How unethical we have become to animals
Animals. What comes to mind when you hear that word? Maybe your favourite animal, or your pet at home? Or perhaps monkeys you saw in the zoo on Day 9? Whatever it was that you thought of, I can safely say that animals are everywhere. They are compassionate, non-judgemental, and loving creatures that won’t bother us until we bother them. They don’t harm us for no reason, so why do we harm them? Maybe we are not aware of harming them or aren’t doing it intentionally, but we still do. Let me give you a few examples.
Remember those elephant shows you saw at the zoo? I remember I went to one in Hamilton. I was so thrilled to ride an elephant and to see the cool tricks the elephant did, including painting a t-shirt with its trunk! But little did I know, those tricks were all very harmful to the elephants. First, the tricks elephants are forced to do are unnatural to them; they go through a painful training process. When people see an elephant holding a brush and painting pictures, they might not realize how much pain the elephant has experienced. An elephant’s trunk is incredibly sensitive and full of nerve endings, yet the brushes are inserted straight into their trunks. In fact, in the wild, elephants avoid acacia trees because these trees house ants that crawl into their trunks and bite. We can only imagine how painful it is for the elephants to have a brush up their sensitive trunks. Second, the elephants are held in captivity and trained in order for us to ride them and watch them perform tricks. Animals held in captivity can suffer from mental illnesses from being separated from their wild families, and can’t live as they did in the wild.
Our unethical behaviour is also evidenced in our treatment towards dolphins and whales. Tilikum, a killer whale that performed at SeaWorld in Orlando from 2011 to 2016, killed three people over the years. Why? He suffered from stress due to being separated from his family at a young age. While living his new life in a chemical-filled environment, he was exposed to human bacteria, infections, and diseases. He also had a demanding performance schedule: an hour each show, eight shows per day, seven days a week. When he didn’t perform, he stayed in confined pools, unable to swim around. The accumulated stress finally led to his attack on his trainers. Furthermore, in Japan’s Nagoya Aquarium, a dolphin killed her own young, which was very uncharacteristic of the gentle, motherly creature. The dolphin was condemned to live inside the tiny aquarium pool as a living exhibit. Aquarium officials believe she didn’t want her young to have the same stressful life in captivity as she did.
We characterize humans who act with cruelty as ‘animals’, yet the only cruel animals are humans. Animal shows make people, especially young kids, think it’s okay to treat animals as our inferiors. We can take small steps to stop these unethical acts towards animals. You can support foundations that fight against animal abuse and harassment. Open your eyes to signs of mistreatment, and share the truth about it. Our treatment of animals defines our society. Don’t treat animals as animals. Treat them as living beings because that’s what they are.