Random guy while feasting on his favourite meat: Oh it’s a usual day of the year (just not Mangalvar) so it’s totally fine to eat meat, which has obviously come from the killing of an animal.
Same guy around Bakrid: People (Muslims) are killing animals so let’s oppose it.
Read that again, just in case you didn’t hear irony die a goat-like death between those two statements.
These are exactly the type of people who have a problem with Bakrid and what’s alarming is that their voices are growing louder by the day. It’s funny how you’ll find these guys also thronging Mohammad Ali Road, Jama Masjid and the likes during Ramzan.
Not that we despise animals and want each one of them dead, but it’s a matter of personal choice when it comes to a person’s eating habits. You can’t condemn them without realising that it’s a part of a larger propaganda.
Instead of turning a ‘PETA activist’ for the heck of it, people should first awaken to various other forms of animal cruelty that affect a larger quantity of livestock and other animals.
More than a dozen captive elephants died at temples in Kerala last year with the number approaching half-a-dozen in Tamil Nadu. The general lack of care and extensive strain of labour were revealed to be the reasons after an investigation ordered by the Madras High Court.
Industrial establishments have also posed an increased threat for these animals. A female elephant and her calf fell into a pit at the construction site in the Patanjali food park near Kaziranga in Assam recently. The calf was saved but the mother succumbed to injuries.
Moreover, human settlements have been encroaching on leopards’ natural habitats, and they often cross over into villages and small towns, disoriented. This has not only led to many mishaps but has also caused a sharp decline in the number of these felines in India.
Needless to say the miserable condition of poultry farms, animal shelters, gaushalas etc in the country have not helped improve the deplorable nature of things either; let alone the stray animal situation that remains untreated since forever.
Appended below are many other such cases and practices which prove that (politically motivated) targeting of festivals like Bakrid and Jallikattu is not the way forward if we are to ensure the safety of animals in a manner that is sustainable for all species on the planet.
For starters, there needs to be a more robust animal protection policy that safeguards the interests of animals other than the ‘holy’ cow.
So dear haters, the buck doesn’t stop with people celebrating Bakrid but the very ‘vegetarian’ leaders of the country that you chose. Please stop being so patronising and let people celebrate one of their only two important festivals in the year. Eid Mubarak!
