Animals are creatures that bring
so many people happiness every single day. They are loving, compassionate and a
friend to all people. Animals make humans more compassionate, positive individuals
who are happier in general. Animals help in allowing people to be more loving
because of the compassion animals give to them. Animals can be some of our best
of friends. They can be loyal to us, love us, and serve us. Hence, they have
been used as metaphors and examples to teach us positive values, behaviors and
aspirations. And show us many positive ways to live and love our lives. For
example, dogs can better welcome us and be more excited about seeing us than
many humans. They can show more love and affection than many of our friends. Animals
don’t plan to hurt or destroy us. They don't invent and deploy weapons of mass
destruction and go to war like us. I cannot imagine a world without animals.
They not only have every right to co-exist with us, they should also be treated
with love, compassion, and care. Without animals, we may slip into an abyss of
loneliness and our very existence may even be threatened. That's why our value
system and standards of ethos and morality should also include how we live with
and treat animals. As Mahatma Gandhi would say, "The greatness of a nation
and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." We
can't have nobility and dignity if we do not extend it to the animal kingdom.
Neither can we claim to have love in our heart if we have no love for animals.
We can never be truly in touch with our soul if we do not realize that animals
can suffer pain and sorrow like us. Hence, we should be sensitive to how we
treat animals and we should defend them when they are being badly treated. When
they are abused, we should never stand by and do nothing about it. Perhaps, the
Golden Rule should also apply here. Don't do to others what you don't want
others to do to you. A quote from Immanuel Kant comes to mind: 'We can judge
the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.' For all the virtues and
strengths that we have, we make ourselves less than a human when we abuse
animals. We lower ourselves to one of the lowest denominators when we do all
kinds of barbaric and wicked acts on them. When we save an animal and learn to
live with and love the animal, we are not just keeping another animal alive. We
demonstrate an act of compassion, kindness and inspiration to our children and
our children's children.We can also leave behind a wonderful legacy of working
towards a better world.
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| An adorable munchkin cat. |
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| Four serious looking otters. |
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| Dogs enjoying flowers. |
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| A happy sloth. |
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| Three smiling dolphin. |
