Tag Archives: Welfare

The Most Humane Post

First and foremost, I would like to wish all Muslim readers a blessed Eid and safe travels for all.

I reckon that this will be the least animal related post I have written in almost 8 years of blogging. The only part of this post that is closest to be related to animals would be to share this article that was shared by a fellow bunny friend this morning entitled “The Rescue Religion“. I must also mention that I received a distress call about a bunny going off feed while I was out of town yesterday and it troubled me not being able to help. The good news is, another bunny friend rendered help and I last heard the bunny is now doing fine.

And then throughout today I was bombarded with many articles, videos and discussion about various issues – slavery, war, apostasy and martyrdom. I can safely conclude that humanity is in dire need of help and rescue.

We prefer to turn a blind eye on issues nearest to home most of the time. We have grown to be very self-centered and selfish. We have lost hope in humans is what we tend to tell ourselves. Humans are distrustful and manipulative, I rather spend my entire life dedicated to animals. A dog will love me unconditionally and will always obey my commands. It will always greet me with happiness whenever I come home from work. For companionship, I can never find fault with a dog (except for those in the show ring for non-conformance of “breed standards”).

The reality is, we tend to shift our focus from issues and we “run” away.

We run away from the homeless….

And we are unaware of what we do not see on the surface….

So often we ask ourselves – Why am I not born into riches?

You see, there is more to it than material things that satisfy our ever hungry pleasures. Over time we have exploited our wants rather than needs to become very selfish beings. The root of all these traces back to nothing but greed and for greed we are willing to sacrifice lives. We are so engrossed into pouring our every ounce of energy to arrive at our wayward goals so much so that the steps taken become religion-like. It becomes an obsession.

Like everything else in this world be it war, slavery, fanaticism and bigotry, all these can be avoided if only we can put together a pinch of acceptance with a fair amount of moderation. Perhaps, our purpose in life is not to say or do what is politically correct but say, do and stand by what is right. How does all these affect me? Seeing and reading about all the unfortunately lives, I cannot help but to feel grateful that I am not born into anything less than what I have at this point in time.

And how does it relate to rabbits?

Let’s bring ourselves back to the past when the only rabbits we see and know of are those white ones with ruby (or red) coloured eyes. We did not have much choices when it comes to raising a pet rabbit. Let’s relive the moment we first set eyes on the Holland Lop rabbit. It was new, it was fresh and most importantly it was cute!

Likewise, if all a child have been exposed to is only the sound of war, violence, cruelty, abuse and ridicule, how would he or she know the taste and meaning of peace? Is peace even a choice? Truly, what we are unaware of, might be the life we might have lost.

We are called to be childlike – always trusting and comforted but not childish to always want everything we desire. To be grateful is knowing that it could have been worse and if you are able to read this, most probably in the comfort of your desk, consider yourself lucky and blessed!

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Regarding Animal Welfare

One of the toughest questions to answer in life is the “Chicken or Egg first?” question. I for one do not think that I will ever be able to answer this question. The thought of  whether the first ever chicken on earth was in fact hatched from an egg can bring further confusion when one wonders about which chicken laid that first egg itself.

When I think about animal welfare, the question that comes to mind is whether animal shelters come first or breeders come first and who is responsible for the overpopulation of unwanted animals.

Do breeders encourage shelters to thrive and vice versa?

My other question is, will shelters and welfare societies be happy to relinquish themselves if there are no more animals to rescue? Ideally, we hope to have a world that is without strays and unwanted animals. Today, welfare organizations and shelters are heavily supported by donations and sponsorship and it makes me wonder if their existence indirectly encourages breeders to breed knowing well that they will cease to exist without unwanted animals.

When animal shelters put hundreds of animals to sleep through euthanasia, it is deemed justifiable because there is not enough space to accommodate the unwanted animals. But when the thought is shifted to the source of the unwanted animals – the breeders, it is a different labeling altogether if they are found to cull unwanted animals. It turns out to be animal cruelty. I just cannot make sense out of this double standard.

We are always told to solve problems by targeting the root cause. In this case, if we target the root cause, the responsibility will fall onto the breeders’ hands and if the problem is solved at the root level, shelters and welfare organizations will cease to exist. Wouldn’t that be an ideal situation?

One suggestion to rehabilitate people found being cruel to animals is to send them to work at shelters. I suggest that we go a little further when dealing with unscrupulous breeders.

Breeders found to be operating animal mills with animals living in bad conditions should be sent to shelters to administer the euthanasia procedure for unwanted animals. The number of animals that they euthanize commensurate with the degree of their “cruelty”. For example, for every animal found living under deplorable condition, they are required to euthanize 2 unwanted animal in the shelter.

In imposing such regulations, it is hoped that these irresponsible individuals will come to their senses and eventually, we shall live in a shelter and welfare free world.

But after all said and done, enforcement is still key.

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