Kindness to Animals

             The Bible says. “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast,” thus making kindness and justice to domestic animals an essential part of human virtue. Animals also claim our love and sympathy. not only because they are dumb and helpless but also because they are so serviceable to us. Cruelty to animals hardens our heart, and produces anus a callous and unfeeling and unsympathetic nature which is a great punishment to a human being.

             Some animals do us great services. The horse, the dog, the mule, the ox, the ass, and the camel arc our faithful and hard-working servants. Even in this age of mechanical civilization we cannot do without them. Yet how often do we come across the ugly sight of a driver whipping the horse hard or a farmer showering blows upon the stolid ox mercilessly, as if the latter were made of stone or wood, and not flesh and blood.

             Cruelty to animals is immoral. How often do we fail to realize that cruelty to these innocent dumb creatures, though it leaves us cold, makes angels weep.

“A Robin Redbreast in a cage,

Sets all Heaven in a rage;”

Kindness to animals is rewarded by God. Coleridge says ——

“He prayeth best who loveth best

Both man and bird and beast;

For the dear God who loveth us

Made and loveth these.”

In India the doctrine of Ahimsa or non-violence, though often preached, is not always practised, especially by the young.

             We must practice kindness to animals. We can show our kindness of them by providing proper food, water and shelter to domestic and agricultural animals, by allowing them complete rest one day in a week, by sending them to veterinary hospitals when they’ are ill, by making them carry only so much load as they can carry with ease, by avoiding the use of sharp goads or heavy wooden cudgels, or leather whips to exact speedier work from them, by supporting public institutions like pinjrapoles and societies of prevention of cruelty to animals, by reporting the cases of cruelty to animals to the nearest police station and thus bringing the offenders to book, by discouraging wanton slaughter of animals for food, and by discouraging hunting for mere sport.

             It is our moral duty to treat dumb animals with kindness and sympathy, especially when they are helpless and wholly dependent on our care and protection.