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Animal rights and wrongs

The Times - Saturday, January 17, 2004
 
Bishop Nikol Cauchi
 
Every year, on January 17, we celebrate the feast of St Anthony, the hermit, patron saint of animals.  On this occasion animals are blessed - a rite performed by the Church since time immemorial.  However, in spite of this ceremony, it cannot be said that animal rights have always been universally acknowledged in the Church and other quarters.
 
If I happened to ask whether animals have any rights at all to some of the great thinkers of western civilisation, such as Aristotle, Aquinas and Kant, I would have no doubt provoked laughter and perhaps even mockery.  Among them and many others prevailed the so-called "absolute dismissal argument".  The theory that they defended excluded animals from the realm of ethical significance because, unlike most human beings, they do not have rational minds.  The philosophers argued that animals do not possess ethical rights since they are not members of human society and do not belong to the moral community.
 
I have no wish to enter the ongoing debate over which rights should or should not be accorded to animals.  However, I have no hesitation in making my opinion clear that human beings do have duties towards animals, as they have many obligations in respect of the other elements of the environmentin which they live.  In a civilised society, such duties should be observed and upheld.
 
Animals deserve our respect because they are living creatures.  They experience pain and suffering much in the same way that we do.  In some cases this is not just limited to bodily pain but they also have deeper feelings of fear and loneliness.  Human beings should spare them suffering.  In fact, we have no right to subject animals to hardship just for the sake of our amusement or convenience.  It goes without saying that there is a strong case against bullfights, shooting birds, fox hunting and such like.
 

Cruelty to animals, even when it comes from small children, is a very ugly symptom.  It may be indicative of an aggressive or disturbed character who, sooner or later, will explode into anti-social activities.  It is difficult to imagine how someone may be kind and understanding with fellow human beings if he is abusive and cruel towards animals - which cannot be responsible for any evildoing.  In fact, the ill-treatment of animals may be classified as one of the worst forms of sadism which the bete humaine is able to commit.
 
Some people say that they love animals and yet keep them constantly locked up in their homes, thus depriving them of any freedom.  Besides, sometimes they do not give them the care they need as, for example, when they neglect to feed them regularly or take them out.
 
Take bird lovers as an example:  Some of them like bird watching, which is quite an innocuous passtime.  However, other people who profess to love birds spend considerable sums of money on them, and then shut them up in a cage.  Every creature, be it man or beast, is deprived of something very precious when they are forced to live behind bars - even if those bars are made of solid gold - namely the freedom to move and take one's own decisions.
 
We can really display our love for animals when we allow them to roam freely in their natural habitat, rather than imprisoning them in a cage or aviary, irrespective of how well fed and cared for they happen to be.
 
I think we Maltese and Gozitans have still much to learn when it comes to respecting animals.  Indeed, we should make a concerted effort to nurture this more caring attitude towards animals in children at a very young age.  And then ensure it continues as a lifelong process.