Open Access Research Article
FROM CRUELTY TO COMPASSION: ADDRESSING DOMESTIC ANIMALS ABUSE AND ADVOCATING FOR VEGAN LIFESTYLE
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FROM CRUELTY TO COMPASSION:
ADDRESSING DOMESTIC ANIMALS ABUSE AND ADVOCATING FOR VEGAN LIFESTYLE
AUTHORED BY - ESHA DESHLAHARE &
SUNITA SAMANTA
BALLB Student - KES’ Shri Jayantilal
H. Patel College of law
ABSTRACT
Physical aggression, neglect, and
institutional cruelty in industries that employ animals for human food are all
forms of domestic animal abuse, which is still a widespread problem. The numerous types of domestic animal abuse
are examined in this paper, including pet maltreatment and the misery of farm
animals used in industrial agriculture.
Animal abuse continues because of uneven enforcement of current
legislative systems designed to protect animals. Furthermore, there is an urgent need for intervention
given the connection between animal abuse and more general patterns of
violence.While the demand for meat, dairy, and other animal products supports
enterprises that subject animals to cruel confinement, forced breeding, and
horrific slaughter techniques, the ethical issues surrounding animal abuse also
affect consumer choices. Transitioning to a vegan lifestyle presents a
compassionate and practical solution to reducing animal suffering, as it
eliminates participation in exploitative systems. A plant-based diet has health
and environmental advantages in addition to ethical ones, promoting
sustainability and general well-being. The adoption of veganism, public
awareness initiatives, and more robust legislative protections are all
recommended in this study as ways to promote a more compassionate society. People may actively combat domestic animal
abuse and advance a compassionate society where animals are treated with
respect and dignity by adopting a cruelty-free lifestyle. Making thoughtful decisions that put
sustainability, ethical responsibility, and the inherent worth of all sentient
beings first is the first step in the transition from cruelty to compassion.
Keywords: Domestic
animal abuse, Animal agriculture and cruelty, Animal protection laws, Vegan
advocacy, Plant-based diet
Herding History: The Role of Animals in Human
Civilization
Understanding our hunter-gatherer
predecessors' mindsets is essential to comprehending our nature, history, and
psychology. Humans have been foragers for almost the whole time that we have
existed. When compared to the tens of thousands of years that our ancestors
hunted and gathered, the last 200 years, when an ever-increasing number of
Sapiens have earned their daily bread as urban labourers and office workers,
and the 10,000 years before, when the majority of Sapiens lived as farmers and
herders, are a blink of an eye.
In the time frame of the extinctions
that happened when ancient foragers settled remote islands like Cuba and the
extinctions that happened as Homo sapiens spread throughout Afro-Asia,
including the extinction of all other human species, it is inevitable to
conclude that the first wave of human colonisation was one of the largest and
fastest ecological disasters to ever strike the animal kingdom. The big, fluffy
creatures took the brunt of the blow.
The cycle of abuse: from domestic cruelty to
industrial exploitation
Today, there are about 25 billion
chickens, a billion pigs, a billion sheep, and over a billion cattle in the
world. And they're everywhere in the world. The most common bird in history is
the domesticated chicken. Domesticated sheep, pigs, and cattle are the second,
third, and fourth most common big mammals worldwide, after humans.
Domesticated animals, such as sheep,
chickens, donkeys, and others, provided raw materials (skins, wool), muscular
power, and sustenance (meat, milk, eggs). Animals were increasingly used for
tasks that previously required human strength, such as transportation,
ploughing, grinding, and other duties. Animal husbandry was a secondary
occupation in the majority of agrarian communities, when people concentrated on
growing plants. However, in other areas, a new type of culture that was mostly
dependent on animal exploitation also emerged: pastoralist herder tribes.
The natural lifespan of wild chickens
is about seven to twelve years, and of cattle about twenty to twenty-five
years. Although the majority of cattle and chickens in the wild perished far
before then, they still had a reasonable chance of surviving for a good amount
of time. On the other hand, because this has historically been the best time to
slaughter from an economic standpoint, the great majority of domesticated
cattle and poultry are killed between a few weeks and a few months of age.
It is occasionally permitted for
dairy cows, draught animals, and egg-laying hens to survive for several years.
However, the cost is being forced to live a life that is wholly at odds with
their desires and impulses. For instance, it is logical to imagine that bulls
would rather spend their days wandering across broad grasslands with other
bulls and cows than towing carts and ploughshares while being tamed by an ape
with a whip.
The natural inclinations and social
bonds of bulls, horses, donkeys, and camels had to be shattered, their
aggression and sexuality confined, and their freedom of movement restricted in
order to transform them into submissive draught animals. Farmers came up with
methods like mutilating animals, training them with whips and cattle prods, bridling
them in harnesses and leashes, and confining them within pens and cages. Males
are nearly usually castrated as part of the taming procedure. This helps humans
selectively regulate the herd's reproduction and curbs male hostility.
The number of pigs a person owns has
historically been a measure of their wealth in many New Guinean societies.
Farmers in northern New Guinea cut off a portion of each pig's nose to prevent
them from escaping, which causes excruciating pain whenever the pig tries to
sniff. Since the pigs are unable to find food or even navigate without
sniffing, this mutilation renders them totally reliant on their human owners.
In another region of New Guinea, it has long been customary to gouge out the
pigs' eyes so they are unable to see where they are going.
The dairy industry uses a variety of
tactics to coerce cows into doing what it wants. Only after giving birth to
calves, kids, and lambs—and only while the young are nursing—do cows, goats,
and sheep produce milk. A farmer must keep calves, youngsters, or lambs for
nursing in order to maintain an animal milk supply, but they must be kept from
monopolising the milk. Historically, a popular practice was to simply kill the
calves and infants as soon as they were born, milk the mother to the point of
exhaustion, and then re-establish her pregnancy. This method is still widely
used today.
