When will we learn to respect animals?

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, February 6, 2002

The title of the story in the Jan. 27 edition of The Herald says it all: “Marjan, Kabul’s aging, tormented lion, dies at zoo.” With all the horror and tragedy occurring all over the world these days, and in actuality since the beginning of time, how sad such little attention is ever paid to the plight of innocent animals who inhabit this planet with us.

This once majestic lion should have lived out his life running in the wild, sleeping in the warm sun, free to roam and hunt – not behind the bars of a zoo, at the mercy of man. Marjan’s pain has ended, but the pain of the black bear left behind at the Kabul Zoo, who was teased and struck on the nose by children with sticks, continues still.

It all comes down to a lack of respect for beings other than ourselves who have no voice. We as parents and teachers must instill compassion, genuine concern and respect for all beings, human and animal alike. Each day that passes without doing so must be viewed as failure. Now that we have entered the 21st century, we must begin to rethink both zoos and circuses. They are nothing more than carryovers from bygone eras when animals were viewed as entertainment. Haven’t we learned anything since the human race decided it was better than the animals of this world and would control there fate? Let’s get these animals out from behind their bars and unlock the chains that hold them bound and let them be free as they were intended to be.

Everett