Recently I happened to visit a Zoological park at Trissur, on my way to Guruvayoor. I love to watch Animals whether in zoo or in Animal Planet. But this time, a scene in the Trissur zoo triggered an avalanche of thoughts on my mind. I was watching the cheetahs, tigers and lions put on cages. I was explaining my 2-year-old Nephew about the animals and answering his questions about their habitation and behavior. Suddenly, I watched a zoo keeper coming with a bucket full of water. I just noticed, every cage had two compartments separated by a small pathway shut by a small door. Now, he unlocked the door to the pathway and with the stick in hand he ordered the Cheetah to get through the pathway. So far the Cheetah didn’t make any roar/sound.
As soon as it saw the zoo keeper, it started roaring and expressed its rage. Then as the zoo keeper ordered, it went to the adjacent compartment through the pathway and the zoo keeper closed the pathway. Then he entered the empty compartment, placed the water and then slid opened the gate to the pathway again after locking the main doors. Then my nephew asked me, why did the cheetah started roaring as soon as it saw the zoo keeper? I explained him, as they have put it on a cage, it is expressing its Anger. Animals have a great memory and it recognizes persons even after several decades. I remember a movie “Christian the Lion”, in which two friends meets the lion they bought, pampered after several years, the lion with great enthusiasm and emotion runs and embraces them.
An avalanche of thoughts started flowing onto my mind about the emotions and sufferings of these animals. They were separated from their parents and brought to zoological parks and imprisoned inside a small cage. They are deprived of their home environment/emotions and they suffer inside cages. Sometimes I even think, the birds caged inside these zoological parks may even question God, why they have wings/feathers which is of no use now? Caged big cats may question the Almighty why they have fast feet? I totally condemn the selfishness of human community in this aspect. I asked few people’s opinion on this. Their response is immediately, we protect them. We save their life. We give them food. They don’t starve. Are these the only reason we could find to substantiate our behavior? They never wanted us to protect their life. They would rather happily live and die in their home(Forests) even if their life span is one day. Now it suffers imprisonment for years together for not committing any crime.
I am questioning every single individual who supports caging of animals, if they are ready to spend even six months inside a cage, in some unknown continent, without having an option on the food, and being showcased for a group of animals on a line. We think animal’s need are only food and a safe cage. This is not true. I even browsed about animal suicides and the causes. Found few interesting things about animal emotions. They are almost similar to human beings in emotions.
I read some articles when searching about this topic.
Excerpts : Kolkata (PTI): People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), working for animal rights, has demanded that Alipore Zoo be closed down by the government for its alleged mishandling of animals, the recent being the electrocution of a giraffe during transportation to Nandankanan zoo in Bhubaneswar.
“http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200805271654.htm”
I see some of the zoo authorities support/ encourage adoption of animals, especially, tigers, elephants, crocodiles, lions and cheetahs. Probably, the animals would laugh/feel why would these guyz adopt us, if we have our own parents to take care of us? This is similar to kidnapping a baby from its parents and tendering for adoption, as we do not have sufficient funds for its basic needs. We should be ashamed to do this. To go one step ahead, Animal matings are cheaply decided by human beings. Their ecological balance/environment is totally screwed up by human beings. Human beings are indulging in deforestation and animals move from forest in search of space. So in view of preserving their own life, human beings are caging them. This is obscure selfishness. I see some of the animals are caged alone. This is even more pathetic. They cannot not have food preferences.
Sometimes, the zoo authorities, practice artificial insemination techniques on these animals for breeding. This is totally an unnatural behavior. The Animal may feel even more bad on seeing its offspring. For no reason a new-born is also caged. My heart is filled with mixed emotions. I do not know, why we don’t give a damn about this. We think we are so powerful that we can rule the whole universe. We should certainly be aware that nature is so powerful and we are nowhere near its strength. I see a lot of organizations/Communities raising their voice against Cruelty towards Animals. I believe one day these issues are also taken into consideration and the animals are let go free to their home[Forest] where they will enjoy rest of their life.
But some thoughts strike me again. Those who have watched the movie “The shawshank Redemption” would know, [Analogy] how much difficult it would be for the animals to adapt themselves for the forest life again. They do not know to hunt, as they were totally brought up inside cages. I believe, it would be a great thing if we stop accumulating animals inside the cages and just let the existing animals to die a natural death inside these cages.
If you are really moved by this, please say “No to cages”.
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