Showing posts with label Animal rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animal rights. Show all posts

Elderly Animals

All Talk and No Action Monday, January 9, 2012

I stumbled upon this video of Isa Leshko. Poignant and beautiful. Some of you may find Isa's personification of the animals silly. Yet, it struck a chord with me.



I always maintain that caring for a pet has made me more human. I'm glad to have relatives and friends who've had various farm animals as pets.


Getting to know such animals has been an important part of my life experiences.


Most in my family are very sensitive to animal abuse, and feel strongly about animal rights. This may sound funny, especially, if you're from my part of the world, India. In a country famous for its callous attitude towards human life,  striving for animal rights can appear to be an elitist indulgence.


Yet, humans can find courage and hope, rationalize and even stand up to their tormentors. Not so with animals. World over, many farm animals, including well bred home pets, continue to die earlier than usual; they are either abused at a young age or turned away by their adoptive families in old age.


**********


Another reason why I found the video compelling was the ageing factor. There is much discomfort and disgrace attached to this natural process. Yet it's the one thing that connects us all.

at 10:13 PM 1 comments
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AWS Bangalore - SHAME ON YOU

All Talk and No Action Tuesday, September 13, 2011

This, this, this and many more such stories have added to my irritation and mood swings in the last couple of days.

In the past few months, Bangalore and Hyderabad have attained a dirty reputation for killing off street dogs in a quest to make the cities cleaner and more livable.

Many animal shelters in these cities perform surgeries without administering any anesthesia to dogs (which is highlighted by the videos in the above links), some shelters chop off vital body parts and the innards and sell them in open market, while many others just brutally kill these dogs and throw away the bodies in open grounds.

For the life of me, I cannot understand what it will take for human beings to understand the unwarranted pain they inflict on lower beings.

I will never ever understand how amazingly barbaric human beings can be with mute animals, who, cannot protect themselves and for most part have no intentions whatsoever to harm humans.

And lest you think this is just about India or about dogs. NO. It is about human beings everywhere and animal suffering in general.


at 10:54 PM 3 comments
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Animal Care & You

All Talk and No Action Sunday, April 4, 2010

Very few people I come across can live in harmony with animals.

Some are afraid of animals, while, an overwhelming majority, hate them.

For whatever reason.

Some incidents in the last two months have proven that even employees and volunteers of some well-known animal care NGOs, lack sensitivity and love.

This post was meant to be a rant against them.

Thankfully, I realised my folly.

Few people like animals, fewer still actively involve themselves in animal welfare.

I would rather talk about the good work that is going on and hope people make use of the resources available to help these kindred souls.

Charu Shah is an animal rights activist and someone, I go to, apart from my regular vet, in case of any queries/suggestions.

An architect by profession, Charu is a living encyclopedia on animal rights and laws, pertaining to India.

She has an egroup by the name of animal-welfare India. The digest has any every information you could think of, with regards to animal care, adoption drives, pet news and happenings around the globe.

She, alongwith her dedicated network of friends, holds group meetings that bounce off ideas in the field of animal care.

If you wish to become a part of the e-group or want to direct pet queries to Charu, please leave your mail IDs in the comments and I will revert.

Obviously, no crank mails/fraanship requests will be entertained.

Also, some NGOs that are doing their bit towards animal care are :

  • SPCA
  • IDA (In Defense of Animals)
  • Ahimsa

I request you to get in touch with any of the above, if you ever find any ill-treatment being meted out to our furry friends.

*****

Today is my Chotu's birthday.

When we look back at the last four years, we feel blessed.

The below words from Jabberwock nail it better than I ever can  -

It can be a lonesome business being closer to an animal than you are to most humans. People often give you strange looks if you express your real feelings, so you end up making light of things – shrugging and saying things jokingly as if they don’t really matter, when they actually matter a great deal. Just the other day I was exchanging empathy notes with a friend who’s in a similar position. She and her husband treat their human child and their dog as equals (with the caveat that the human kid, aged ten, is relatively independent now, spends most of his time playing video games and is already heading for a life-stage where parents won’t be very important to his scheme of things, while the dog will be completely dependent on them till the end of his life). But it’s very difficult for them to share these thoughts even with close friends - unless the friends also happen to feel the same way - because the typical reactions are derisive laughter or criticism. Defensiveness ends up being your default mode. Halfway through writing this post, I was already thinking about trolls who would decide to feel “offended” because I’m drawing a connection between a Progeria-suffering human being and an animal. Well, tough.

*****
Contact Numbers for the NGOs listed above

SPCA - 022 24137518/ 022 24135285
IDA - 022 56212681/ 022 32681418
Ahimsa - 022 28802682/ 022 28821972
 

at 1:40 PM 3 comments
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