The most barbaric thing a human can do is snatching a life away. The punishment for taking away a human life is either a death penalty or imprisonment for life. However, the harshest punishment for overriding or killing a stray animal in India is paying a fine of merely 50 rupees and for the same case with wild animals it is just 3 months of imprisonment.

While we’re rightly concerned and committed to protecting our wildlife, we’ve given the upper hand to guarding the lives in the wild and not to those on the streets. As rightly said by Anthony Douglas Williams in the book Inside the Divine Pattern, “Not a single creature has more or less right to be here.” The laws against poaching are put in place in most countries but there are very few nations that guarantee safety to stray animals and domestic animals.

4th April is commemorated as World Stray Animals Day and I can feel the blank stares coming my way at this mention. It was curated with the idea that all strays should have a home as on the streets they lead a miserable and helpless life. Not to mention that they are always being chased around by hostile people.

We may think that strays don’t belong as they’re troublesome, but we tend to forget that they are on the streets because their hard-hearted owner abandoned them or simply because their destinies pointed out only the streets to them. We must not be taking them in just because they’re cute. We know dogs and most other animals are very faithful and we must be too. If we take up the responsibility of raising them on our shoulders, then we must complete the task faithfully. Abandonment is what has evolved into the stray problem we are faced with.

We often find humans lesser privileged than us on the streets and don’t we all pity them. We always look for ways to help them out, maybe by donating some money or providing them a meal. Then why does our pity factor zero down when it comes to the case of animals? Is it just because humans can express themselves through speech and emotions that our pity factor peaks when we see them?

Strays are always amiable and kindly to those humans who’ve made the streets their home too, they are ready to be compassionate and willingly share. But it’s vice versa with we humans. We keep chasing them around and always look for a way to get rid of them. They don’t have a conscience and even if they did there would be nothing pricking them, but why do we never feel our conscience pricking us for being so aloof and hostile?

Helping improve the lives of strays is not overly complicated. The first thing we should be doing is bundling up our aloof attitudes. Throwing stones at them, tying up their tails and what not. Prevention of these itself is a huge thing. It makes the animals gentler and helps calm them down. Apart from this you could provide them with meals whenever possible and call an animal shelter which could take them in and care for them.

The next time you see strays being chased around, try your best to prevent it. Together we could make an enormous improvement in the living conditions of our strays.