Strays

Being brought up in India, I have seen many stray animals.. since I was a very little girl,I'd always been fascinated by them and how they survived in the winters without anything,not even a sheet. Here, where humans get sweaters and mufflers and mittens..then you look at these dogs have one coat of fur, that's all they have to protect them for winters, when it goes down too 5 degrees or maybe even 2 on the really bad days, that fur and maybe a warm spot they found is all that helps them. Then again, what food do they eat..what all can a pack of dogs find in a garbage bin or even when a person feeds strays how long is it going to keep their stomachs full for? Also, in many places strays animals are ill-treated they are hit with sticks on entering premises they aren't allowed to be on, but then again how is the dog supposed to know he isn't welcome there? In india, there are many slums the dogs often wander around these areas as they find the maximum food there, children in the slums ..tease the dogs, hitting them with stones, making funny faces to provoke the dog and doing all sorts of things. There are animal shelters in India like Jeevashram and Friendicos that allow dogs or any strays that are unstable to live on the road into their shelter. In places like these, the dogs are looked after and cared for a little better than they are on the streets and they get their regular meals which keep them satisfied, you are also allowed to adopt dogs from these shelters. Strays are the most friendly dogs,they are in need of love and affection and when they get that , they just don't won't to let go. One summer, I volunteered in jeevashram which is an animal shelter for all kinds of animals.. from Donkeys to Horses to Dogs to cats to Rabbits to Guinea pigs and many more.It was a pleasure to work there and take care of the puppies and feed the dogs there regular meals, the extremely unfortunate and hurt dogs get to live there and are taken care of by the doctor himself.It was self-satisfying to work for a place like this. Strays are treated terribly on the streets they are hit, spat on, sometimes run over by cars and even chased.The strays are so kind, well some of them, they won't bite you even if you provoke them too. All they want is love and care and a bed to sleep in. Strays are one of the best breeds of dogs, I've had two strays in my house and sadly , both of them passed away a few years ago. They were the greatest companions and they give you a lot of love and affection, because for them your giving them a whole new life, a new beginning where they don't need to look for food , where they don't need to shake in their sleep because of the cold, they don't have to be hit when they go close to someone in search of just a pet . I take stray dogs as a whole different breed then pedigree dogs, stray dogs are the most deserving and the most affectionate dogs. :)

I hope , one day all of them suffering out there will find great homes.

Whales

The way in which whales are killed is particularly

cruel. They are hit by harpoons with exploding grenades at their tips.Half the whales are killed quickly . The other half suffer excruciating pain as they dragged to the ship and shot at with guns.It takes many shots to kill a whale, sometimes a whale may even take particularly long to die approximately an hour after shooting it. In the Faroe Islands, near Denmark whales are driven into shallow waters.They are slaughtered with knives by sawing through the flesh to the spinal cord to cut the arteries to the brain. It's a slow and highly painful death, for the whale not to mention cruel.

Even though the International Whaling commission voted to stop commercial whaling, some countries still continue to do it due to "scientific purposes". Japan and Norway continue to kill whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.They still kill ways in ways that are beyond cruel. Small whales and even dolphins are captured for the entertainment industries in many areas. They suffer the stress of capture, are torn apart from their family and they get to now live in pools instead of the ocean. Many whales and dolphins can not adapt to this change and die almost instantly, while other survive. Many dolphins and porpoises have died through entanglement in fishing nets, their health also suffers as a result of chemical pollution and plastic garbage. Some chemicals build up in the mothers body and are passed on to baby dolphins through it's mothers milk. Sometimes, the babies die in result. Whales weren't born to be trained to do stunts or slaughtered with knives, they were born to live in the ocean not pools, they weren't born to face excruciating pain and painful deaths, they weren't born to be examined, they weren't born to entertain, they were born to roam in the ocean , that's their home and that's exactly where they are meant to be.. free from everything else.

The Chimpanzees.

Chimpanzees are great apes that are closely related to humans. These intelligent primates live in a variety of environments in western and central Africa. Because of rapid deforestation of their habitat, chimpanzees are endangered species. Deep in the heart of South Africa, the Jane Goodall Institute's Chimp Eden Sanctuary is a place of renewal and rebirth for more than 2 dozen chimpanzees, most of which suffered horrible lives in human captivity. Susi, a chimpanzee living in a resort where she was hit by stones, tied to trees, given alcohol, teased , tortured and mostly importantly, she was at the guests display 24\7. She had been given alcohol, bottles of beer so that she was dazed and would greet the tourists and not bite them, she was never an aggressive chimpanzee but after being teased and hit she would tend to bit people at times. So, to prevent this they gave her alcohol and she would drink this,when the vets finally found that she was being treated cruelly they rushed to the resort she was living at, knowing that they were going to have to fight to take her back to Chimp Eden. She was extremely friendly towards the vets and she knew they didn't have intentions of teasing or hurting her.. when they took her blood samples they found that with the alcohol she had been drinking she had got a lethal infection.The government allowed the vets to take her. She was immediately taken to Chimp Eden with a few more Chimpanzees knowing she would have a better life there.

