CONSUMER CONCERNS...PROTECT ANIMALS IN PERSONAL AND SOCIETY’S INTEREST

CONSUMER CONCERNS…PROTECT ANIMALS IN PERSONAL AND SOCIETY’S INTEREST

Apr 30, 2017 News

PAT DIAL

Whenever one hears about the protection of animals, as a traditional response, one thinks of the “Guyana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals” (GSPCA) at present led by Mr. Oliver Insanally.
The Guyana Society was established over a Century ago in the early 20th Century and it attracted all the main veterinary surgeons and important persons in Colonial Guyana. At this time it was known as the Royal Society (RSPCA) and was affiliated to the RSPCA in England and membership was something of a state of symbol. Today, the society is less high profile, but its good work has continued and even expanded.
This concern with life as a whole and the protection of animals is a comparatively new ethical position in Western Societies. In Eastern Societies, it was deeply rooted long before the Christian era and was a notable teaching in their religions. In Buddhist Countries, as early as three or four hundred years before the Christian era, there were animal hospitals, as for example in Emperor Asoka’s Empire.
In the 18th and 19th Centuries, European Civilization made rapid advancements and their understanding that all life is One and that animals are relatives of man became common place.
The 19th Century education systems inculcated this idea and in the school readers such as Royal Readers children were socialized into loving, respecting and protecting animals.
Since Guyana was a British Colony, the English education system and Royal Readers were transferred to Guyana and institutions like RSPCA were established. This was a Great Civilizing force in Guyanese society.
During the Centuries of Slavery, severe and cruel violence was regularly employed to enforce discipline or merely to drive fear into the plantation slaves to prevent them protesting and rebelling. When slavery was abolished, the Freedmen continued the system of violence since they knew no other and regularly beat up their children and spouses. They also had regular fights over the slightest quarrels with neighbours where cruel violence was meted out to each other.
In the 19th Century and into the 20th Century, all transportation was done by animal drawn carts or cabs. Donkeys and Mules drew the carts and Mules in particular did the transport in the sugar industry. The Cabs (Buggies) transported persons. The Donkeys and Mules were very often cruelly beaten and it was only when the RSPCA began functioning and prosecuting the cart-men that some relief was brought to the animals.
Over the last two generations, the public’s attitude to and treatment of animals have improved but they are still far away from the levels of other countries such as England.
Many are still unclear in their minds as to why we should protect animals and not wantonly harm them. There are several reasons, the most important being the following:
1. When one kills or ill treats an animal, this harms ones psyche and makes it easier for one to carry over the same behaviour to humans, including children and spouses. Such results in societal discord including increase in violent crimes.
2. Secondly, it is now more and more realized that all life is one and no Man is an island as John Donne, the metaphysical poet, intuitively perceive. The analogy of one small flame lighting a thousand candles is that the same flame exists in them all just as the same life exists in all living beings. To harm or kill other living beings like animals is ultimately to harm one self.
3. Thirdly, all animals have mates and young ones whom they protect and raise to adulthood. One may note, for example, that birds go about in pairs. To kill or harm, say, a bird, would result in leaving the mate alone to die from isolation and grief or may even orphan young birds that would die since there would be no parent to feed them. This harm meted out to animals, whether one recognizes it or not, will have a matching reaction bringing retribution on the wrongdoer. But no one knows what form such retribution will take until it unfolds itself. This process is known as Karma in certain philosophic systems. It is therefore in one’s self interest not to harm animals.
We began in this article by mention of the GSPCA and will close by reminding that over the years, it has offered voluntary, high-grade veterinary services to the public, inexpensive medicines and a large variety of pets from which to choose. And all this is basically without charge.

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CONSUMER CONCERNS…PROTECT ANIMALS IN PERSONAL AND SOCIETY’S INTEREST

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