MALLARI, ANGEL KAILE C.

2018017931
SEC 2

VIDEO ESSAY/ REFLECTION PAPER

“WHY ANIMAL-RIGHTS IS NOT A LUXURY”

Rubaiya Ahmad

On the first part of the video, the speaker, Rubaiya Ahmad, an animal welfare advocate,
discussed how similar animals are to humans. She explained how close the traits of a dog to the
traits of a child are. A child follows instructions, smart and can look for things that are hidden.
He can also manipulate and deceive people to get what he wants. Ahmad stated that animals,
such as dogs, can also act how a child does. She argued that animals are like humans.

Animals are not so different from us. We both try to stay alive, get food and shelter, and raise
some young ones for the next generation. Many people think that empathy is a special emotion
only humans can show but many animals also express empathy for each other and for human
beings. They know exactly who we are, who strangers are. They are often happy. Sometimes
they get frightened by things that are strange. The only thing they cannot do is speak to us, but
they communicate all the time. Animals respond to the environment as much as humans do,
reacting emotionally to others and even becoming stressed and anxious in times of danger. She
also said that people think that animals are not worthy of compassion and respect because we
think that they do not have feelings. However, she stated that some researches proved that
animals do have feelings. Animals have physical and emotional pain just like humans.

Animals play an important role in the maintenance of the balance in the ecosystem. Protecting
animals is a duty which every individual must take up. Animal welfare refers to the relationships
people have with animals and the duty they have to assure that the animals under their care are
treated humanely and responsibly. However, Ahmad argued that we are poor to care about
animal welfare. There are numerous cases reported that showed how violent some humans are to
animals. Unlike violent crimes against people, cases of animal abuse are not compiled by state or
agencies, making it difficult to calculate just how common they are. Animal abuse can vary from
negligence to violence. What we may not know is that the most vulnerable ones are the animals.
Any animal can be hurt by anyone.

In an attempt to control a major public health problem, the government of Bangladesh has been
killing dogs for decades. Dog Culling has become their way of controlling the growing
population of dogs and rabies cases. But this did not solve their problem. Instead, it has affected
their communities negatively. Killing dogs is just a temporary eyewash. When dogs in packs are
killed, the remaining dogs come together, form new packs and breed more aggressively. This
encourages dogs to migrate and breed more. This situation has caused public nuisance in the
communities as dog fights over territory increased. Dog bites also increased due to fear and
arrival of new dogs in the area. There has also been an environmental hazard as the ecosystem is
disturbed when we artificially kill large number of dogs. Killing dogs did not protect humans
from rabies and did not protect dogs themselves.

When dog owners see their pets being killed, it may also cause them trauma and may stop them
from being a compassionate human beings. In fact, FBI has done a study proving that all serial
killers have experienced animal abuse when they were children. We must recognize that animal
abuse is a predictor crime, and an indicator crime, and that it adversely affects human health and
safety. If we cannot be kind to animals, we cannot be kind to humans. If we want to stop
violence against people, we should stop violence against animals. As the quote says, “Killing
dogs, killing animals is not and will never be the solution. Life is precious to animals as it is to
humans. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain just as one wants to live and not to die, so do
other creatures.”