Do we care more about animals than humans?

[Guest guest]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/10/22/backstory.animals/

<http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/10/22/backstory.animals/>

CNN. 22 October 2008.

Do we care more about animals than humans?

By CNN's Michael Holmes

 

(CNN) -- Over the years, I've found myself in some dangerous

places, from Baghdad to Kabul, Ramallah to Rwanda.

When I've reported on human suffering from those places,

public reaction and feedback has usually been what you'd

expect: sympathetic, heartfelt thoughts for the innocents.

Unless there's an animal within camera range.

Then, almost without exception, it's the pooch or the lion or

the gorilla that steals the show, pushing the humans to the

empathy backburner. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big animal

lover, but it's curious how critters tug heartstrings harder

than human beings.

Phil Black in CNN's Baghdad bureau this week gave us the

BackStory on their coverage of a pet store where the unusual

animals include lion cubs, alligators and even a vulture --

merchandise that might raise eyebrows in the West. Watch

BackStory on wild animal shop report »

In Iraq, where I have reported from regularly in the past few

years, there are entire pet markets where you'll find

everything from exotic birds, snakes and monkeys to domestic

dogs trained as guard dogs. I even saw a wolf in a market one

day.

Sadly, that market was later the scene of several attacks --

mortars, and suicide bombings. Lots of people died, but I

remember getting far more emails enquiring about innocent

animals than innocent civilians. Phil's story also reminded of

a visit to the zoo in Kabul during my coverage of Afghanistan

during the early days after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

There we found animals in a pretty sorry state, including a

lion named Marjan that had become a local celebrity after

losing an eye when man threw a grenade into his enclosure,

reputedly in revenge for a deadly attack by Marjan on his

brother.

That story aroused an incredible response from ordinary people

and animal rights groups, who launched a campaign to save

Marjan. Sadly, he died not long afterwards of natural causes

-- but by then he was quite a cause célèbre. A full funeral

was arranged, complete with government officials and media

coverage.

My experience in Kabul inspired me to visit the zoo in Baghdad

following the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003. So, once we'd

done our more traditional stories after arriving in the city,

we went to see the animals.

It, too, was in a sorry state. Some animals had escaped and

there were reports a lion had been shot by U.S. soldiers who

found it wandering in nearby parkland

Again this story created an amazing response from the public

and animal rights groups, some of which sent experts into Iraq

just to help out with the animals.

A few months later, I returned to the now somewhat improved

Baghdad zoo to report on the transfer of some cheetahs and

some lions that had been kept as pets by Saddam Hussein's

notoriously brutal son Uday (there were rumors he'd fed his

rivals to the animals.)

It was quite a sight -- a civilian vet sedated the beasts, and

the U.S. military loaded them on humvees and trucks and slowly

drove them the few miles to the zoo. It was, to say the least,

the most unusual military convoy I'd seen.

Of all the stories I have covered during my frequent trips to

Iraq, most of the viewer feedback I received asked about the

animal victims of war rather than the human ones. I make no

judgment on that -- it is just an observation.

On my last trip to Iraq, I reported on many acts of violence

and spent time with the military for days on end.

And the story that ran the most during my tour of duty? Got

the most reaction? One about a military " therapy dog " named

Bo...