Why Animals are More Humane than Humans

Are humans worse than animals? Yes they are! Lately I have been reading about too many instances of humans being absolutely inhuman to animals.

There was a woman in Bangalore who threw 8 little puppies at a considerable distance, instantly killing them, in front of their mom, just because the dog had the audacity to give birth and stay under the storm water drain in front of her house. The poor dog could only watch helplessly. The local neighbors began taking care of her but she died of depression just 2 days back. She kept visiting her babies’ graves and she was so heartbroken. Meanwhile the woman had absolutely no remorse and she is out on bail.

Just recently two medical students threw a dog down from the terrace of a three story building, just for fun, all the while video graphing the whole thing. They even captured the dog’s wails when he fell down. The video went viral on Facebook. They have been arrested now, but the laws against animal cruelty are way too weak here to do any real damage to them. Luckily though the dog was taken to the vet and saved. He suffered fractures on his legs but is fine now and many people have come forward to adopt him.

I cannot even imagine how these people could do this, they are psychopaths! There have been many more such instances in the recent past. In contrast, these animals are so much better than humans.

In 2005, my cousin brother Advait passed away, he was just 20. He had this adorable German shepherd, he had brought her in when she was just a puppy and named her Xena, our warrior princess. She was truly our princess, a part of our family. I still remember the first time when I had met her, about 3 years before he died, she had grown up a bit by then; as soon as my parents and I walked in, she was jumping up and down with excitement. She was so happy to see us, despite having met us for the first time, she looked like she could die with happiness. She was huge and she pushed me on the floor and jumped on me and kept licking me. I hugged her so tight, I loved her so much. She had a really bushy long tail, and long thick hair is a typical family trait. She fit right in. She had beautiful eyes too. And whenever we spoke about her without taking her name, I don’t know how, she knew we were talking about her and she would walk past us like a supermodel and tilt her head many times. My uncle was an army officer, with the whole tough army man voice. But she was never bothered by that, she would just ignore him. She was afraid of my brother though, once he raised his voice, she would just scamper under the bed. It was hilarious. She was like a baby sister I never had. In the night, she would lick every one of us once just to be sure we were all there safe and accounted for.

Xena and me

My grandfather wasn’t a huge dog lover, he was a little tough on the exterior since he used to be a district judge. But Xena tamed him; he would sit on his rocking chair reading the newspaper and she would sit beside him keeping her face on his foot. It was such a serene sight.

When Advait died and we rushed off to Hyderabad for his funeral, she looked so sad! I hugged her so tightly. But more than us being there for her, she was there for us. She could sense the loss and how incredibly heartbroken we were. What she did, I can never ever forget! We were there for about a week I guess; she would come to each one of us, keep her face on our laps and just sit there with the most beautiful expressions ever. She gave us such comfort at our time of need. She did the same even when my grandfather passed away.

When my brother Indranil was sick and we had taken him to another city for his kidney transplant surgery, we stayed at another uncle’s place. He had a Lhasa Apso and his name was Cocoa. Cocoa was so adorable! I remember how he used to never let me sleep in late, he would climb up on me, pull off my blanket and lick my face till I woke up. I remember how once when my mom was eating an ice-cream cone, he sat in front of her, kept looking at her with the classic puppy dog face, then look at the ice-cream cone and then again look at her, as if to say, “How can you be so cruel? How can you not give me the ice-cream despite me literally dying here?” My mom finally gave him her half eaten ice-cream cone saying that if she didn’t give she would get a tummy ache.

That is how dogs are. They are the most adorable loving creatures, and better than humans. They don’t betray, they don’t put conditions, they just love with their whole hearts. And their hearts are much bigger than us humans. Most of us humans are just putty in their hands. They are such drama queens and they make your heart melt, if you have a heart.

Unfortunately I can never raise a pet as I live in a 1^st floor flat and my house is filled with glass, tools, nails, paints, wood, saws, etc., since my parents are artists and our house acts as workshop as well as a studio and it would be a highly unsafe environment for a pet. We don’t feel comfortable tying up the poor baby and confining him to a place. Pets should be free.

I am not a cat lover, but even they are much better than humans. My best friend has a cat who had 9 kittens, 4 from an earlier pregnancy and 5 from the later one. They are all so adorable. They don’t come and hug, they just purr at times and come and sleep on our laps and scream their heads off until we give them chicken, but they aren’t psychopathic. I put up their pictures and details on Facebook and now three of them have found amazing new homes and we are very happy for them.

Long time back, when I used to live in my hometown, Nagpur, a neighbor had brought a dog. They were a family of three, two adult sons and their old mom. Once they had to go out and they tied up the dog right under the infamous excruciating Nagpur sun and did not even keep a water bowl. When we heard his wailing, we went to him, gave him water, made the security guy tie him up near his quarters in shade and asked him to give him food and water. Later all of us chided these cruel neighbors and threatened them that if they did that again we would report it to SPCA.

People bring in pets when they are babies and then abandon them when they grow up and they can’t take care of them. It is so horrible! First of all they should not raise a pet if they know they can’t and secondly then at least they should contact the animal NGOs and give them an alternate home.

Even with the stray dogs, some people are so cruel to them, and then they whine how dogs chase them or bark so much. If you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you. It’s as simple as that. The strays in my area are very sweet, they actually protect most of us and they have never ever harmed us. And we don’t harm them either. Especially with me since dogs can sense I am a dog person. One of the dogs though hates it when I drive my car because he doesn’t budge if he is sitting on my path. No matter how much I honk he does not move, I have to get out and manually move him. My dad never has that problem, he moves out of the way easily when dad drives. My mom thinks he doesn’t want girls to drive. I think he is just a my-attention-seeking stubborn fellow.

I just don’t understand how humans want to be so cruel to these little innocent furry creatures. Throwing a dog from a tall building just for fun is so horrifying, so yucky! Or even murdering little puppies because they were an irritation, yuck! Why couldn’t she have asked the people nearby to take them away and give them up for adoption? And the medical students, they are supposed to be saving lives, not take them! Hope they can never practice medicine ever again!

Though if there are humans that have no humanity, there are some humans who have a lot of compassion. Hats off to those people who took care of the dog who was thrown and the dog whose little babies were murdered.

Our laws also need to be stricter, they need to deter people from harming them. Sadly in our country, only cows get that privilege.

Humans really need to learn humanity from these adorable little balls of fur!