Stop this savagery

ANIMALS AND BIRDS have seldom been treated with kindness in modern India. If some of the winged creatures suffer mercilessly before they end up on the dining table, stray dogs are trapped and put to sleep in a brutal method, and cows headed for slaughter live through a nightmarish existence before they die. Tens of chickens are tied together and hung upside down from bicycle handles before they are butchered. Canine pounds can well be torture chambers, where electrocution is torturously slow, and takes place weeks after the creatures have been dumped into a deep pit. Cows, bulls and buffaloes are taken to Kerala and West Bengal (where it is legal to kill them for their meat or hide, though it takes place surreptitiously elsewhere) in suffocatingly overcrowded trucks and trains; when the beasts arrive at their destinations, some are badly injured or already dead having gored one another in sheer panic. Thousands of others are made to walk hundreds of miles for days on end without food or water, and their tails are broken or chilli powder thrown into their eyes to keep them moving. At the abattoir, they are usually massacred in a primitive manner without being stunned and in the presence of others.

But, barring a few activists, no one really cared about such terrible agony in a country that has the world's largest livestock population, estimated at more than 500 million, till the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals stepped in with a massive global campaign. Celebrities such as Mr. Paul McCartney and Ms. Brigitte Bardot strongly criticised the horrendous cruelty especially towards cows. Indian leather was boycotted, and the $ 1.6-billion industry felt the pinch at its toes. It was scared that the nearly 4,000 tanneries, employing 1.7 million men and women, would be forced to shut down. Pushed to a corner, the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, and his Government have directed the States to treat cattle with greater concern. Their transportation should be monitored. Easier said than done. For, if one were to believe the recent Time report, slaughter is a multimillion-dollar business, and ``the kickbacks to politicians and officials are thought to be huge''.

Be that as it may, man's inhumanity to the beast which not only carries his burden (bullock carts are found even in India's urban centres), but which he uses to satiate his hunger as well has reached a stage where it can no longer be ignored. Much before PETA came on the scene with its aggressive ultimatum, organisations such as Blue Cross have been trying to focus attention on the horrible behaviour towards animals, including those that perform on streets and in circuses. But these groups have not been able to strike the right balance, and this has been glaring in the case of stray dogs. Some advocate quick elimination, in order to check the spread of the deadly rabies. Others feel that a more scientific birth-control programme will ultimately solve the problem. Of course, this will take a very long time, given the nation's vastness and limited resources. Sadly, such difference of opinion has merely led to a greater barbarity. It must be recognised that a nation is also judged by the way it cares about lives other than human.

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