Animal Cruelty and the Need of Animal Welfare

 Animal Cruelty and the need of Animal Welfare

Animal Welfare, in simple terms  refers to the well being of animals. It is further related to the protection of animals (including stray animals, pets etc).  One of the basic objectives of animal welfare is to put a stop to animal cruelty or animal abuse. Furthermore, it intends to avert the neglect and torture that pets and stray animals are subjected to by the people.  People certainly fail to understand that animals experience the similar type of physical, mental, emotional and psychological abuse that humans do, or probably even worse. Human beings can voice their opinions but animals cannot. 

It is heart- rending to know that unlike the cases of crimes against people, the cases of animal abuse or animal cruelty are never really compiled or recorded by the federal agencies. Evidence also shows that animal abuse or neglect ( for an instance hoarding) is often considered as an indicator of people in urgent need of mental health services. Animal cruelty can never be justified. There are several forms of animal neglect, to put it differently, animal abuse includes a wide range of actions. Fundamentally, there are two types of animal cruelty, namely Active and Passive. Active animal cruelty is all about harming an animal knowingly and deliberately. And the second type of animal cruelty is associated with inaction that is- not doing anything to protect the animals. Animal cruelty causes immense pain to the animals. In all likelihood, “Neglect” remains the most prominent type of animal cruelty. It is excruciating to note that animals always lose the battle of consideration in almost all the situations and scenarios. It is because human beings fail to stand up for them and support them unconditionally. It is indeed harsh world for animals. It is always said that a human being might break your trust but your pet will never.

It saddens me to say that there are so many people out there who treat animals as their “enemies”. Animals are kept in cages and zoos for months and years merely for the entertainment of people.

However, there are innumerable ways of preventing animal abuse. First and foremost, one must be sympathetic and empathetic towards the animals. In fact, Article 51 (A) of the constitution states that it is the fundamental duty of every citizen to have compassion for all living creatures. One must be compassionate towards these vulnerable yet sweet creatures of god. “It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal”.  Talking about the positive aspect, there are so many animal welfare organizations and ardent lovers of animals who spend hours feeding these stray animals, rescuing them and looking after the injured dogs and other animals. This is what is required from each one of us. Infact Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (father of our  nation )very appropriately said that- “the greatness of a nation and its progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” To put it in a nutshell, it is the moral duty of every individual to care for the animals whole heartedly. The laws regarding animal abuse should be strongly implemented and enforced. 

This society or country will certainly end up failing if people keep targeting these voiceless creatures. There should be animal helpline numbers or perhaps animal police to register or report the cases of animal cruelty. Educating the masses regarding the importance of animal welfare is the need of hour.  At individual levels, we can feed stray dogs and cats regularly, adopt dogs, cats etc and donate money to organizations that look after the animals. It is important to note that no animals would be left in this world if the issues regarding animal cruelty are not fixed. Animals, the voiceless and innocent creatures deserve all the love, care and support of human beings. They too, have the right to enjoy life. Needless to say, together we can put a stop to animal cruelty and neglect.