Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Well in that case, there is no such country that can be said to be great. Ill treatment and killing of animals for food, leather, trade and various superstitions is still prevalent despite of reaching the 21st century.
Billions of animals are slaughtered for food all over the world. They are tortured till death in the grave slaughter houses. Big companies that manufacture bags, purses, belts etc., use animal leather and the price increases as per the quality of the leather. There are also people who are satisfied once they see ‘GENUINE LEATHER’ written on the products.
There are festivals celebrated in different parts of the world like the Gadhimai festival in Nepal, Yulin dog festival in China, Pero Palo festival where animals are killed and tortured. Cattle is massacred on the border of Nepal, dogs are killed and eaten and a donkey is kicked, beaten and made to drink alcohol by a crowd till it dies of pain in these festivals respectively. If these things continue to happen, there is no point in following a religion, caste or god where the basic principle of ‘humanity’ is not understood or taught to people.
Humans were born to live happily and peacefully with other living creatures of this world and not to ill-treat or dominate them. When people ask me, “Why do you want to save animals?” I always reply with the quote, “You won’t change the world by saving an animal but you will change that animal’s world.” We can help by taking very small steps like being a vegan or a vegetarian, using faux leather [PU], volunteering in the nearby animal shelters and most importantly, spread awareness and fight for animal rights.
It is humans who have said ‘Live and let live’; now it’s time to show that in our actions. There is nothing wrong in being a little kinder than necessary. Writing all this filled my eyes with tears. Let’s do something together for the cause of paws.