Monday, January 4, 2010

Kill the Animals, Who Cares!

When I recently got into a stifled argument about using animals for testing the ‘harmfulness” of cosmetics and a whole range of medicines to “human beings”, my mind just opened up to a wild spectrum of thoughts about selfishness of humans and their welled up anger towards anything that is nature.

Thanks to those animal rights activists (and to the dismay, arrogance and hatred of the self-proclaimed humanists who do nothing to improve the conditions of the human beings they stand for but sit in the corner of a well furnished and an air-conditioned MNC corporate facing a beaming Personal Computer all day long, probably working hard to fill up their bank accounts to own a car, hook up to a man or woman and buy a well-furnished house. Necessarily in that order!), the much debated issue of animal testing is now seeing a positive change in favor of much maligned animals of our planet. In Europe and US, there are many alternative testing methods and laws that have been established to protect the interests of the poor animals, which otherwise is taken for granted.

Few questions to that bunch of cynics and hypocrites who would just turn cold shoulders to the sufferings of animals (I just can see many flaring their noses and calling me names! It took twenty six years for me to understand that the words “animal rights” can evoke such hatred and from people!), do you even know what you are arguing about? Do you know what it means to give up your life to protect the lives of another alien species which has assumed a fake superiority over this world, all because this group of selfish and cannibalistic creatures can talk, walk on two legs, subjugate the females of its own group, create divisions based on class, creed and race and yeah can also moralize and stigmatize sexuality?

Can you understand how it feels to rub some toxic chemical on your peeled skin and be baked at a temperature that is definitely some 20 or 30 degrees higher than the normal temperature? Can you feel the pain? Oh anyway, why do you have to bother about that? Just go ahead with rubbing your newly purchased cosmetics on your face, legs, arms and anywhere appropriate! But, hasn’t it ever struck you that these tiny plastic bottles of colorful cream have done nothing to change the way you look. You still look the way you are, horrible or tolerable, whatever it is!

Do you know how it feels to have your eyes gouged out? If only those hundreds and hundreds of cats, dogs, rabbits and mice could talk! How would you know all these! All you would want is assume that false superiority over the entire planet and its magnificent nature. All you would want is to live under the false impression that you own the planet and you can do pretty much anything as you wish to destroy its soul.

And to those who would raise the questions like “Don’t you take tablets to kill the germs? How is it justified then?” just to counter argue and get a false kick by assuming that this stupid question could probably corner the opponent, may be you don’t know anything about the defensive mechanism that is necessary for any living creature. The very reason that you put both animal testing and bacteria-killing under one umbrella shows your lack of understanding about nature and the rights that every living creature is entitled to. This question closes all the doors of possibilities of any further discussion because either this inanity is intended as an effective tool to stop the argument or is a sign of your lack of ability to understand nature and therefore further argument is going to be useless.

Well, anyways, who needs your support! There is progress that is already happening. You can’t get away that easily after doing loads and loads of damage. And you are already facing the brunt of it. Melting polar ice caps, expanding ozone holes, pouring rains and submerging islands! And I can almost hear you all laughing out there. Laughing at my stupidity of talking about global warming and animal testing as though they are the same. May be they are not same. But both are the outcomes of the same attitude. Arrogance, selfishness, irresponsibility and power-hunger! Aren’t these the same qualities that made humans think that they own animals? And isn’t that this feeling of ownership which has driven us literally to the end of the world?

Anyways, those who have decided to turn deaf ears to people crying hoarse about the dying planet will continue to close their ears. They may just go that extra mile to kill the planet, just for the sake of it! Who are we to ponder on these things anyway? Let’s just carry on with our lives! So what if the polar ice caps are melting? So what if our tigers are disappearing? We don’t eat tigers anyway! So what if the frogs are killed just for the reason that they are ugly croaking creatures? I am not ugly, even if so, I know I won’t be killed (of course as long as I am rich, definitely straight , may be not a woman and do not belong to any of the uncouth tribal class) for this reason because that amounts to murder and we call it bigotry!

So what if there are nearly 186 languages in India that have gone extinct, taking a vast knowledge about nature? Let’s just go ahead and standardize English as the medium of communication because that gives us a hep image and probably gives our country an international recognition that we are so in need of! So what if there are hundreds and hundreds of tribes, like Banjaras in Hyderabad, who are being evacuated in the name of development? Let’s just work in those multi-storey IT buildings and earn as much as we can. So what if animals are tested in the science laboratories? Let’s just go about consuming those branded medicines (definitely not generic!) and cosmetics to make us look beautiful and also probably kinder by helping us to hide our ugly, sinful and demonic faces under that sticky mask that would have killed at least a dozen of animals!

5 comments:

Sridevi Seshasayee said...

With this peice i wud say Welcome Back Deepan ! I am glad you are writing again ! Cheers!!!! Hit this space regularly ! Hit this tune more Often!!! For you and all of us and for the rest !

Unknown said...

Deepan my dear friend and animal lover. Do you realise that the over dependance on veggies, specially in India can result in drought? Do you realise that early man used to hunt down deers, lions, tigers for food? Do you realise fish is an animal and is meant to be hunted by humans or other predators? LAst but not the least, do you still realise that the chicken we eat is what we create ourselves?

Gopi Shankar said...

Thanks Deepan…well written, intense arguments which nobody can refute and I hope you will spend a few minutes to enlighten Aniruddh.

Tejax said...

Brilliantly written and put across! I am glad someone agrees with my 'principles' which I merely call humanness. What humans need to realize is that being on top does not give them rights to hurt other living beings. But sigh, sadly only some of us feel so. But am now glad it is not just an I any more, it is a we. Thanks :)

Tejax said...

Brilliantly written and put across! I am glad someone agrees with my 'principles' which I merely call humanness. What humans need to realize is that being on top does not give them rights to hurt other living beings. But sigh, sadly only some of us feel so. But am now glad it is not just an I any more, it is a we. Thanks :)