The Causal Factors
Man-animal Disharmony
Man himself is largely responsible for the disharmony between him and the other members of the animal kingdom. That no other animal species trusts human is evident from the fact that except domesticated birds and animals, all others keep a distance from man. Even the zebra or the gazelle graze very near a herd of lions when they know that the latter are not hungry and will not kill them just for fun.
Broadly, the broken bond between man and animal can be attributed to the following factors:
Deforestation due to industrialization, urbanization, encroachment, and timber
Fish and meat in our food.
Use of animal products
Experimentation on animals
Hunting/poaching
Entertainment of human beings
Needless abuse and cruelty
Deforestation due to different factors
A rapidly growing human population coupled with ever-increasing human demand is leading to higher demand of land which in turn is causing destruction of forests. In the 19th Century, tropical rain forest covered about 20% of land area on earth. At the end of the 20th century, this figure was reduced to less than 7%. By an estimate, one and a half acres of rainforest are lost every second all over the world.
This rapid deforestation is having extreme adverse effects on the environment like climate change, irregular rainfall, soil erosion, deterioration in air and water quality etc. All the inhabitants of the earth are affected by these changes. But wild animals are the ones who are affected most. With shrinking habitat, shortage of food and increasing human intrusion, many of these poor creatures have become extinct or are inching towards extinction. The frustration among the wild animals is reflected in the increasing number of man-animal conflicts. Incidence of herds of elephants entering human habitation, destroying crops and hutments, even trampling people to death are very common in many parts of the world. So is the straying of leopards or tigers into villages and towns.
Fish and meat in our food.
Fish and meat figure prominently in the daily meals of a vast majority of people. It does not seem unusual to those who practice non-vegetarianism. Intake of fish and meat is also justified as essential source of protein. Without getting into the argument as to whether to advocate non-vegetarianism or otherwise, the cruel and violent way in which the wretched animals are treated and butchered in most countries certainly can not be supported. Bereft of any feeling towards the helpless animals, the killers are oblivious to the sufferings and pain of the mute creatures. There is no dearth of inhuman, barbaric treatment in the animal harvesting industries either. They are kept in very unhygienic confinements, applied hormones for rapid growth and crammed into narrow cages and sent to the slaughterhouse.
Use of animal products
From ancient times, man consumed the meat of the prey and used other parts for different uses. For example, hide was used for building shelters, as clothing, making containers and bow-strings. Horns were used for making weapons and ornaments. Tallow was used for making torch etc. The primary objective of hunting i.e. killing a wild beast was primarily food. The other parts of the body of the prey were bye-products. But with the fashion of wearing objects made of leather & fur of exotic animals catching up with the aristocrats during the medieval era, man started to slaughter animals for reasons other than food.
Experimentation on animals
"Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is: Because the animals are like us. Ask the experimenters why it is morally okay to experiment on animals, and the answer is: Because the animals are not like us. Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction.”
- Professor Charles R. Magel, the famous Animal Rights Activist.
All over the world, in countless laboratories, hundreds of dogs, horses, monkeys, rabbits, rats, guinea pigs etc are subjected to horriffic chemical and biological experimentation and ultimately killed. “It is estimated that 50 to 100 million vertebrate animals worldwide are used annually and either killed during the experiments or subsequently euthanized” (Source: www.Source.org). The stated objectives of these experiments are to get more information about themselves and to apply procedures and chemical tests to see whether they are harmful to the animals. The ultimate goal of the latter is to produce drugs and chemicals which can be safely applied to human beings. It is preassumed that what is safe for animals is safe for human beings. Given the statistics over the past 30 years, the claims of the pro-experiment groups seem to be hollow. The success of experiments with chemicals on animals, as indicated by the Animal Rights groups, does not guarantee the safety of the same on human and. In fact, only a few break-throughs have been achieved through animal experimentation. The rate of failures far exceeds the rate of success.
The role of the cosmetics industries and their Reasearch Laboratories in this issue is abominable. Rabbits are routinely blinded by chemicals forced into their eyes in order to produce a shampoo which will not irritate the sensitive human eye. The skin of the the guinea pig is scorched in the process of development of “Sun Screen” lotions. The list is long.
Hunting and Poaching
In the medieval period, chiefly in the British Empire, hunting – made legal by the rulers, became a symbol of hypocrisy. Going to the jungle with a crowd of drummers and beaters who would corner the wild beasts and then shooting animals, whatever came within sight, from the safety of elephant-back or tree-top became a fashion in the elite class. In recent times, though hunting has been banned in many countries, illegal hunting, or poaching – as it is called, has flourished as a lucrative profession, especially in Africa & Asia including India. In many countries of these two continents, elephant poaching for tusk is a common phenomenon. Large number of tigers, leopards, raccoons, rabbits and other animals are killed ever year for their fur. In addition, tigers and rhinos are poached for their bones and horns respectively which have a large market in China & other South Asian Countries thriving on the misconception of the aphrodisiac properties of these substances. In the famous Airing National Park in Assam, A State situated in the Northeastern part of India, which is also a World Heritage Site, as many as 24 rhinos were killed in the last two years. The death of 10 tigers has been reported in 2009 alone.