Do we really care about animal rights?

[Guest guest]

Do we really care about animal rights?

by Lt-General (retd) Baljit Singh

WE shall never know how many and what manner of moments of ecstasy and anguish

Mahatma Gandhi had experienced before he declared with finality that, " the worth

of a civilisation is judged from the manner it treats its animals " .

However, we may say with a degree of certainty that the Mahatma would have

highly rated a huge crowd of Australians for their collective display of

spontaneous compassion towards an animal which had lost his bearings in the

routine of its life.

On January 28, 2007, the men’s singles final of the Australian Open tennis

tournament at Melbourne had reached a stage where a break in the rhythm of the

game could prove costly to either contestant.

King Roger, as the Swede is fondly called, had taken the first two sets and

was leading four games to three in the third. Fernando Gonzalez, the Chilean

under-dog was readying to serve when a bumble bee landed on the court inches

away from the player’s toes.

In the follow up of the serve-effort, the bee would have been surely crushed

under-foot. Just in time, the bee fluttered, which caught Gonzalez’s eye, and he

promptly aborted the serve.

Gonzalez attempted to lift the bee with his racket out of harms way. The bee

instead made a brief sally and alighted close to the net. By now the two

ball-picker boys and Gonzalez had encircled the bee and one by trapped it under

his cupped hands. Lifting the bee ever so gently he released it deep inside the

bed of massed flowers below the spectators front row.

The spell of a few minutes hushed silence was at last broken by a collective

and audible sigh of relief from the jam-packed stadium. There was no clapping or

any other theatrics. The referee called the match resumed, just as calmly.

That episode would have surely made the Mahatma’s eternal soul happy and proud

of this segment of humankind! Especially so, after the huge spasm of anguish

which his soul had endured in the land of his birth and at the hands of his own

countrymen just a fortnight earlier.

Yes, it was on January 13, 2007 that a draught mule, unable to haul an

over-laden cart, collapsed-in-harness on a bustling city thorough fare. At a

conservative estimate at least five thousand Indians on cycles, scooters,

rickshaws, limousines and buses went past the scene without a thought for the

distressed mule.

Not one stopped by or used his mobile telephone to summon first aid from the

SPCA, the PFA (People For Animals) or the Government Veterinary Dispensary. Not

one cared to inform the traffic police to arrange succour for the suffering

animal.

The mule owner’s first concern was to commandeer a substitute mule-cart and

transfer the same killer load onto it. Even at this stage no citizen or

government representative bothered to get the weight of the cargo checked.

India was proud to legislate in 1960 the " Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Act " which specifies the maximum permissible cargo for a draught animal,

separately for mules, horses, donkeys and oxen, depending on their body-size

(small, medium, large), the condition of the road surface and so on.

Does one in a thousand Indians know of the existence of this Act and its

measures? Indeed, do they care to know? Possibly not one in ten traffic

policemen has the requisite knowledge neither. It my well be the case that in

our prosperous metropolises this Act may never have been invoked, say the last

ten years.

Once the cargo was re-despatched to its destination, one would have expected

the stricken mule to receive care. A mobile fork lift would have neatly lifted

the mule to the point when it could plant its hooves on ground. And an animal

ambulance summoned from the PFA would have carried it home to rest and

recuperate.

But no such luck. By now a crowd had gathered around the mule more out of

curiosity than sympathy. To the owner’s request for help in lifting the mule on

to its feet, as many men as could find a hand-hold to clutch at the hapless

mule’s tail, legs, head, ears and even mane, they tugged and they heaved. When

the animal could take the indignity no more, in a supreme effort it stood up.

And no one protested when the traumatised mule received its marching orders to

get home.

Need we wonder any more at the Mahatma’s strange barometer for the measure of

a civilisation?

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070220/edit.htm#7

 

 

 

 

 

Dr.Sandeep K.Jain

 

 

Here’s a new way to find what you're looking for - Answers

 

 

[Guest guest]

Does one in a thousand Indians know of the existence of this Act and its

measures? Indeed, do they care to know? Possibly not one in ten traffic

policemen has the requisite knowledge neither. It my well be the case that in

our prosperous metropolises this Act may never have been invoked, say the last

ten years.

 

 

Dear Dr Jain and friends of animals,

 

You are absolutely right that not even one in a thousand really knows anything

of our Prevention of Cruelty Act.

However, don't you feel that it is our duty to rectify this, as the only people

who are trying to give a voice to animals?

Why aren't we approaching the newspapers to print it, at least in parts?

Why aren't we asking corporates to sponsor the dissemination of this information

in leaflets, fliers, posters, etc?

Why did we not use the opportunity, during AfA, to educate the public on the PFA

laws, while we were all trying to make a difference?

I have made several suggestions to people, several efforts to make this

happen.Perhaps if we all do so together, we can have millions more Indians walk

around informed and empowered to help the animals.

 

Devika Khazvini

The Cattitude Trust

 

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