Many of us probably know that several types of animals are being used
for research work, in many countries, including India. During this process,
they are subjected to adverse situations leading to cruelty against them. In
some cases, the objective is said to be to carry out research for finding cures
for human diseases. First of all, are we sure that the experiments being
conducted on animals give a realistic picture? The second question which arises
is as to what is the fault of the animals, due to which the animals should be
subjected to cruelty. Can we not do without this testing on animals in this
cruel manner? Though it is called research, the animals are subjected to
fearful, painful, stressful and harmful experiments, even sometimes leading to
barbaric killing in various institutions and laboratories etc. Do we have a
right to kill animals? Sometimes duplicate set of experiments are also done
unnecessarily. The animals are housed in filthy, narrow and congested
cages/spaces, subjected to isolation and stressful environment, compelled to
consume contaminated food and water, have inadequate support of veterinary
Doctor for treatment, with likelihood of accidents & injuries even leading
to accidental deaths also. Cruelty is also taking place during several other
instances/places as well, which we should take note of. One usual place is
during their use in vehicles, like a Tonga using a horse, a bullock cart using
bullocks, cart using a donkey or a camel, donkeys used for carrying loads of
bricks, sand or clothes etc. on their backs. Elephants are used for
transporting logs of wood. Also elephants and camels are used for joy rides for
human beings, camels are used for races and dance, monkeys are used for dance and
bird fights as well as bull fights are arranged for entertainment of human
beings. Besides this, the use of various animals for circus as well as for
cinema, needs examination and consideration. In zoos, animals may not be housed
in very friendly/comfortable environment. While keeping these animals at homes,
they may be chained or caged for example cows, buffaloes, horses, donkeys and
dogs etc. are chained and birds, rabbits
etc. are caged. Some animals are kept in some homes as pets or even small zoos
at homes and whether these have a reasonably good environment, needs
consideration. Sometimes animals are transported by air, by train or by road. Their
comfort during their journey needs examination. Several persons may be unaware
of all this. The general public should be made aware of these experiments being
done, the reasons and necessity thereof and the possibilities of alternatives.
Awareness should lead to reduction and stoppage of such cases, through public
opinion, direct and legal action. If a sample
survey is conducted across all sections of the society, spread over various
cities and towns of the country, about the personal experiences with animals
and for obtaining an idea of the prevailing public opinion, lot of information
may be forth coming, which we may not be having at present. This will of
course, help in creating further awareness, as well as well as in motivating us
to innovate and try to find alternative methods, to resolve this problem.
Compiled and
presented by vijaiksharma, as a result of discussions in the meetings with
Saturday Group Members Dr. L K Kothari, Dr. D K Jain, Mr. Surendra Bothara, Dr.
Rajendra Ratnesh, and Mr. Vijai K Sharma at Jaipur.
----------vijaiksharma
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