Explore Indialand: IF ONLY ANIMALS COULD SPEAK.............

IF ONLY ANIMALS COULD SPEAK..............

Mahatma Gandhi said :

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”

Walking through the streets of Kolkata, India, one may often feel disgusted at the sight of our canine and feline fellow dwellers. With dogs and cats of every shape, size and colour, though of only a Single breed : STREET; one may awe at the capability of the city's human citizens to tolerate the nuiscance created by these so called 'pests'.

Stray cats on a feast in the streets of Kolkata; pic: Arijit Nag

However, the Kolkatans have learned to live with these animals. People here hardly keep breeded dogs and cats as pets. There are homes in every locality whose members have taken a fancy on one or more members of these street dwellers.

Feeding a stray dog

Human love is poured into these canines and felines whereby they are given sweet, loving names, fed with huge chunks of fish and meat and often taken good care of.

There is a very amicable relationship between the people and their ‘strays'.

'Stray' Friendship... Copyright:by Arijit Nag

While travelling through the streets of Kolkata, one may often find a stray dog tied to a post by a rope. It just indicates that it has been owned by someone who has fallen in love with the creature. Cats enjoy the best position here. With their petite size and witty habits, they manage a secure position in many homes whose owners seem to quite enjoy their presence.

Although there are certain potential problems such as the risk of disease transmission and littering, animals are not harmed. They are accepted. They live their own lives. No one interferes. Euthanization is unknown here. People cannot imagine killing healthy, living creatures just because they are a burden to society. Here, animals are considered God’s children and thus allowed to live their own ways.

A permanent source to control the population is to SPAY AND NEUTER. Govt. agencies and NGO’s here are working actively on the huge task of sterilizing these creatures. That seems the best and permanent solution to bring down their population. Killing healthy living creatures is unimaginable and unethical here.

Now going to a plush city in the developed world where the citizens are extremely concerned with health and hygiene and very rightly so. The places are developed enough to have stringent animal rights and huge number of animal shelters and animal activists. Pet owners take extremely careful measures to ensure the health and well-being of their non-human family members Pet shops and breeding centres compete with each other to produce the newest , trendy breeds of dogs and cats to satisfy the requirements of the would-be-owners. . Here the concept of ‘strays’ is almost alien. The animals here seem to enjoy royal lives full of safety, security, love and care. However, a sad truth hovers behind this beautiful story...............

EUTHANIZATION (euthanization picures: courtsey Lenscratch)

Euthanization is itself a very sensitive issue. In human subjects, it may be applied in extreme cases whereby a patient of who is unfortunate enough to suffer a long, painful death is put to silence for ever in a short, less painful procedure. Everytime such a measure is applied, controversies have risen as to the ethics of the procedure. In the developed
world euthanization of animals is a common occurrence. Healthy animals who have met the misfortune of being homeless are killed if they are not adopted soon. It is justified on the basis that the future of these animals will be dark and dreary. It may make one wonder that if animals could speak would they express their wish to continue a homeless life or instead choose to die. It seems we have assumed their answer. In the underdeveloped world, there are many homeless humans living a life of dread and constant pain. However, they still fight on and live on. They do not kill themselves. So, why do we do this to the animals. Euthanization seems to be misnomer here.