CRUELTY TOWARDS ANIMALS

Nipan Malde

We cannot directly experience anyone else’s pain — whether that. anyone is our best friend or an animal. Pain is something that only we can feel and when others show some external indication, such as screaming, we can infer that they are feeling pain.

Animals have nervous systems similar to ours and so they, like humans, are capable of suffering from physical injuries, fear, anxiety, stress and so on.

Animals are subject to horrifying cruelties, e.g. in the name of science, monkeys, rats, pigeons, guinea pigs are starved to death to see their reactions — did they act violently, fall ill, etc.

Millions of animals are poisoned (about 40-50 million in U.S. per year). About 25% of the 5 million are poisoned every year to test drugs. For all kinds of cosmetics, lipsticks, etc., animals are subject to unbelievable pain. Cosmetics and drugs are tested for every skin damage — concentrated solution of the product are dripped in rabbits’, cats’, guinea pigs’ eyes, which are kept open by metal clips so that they do not shut their eyes.

Thousands of animals have been forced to inhale tobacco smoke for months and even years to search for a cure for cancer. But if people are not prepared to give up tobacco or do without needless drugs and begin to take care of themselves by having adequate nutrition, sanitation and health care, can it be right to punish the animals in such a way? In spite of all these experiment on animals, it is by no means certain that what works’ on animals will work on humans. Thalidomide was tried out on monkeys, dogs, cats and rats with no ill effect, yet it had horrific effects on humans. Other drugs’ affect animals and humans quite differently; penicillin poisons guinea pigs, morphine wakes up cats (although It has the opposite effect in humans), aspirin deforms rats. Drugs metabolise (i.e. break up) at different rates in man and animals Meperidine, for example, metabolises at 17% per hour in a human but in the laboratory dog it does so at 90% per hour. Nor must it be forgotten that a very great deal of medical progress has already been achieved without recourse to the laboratory animal. Robert Lawson Tait (1845-99), an outstanding surgeon of his day and a pioneer of successful techniques in abdominal surgery, wrote of the advances made in transfusions and excisions and in the treatment of head injuries and poisonings before the vivisecton carried out his work. Other advances have included the discovery of anesthetics, penicillin, iodine, the measurement of blood-pressure, the treatment of cataracts and the development of many medical instruments.

Most meat-eaters are ignorant of the abuse of living creatures behind the food they eat. One of the most abused is the chicken, who are bred either for their flesh or eggs. They lead miserable lives from birth to slaughter. As soon as they are born every aspect of their lives is controlled (e.g. light, food, water) to make them grow faster. These birds never see daylight until the day they are taken out to be killed. The egg laying chicken lives longer and in very cramped conditions —cages where there is not enough room for them to walk about oi stretch their wings, let alone stand up. The beaks of these birds are cut off so as to prevent them attacking each other, not surprising when there can be up to 90,000 chickens in a small factory. In the U.S. alone, 3,000,000,000 chickens are killed each year and millions of cattle, pigs and sheep are raised and slaughtered in cruel conditions. Veal or calf meat which is regarded as a ‘delicacy’ is perhaps the most horrific example of human cruelty towards animals. The newly born calf is kept in a dark place without any sunlight for its short life, before it is killed for its tender meat.

CONCLUSION: Mankind is in the danger of annihilating itself, because the cruelty perpetuated on the animal world cannot go unpunished. If you are a meat-eater, please think again.