right to like or dislike them, but you cannot forget that animals also have as much of a right to walk the earth, breathe the air, drink the water and live their life as any human being.
Hence, you’ve got no business becoming the masters of their destiny.
When I come across news reports of all sorts of barbaric treatment being meted out to animals, I, in my heart, like to believe that these are incidents happening in some remote interiors of Indian villages where education, both textbook and moral, is yet to penetrate.
However, it breaks my heart to know that it’s you, the medical and engineering students of my country, the supposed future of India, and your sorry idea of fun that often makes for cringeworthy headlines in newspapers.
In fact, consider yourself lucky to be living in a land where the killing of one animal can lead to religious riots, while the barbaric murders of the other don’t even effect a legal discourse. So, relax! You can pick on any animal, inflict your sadist fantasies on it and yet, walk free or with a meagre fine of Rs 50, till the time your choice of animal doesn’t put off the religious authorities in India.
At the end of it, all I can say is that if the government of this nation cannot amend and strengthen the 1960 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, even after the recent and shocking spate of animal cruelty incidents, it’s time you take matters in your own hands.
Get a psychiatric evaluation done. For you’re sick in the head. And you need immediate medical intervention to fix your mess.
