James Larkin is a veteran journalist who has worked with newspapers in Britain,Europe, South-East Asia and Australia. British-born, he now lives in Australia. See his blog http://pet-patter.blogspot.com and website http://www.pet-training-care.com
Many years ago when I was young, men's attitude to animals and other creatures was a pretty cold one. We are superior beings and therefore there's nothing wrong in killing wildlife, was a typical belief.
Hunting was common but more of a sport. Hunters thought of themselves as heroes and displayed on their walls the heads and body skins of their kills.
As a boy I often visited homes in England where the walls were crowded with the heads of many and various poor creatures. Movies of the time glorified rich slobs on safaris killing as many tigers, lions and elephants as they could. They were always depicted as heroes and nice guys. Nobody showed how helpless the animals were and how outnumbered.
Thankfully attitudes have changed somewhat but the blood lust hunting for sport urge is still there is some quarters.
Cruelty still goes on daily. I've seen Middle East abattoirs routinely beating their cattle to death. I've seen Koreans beating dogs to death before eating them. I've seen Chinese serve still living and pulsating fish and snakes in a restaurant. There are literally thousands of cases of severe cruelty every day - and in most cases it's legal.
The cattle industry in Australia, for example, still fire brands cattle. It even de-sexes cows and castrates bulls without pain killers. Some cattle are de-horned and left to bleed in pain. Cattle are packed into feed pens and left out in the hot Australian sun to burn.
Nobody stops this and other cruel practices, like how chickens are exploited, especially the law of the land.
And there are many other examples of cruelty today, such as the horrors of vivisection and using animals for experimentation.
How cheering it is then there are so many more people nowadays who care for and love animals - literally many millions of people in the world who believe in animal rights and dignity and have` humane respect for other creatures. This is reflected in the high number of pet owners.
Without such people this planet would be a living hell, a place without compassion and understanding. Hopefully it will one day result in wider laws that better respect our fellow creatures.
It's not just a case of us protecting animals' rights. It's also a matter of us protecting ourselves, lest we lose our own dignity and respect.
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