Animals are the early fellows of human beings and one of the most crucial parts of the earth’s ecosystem. I feel blissful whenever I see any colorful birds chirping on my house’s roof, in my surroundings or I see footage of wildlife on the internet or television. I can’t imagine a happy and curious life without these beautiful but sensitive creatures.
A week ago, suddenly my social media accounts were bombarded with a video in which two ostriches were desperately running on the canal road, Lahore, and people were chasing them to capture that weird moment. Some people tried to help them but unfortunately due to lack of animal rescue knowledge one of the ostriches died.
After witnessing the whole incident I came to realize how animal welfare education is an essential need for our society. The world has been changing by several means and animals are on top of the disrupted list.
Life on the earth is analogous to a spider’s web. We have incredible biodiversity but there are connections between all these species. Many have to evolve to rely on other species, and we are not immune from that but when you start having extinctions, little pieces of that web start breaking, and when extinctions accelerate too quickly the integrity of the web is lost and eventually you get to a stage when there is a potential of collapse.
I am not blaming all humans. Majority of human beings are very caring towards these innocent creatures but some destructive minds are occupying their natural habitat by building housing schemes and massive structures there. Now, these animals have no choice rather than to search for shelter in residential areas.
It is obvious that when they see the massive vehicles, buildings and noise they panic, it is a natural act as we humans panic in unusual circumstances. We have to understand that if we will not be able to protect their habitat, these incidents would become normal. So, as an individual, we should try hard to save their habitat and should educate the people about animal rights and welfare because these animals are our responsibilities, not of any specific department or cause. It is ‘our’ responsibility and if we consider them our essential part of life, we can do exceptional work.
Written by Wajid Ali | Lahore
