Essay on the Prevention of Cruelty to animals. Humans are the most intelligent of all creatures on our planet, undoubtedly, but does that qualify them for the limits of cruelty, brutality and torture which the dumb animals are subjected to in the name of experiments, religion and business!
During the early days of competition between United States of America and the erstwhile USSR, satellites were being sent in space all of them radio controlled and unmanned. To prepare the ground for sending men into space the scientists of USSR decided to send a German shepherd dog in one of these satellites. The dog was Laika. The satellite was launched atop a rocket and orbited the planet for seven days before being recalled. It was hailed as a great achievement as Laika lumbered out alive and USSR taken the lead in the ‘race for space’. However what followed on the poor dog in the name of scientific tests was sheer brutality.
There is an internationally published example of the sort to torture these dumb animals are subjected to for medical researches and vaccines. Mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, monkeys, dogs and horses are all used for such purposes and most of these experiments are extremely painful.
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To find a cure of sexually generated diseases like Syphilis, rabbits are infected in the genital areas which form gaping ulcers. Ulcers are then treated with a variety of medicines most of which further aggravate the wounds and the animals die a slow and painful death. Hundreds of these delicate creatures are infected at a time and the scenario can well be imagined. This may not be called sadism but the pain caused cannot be excused.
Mice, guinea pigs and other such rodents are also regularly infected with painful diseases to research the effect psychologically and physically. All these are overlooked in the garb of research.
During World Wars I & II there were several instance of sailors and pilots falling into the cold seas while the ships had been torpedoed or aircraft shot down. The sudden shock of falling into ice cold waters led to trauma and painful death. To find a solution to these syndrome male monkeys were kept in rooms with temperatures ranging from 35 to 40˚Centigrade. After noting their body temperatures, they were forced into huge containers containing ice cold water and their heads were forced under water till the near point of suffocation. By the time they were pulled out they were near death and frozen. These near death frozen males were then put into a cage full of female monkeys and it was surprisingly noted that these male recovered in about fifteen to twenty minutes which was a very short span of time considering the near fertility they had been subjected to, sexual actively helping them recover and acting as a catalyst.
The Nazi medical researchers alter experimented with the condemned Jews, condemned to death by slow gas poisoning for no other reason than their religious beliefs, proving the same experiment with young adolescents. When humans are so brutal with their own brethren, nothing better can be expected for the dumb animals.
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Anti-venom injections are prepared in a manner which highlights the cruel behavior in the name of medicine. Snake venom is first collected from highly poisonous snakes like cobra, Russel’s Viper and Rattle snake which is then injected into fettered horses. The pain of the venom running through their veins can easily be imagined by the scene of a human bitten by such a poisonous snake. He writhes painfully, foaming at the mouth while he slowly loses consciousness. This when a single snake like infects one tenth of what these horses are injected. These horses are then bled and the serum collected acts as anti-venom. To save the life of humans these animals undergo such torture. If babies can be born with the initial formation in test tubes which is not actually that but in vitro fertilization of sperms, why can not these anti-venom vaccines be produced in vitro. It is just sheer short cut that makes use of in-vivo methods.
Nature has made provisions for the necessities of all the animals which inhabit the planet from providing foliage and sweet grass for herbivores including plants having medicinal values for curing their ailments. It may not be generally known but even carnivores eat such grasses and medicinal plants to cure themselves, the values of which we humans are trying to evaluate. For carnivores, the policy of ‘strong eats weak’ is the general policy but here no torture is involved. They just kill to satisfy their hunger. Man also is mostly a flesh eater and right from chickens to the larger camels, every one of them is savored but again no cruelty or brutality is involved in the slaughter. There are of course some exceptions where religion forbids the death in one stroke and animals are left to slowly bleed to death. As this is a part of the religious beliefs of some communities, there can be no comments on that.