Chimpanzees that never climbed trees are now swinging from branch to branch. Chimpanzees that survived on table scraps and garbage are not given heavy meals three times a day. Chimpanzees who spent years alone and isolated in cramped cages, now thrive in solid and stable family groups. The goal of Chimp Eden is too move the strongest and most skilled Chimpanzees, back to the rainforest where they really belong. Some Chimpanzees are so humanized that they resist their own natural instincts while others constantly test the boundaries of the sanctuary.

This is their new life, a better one.

Thankyou, Chimp Eden. :)

" Bear Dancing "

Out of the pieces I have done, this comes across to me as the most vulgar.This very piece i'm doing has a long story.Growing up in India, I have seen many animals being ill-treated. Many people in India, would hurt animals and torture them only because it gets them money.. this piece is one that,comes across as extremely disturbing to me

Once emperors and kingdoms became history, they started performing " Bear Dancing " for a general public entertainment. Tourists would often see these bears dances on the highway between Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. Today, about 800 dancing bears are performing on streets across the country. In india, bear dancing is banned by the wildlife protection act 1972.But various, socio-economic and political factors have made it a difficult task to implement this law. The Sloth Bears are purchased to the Qualandars, a nomadic gypsy tribe by traders and poachers. After purchasing them, they know teach these sloth bears to dance and respond to commands using the crude tools of pain and fear. At the tender age of just six months, a crude iron needle is heated and driven through their muzzel with anesthesia or anything, causing the bear to witness excruciating pain. After this, a rough rope is pulled through the sensitive and swollen muzzel. This agony of a fair amount of beatings and, systematic starvation usually teaches the bear who the master is. The bear lives the rest of it's life at the end of a four foot rope with no stimulation at all thus, causing several mental and stereotypical symptoms. Male cubs are also castrated at a very young age, again brutally without any anesthesia.Canine teeth are removed when the bear reaches the age of about one, by knocking them out with a metal rod. For the rest of it's life, the bear will dance on the road to earn money for it's owner.. The wound on the muzzel will never heal and often be infested by maggots. Bears go through this for two years or so, after which they die due to tuberculosis,leptrospirosis, malnutrition or rabies.

This is the story of the " Dancing Bear". This very story is a fine example to show.. what all people can do just for the money. Doing this, is just as bad as slowly killing a human being. They torture the animal to such an extent, knocking it's teeth out with metal rods, putting a needle through their muzzle..not even allowing the wound to heal and preforming minor surgeries on it without any form of anesthesia or anti-biotic. This is the perfect definition of cruelty to animals. The only reason these people do this if for the money. Is this what the world has become?Is this the extent they can go to for money? The government has had many problems trying to implement this law but if more people bring up this concern, the government may begin to take up matters a little more seriously and do much more about it, then they are right now.

Dogs And Cats Being Used As Live Bait.

Dogs, also know as a mans best friend, this is really what's it's come down too. Stray dogs & cats are being skewered on hooks and dragged behind boats as live shark bait. The cruel practice takes place on French-controlled Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. The reason they prefer to do this act with live dogs and cats is because the blood is fresher than it would have been if the dogs and cats were dead, a shark can smell a drop of blood very easily, even from really far away and in order to catch the shark they use these dogs and cats as LIVE BAIT. This act is dissatisfying and atrocious and should be stopped.The hooks are sunk deep into their paws and snouts, causing them to bleed an enormous amount which ofcourse catches the sharks attention immediately even from miles away. Though apparently restricted to a few amateur fishers,this practice is know seen as a problem on the French controlled islands, which teems with stray dogs and cats. Local authorities, fined a man earlier this year for hooking a puppy, and the French Government has issued a statement condemning the illegal practice.Earlier just this year, it became illegal for fishing boats to carry any live or dead dogs or cats,it's a pleasure to know in this part of the world this is being looked down upon.This still doesn't stop them from doing this, in other parts of the world.This is incredibly unfair to those stray dogs and cats that deserve a home and deserved to be loved and kept safely. The people doing the act is thankfully decreasing, but people all over the world need to step up for this injustice to completely stop.

" Bonsai Kittens "

Bonsai kittens is something that's mainly practiced in China.It started off as an internet hoax the claimed to give instructions on how to grow a kitten in the form of a bottle as a decorative item, the instructions read

1- Pick a kitten

2-Pick a vessel

3- Make special holes in the bottle

4-Place the kitten inside the bottle.

5- Close lid tightly

Soon after the kitten is born it's placed in a glass container,the kitten breathes through specially drilled holes and may be fed or given water through tubes. The growing kitten is meant to take the shape of the container it's inside, this is meant to be kept as a "decorative item". This is also known as animal body modification.The existence of Bonsai Kittens is a disgrace and extremely cruel to the kittens. Animals, don't deserve this kind of a life, none of them do. People who practice this act have no sympathy for the poor kittens that are being tortured, just so that their living rooms can have one extra "decorative item"? Kittens aren't meant to be decorative items and they aren't meant to be tortured.This act is inhuman.To certain people, this act even may across as fascinating. You term a process where you put a kitten through absolute torture, fascinating? Is that really what this has come down too? If something similar to this were happening to humans, people like the government would begin to look more into it . My question is WHY? Why are humans more important than animals? Why is it that if something bad happens to an animal and a human at the same time, the human seems more important? Animals are just like us in many different ways, they too deserve a good life . Animal cruelty of this sort, should be banned.