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| Heartfelt
Letters from within Singapore |
TODAY, Thursday 4 Oct 07
The instinct to care
Goh Boon Choo
LIKE other countries around the world, animal welfare organisations
in Singapore hold events to commemorate World Animal Day today.
The World Animal Day website, www.worldanimalday.org.uk,
tells us it is a day which aims to:
• Celebrate animal life in all its forms
• Celebrate humankind's relationship with the animal kingdom
• Acknowledge the diverse roles that animals play in our lives
- from being our companions and supporting and helping
us, to bringing a sense of wonder into our lives
• Acknowledge and be thankful for the way in which animals enrich
our lives.
Do we need a special day to remember the dogs and cats we call our
pets, the chickens and cows we eat, the orang utans running out of
room in Borneo, or even the polar bears languishing at the melting
North Pole?
While some would say yes, there are others who would surely say no.
Many people would not have made the deeper connection about relationships
between people, animals, the environment and our future. Although
there is no lack of information, most people cling to the "out of
sight, out of mind" mentality.
No doubt, it is a complex web of connections. But the underpinning
principle is simple: Take too much of anything out of a system without
allowing it to replenish, and the system will collapse, bringing everything
else down with it.
While humankind may have dominion over the Earth - we build civilisations
and, in the process, destroy forests and coral reefs - we are not
self-sustaining. Wherever we are, we breathe in air that is produced
mainly by the tropical rainforests of South America and Indonesia.
It is predicted that there will be no more orang utans to be found
in Indonesia's jungles within five to 10 years.
Needless to say, if they go, the rainforests - our oxygen tanks -
will not be far behind. The yearly haze that chokes Singapore skies
is our reminder that that day is coming.
World Animal Day began in 1931 at a convention of ecologists in Florence
as a way of highlighting the plight of endangered species. Even then,
the implications of losing animal species were clear.
And yet, to date, politics and economics still dictate whether anything
is done at all to save a species in peril - often due to human causes.
But before we worry about what happens to animals around the world,
compassion must begin at home.
Said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew at the recent Singapore Maritime
Lecture: "I do not see any leaders saying let us eat less, eat more
vegetables, eat less meat."
Eating less, and eating less meat, not only translates into a healthier
diet, it is kinder to animals and the Earth, and to our fellow men:
Resources freed up from feeding farmstock can be diverted to feed
the world's 1 billion starving people.
Surely, we must also care about the animals we purport to love. For
more than 20 years, 20,000 dogs and cats have been put to death every
year. If we sterilise our pets, keep them indoors and do not abandon
them, the number of homeless animals wandering our streets - and thus
vulnerable to this death sentence - would be that much smaller.
Out of sight should no longer be out of mind. World Animal Day really
isn't just about the animals. It is about us, what we do to them and
the environment, and what state we leave the system in for our children
to inherit.
How will you be celebrating World Animal Day?
[This was contributed by a reader.]
Straits Times Forum, Thursday 4 Oct 07
Let's pay more attention to animal welfare
Letter from Anthony Lee Mui Yu
I WRITE this as a concerned human and Singaporean.
Every Oct 4 is World Animal Day to celebrate animal life in all its
forms and our relationship with the animal kingdom. And to acknowledge
the diverse roles animals play as companions, et cetera, that bring
a sense of wonder into our lives. As well as to thank animals for
the way in which they enrich our lives.
This year, Acres (Animal Concerns Research & Education Society) will
hold a three-day event (Oct 5-7, 10am-10pm) at the Atrium @Orchard
(adjacent to Plaza Singapura). There will be photographic and other
exhibits, music, dance and children's activities.
There is a global 'Animals Matter To Me' campaign to petition support
for a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare intended for national
governments to endorse at the United Nations. Signatures will be collected
at this Acres-organised event. More information is available at http://www.acres.org.sg,
http://animalsmatter.org and
http://www.wspa-international.org
The intent is for the UN and humanity to recognise animals as sentient
beings capable of feeling pain and suffering. And that animal welfare
is an issue of importance in the social development of individuals,
nations and humanity.
With global capitalism/materialism and violent terrorism, humanity
seems to pale fraying in respect, empathy, sympathy and humility.
These sentiments, in whatever tatters remaining, do not benefit non-humans
much in terms of safety from violence and distress. Be it outright
abuse (forced feeding, experimentation and beatings) and killing or
deprivation from movement, sustenance and medical care (as livestock,
for furs and for entertainment).
'Charity begins at home' that always stops at the door of non-humans
is indefensible. There will always be humans bent on reproducing themselves
unsustainably, demanding that other humans prioritise their succour
- never attempting to meet aiders half-way by curtailing their reproduction.
Animals that do so would be massacred en masse as 'pests'.
As humans will always respond to other humans in need ad infinitum,
there will never be a point of satiation from which to devote time
and resources to non-humans in need. Those who still prioritise human
needs charitably need to re-think.
'I should only help members of my own species as they are more deserving'
- despite blatantly exploiting/bullying members of other species -
doesn't sound just, democratic, respectful nor humane - does it?
Within our branded/socially ranked concerns, animals will always languish
unless we question priorities - counter-intuitively.
Would raising empathy for non-humans raise empathy for all species
including humans? I suspect so. |
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