Has Animal Abuse become a new trend?

The recent news of the pregnant elephant that was “murdered” by few people has shocked the entire nation and put up a question mark on why human have lost their humanity. But is it the only incident that has happened? Why is it so that the innocent animals are subjected to so much abuse? As a society, have we failed as a whole?

 

The Elephant incident in Kerala:

A wild elephant which was reported to be pregnant was in search for food for apparently 2 weeks, after its long search she got something eatable and happily took it. But little did she know about her incoming death. That fruit had bomb in it and just when it was taken, the bomb exploded and left the majestic animal in utter pain. It suffered a long duration before she eventually met her destiny. Some locals had justified that it was not meant to be for “her”, rather for the wild boars that kept coming in search for food to their crops. But does that make any difference? Does the boars feel no pain?

 

Videos of animal abuse in social networking platform:

There have been reports of numerous cases where there have been reports of animal abuses, be it cat or a dog or any other innocent animals just for the sake of “fun” videos meant to be entertaining the audience. Be it tying a dog and throwing it in water or killing a kitten mercilessly by putting the body weight on it. Thinking of these make you stop the imagination, right? But these were actually done!

 

Why these abuses have become a common phenomenon nowadays?

These cases are not limited to these certain reports, but a lot more of these cases are happening nowadays. But why are these suddenly escalated to such high numbers?

• People have become desperate to make their lives comfortable and businesses profitable caring less about any other issues be it nature or other beings. Industries have been built degrading the forests and keeping away the wild animals away from their habitat. Poachers killing wild animals to earn money from their body parts, leaving the young infants to die.
• Craze for becoming popular in social media platforms has gone to the next level and they are ready to go to any extent possible. The most shocking thing is, these videos actually make a lot of thousands of views which in turn encourage these sick people to continue doing these unforgivable crimes.
• People are frustrated with their personal and social lives and feelings for other beings are dying. Some people actually find the sufferings of others fun to watch. As the cities are expanding, we are going away from the nature and becoming less susceptible towards caring other living beings.
• Proper guidance missing from the smaller families. As the joint families are breaking up, parents are providing with all the amenities they can to their kids, but proper guidance and teachings are needed for their children to shape up their minds. Some kids finding abuses entertaining is really an alarm to the society we are heading to!

 

What can we do?

As there is a popular saying ”Charity begins at home”, we should teach our kids not just to have formal education but also educating them how to treat animals with the same importance as we teach them how to behave with other people. Stop taking the kids to butcher shops and show them how animals are being killed, they don’t have the kind of mind which can determine the difference between killing for food and killing for pleasure. I have seen many kids curiously watching the job being done which is not a right sight for them to watch.

I remember few years ago, I was seeing a live chicken was tied to a rope and two kids were pelting stones at it. When I asked them not to do that as they were hurting it, they swiftly replied that they are anyways going to kill it, what difference does it make! Parents have to change these types of mentality of the kids and teach them the very fine line between right and wrong.

 

Conclusion:

If each one of us try to make the younger generation emphatic towards the animals, these incidents will seldom occur. Being said that, the social platforms also need to check the content of what they are encouraging people to see. Doing business doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to keep your humanitarian values aside. Most importantly, if someone sees these incidents they need to raise their voice over these criminal acts. Everyone needs to understand that for mother nature a human life has the same importance as that of an animal’s life.

Please let me know your views and if you have seen any animal abuses in your locality.