Time Out

Dumbstruck, I can only nod. Of course. But of course. That8217;s just what I want to do. Tentatively, I look around. The faces of members of the Animal Lovers Society, young and old, register disbelief. Strike Two. It has been done before, I try telling them. I am not the only one. Their disdainful looks deliver their verdict. Unthinkable. Impossible. In this age, when even Menaka Gandhi and T.N. Seshan ad lib Accha Hai, you still eat animal flesh how very gory that sounds, they say. It8217;s obvious that you are no animal lover. Why do you want to join us? Strike Three. Over and out.

With that one sarcastic sentence, I am dubbed animal-hater and cruel and all the fiendish things that you can think of and the things that I thankfully know that I am not. Apparently, eating 8220;flesh8221; ugh, as they so indelicately put it makes me the worst type of human to ever set foot on terra firma.

There is a popular misconception that people who eat meat do not have any regard or feelings for animals. Just like the misconception that being an animal lover makes you oblivious to the suffering of human beings. But that is what they both are misconceptions. With no truth in either statement.

So what if I do believe, like so many others, that in nature8217;s scheme of things, just as animals eat animals, there will always be people who eat animals. That8217;s how it has been since time immemorial and that is how it will always be. Till time immemorial. After all, nature ordained it so. Who are we mere mortals to question it? But does that mean I love animals any lesser than the worthies on the Animal Lovers Society?

I don8217;t think so. No way. After all, animal welfare is what is of paramount importance. We talk of welfare, we talk of rights. But always for humans. Forgetting that every animal has certain fundamental rights that need to be respected. Come what may. For what sort of a world will that be where people shun meat and yet turn a blind eye to the suffering of mute animals?

I have seen animal lovers castigating others for 8220;aiding in animal torture.8221; They take great pains to educate the 8220;uninitiated8221; about how rabbits and birds are tortured to test cosmetics, how broilers are 8220;cultivated8221;, how cows and calves are separated for a higher milk yield. The horrors are enough to make you want to give up. Everything. Meat, silk, cosmetics. Then what happens to nature8217;s scheme of things? It doesn8217;t work that way, remember. How does it all fit in? And does it all fit in?

A veterinarian friend suggests that the key to it all lies in animal welfare. Yes, it is true that animals have rights. That cruel, violent ways of 8220;cultivating8221; animals for 8220;human consumption8221; should be avoided absolutely. Th-at brutal extermination of strays should be stopped. That an animal which has sincerely served his master during his prime should not be ruthlessly killed after his youth has long faded. There are so many things that could be listed here.

The fact remains that I care about animals. But does the fact that I enjoy my non-vegetarian food make me, horror of all horrors, no better than a murderer. I hardly think so.

As long as the sight of a cow with a whiplash across her back, the picture of a wounded dog and the thought of dozens of beautiful birds in a cage moves me, makes me realise that I need to do something for them, for their welfare, I rest content. I am no killer. No way. And I am not consoling myself. I am just falling in with nature8217;s scheme of things.