ANIMAL ABUSE: THE SHADOWS OF PAIN BENEATH OUR PLEASURES

After seven days, the creator looked at His creation and called it beautiful. As the spirit of the Lord was walking through the garden, an instruction fell from heaven into the heart of man

Name these animals

Filled with the spirit of self, man set about this task. For the birds of the earth, with feathers glued to their chubby flesh, he named for his pillows and Christmas. For the soft cattle of the meadows, adorned with moulds of elastic skin, he named for his shoes and Eid. For the bleating herbivore imbued with the element of stubbornness, he relegated to his soup pot. For the wildlife, bearing furry hide and woolly coating, he named for his clothing and the brave and fiery, he named for sport. Other animals, which could not play this game of naming, served lesser gods as effigies and annual sacrifices. 

Every day, since this baptism, the animal kingdom has continually offered its constituents for the preservation of humankind. In reality, this trend has been coated in various dressings. While some view it with the lightings of a circus, a diverse divide call it after the poaching of animals. At the same time, some see it behind the lens of lab-filled rats and monkeys; others regard it through the fox-made frocks of winter. Even so, no matter the colour animal cruelty wears, a clear outcome is the suffering and inhumaneness it brings. Nevertheless, one question that is left unanswered is whether the use of animals for our entertainment, is worth the bloodletting. 

According to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), approximately 10,000 bulls die annually in the Spanish Tlacotalpan Bull Festival, right after being induced with alcohol, beaten and stabbed repeatedly. In South Africa, young men, barely 13, beautify themselves with the blood of a bull, right after tormenting it by uprooting its tongue, filling its mouth with dirt to obstruct breathing, taking out its eyes, and mutilating its genitals. Interestingly, families comprising of minors, witness this public display of cruelty, which has been psychologically linked to the perpetrators of domestic violence and mass murder by a 2017 study by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF). It is said that culture is life but on an intellectual scale of preference, we do not place a culture that has proven detrimental, above the psychological make-up of the future generation. 

Furthermore, over the past years, PETA has shown that the behaviour of animals at circus shows is a far cry from their natural composition. Hence, connoting that tigers do not hop through rings of fire and then lay down in a straight line, kangaroos do not juggle tennis balls, and female elephants do not mount each other. These 'tricks' have been made possible only by extreme torture with the aim of training animals for the circus, an act that translates into animal enslavement. This act has made some elephants, who are confined for constant travels, to suffer from lameness, arthritis, and osteoporosis - a disease of the joints that is caused when natural roaming animals do not have wide spaces to move about. Despite the labours against animal cruelty, circuses still stand today and animals are still exploited. 

In addition, the fashion market has been flooded by the influx of fur materials, with its demand plummeting during the winter season. The beauty of this clothing leaves nothing to the imagination of how fur is obtained; neither does it imprint the pains of the animals on its surface. However, the Citizens to End Animal Sufferings and Exploitation (CEASE) paints a vivid picture in a 2015 article, where it narrated that 100 chinchillas are skinned, sometimes partly alive, in order to make one full-length fur coat. All this indicates that for five individuals to be adorned in fur, 500 chinchilla skins have to be peeled off. Thrilling is the fact that in spite of the towering cost to obtain fur coats, the demand still rises and this has resulted in a staggering decline in the population of chinchillas in the jungle. 

Moreover, animal abuse has been masked by the danger posed by wild animals who stray into residential areas and cause bodily harm. The New England Cable News (NECN) in a report dated July 31, 2018, gave an account of four people, including a five-year-old child, who were treated for rabies after being attacked by a fox in Brunswick, Maine. As unfortunate as this tale might seem, more compelling is how foxes began making their way into living quarters. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reports, that the Earth loses 18.7 million acres of forests per year, which is estimated to be the loss of 27 soccer fields per minute. The debris of this demolition was once the home of wildlife, and when a man is deprived of his home, his next step is to live on the streets, and for the animals, the 'streets' are our homes. Therefore, we should not blame them for visiting our homes, when we have deprived them of theirs. 

Finally, human needs have always been the drive for survival. These needs have been itemised and are sometimes challenged by other humans. It might be a defense for cruelty, when animals are utilised for the survival of man; yet, when they are used for our entertainment it becomes loathsome. Amongst many arguments for animal abuse, one has always been that animals do not have feelings. Maybe they do not, but so does a 3-month-old foetus, yet it is an abomination to kill it in the Morality code. Thus, it goes without saying that we should not be cryptic about our views on animals but attempt to love them by not watching through cages as they are abused for entertainment. Suffice it to say, that may a day not come when animals learn to read, for George Orwells Animal Farm is a guide for an animal revolt against the pains of many, endured for the pleasures of one.