- October 4 is World Animal Day! World Animal Day is celebrated
around the world each year in the first week of October to publicly recognise
the important contribution animals make to society, and the important role
pets play in the everyday lives of millions of people.
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- It is a day to enhance public awareness of animal abuse
and make people aware not just of the pet overpopulation problem but also
the suffering man inflicts on farm, research, and wild animals and the
role our ignorance and complacency plays in the perpetuation of that abuse
and suffering.
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- It is about awareness, compassion, respect, and responsibility
for the animals we share the Earth with. It is for pet lovers, humane societies,
animal rights activists, wildlife conservationists and rehabilitators,
everyone who cares about animals.
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- Animals have few rights. It is the cowardice and tyranny
of which they are victims, which make their suffering so especially touching.
There is something so very dreadful, so satanic in tormenting those who
have never harmed us, and who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly
in our power.
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- It is paradoxical that man, who claims to be far superior
in intelligence than other creatures, behaves in the most irrational way
whenever torturing and annihilating species which are not only crucial
for the environment but also for his own survival too.
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- History of trade in wild animals and animal products
have been going on for centuries. Wildlife products like musk from the
musk deer, horn of rhinoceros and tiger bones fetch lucrative prices in
the international market that smugglers will do almost anything and everything
to kill the animals in demand and extract the desired parts of their anatomy.
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- The magnificent tiger is being slaughtered in hundreds
every year because of the curative powers of its bones. Almost every part
of the tiger is used for making Chinese medicines for diseases ranging
from stomach upset to asthma and other ailments.
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- On the entertainment front, elephants have been captured
and trained since olden times and tortured until the spirit of the world's
biggest mammal is broken and turns into a puppet for people to jeer at.
Birds and ocean creatures are exploited for show performances. Are we really
a civilised race?
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- Billions of farm animals throughout the world are reared
behind the closed doors of the factory farm. They are caged, crammed and
confined, forced to grow super-fast, and pushed to their physical limits
in the quest for ever more meat, milk or eggs.
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- Three quarters of the world's 4,700 million egg laying
hens are confined in tiny battery cages. These cages are so small the hens
cannot flap their wings, so barren they have no nest in which to lay their
eggs, and so restricting that the birds' bones become brittle through lack
of exercise.
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- Breeding pigs are caged in sow stalls. This system keeps
pregnant pigs in such close confinement they are unable to exercise or
even turn around throughout their 16-week pregnancy. When ready to give
birth, the sow will be moved to the equally restricting farrowing crate.
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- Thousands of broiler chickens reared for meat are crammed
in each barren shed. They are not caged, but kept by a few thousands in
sheds. They grow at a fast rate, developing heart and skeletal problems.
Today, 20 billion broiler chickens are being reared worldwide.
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- Factory farming has even taken to the water. Thousands
of fish can be crowded into a sea cage or pond, causing them to suffer
stress and become prone to disease.
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- Already pushed to their natural limits, genetic engineering
threatens to cause further suffering to farm animals. By altering their
genetic make-up, animals will be made to grow even faster, bigger, leaner,
or produce more milk.
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- Animals exported for the livestock trade are often mishandled
and abused and many with inadequate space during transport suffer from
stress, lack of water and food and many die during the journey. Poultry
birds are transported in crates piled on top of one another during transportation
by lorries with many suffering from heat stress on a hot day.
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- Wildlife have been exterminated by men where poaching
goes on unabated. Man's activities have caused severe decimation of the
animals population through habitat degradation in the form of logging and
land conversion, wildlife trade for zoos, pet shops, for medicine and for
the exotic meat trade.
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- The suffering of animals in different fields has been
for the reasons of ignorance, lack of right education, poverty, lack of
feeling and understanding of the finer values of life, both amongst the
young and old as well as amongst the educated and uneducated.
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- The task of creating a momentum to bring about awareness
against cruelty to animals should start at schools and colleges for a massive
educational programme to teach reverence to all living beings.
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- Along with this programme of education through schools,
there should be an intensive programme to bring about general awareness
through audio visual means, exhibitions and prosecution against persons
who committed acts of cruelty.
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- There is a paramount need to create a consciousness of
the environment. The existence of everything on this planet Earth depends
on ecological balance; therefore a functional and humane relationship between
man, animal and trees is of fundamental importance.
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- Finally stringent legislative enactments and their proper
implementation is essential if we are sincere in our pursuit to prevent
acts of cruelty and to preserve and protect the animal wealth of our country.
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