The Tragedy of some Animals' Lives

I am a relative latecomer to an awareness of animal abuse - abuse that humans inflict on animals. Without Twitter or Facebook I doubt I would have seen the horrors that I have seen and sometimes wish I hadn't seen.

Social media then, opens up the world and allows us to see so much that we wouldn't, in the natural way of things, have seen. We are able to see some of the beauty of our planet but it is not that to which I wish to draw people's attention.

What I have seen, I cannot unsee.  Those images are with me constantly now. The worst horrors that I have witnessed are those which animal activists have posted on to the internet. They include unconscionable scenes from China of bludgeoning dogs almost to death, then ripping off their skins while the dogs are still conscious. The dogs are stored by the hundred in net style cages. They are unable to move, dogs are piled on top of dogs. Many of the dogs have been stolen and were once family pets. The wait for slaughter can be several days. The dogs are neither fed, nor given water, at any time during their wait. Already, having been kidnapped, the dogs are traumatised. Seeing other dogs brought out of the netting cages, bludgeoned with hammers, chopped at, often with blunt knives, then having their skin ripped off, while still not dead, can only be the very worst of human cruelty.

As I write, the sound in the killing place is turned off. Can you then imagine the sounds of distress - the squeals, brought about by the traumatised dogs' utmost fear.  Can you smell the blood? Animals are keenly aware of blood, for their own protection and in the wild for their survival.

Some dogs are simply plunged into cauldrons of water - alive. They scrabble in desperation to reach the top of the cauldron but are callously shoved back in. It is to be hoped that death comes mercifully quickly.

Maybe, if you do something over and over again, even killing, it is the case that you become resistant, immune to suffering. Some people say that the dogs that are being killed are just that - dogs. They don't feel, they are just animals and therefore wholly dispensable. But. If you have ever owned a dog you KNOW categorically that your dog has a soul, that your dog has feelings, emotions, that your dog feels sadness and joy. You KNOW.

Often I wish I did not know about this cruelty. That way I would not feel like crying when images flood my head. It can catch you unaware, just as grief can, often many years after the loved one's death.  Nor do I want to know that my fellow human beings can behave in that way, so routinely, so callously and cruelly, without an iota of concern for sentient beings.

But worse, much worse is the knowledge that the dogs see other dogs killed right there in front of them. They know what's coming to them. They will experience such distress, torture and devastating anguish - and there is nothing I can do about it.

It is enough to make the angels weep.