Are we inhuman?

                                                                                                             Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia image

It is unfortunate that we know only to celebrate and seldom implement the objectives of the days for which they stand for. National Safety day is becoming like any other day of celebration. When the curtains are down at the end of the day, the message is slowly going off the mind leaving the day as unimportant. It is true that the day is arranged in such a way that the message is pushed across the country. Alas! The follow up is missing from the very next day.

We talk big about safety at home and also at workplace. Road safety is another important area which is forgotten after the event. Is safety really aims to protect human beings only? It need not be true though it largely revolves around human beings only. Are we going to remain as silent spectators when animal safety is ignored?

When the country considers cow as holy, how does it permit cruelty caused intentionally to them? No concrete step is taken to prevent the animals from being sent to slaughter houses. How does the highway patrol keep a blind eye even if they come across a truck carrying too many animals tied with each other in standing posture and delivered at the slaughter houses after a very long journey? While blue cross objects for the killing of mad dogs even if they had bitten many people of a locality, the same yardstick of mercy is not applied when poor animals are loaded in trucks and sent for slaughtering. We do have a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. It is strange that they too express inability to react when their services are badly required.

Few days back, a cow fell into an open well of about 15 feet depth in Chennai . The cow’s cry was heard by the passers-by and they could not do anything to lift it out. As the well was dry, the animal suffered many fractures all over the body and succumbed inside the well. Fire service was pressed but they refused to remove the dead cow out of the well by saying that their job was not to remove the dead animals.( Will they not remove the body of a person floating in a pond or trapped under the debris?) Then the search was on to find the owner of the cow. Nobody came forward to claim as the owner as the removal would cost them. The press could only report the whole event and no step was taken to remove the body till next morning. How can the well be kept open without a parapet wall around it? What action the civic body proposes to take against the act of negligence? Manuneedhi Chola was there to hear the Cow's cry. Who is there now to hear her when she is about to die?  

The neglect continues everywhere and costs many lives unnecessarily. There are many Temples engulfed with thick vegetation that become the home for poisonous snakes. Unmindful of the danger ahead, the priests enter the sanctum and perform the puja. It is not uncommon to see King Cobras encircling the deity at rural Temples surrounded by paddy and sugarcane fields. Thick bushes are to be removed to keep the place safer. Who calls for Temple safety and prevention of snakebites?

It is time now to think beyond human safety pertaining to homes, roads and offices. Be it Humans, animals or birds; Let us be Human in the true sense. It is kindness that makes Humans different. We come across animals showing kindness to other species too. Can we take a reverse move and become animals by not extending mercy? We cannot afford to become inhuman as it is a shameful act that brings discredit to the entire race.