The trouble with being an animal lover is a lot, and the case has been the same forever.
If you have or ever have had a pet, or if you are one of those who have ever felt a moral obligation to feed an emaciated stray, shelter a whimpering pup or kitten from a rainy night, rescue a bird with an injured wing and so on, you will probably have faced a lot of opposition from different quarters, in your endeavour to help our furry or feathered friends.
In my case, the oppositions and sometimes belligerent forces I have faced personally or witnessed have ranged from the downright ridiculous and silly to the unimaginably cruel.
At the beginning of the spectrum, there are those who believed that touching or petting even an absolutely healthy animal would immediately result in our getting infected with several illnesses including AIDS, while in the other end, are those scary few, who did not even bat an eyelid before drowning a day old litter of pups or surreptitiously poisoning hungry strays. While the former were largely ignorant of even basic biological facts, they were not actively violent or worked to the detriment of other life forms- though their ignorance have often aided in perpetuating such misdeeds.
Nonetheless, it is the latter group who are out-and-out morally reprehensible, and some among them might even be perpetrators of other deeper societal problems, as it has been often noticed that those who display systematic cruelty to animals move on to display the same behaviour towards humans later on. However, the extremes though troublesome, are not usually overabundant in their presence, but it is those who lie amid these two who I encounter almost regularly.
One of the most common grievances/arguments/objections (whatever you might call it), I have seen being raised against any generous treatment towards animals, have usually been backed by references to the millions of suffering humans out on the streets. In fact this is not something that I have faced alone, every time I see a friend trying to help an animal or a post on social media asking people to help an animal in need, or even sharing a success story along the same lines, there are many who quickly comment on how humans are dying on the streets while we are fussing over an animal. It is as if they accuse that our compassion is applicable to only one species, and once we show it towards one we don’t have any left for the others. And that is a highly ridiculous notion for a compassionate heart feels for all, whether a hungry human child or a mewling kitten. Those that indicate otherwise, are unaware of what true compassion really is.
Then there are also those who go a step further and insinuate that taking care of animals in need is a luxury of the economically well off, a mere time-pass where we waste money and food by indulging a meaningless whim. This viewpoint is flawed in more than one way, for empathy is not a luxury or the monopoly of the ‘haves’ alone, it can be found anywhere, even in the unlikeliest of places and under the most trying of circumstances. Have any of you ever seen a picture doing the rounds on social media where an impoverished mother and child are splitting their meagre meal with a hungry crow?
You don’t have to go on the Internet to see such sights, just observe your own surroundings and you will find multiple such examples, where those that have nothing in comparison to most others, share more than any other. In such situations, biased viewpoints as the one mentioned above, not only disregards the capacity of sharing that people of very limited means are in possession of, but it also tries to rob off the economically and/or socially marginalized, of the most human virtue of compassion. And another personal observation that I would like to add here is that, I have personally never seen a person who is charitable with other humans turn up her nose against animals in need, and vice versa. Rather it is those who ridicule, sham or criticise those generous to animals, who usually lack generosity towards any living being no matter human or animal.
Looking out for those that cannot speak for themselves and those that are usually at the mercy of the most intelligent species, is a quality which if honed from the very beginning would lead to an all rounded development of any child. It teaches one to care and respect all life forms brings out the more humane side in all, thus bringing out the best in us. For this reason certain prisons from around the world have started pets and inmates program, which pair those doing time with animals in need; such an arrangement help the inmates keep a touch with the softer side of life that can be easy to forget within a cell, while simultaneously giving the animals a new lease on life.
Thus, caring for other life forms is neither a luxury nor a wasteful whim, it is a duty born out of empathy and compassion – one which helps become just a little more human than we are, but, even if one does not feel the urge of going out of one’s way to do the same there won’t be anything wrong with it, as long as that one person does obstruct others who feel otherwise, in their chosen path of action.
