Animal Cruelty
Recently, I saw a sight that broke my heart- a man beating up a precious little doggo.
Okay, so maybe it wasn't a little doggo, but STILL-
No one beats up the precious doggo!
Seeing this reminded me that our world isn't nearly as perfect as we imagine it to be. Animal cruelty is still out there, and this incident brought us to today's article.
So first, we have to differentiate between what is and isn't animal cruelty. It's easy to take a trivial matter involving anything alive and branding it harmful. In fact, everyone's perspective on what is right or wrong depends up to them. Some people might find keeping pets cruel. Others might be against experimenting on them. But despite the numerous takes on these issues, there is a skeleton that defines the term animal cruelty.
The standard definition of animal abuse is when one either shows harm upon a non-human being, or neglects the being such that it affects its health. Basically, if you straight-on hurt the poor little creature, like the dude I saw on the road, or if you don't care about the animal enough to provide its needs, you're abusing it. And while that dude might have had his own reasons for spanking the dog with a stick, surely there are better ways to come about the situation.
Nature is a lot more sophisticated than we think it is. Our minds are wired to think that humans are the only intelligent species, and all other creatures could never beat us at anything. In a way, I guess that's right. I mean, you can't give a gorilla a math test and expect it to pass. You'd be lucky if the paper even survived the encounter.
What I'm trying to get at is, animals are smart in a different way. They never do anything without a reason. Never. Even if the situation is portrayed that way. Look beyond what's in front of you, and it will be crystal clear why every creature on this planet does what it does.
This leads us back to animal cruelty. A dog isn't going to be like, Hey, I have a mood swing today, so I'm going to go ahead and bite this person! Maybe the dog couldn't tolerate the person. Maybe the person couldn't understand the dog, and the dog the person. The dog does have a reason, whether it's the fault of the human or itself. I suppose this is a way for us to avoid unintentionally hurting animals. Sometimes it's hard, like how it's practically impossible to read the emotions of a fish (believe me, I know, I have, like, 32). But speaking from experience, you can get there. Observe any animal for a long enough time, and you can understand its every move.
But this doesn't even begin to describe the most dangerous type of animal abuse. It's one thing not knowing when you hurt an animal. It's another when you know exactly how your actions are detrimental to its health. Animal smuggling, animal fighting, animal neglection (not to mention that dude from the road; as you can probably tell I'm pretty mad at him) and so much more...
They are all examples of animal cruelty we can't stop alone. That's why there are organizations towards helping towards issues like this. But they can't do it alone, so it's important we raise awareness as well.
Like all the other affairs I address in this blog, if we work together we can bring a change.
Not only for us, but the creatures we share this Earth with too.
Comments
Post a Comment