Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj
A pregnant elephant died allegedly after having a cracker-laden fruit left behind by locals in Kerala’s Palakkad. The poor creature suffered excruciating pain and died standing in a river. The incident sparked massive outrage not just in India, but globally. Netas, abhinetas, aam aadmi, all took to social media to condemn the killing.
But she’s not alone. Several other elephants often go through similar torture in ‘God’s own country'. Videos of elephants being chained, beaten, and starved, often go viral in Kerala, but are soon forgotten.
The killing of the pregnant Kerala elephant has sparked outrage. But what about other animals that are thrown off roofs, hung from ceilings, burnt, beaten, tortured and killed? Often simply for sadistic pleasure? Animal abuse must stop.
Killed For Revenge
One theory which did the rounds after the story of the Kerala elephant came to light was that the cracker-laden fruit was not meant for the elephant to consume. Such cracker-laden fruit are in fact kept by locals to keep wild boars away from their farm land.
But that does not absolve the locals of their crime. Leaving cracker-laden fruit for wild boars is also animal abuse. Elephant or boar or any other animal – making them suffer unimaginable pain is cruel, brutal and unpardonable.
In 2016, an unsuspecting dog was thrown off a roof by medical students in Chennai. It led to huge outrage. However, cruelty towards dogs did not stop there. In 2019, two nursing students were caught on camera brutally killing 16 puppies at NRS hospital campus in Kolkata. In 2020, a Chinese woman was assaulted for feeding a stray dog in Noida, the stray dog, too, was later killed.
Often wild animals that enter human habitats are captured and beaten or tortured to death, rather than calling in the wildlife department to rescue them safely, and releasing them back into the wild. Leopards, tigers and wild boar are often cornered, captured, beaten, killed and even displayed in viral videos as trophies.
Tortured For Fun
In the recent past, TikTok has garnered extreme criticism for carrying animal abuse content. People think it is fun to throw a dog into the river and film it, to hang a poor cat by its neck and share the footage live on TikTok. Some people not only capture their cruelty on camera, they even film their altercations with good humans trying to oppose them.
No, it is not funny to take a baby dolphin out of the river and not just brutalise it but also film the act and share it. It is not a source of entertainment to throw a stray animal into a fire and watch as it shrieks helplessly in pain. Tying up an animal and torturing a voiceless creature is not something to be proud of.
Enough is enough. It is time we stop animal cruelty. It is time for stricter laws and stringent punishment for animal abuse.
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