Re: God's Injunction....Or Nonchalance To Animal Suffering—Part 4
I am simply amazed by the level of response to this topic. Such interest by advocates and opposers alike had played an important role in compelling me to write subsequent parts of this article. That it has somehow snowballed into a multi-part series was not my plan ab initio!
I wrote and published another article around the same time the Part 1 of this series was released....about how inventors derive inspiration from animal activities.
That other article clearly indicates that I abhor suffering in all animals....and not just those whose consumption is culturally and sentimentally permitted in my clime! http://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/165669/1/think-twice-before-killing-that-beast.html
It is thus a wrong assumption by some responders to suggest that I care about the pains of only those animals that I consume!
I need to say this to reinform those who posit that I am merely moved to belated guilt after enjoying a meal of animal flesh!
Some have even admonished me to adopt a vegetarian diet!
Right from my childhood days into adolescence and early adulthood, I would plead for assailants to spare the life of that wall gheko...that lizard....that frog....bird....or cat. My pleas had always been predicated on the fact that all animals have as much right to dwell freely and comfortably on planet earth as humans. Afterall, we cannot live on earth alone!
The type of animals you consume is influenced by your culture....and sentiments!
Fish does not need to be slaughtered to qualify as a muslim diet. Many Islamic adherents would also see nothing wrong in consuming bush rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, gazelles, grasscutters, antellopes or squirrels killed through gunshots by hunters as bushmeat!
Their insistence on throat-slit animals seems to be limited to dairy animals like cows, rams, goats and camels....as well as poutry animals like fowls, turkeys, guinea fowls, and ducks!
Similarly, the Islamic faith forbids Muslims from imbibing pork and all pig products. They would check to verify that the primary source of that insulin you are about to administer to them is not the pig. Thus, porcine insulin is reserved for other faiths. They would also readily reject immunoglobulins (some vaccines) prepared in pig serum but may accept those from feline or equine sources.
Hindus on the other hand abhor all substances of bovine and porcine origin. They would not consume beef even if their lives depend on it! I hear they worship cows....
Shark fins soup is savoured by the orientals. They would hound down sharks, strip them of their fins while alive, then simply tip the suffering animal back into the water to die a slow painful death!
I watched a particular documentary in which divers skillfully captured snakes alive....including venomous ones, skin them alive on an industrial scale, then dump the writhing, convulsing reptiles on the floor to die a most horrifying death!
Snake skin is hotly sought after for leather....the thinking being that the shine, glint and allure of the eventual leather is lost if the skinning is done after death!
Crocodiles and alligators suffer similar fates of live skinning just to satisfy our vain desires of ornamentation!
Elephants and rhinos are ruthlessly mauled down in their monstrosities just that commercial poachers may trade in their tusks and horns!
Zebras, leopards, giraffes and gazelles are murdered for their skins....the more the skinning is done while alive, the higher the market value....
Whilst stranded whales would be guided and assisted back to refloat in deeper waters in some climes, they would be hacked to horrible death in others....
It all depends on our mindsets....and the variations in our individual and communal sensitivities to animal suffering!
Like I already implied earlier, if we can ingrain abhorence of animal suffering into our collective consciousness, we might just be on the right path to outlawing the death penalty and ritual dismemberment of fellow men!
What won't humans do....just to satisfy our whims.....
.....our vain desires,
.....and massage our fragile egos?
.....unless our cruel excesses are firmly checked by animal rights activists and sensitive governments!
Keys to some terms:
Porcine....is of pork or pig origin.
Bovine.....is of beef or cattle origin.
Feline.....is of cat origin, including the big cats.
Equine or equistrine.....is of horse, donkey or zebra origin.
Dr Tosin Akindele is a Lagos-based Medical Practitioner, a former Secretary of AGPMPN Ikorodu zone, a former Secretary of the Quackery Committee of AGPMPN Lagos State Branch, founder of Analytical Minds, a good health advocate and public affairs analyst.