If your animal love is only restricted to petting your own pet or feeding biscuits to stay animals or commenting ‘aweee’ on cute animal videos, then let me tell me to tell you, its fake animal love. If you are a true animal lover, then your love must exceed beyond just this. It should involve protecting, caring, raising your voice and fighting against animal cruelty.
The past few years have witnessed a surprising increase in animal cruelty. Animals in our country are subjected to violence for various reasons, the most common of which include religion, poaching, meat consumption, experimentation of products and anger/harassing.
In spite of the many NGOs, charitable trusts, and government bodies raising awareness about animal care, the plight of animals don’t seem to improvise.
The very recent incident of a dog being beaten mercilessly by a residential building’s guard enraged the netizens. This incident garnered widespread attention when Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma decided to use her social media power and circulate this news to her followers. A stray dog was brutally beaten for taking shelter in the heavy rains in a residential building in Worli. The resident of the building Mr.Bhatia ordered the guard to beat the stray in such a bad manner that no other stray animal will dare to enter the building.
The guard, following his ‘master’s’ order, beat the dog inhumanly and left him in immense pay in the society compound itself. After a video of this brutal act went viral, an FIR was lodged against Mr.Batia and the guard. However, to everyone’s surprise, both of them were released on bail. This was followed by protests against the two men. Sadly, Lucky (dog) succumbed to the injuries and gave up life.
Sonam Kapoor and John Abraham, along with other NGOs too raised their voices against this incident by strongly condemning it.
In 2014 as well, a man in Chennai had mercilessly chopped off the ears and tail of a three-month-old pup.
Another such incident that shows how absolutely inhuman humans can become was the mass killing of whales in Denmark. Denmark’s Faroe Islands follows the annual ritual of slaughtering whales. Every summer, around 800 pilots are massacred as whale meat is their national diet. This is done by the locals as a part of preparing for the harsh winter season. This event too, resulted in an outrage on social media.
While the above mentioned and few others like them gained the attention of people thanks to social media, there are so many other cases of animal cruelty that occur daily but go unnoticed and unreported.
The animals that are more prone to abuse and cruelty are dogs, cats, horses, and livestock. Studies observed that cruelty inflicted in animal abuse is similar to domestic violence. While some slaughter animals for trading purpose, others do it merely to terrorise and create fear. This is purely a mean thing to do.
In India itself, cruelty against animals is rampant due to poor and lenient law where you can get away with killing a living innocent creature by just paying Rs.10 or Rs.100 as fine. India’s age-old Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 is the first national animal welfare law that criminalises cruelty against animals. This law, however, is weak.
The Animal Welfare Board of India recently set up a committee to strengthen and make the existing law work effectively. On 13th August, the board announced the setting up of 11 member body to relook and revise the law.
We all need to realise that animals too are living beings just like us and have equal rights to survive and live happily on Earth. If you witness any animals being subjected to cruelty and violence, bring it to the concerned authority’s notice, feed the hungry stay animals, raise awareness against animal cruelty and promote animal care among your community. Use the vehicle horn only when absolutely necessary and avoid bursting crackers. During summers, make sure to keep a bowl of water in your window, provide shelter during extreme climatic conditions.
Do not neglect animals just because they don’t belong to your ‘species’. They too suffer from pain and understand the acts of kindness. Embrace them belong they are an integral part of the society, embrace them because they belong.
Say no to animal cruelty.
