I have never understood how some people can be so cruel to animals. I am of the opinion that anybody who consciously harms animals brings shame and discredit on all of us as humans. The great Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi once said: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” How right he was!
Those of us who have animals as domestic pets can vouch for the fact that nothing in life can surpass the loyalty and love displayed by a pet towards the person/s it attaches itself to. Which is why we animal lovers find it very difficult to comprehend acts of senseless and gratuitous cruelty to harmless and defenceless creatures.
I have the greatest respect towards all religions but, unfortunately, here in Malta some people have, in the past, turned the tenets of the Roman Catholic religion upside down by such nonsensical statements as the one that animals have no souls and they are, therefore, a lesser form of life which, in turn, implies that cruel acts not permitted in the case of human beings are to be viewed less seriously in the case of animals.
Thankfully, today, such baseless and nonsensical arguments are shunned by almost everybody. Could you imagine Christ harming an animal? One feels ridiculous even mentioning such a possibility. Still, it is a fact that there are people today, albeit very small in number, who persist in using such arguments to justify treating animals in a manner which the vast majority of us would view as absolutely unacceptable.
The very language we use betrays how entrenched in our mentality is this idea that animals are an inferior form of life with infinitely less rights than humans. Many times we unconsciously use such phrases as ‘treated like an animal’, ‘only fit for an animal’, ‘not even an animal’, etc. when trying to describe unacceptable situations. The truth is that animals are a different form of life but certainly not an inferior one. What is different does not automatically translate into being inferior. As in everything else in life, we have to celebrate difference and treasure it as it enriches our lives.
Education is, of course, the long-term solution to eradicating animal cruelty but making an example of all those who harm animals is certainly the short-term and more effective one. We must no longer be soft towards persons who harm animals and I am glad that, at last, something concrete is being done in this regard by the authorities. Still, the situation needs further amelioration until animal cruelty is eliminated, as far as is humanly possible, from the Maltese islands.
A case in point is the Animal Welfare Department. Although understaffed, the workers of this department have various achievements to their credit in the field of animal welfare and the fight against animal cruelty. However, lack of adequate human resources must never again shackle worthy initiatives as it has done in the near past.
From a long-term point of view, schools should serve as the medium to get the message through to our younger generations that animals are there to be respected and loved. We have seen substantial improvement in this regard in schools but the efforts made are not enough. We need to introduce respect for animals in all aspects of the curriculum and at all levels of the learning process.
Primary schoolteachers are in a particularly privileged position to be able to inculcate in their pupils a love of animals. This can be done by using books involving animals as part of the reading repertoire, assigning compositions with titles relating to the care of pets, using the religion lesson to show how animals are a wonderful part of creation and mentioning St Francis of Assisi who loved animals so much. The opportunities for such education are endless and today we also have the added advantage of that wonderful learning tool: the internet.
We have, first of all, to make sure that those of us who own animals always set an example to others. Remember that when we do anything that upsets others and our pets are involved, we are making people dislike animals. If you leave your dog on the roof to bark day and night, I don’t think that you are encouraging your neighbours to become animal lovers! The same applies to those who let their pets dirty the streets where others live and leave the excrement behind them.
If we all do our part, then perhaps one day I shall have the satisfaction of not opening my daily newspaper to read that a turtle has had a stone tied to it and left to drown in the harbour, that a dog has been found hanged in a field, that several cats have been poisoned, etc.
Being civilised means respecting all forms of life.