The average lifespan of a milk cow in
many contemporary dairy farms is five years before it is killed. She is nearly
always pregnant over these five years, and in order to maintain optimal milk
supply, she is fertilised 60 to 120 days after giving birth. Soon after birth,
her calves are taken from her. While the males are turned over to the meat
sector, the females are raised to be the next generation of dairy cows.
Another strategy is to keep the
calves and young close to their moms while using different strategies to keep
them from sucking too much milk. The easiest method is to let the infant or
calf begin to nurse, then push it away as soon as the milk begins to flow. Both
the mother and the child typically oppose this approach. In the past, certain
shepherd communities would murder the child, consume its meat, and then stuff
the skin. The mother was then shown the stuffed child in the hopes that its
presence would stimulate her to produce more milk. To give the fake calves a
recognisable, living aroma, the Nuer tribe in Sudan even went so far as to
smear toy animals with their mother's pee. An further Nuer method involved
wrapping a ring of thorns around a calf's lips, which pricks the mother and
makes her refuse to nurse.9 In order to make nursing uncomfortable and deter
young camels from ingesting excessive amounts of milk, Tuareg camel breeders in
the Sahara used to puncture or cut off portions of the nose and upper lip.
An industrial meat farm's
contemporary calf. The calf is taken from its mother as soon as it is born and
kept in a little cage that is hardly larger than its own body. The calf stays
there for the duration of its life, which is typically four months. To prevent
its muscles from becoming strong, it is never permitted to leave its cage, play
with other calves, or even walk. A steak with soft muscles is delicious and
tender. On the route to the abattoir, the calf has the first opportunity to
walk, stretch its muscles, and interact with other calves. Cattle are among the
most successful animal species in history in terms of evolution. They are also
among the most wretched creatures on the earth.
Vegan Diet: A
Stand Against Animal Cruelty
The
vegan diet is a way of eating that emphasises plant-based foods including
fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds while avoiding all animal
products like meat, dairy, eggs, and honey. Concerns about ethics, the
environment, and health frequently drive people to adopt a vegan diet.
Adopting
a vegan diet is a moral decision to avoid contributing to the suffering and
exploitation of animals raised in factory farming conditions. Many individuals
choose veganism for the moral motivation of avoiding animal slaughter for
sustenance, which many vegans believe is needless.
A
vegan diet addresses several forms of animal exploitation and suffering, making
it a potent tool to combat animal cruelty. It immediately prevents the annual
breeding and killing of billions of animals in horrific industrial farms, such
as fish, pigs, chickens, and cows. In addition to preventing the lifelong
suffering of cows and hens in these businesses, where they endure severe
conditions prior to being slaughtered, it also eliminates the need for dairy
and eggs. Additionally, as animal husbandry is a primary cause of habitat
destruction, water pollution, and deforestation, adopting a plant-based
lifestyle contributes to the protection of wildlife and the environment.
Additionally, since many food products derived from animals go through gruesome
experiments, it lessens the necessity for animal testing.
|
Vegan Alternatives to Animal
Products
|
Laws &
Movements Supporting Veganism
?
Jallikattu Ban (Tamil Nadu): The Supreme
Court outlawed the brutal practice of bull taming, although this decision was
later overturned.
?
Animal Welfare Laws: India has robust
laws protecting animals, but they need to be enforced more strictly.
?
PETA India, FIAPO, and Vegan India
Movement are vegan advocacy groups that support plant-based diets.
Legal Framework
The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Act, 1960 – Prevents unnecessary pain or suffering to
animals. It includes penalties for cruelty and establishes the Animal Welfare
Board of India (AWBI).
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)
,Section 325 – Imposes penalties for maiming or
killing animals.
The Transport of Animals Rules, 1978
– Regulates how animals should be transported to avoid
cruelty.
Article 51A(g) of the Constitution –
A fundamental duty for citizens to show compassion for living creatures.
Article 48A
– Directs the state to safeguard forests and wildlife.
Pet
Shops and Dog.
Ban on Cow Slaughter
– Several states have laws prohibiting cow slaughter to
protect cattle.
Ban on Dolphinariums (2013) –
Prohibits keeping dolphins in captivity for entertainment.
Conclusion
The
widespread problem of domestic animal abuse affects not just pets but also
agricultural animals that are exposed to systematic maltreatment. Since legal
safeguards are still insufficient to stop abuse, consumer decisions are
essential to bringing about change. A strong ethical response to animal maltreatment
is to adopt a vegan diet, which lowers demand for exploitation-based
enterprises. A more sustainable, compassionate world where animals are treated
with respect and dignity is fostered by a shift towards plant-based existence.
There
are many advantages to switching to a vegan diet, from bettering one's own
health to helping the environment and animals. For people who are concerned
about their health, the environment, and the morality of eating animals, the
long-term advantages make the commitment worthwhile.
Reference
Book - Sapiens: A Brief
History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Singer,
P. (1975). Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals. New
York: New York Review of Books.
A
list of academic sources, reports, and articles on domestic animal abuse, legal
frameworks, and the benefits of a vegan diet would be included here.
Article Information
FROM CRUELTY TO COMPASSION: ADDRESSING DOMESTIC ANIMALS ABUSE AND ADVOCATING FOR VEGAN LIFESTYLE
Authors: ESHA DESHLAHARE, SUNITA SAMANTA
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Published 2025/03/08
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- Abbreviation IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
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