A disgrace to Mankind

Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motives outside of itself, it only requires opportunity - George Elliot

Amidst all the hype buzzing around the circus that is the political circuit in Perak, it was this article in The Star that left me speechless and seething with rage. The following excerpt puts into a nutshell the gist of the story.

A month ago, Pulau Ketam residents trapped about 400 dogs and transported them to Pulau Tengah to ease the stray dog population on their island.

The dogs, which lived below the stilt houses, would come up to the wooden platform during high tide.

Pulau Ketam village head Cha Keng Lee said most residents felt that the move to send the animals to the nearby island would resolve the stray dog problem.

The uninhabited island would also offer more space to the dogs, he said.

“Our aim was not to be cruel to the dogs. But we strongly feel that the stray dog problem must be solved. When the dogs come up to the platform, they defecate all over. Sometimes, they would also bite the children,” he said.

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It is absolutely disgusting what humans are sometimes capable of doing. Couple that with the pathetic excuses they dole out to cover their guilt and you get a contemptible breed. It hurts to know that my fellow men, despite having IQs and brains much more advanced to that of animals could behave in manners far worse than an animal.

Whilst one can understand their predicament with the dogs, it is impossible to agree with their reasoning for doing what they did. As much as the dogs pose a nuisance and threat to the afflicted community, trapping the dogs, and then casting them off to die a long, painful slow death on a deserted island with no food and water is certainly NOT human.

There are many ways out of their apparent dilemma, but they chose the easy way out. The coward’s route. There are associations and agencies and societies more than willing to aid in situations such as these. The actions of these residents work to prove exactly how irresponsible they are. If you have no love for dogs, then fine. Ever spared a thought for the environment then? What will happen to these dogs when left abandoned? They would surely die, and what would happen then to their corpses? Flushed away to the sea? Left to form petroleum thousands of years from now? Or *gasp* maybe feeling left out these green-friendly residents wish to be credited for creating a new strain of Influenza C : Canine Flu?

To quote the village head , “Our aim was not to be cruel to the dogs”, Oh really? Gee, does this mean there really are such things as fairy dogmothers who will descend from the starry heavens and organize lavish banquets for the poor unloved canines? Or maybe what you’re trying to say is there’re pixies, fairies and gnomes dancing around at tea parties having a ball of a time in deserted islands where humans are nowhere to be seen? Well then, maybe your intentions weren’t all that cruel to begin with.

We're lauded to be a civilized breed, but yet in the shadow of every step of achievement made by men, we degrade ourselves by moving two steps back. The latest update I read reported that the dogs have now turned to cannibalism after facing weeks of starvation, depicting a scene very much like that in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. I would so love to see how those people will fare if deserted on an isolated island with nary a drop of water, let alone food.