However there are instances of pigs and other cattle being thrown in boiling water to be skinned off even when they are alive. This is done to facilitate the removal of hair for brushes and the skin for other purposes. It does fulfil human needs but at what peaks of inhuman levels of brutality. We are now capable of cloning animals which is done by artificially replicating or multiplying animal cells. With this capability can it be believed that we do not have the capacity to replicate animal hair to meet our needs? We can do it, but why bother when live animals are available, who cannot complain and no penalty or retribution is involved.
Illegal poaching is another major system of torture for these poor creatures. Killing huge tuskers for ivory is one of them. Shot with poisoned darts or crippled with bullets, the tusks are hacked off even while the animal is alive and writhing in pain. Instead of putting an end to the extensive misery, these elephants are left to die a slow and painful bleeding death. Tigers and leopards are poached through the method of poisoned baits which is again a slow and painful death. They are not killed instantly by putting a bullet through their head, for fear of damaging the skin which would reduce the value of the skin. The demand for skin to be displayed and bones for presumed aphrodisiac powers has led to indiscriminate killings by these painful methods.
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Dancing bears have been an attraction since times immemorial and was quite a common feature even a few years earlier. An Indian contingent was sent to a cultural programme held in Germany. One of the items was the dancing bear. Every one was shocked at the brutality of forcing the bear to do unnatural acts and dancing steps. The rope passing through his nasal divider was being pulled and the manner bear was dancing was due to the pain being inflicted on it. The poor animal had a bleeding ulcer in the nose and the audience there immediately put an end to the show. The trainer was forced to leave for India. Unfortunately this torture of the poor animal had been condoned by the official machinery of our country.
Cows are revered in our country and we have people who attach the prefix ‘Mata’ or Mother to the animal. Not only one they docile and supply high protein milk even god for infants but their dung is also put to a variety of uses from fuel for cooking t coating the walls with this although the latter is only limited to rural areas. But after they get old and lose their fertility, these ‘Gau Matas’ are cramped into trucks, packed like sardines, and sent off for slaughter. During the journey most of them are crippled which is of no concern to the previous or the present owner whose only interest is to earn maximum money out of te transaction. The other horrendous part of this is that these poor animals are hardly given any fod or water during this journey. The painful injections given to them everyday to get optimum milk while malching is a common phenomenon known to all.
Since centuries or may be millenniums, man has utilized the donkey to carry loads, horses for the carriage and bullocks for farming. That it has definitely helped the homo sapiens accomplish their tasks in an easier manner is undoubted but unfortunately we do not feel obliged to these poor dumb animals. How much care is taken can be seen from the open sores on their backs and necks caused by whips, yokes and halters. This is their reward for serving their masters even when they are sick. These masters do not give them enough to eat leave aside treating their sores and wounds.
It is only now that organizations like society for prevention of Cruelty to Animals have taken up cudgels on behalf of these creatures. Several curious owners were handed up and even arrested when they checked the poor condition of lions and tigers kept captive in tiny cages which do not even allow them to stand properly. Some of these animals were found with ailments ranging from blindness to deformity of vertebrates due to prolonged captivity in three feet high cages to gaping ulcers besides the fact that all of them were suffering from malnourishment.
The animal welfare groups have now become very active and even the physical and psychological state of animals kept in zoos is being looked into.
Earlier thousands of animals were being sent out from our country to the more developed nations, for purposes of medical research. It had become a lucrative profession and our official machinery was hand in glove with them. After protests from several animal welfare organizations, there was a stop to these exports but these researches have now started off on their behalf in our country and the local organizations are even getting grants from the government. No other proof is required of their condonement.
Rhesus monkeys, apes, lemurs etc. are all primates having a lot of similarity with homo sapiens i.e. man and probably these poor creatures are the worst sufferers. Induced heart attacks leave them writhing with pain, similar is the effect varied chemicals have on them which are put into their eyes, ears and injected to find out the effect.
The world has already woken up to these facts and several organization have taken up cudgels on their behalf but what is actually required is a higher level of consciousness amongst the common masses to put an end to this yet unchecked barbarism.