Animal Welfare

I’m a bit of an animal lover, never campaigned for their rights, but they can be so damn cute sometimes… Anyway, here (and probably elsewhere) animals have a very functional status and nothing else. I often get laughed at as I try to pat one of the many cows or goats that wander the roads. Even for dogs that happens sometimes, which I find very strange. Still it explains why most cats and dogs are scared shitless of humans.

By contrast, local people have absolutely no compassion for animals. Donkey carts seriously overloaded, goats unnecessarily thrashed into the right direction, chickens and cats kicked, horses with horribly scarred backs. This is a regular occurence. One person I know even boasted that he crushed the heads of two new-born kittens. Now I understand that animals have a function as a guard, mouser, food, etc. but I can’t help wondering where the boundary lies between function and abuse. When a goat is beaten around the street by a three year-old whilst its supposed to be grazing and the owners lazily observe, I can’t help thinking there is a lack of humanity somewhere. I tend to think of “rights” (human or animal) as horribly pompous bullshit that exist only on paper, but, in my book, “wrongs” definitely exist, and for animals there are plenty here! Personally, as a monkey, I find the lack of compassion quite depressing.

On another note, I saw two chickens having their throats slit last night (first time for me). It didn’t actually affect me as much as I thought it would, and I could definitely do it myself. A goat/ox is probably another matter, but I haven’t had that pleasure yet.