After a successful revolt over their lazy owner the animals set up the animal kingdom whose basic law was enshrined in the Seven Commandments of Animalism. The most important commandment was “All animals are equal".The events that followed their revolution showed that they were not.

The above refers to George Orwell’s 1945 allegorical and dystopian novel titled Animal Farm. The novel was originally written as a criticism of Stalin’s Soviet Union but has since then been used to criticise all sorts of government’s with dictatorial tendencies.

But one can give the core commandment of the animal kingdom a different spin and a diverse interpretation to prove that not all animals are equal.

Do you remember when a dog called Star – if I my memory serves me right – was found abandoned in a skip? There was an uproar in the country. It was as if a national disaster had occurred. How cruel could men be to beasts, everyone and his dog clamoured. It was a fuss worth making as it was done for a good cause.

But recently another animal was found in a skip. It was left there almost death. Have you noticed any commotion? The waves that hit cyberspace and the social networks had nothing to do with the condemnation of animal cruelty. This aspect did not feature. The reaction was quite different. How could one leave a dangerous animal in a skip and close to a children’s playground to boot? Fear of animals and not their protection from cruelty featured in the national agenda.

The animal this time was called Crush. It was not a dog but a three feet boa constrictor. Sarah Carabott penned a very good story about this incident  in the Times of Malta of last Thursday (December 4).

It turned out that there were two snakes in the skip. One suffocated in its own blood, a direct result of the beating it got. The other one had his head crushed in, lacerations in his mouth and burns all over his body. Anyone said: How awful? Nay. Anyone clamoured for police action against the perpetrator. Niet. Thanks to a lot of loving care Crush is now on the way of regaining his health.

There is a reason for the collective fear of snakes. Since the writing of Genesis snakes have had a very bad press. Hollywood jumped on that band wagon. We have seen boa constrictors crushing to dead all sorts of creatures. No wonder many, including this writer, have shivers even at the mention of the word snake.

However, we were assured by members of the Malta Herpetological Society, such creatures pose no danger to humans. To put our mind at rest a photo showing the nice year old son of one of the leaders of the society playing with the snake was featured in the story. The young boy had Crush round his neck in fashion that one dons a muffler. I remember a similar photo featuring Pope John Paul II draped by a boa constrictor.

We were also told in the story that humans are dangerous to the  type of snakes found in the Gzira skip. They cannot crush a human as we are too large for them. If they bite a human they would break their teeth and get infected!

You see, not all animals are equal.